Meet Barrell Craft Spirits!
From the Barrel team:
Louisville-based Barrell Craft Spirits is the original, pre-eminent independent blender of unique, aged, cask strength whiskey and rum. Recognized for our blending expertise since 2013, we skillfully design, produce, and launch award-winning, unique products that surprise and delight whiskey aficionados and novices alike. Our cask-strength small-batch and single-barrel releases have quickly become an influencing force in American whiskey, winning awards from the world’s most prestigious distilled spirits publications and competitions.
Our mission is to remain the most innovative, progressive, and respected blenders in the nation, by making bold choices and pushing the creative envelope every day to showcase the world’s most exciting spirits.
At Barrell Craft Spirits, we have an unrelenting drive to break the status quo by selecting and blending products that explore different distillation methods, barrels, and aging environments. All blends are not created equal – knowledge and experience matters. We don’t simply follow a recipe or blend by consensus. Rather, we blend based on years of expertise and experimentation. We personally taste and blend hundreds of products each year and have experimented with thousands of unique blends over the past 10 years. We are passionate perfectionists fueled by curiosity.
As industry trailblazers, we’re passionate about continually pushing the boundaries of blending and exploring opportunities to source and blend outside the box. Our goal is to elevate barrels of whisky into something greater than the sum of their parts and to showcase the world’s most exciting spirits. In the process, we’re flattered to have inspired many others to begin blending with whiskey.
Henrik Brandt, Joe Beatrice – Founder and CEO, Tripp Stimson – Chief Whiskey Scientist and Linus Jonsson.
We have known the team from Barrell Craft Spirits for several years – and they almost feel like family. We hope to make their products available on our webshop this fall. They are generally regarded as the most talented blenders in the industry – and their ability to find barrels of extraordinary quality is legendary. Below you will find a short introduction to their product portfolio.
Batches
Originally, they started out with Bourbon, Rye, American Whiskey as well as Rum batches. These batches are always great and some of them are legendary and like gold dust today.
Barrel have always been on the forefront of transparency;. As an example, this is the information they have provided on Bourbon Batch #36:
BLEND COMPONENTS:
Indiana: 7.5, 8, & 10 years old
Kentucky: 9 years old
Tennessee: 8 & 15 years old
DERIVED MASH BILL:
Corn: 79%
Rye: 16%
Malted Barley: 5%
A blend of straight bourbon Whiskeys, bottled in Kentucky at 114.44 proof
Ongoing releases
Barrell’s “ongoing releases” are where they really show off their blending skills – and they are probably their most popular products. Here are the primary products in this category:
DOVETAIL
Barrell Dovetail features woody bourbon finished in Dunn Vineyards Cabernet casks, Late Bottled Vintage Port pipes, and blackstrap molasses rum casks. Each release is blended to taste and bottled at true cask strength, resulting in subtle proof variations between blends. Barrell Dovetail is a whiskey as unique as it is delicious, its interlocking components both visible and seamlessly merged — just like a perfect dovetail joint in a handmade cabinet.
SEAGRASS
Seagrass is a blend of American and Canadian rye whiskeys, with each ingredient meticulously sourced and finished separately in Martinique Rhum, Madeira & apricot brandy barrels. It highlights the grassy oceanside notes we love in rye and the opulence and spice of finishing barrels. Each release is blended to taste and bottled at true cask strength, resulting in subtle proof variations between blends
VANTAGE
Vantage is a blend of straight bourbons finished in three distinct expressions of virgin oak: Mizunara, French, and toasted American oak casks. The result is a warm, elegant bourbon that highlights the many dimensions of oak.
Foundation
Barrell Foundation is the first Barrell Craft Spirits non-cask strength bourbon. They applied the same meticulous, scientific approach to blending that they put behind all of their other products to this 100-proof release. The goal was to create a versatile, easy-drinking, full-flavored bourbon perfect for enjoying neat or over ice. It’s also a natural choice for cocktails that benefit from a slightly lower proof. This is a blend of bourbons from Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Maryland, ranging in age from five to nine years. 23% rye in the mash bill gives Foundation richness and complexity, while the approachable proof point brings out lush sweetness and dark fruit. It’s a classic bourbon that can be enjoyed neat, over ice, or in a cocktail.
BLEND COMPONENTS:
Kentucky: 8 years old
Indiana: 5, 6, & 9 years old
Tennessee: 8 years old
Maryland: 5 & 6 years old
DERIVED MASH BILL:
Corn: 73%
Rye: 23%
Malted Barley: 4%
Limited releases
They also have a ton of limited releases, which you can find on their website. These include:
GREY LABEL: This en an extra-aged version of Dovetail, Seagrass and Bourbon – aged as much as 16 years.
GOLD LABEL: As with Grey Label – but aged even longer (up to 20 years)
NEW YEAR BOURBON: A special blend made every fall, celebrating the year to come. This year it was a blend of eight different whiskies.
And many more …