Barrell Bourbon 10th Anniversary Blend Limited Release
Mike Rosen

Bourbon

September 28, 2023

Joe Beatrice founded Barrell Craft Spirits in 2013 starting with a 1,000-gallon tank and filled and labeled bottles in his living room. His goal was to “elevate barrels of whiskey into something greater than the sum of their parts”. Now Barrell Craft Spirits is celebrating the opening of their new 15-million-dollar, 15,000-square-foot blending and bottling facility in Jeffersontown Kentucky, which will allow them to increase their blending capacity by more than 500%.

Barrell Craft Spirits says, “The 10th Anniversary Bourbon is a homage to ten years of incredible blends and to our amazing supporters. Some of our most noteworthy batches, including Batch 011 and Batch 021 are blended into this release”. The 10th Anniversary Blend is a limited release with only 3000 bottles total and according to Jay West, 2,520 are earmarked to be purchased through the r/bourbon single barrel program. The remaining bottles were to be sold online and at the Barrell Craft booth during the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, KY from September 15 to 17, and starting September 18, at Barrell’s new facility in Jeffersontown. Let’s get into it!

Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested for about 15 minutes.

Distillery: Distilled in Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky.

Proof: 112.64, bottled at cask strength.

Age:
Tennessee Bourbon Whiskeys: 8, 13, 17, 18 years old.
Indiana Bourbon Whiskeys: 8 & 9 years old.
Kentucky Bourbon Whiskeys: 9 years old.

Mash bill: (Derived) 83% Corn/ 10% Rye/ 7% Malted Barley.

MSRP: $84.99.

Appearance: Reddish caramel.

Nose

Burnt brown sugar, rich toffee, maple, butterscotch, dates, pear, baked apples, sandalwood, vanilla bean, orange marmalade, macadamia nuts, green tea, nutmeg, floral, and tobacco. This nose is fantastic and complex with very little heat.

Palate

With a medium viscous mouthfeel the nose moves right onto the palate with toffee, rich caramel, butterscotch, tobacco, vanilla bean, pear, peaches, dates, sandalwood, green tea, nutmeg, orange peel, and macadamia nuts. Allspice is very well balanced with tobacco making its entrance mid-sip, lasting long through the finish. This batch leans on the darker oak/tobacco side with Dickel maple charcoal filtering influences, but with no mineral/vitamin notes to be found. I love the balance and rich flavors in this blend that’s both familiar and unique.

Finish

Allspice continues with caramel, tobacco, and vanilla bean. Green tea comes back around with baked apples and apricots. There is a very long finish that is burnt brown sugar and tobacco dominant with no dryness.

With a few drops of added water: On the nose, the tobacco calms down, and the burnt caramel notes turn into more like crème brûlée with more baked apple and vanilla bean coming forward. The palate is a bit more fruit-forward too with the herbal notes being more noticeable. The finish has less tobacco and more caramel.

Conclusion

There is a lot to love about the 10th Anniversary Blend and I’m glad I purchased it. Coincidentally, I just reviewed Batch 026 and thought the 10th Anniversary Blend was a good batch to review next since there were many similarities including the same exact ABV.

The 10th Anniversary Blend leans on the darker/richer side of the caramel spectrum with burnt brown sugar, toffee, maple, and oak/tobacco being the focus. There are some excellent fruit and nutty flavors too that give this batch complexity and balance, but they play a supporting role, especially on the palate. No doubt this batch leans heavily on George Dickel, even more so than Batch 026. The ages and amount of “Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey” in this batch and mash bill tell the same story. If Dickel isn’t your jam, you may not love this batch as much as I did. I’m a fan of the Tennessee component in Barrell batches so I’ve got no issues with this. In fact, I think the 10th Anniversary Blend is a testament to how well Barrell Craft uses Dickel in their blends, as they have from the start.

As an aside, I reached out to Barrell Craft Spirits to ask how the youngest age bourbon used in this batch is 8 years old when the youngest bourbon in Batch 011 was 6 years old. My contact at Barrell Craft clarified this saying, “We used barrel lots that were used in the production of Batch 011 and 021, not the actual batches”. What this means to me is they pulled from the older barrel lots used in the production of Batch 011 for the 10th Anniversary Blend. The original age of Batch 021 was 10 to 14 years.

Speaking of age, the top-aged bourbon used in the 10th Anniversary Blend is 18 years old. For perspective, that’s two years older than the oldest bourbon in a previous Barrell Bourbon Batch, which are Batches 029 & 031 at 16 years old. We don’t know how much 18-year-old bourbon was used, but the top ages of this batch show in its darker, mature profile. I’ve been enjoying the 10th Anniversary Blend a hell of a lot and it may edge out Batch 026 as my favorite Barrell Bourbon batch to date.

Rating: 8.3/10.

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.

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