Blanton’s Original Single Barrel

Blanton’s Original Single

DISTILLERY: BUFFALO TRACE

AGE: NAS

BOTTLED: 2018 ONWARDS

REGION: KENTUCKY, USA

BOTTLE STRENGTH: 46.5% / 93 PROOF

BOTTLE SIZE: 700ML

Blanton’s Original Single Barrel was the first Single Barrel bourbon to be commercially mass market. It was introduced in 1984 by Ancient Age Distillery’s master distiller Elmer T Lee, a former employee of Colonel Albert Bacon Blanton who hired him 35 years earlier. Nearing retirement Lee was asked to create a bourbon of ‘exceptionally high quality’, so named his new bourbon Blanton’s Original Single Barrel as a tribute to Colonel Blanton who whilst distillery president would hand pick and bottle ‘single barrels’ for his important guests.

Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon is bottled at 46.5% ABV / 93 Proof, each bottles label contains the date it was bottled, the barrel number it came from and the rickhouse number where it lay to age.

Tasting Notes; sweet, citrus, oak, creamy vanilla and baking spices.

Please note; the plastic seal around the stopper on bottles of Blanton’s are fabricated from a material that occasionally cracks in transit. All our bottles are checked to ensure they are fully intact before dispatch. If cracking of the plastic seal occurs it does not affect the whiskey in anyway.

Finished in Amoroso wine cask, Amoroso being a sweet kind of sherry, usually quite raisiny. I guess it’s not easy to propose a ‘premiumised’ variant of a well-reputed malt whisky such as Talisker 10. Lagavulin always did it well, the DE being constantly great and sometimes even stellar, while the Talisker DE had more trouble in my book. This is a new version, let’s see what gives… Colour: deep gold. Nose: at first nosing, it’s once again one of these cases where the combination of peat with some sweet wine can create a feeling of soapiness, or even something a bit cardboardy…

But as often, all that vanishes and leaves room for sweeter and rounder notes. It’s all rather complex here, fragrant, with whiffs of roses and strawberry jam (while earlier versions were rather drier as far as I can remember). Quite a lot of orange marmalade as well and then some chocolate as well as some fresh oranges. Hints of pepper. Talisker’s coastalness is fairly discrete, with just hints of seaweed. Also a little pepper (of course).

The whole works well. Mouth: once again, it’s a bit strange for a start, curiously leathery and tea-ish (strong pu-erh – I’m much into pu-erh these days so I (should) know what I’m talking about ;-)). Gets then creamier and more coherent, mostly on bitter oranges, pepper and chocolate. Rather oily mouth feel. And once again hints of roses in the background (Turkish delights). Finish: fairly long, balanced, sweet, more citrusy and phenolic at the same time. The tea’s back in the aftertaste. Comments: a rounder and rather thicker version of the 10, which was less the case with earlier Talisker DEs if I’m not mistaken. I guess it’ll all come down to what you’re expecting from your Talisker.