Barrell Craft Spirits has launched two new limited-releases:
- 13-year BCS Gray Label Bourbon — a blend of straight bourbon whiskeys distilled in TN, KY, IN, and WY and matured for between 13-19 years. Available now in stores and online for $159
- 19-year BCS Gray Label Seagrass — two groups of 19-year-old Canadian Rye Barrels distilled in Canada and finished in Martinique rhum, Madeira, and Apricot Brandy barrels. Available in stores later this month and online beginning 12/1 for $199
GRAY LABEL BOURBON
Louisville-based Barrell Craft Spirits is the original, pre-eminent independent blender of unique, aged, cask strength whiskey and rum. Recognized for their blending expertise since 2013, they skillfully design, produce, and launch leading, unique products that surprise and delight whiskey aficionados and novices alike. A blend of straight bourbon whiskeys matured for 13 to 19 years
Crafted and bottled in Kentucky Distilled in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, & Wyoming. The barrels harvested for this limited release were selected for their refined properties and extraordinary flavor profile. This complex blend, created with hand selected barrels ranging from 13 to 19 years-old, is an opulent bourbon with notes of dark chocolate, Amarena cherry, vanilla and brûléed orange.
Every facet of this bourbon is bathed in freshly scraped vanilla bean. A minty fresh and woodsy nose nevertheless retains its foundational cereal note of cinnamon raisin bagel. On the palate one is greeted by a sweet and oily mouthfeel that brings with it notes of demerara rum and apple pie spice. Water unleashes chocolate and coconut and reveals a complex earthiness to the aroma.
APPEARANCE: Maroon, with tones ranging from rust to baker’s chocolate.
NOSE: Pungent vanilla bean is first out of the gate, woven through with goldenrod as you just approach the glass. They add lift to a treacly nose that ranges from dark brown sugar to woodsy sugarcane. The original grain character is well preserved, but advanced age has evolved it into tres leches cake, granola, and macadamia nut. Sage, tonka bean, and menthol play the herbal register here. Plump raisins and fig newtons round it out.
FINISH: Fresh ginger, fennel seed, and cardamom rush up through the exhale. The tongue is left with a pronounced bitterness that inspires thoughts of cocoa powder and grapefruit peel. Gradually, a gentle sweet vermouth takes over; later joined by a grainy signature of skillet cornbread.
PALATE: S’mores, amoretti, and oatmeal raisin cookie depict a palate balanced between biscuit-y and sweet. A marked spiciness shoulders its way in with notes of crystallized ginger, peppermint, and black peppercorn. Oak tannins give a bit of chew to a body that’s oily and rich with sugars. Meanwhile gentian root, sesame seeds, and apple peels comprise the humus layer.
WITH A SPLASH OF SPRING WATER: Everything becomes coated in gooey chocolate ganache. All throughout there are various forms of coconut – macaroon, -oil, -water. Demerara rum takes over the palate, accompanied by nutmeg, and lime zest. The finish simplifies into apricot and cherry eaux-de-vie.
