Louisville-based Barrell Craft Spirits is the original, pre-eminent independent blender of unique, aged, cask strength whiskey. Recognised for their blending expertise since 2013, they skilfully design, produce, and launch award-winning, unique products that surprise and delight whiskey aficionados and novices alike, quickly becoming an influencing force in American whiskey. Their mission is to remain the most innovative, progressive, and respected blenders in the USA, by making bold choices and pushing the creative envelope every day to showcase the world’s most exciting spirits.
Core range: Dovetail Bourbon, Seagrass Rye, Vantage Bourbon, Batch Bourbon.
• Barrell Dovetail Bourbon features woody bourbon finished in Dunn Vineyards Cabernet casks, late bottled Vintage Port pipes, and blackstrap molasses rum casks. 62.71% cask strength.
• Barrell 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. All proceeds donated to The Ocean Foundation. 60.19% cask strength.
• Vantage Bourbon: Bourbon whiskey finished in Mizunara, French, and toasted American oak. Each component whiskey in Vantage is finished separately, focussing on the wood characteristics and the specific flavour contributions that each cask contributes to the blend. 56.77% cask strength.
• Batch Bourbon 035 is a multi-mashbill blend of 6 and 7-year-old spicy and earthy, high-rye, high-proof, oak forward barrels was combined with a blend of 8-year-old softer, lower-proof barrels with concentrated notes of dark cherry and butterscotch. After mingling for two months, 13-year-old barrels with dominant fruit flavours were layered in. 58.75% cask strength bottling
Limited Seasonal Releases: Batch Rye 004, Cask Finishes, New Year Bourbon
Rye Batch 004
10-year-old Indiana Rye barrels with notes of brown sugar and a touch of smoke had 5 and 6 year old barrels layered in for fruit and spice character. 14-year-old Canadian barrels were added for their dry herbal notes. The result is a fruit-forward rye with layers of depth. 57.85% cask strength bottling
Barrell Cask Finish Series: Amburana and Tales of Two Islands.
Amburana Finish: Amburana casks are challenging to work with, true blending expertise is required to enhance the bourbon with Amburana and maintain balance. This release is a bourbon blend of two mashbills with different char levels finished in Amburana casks. A vatting of individual casks without finishing was layered in to add depth, richness and complexity, ensuring the bourbon shines through first and foremost. 58.21% cask strength bottling.
Tale of Two Islands Bourbon: In 2018 Barrell produced the legendary Tale of Two Islands Rum: a Jamaican Rum matured in peated Islay single malt barrels. Those empty casks have been used to finish a blend of straight bourbons. The sweetness of the rum and the smokiness of the Islay casks mingle together with the underlying bourbon that continues the Tale of Two Islands. 59.11% cask strength bottling.
Barrell’s exclusive customer blend programme celebrates their mission to blend whiskies that span the greatest spectrum of flavour. Creating unique and exclusive detailed blends on a scale small enough to allow extreme precision controlled entirely by hand and by palate. By shrinking the scale to a single barrel and using everything they’ve learned about precision blending and finishing over the past decade, they are able to create some of the most distinctive, one-of-a-kind whiskeys in the world.
Exclusive Bourbon, Rye and Whiskey cask strength Private Cask selections are available with custom labelling.
Gray and Gold Label are limited release series that elevate Barrell’s ultra-premium range of Bourbon, Dovetail and Seagrass, showcasing the ultimate expression of craftsmanship and flavour, produced exclusively from their library of rare aged barrels. The Gray Label range is produced from their library of barrels aged from 10-20 years with unique mashbills and barrel finishes for each expression. The Gray Label range is the ideal balance of aged whiskeys that produce unmatched layers of flavour and complexity. The Gold Label range is produced from their exclusive library of barrels aged over 15 years; a result of patience and craftsmanship. Age alone does not meet the standard for the Gold Label range, it requires a balance of barrel age and flavour to produce the complex, rich, full flavour notes required for this ultra-premium range.
