This is Part IV of the Whiskey Jar’s Series, The Bourbon Future. In Part I, I made a bunch of grandiose predictions about the future of Bourbon. In Part II, I discussed the grain to glass movement and the increase in disclosure about what goes into bourbon, which is bringing increased competition into the bourbon marketplace. In Part III, I discussed contract distilling and how it adds quality supply into the bourbon marketplace. In Part IV, I discussed the availability of bourbon over the internet.

In Part I of the Bourbon Future series, I predicted:

Drinking buddies will easily place an order for a barrel of bourbon to their liking while drinking together and have those bottles in four to six weeks.

So, I am not going to beat around the bush on this one. At the time I was writing the first installment of this series, I and the other writers of the whiskey jar, along with a few other of our friends, had ordered our own barrel of Buffalo Trace.

We got in touch with Sazerac’s Single Barrel Select Program guy, who handles the program for both Buffalo Trace and Barton 1792, and got a retailer who had an online presence to handle the purchase for us. Prior to the purchase, we used the retailer’s online portal to buy our bottles. I bought 9 bottles at a cost of $25 a bottle, INCLUDING taxes and shipping.

A couple of months later, I have my own custom bottles of Buffalo Trace.

Compared to regular Buffalo Trace, which is good, this one is great. Sweeter and more rye forward with extra oak than the standard release. On the swirl, there are beautiful long legs and a nice oily film. On the palate, this Buffalo Trace barrel is rich in caramel, with herbal notes of rye in the background, with a rich mouthfeel. On the finish, baking spice and light vanilla lingers long for such a low proof (90) bourbon.

I would describe this as the standard Buffalo Trace flavor profile, but just really amped up.

Really lovely bourbon, really good price, and its something unique. And, given that the writers of this blog and some friends on a lark bought our own barrel, the bourbon future is indeed bright given that it is likely more barrels will be available as production ramps up at Buffalo Trace.