Balcones Texas Single Malt Single Barrel

After reading numerous reviews about Balcones single malts, I decided to take the plunge. Just so happens that my local Total Wine had recently selected barrel 17280, aged 25 months in American oak put up at barrel proof of 125.8. The color is of coffee. Slow beefy legs. When trying something this new, I like to pour a couple drops in my hands and rub them together, then smell once dry. This gives you a feel as to how much barrel flavors and fragrances have been incorporated and what's in store. It passes the test but the youth is revealed. First sniff from the glass finds a LOT going on and boy is it rich and decadent. Early on, I get chocolate covered raisins, dark fruits and faint baking spice. Someone said fig newtons and that's there too. Try as I may, I find no vanilla/oak/caramel fragrances but after 30-45 minutes of open time, (rye-like) new make comes forward and there is a hot edge. The initial taste is sweet, full of molasses and bunt sugar mingled with Bing cherries. Chocolate comes on at the end. The finish is the best part, it's very long of chocolate covered cherries. It also leaves my lips numb and tingly although that quickly fades. After consuming a half ounce pour my taste buds and olfactory are shot. High proof new make on distillery tours treat me that way too and it takes a while to recover. I am getting nothing but new make so I will attack again tomorrow. Day 2 with a touch of water and some air, new make is most prominent as is the numbing effect. It's bad out of balance. What happened to yesterday's whiskey? A week later and the original experience pretty much returns although that rye like new make is more of a rich malt like I got in a malted milkshake when I was a kid. It's still hot but not like day 2. The lip numbing experience is there but only slightly. Neither ECBP nor Stagg Jr have ever treated me that way. The finish has gone hot, dry and long now of malted chocolate cherries. After 45 minutes the wonderful experience is holding. This stuff has been all over the place. Neck pour was 4-4.25 but evolved to 3 after 30-45 minutes. Day 2 was maybe 2. But today all those rich flavors and fragrances are back and the 4-4.25 seems again appropriate I am utterly amazed at the depth of color, fragrances and flavors in a 2 year old whiskey and how it rolls into new make properties like you flipped a switch.

This is a Mission Wine & Spirits Exclusive single barrel bottling. Barrel number is 16602 and says it was New European Oak (whatever exactly that means). Distilled 2/27/17 and bottled 11/2/20 - so what's that make it, 3 years and 7-ish months old? 64.2% ABV / 128.4 proof. N: Vanilla custard and torched brown sugar - yeah, it's creme brulee in a glass. And intense. Also, chocolate orange, toasted almond, just a hint of smoked meat. Ethanol in the form of cherry cough syrup, but far less than you might expect for the proof. Vanilla frosting on a yellow cake. Butterscotch candy. Basically, this is a bottling of all of the desserts. P: Sweet red apple dripping with caramel, then rolled in salt. Hints of vanilla, citrus, chocolate, and cooked brown sugar, all also salted. Salted dark red cherries and other red fruit. It's quite salty, but doesn't cross over into being offensive in that way. Finish turns oddly herbal with mint, menthol, and maybe a hint of rosemary. It remains quite sweet and salty and develops a bit of a papery quality - feels like the wood finally being a bit woody. I'll start by saying that it appears this barrel is gone from the world - Mission no longer offers it on their website, so I have to assume they've sold out. So there's not much point in thinking too hard about this particular pour, just happy I still have a third of a bottle left. I suppose though that this can/should be thought of as presenting one component part of the core Balcones line. I just realized while writing this that, well I've enjoyed many bottles of Balcones, I have not yet tried their core single malt. I can't compare it. But I would say the flavors here do show up in other Balcones malts, and some of their bourbons too. The vanilla in particular feels like a Balcones flavor that appears regularly in their bourbons. I'm not sure how to wrap this review up and end this. I guess, at this point, I've basically decided to try anything from Balcones I can get my hands on. They just really know what they're doing and every bottle from them I've tried has been quality. And this is one of the best I've tried from Balcones. _______ Please come join a bunch of regular Distiller reviewers are chatting spirits in real time on Discord: https://discord.gg/4nfePCdyKM. (If the link is expired, post a comment and I will post a new one.)

Dark amber, almost mahogany. Very Texas. Nose is HOT! There is a whopping amount of cola and wood with a dash of canned fruit salad. I can recognize that this isn’t bourbon but don’t know that I’d identify it as a single malt. There are fascinating sour cherry notes along with caraway seed, dried mango and something that is not quite mesquite but not standard American oak. Palate: Fruit galore… like, fruit city. Sour, tangy, sweet, bitter, zesty, citrus and orchard all together. Caramel soft candies. Oh, and cola and a bit of barbacue sauce. Is there a dash of Worcestershire sauce in here? Man, this is all Texas. Or at least 90% and maybe 10% Speyside. Finish goes on for days with caramel candies (the kind on wax wrappers), red grapes and a bit of caraway and adobo. Wow, this is bizarre. I understand they use several types of oak barrel (Hungarian, French, American) for their standard single malt and perhaps being a single barrel this comes from American oak - but it sure doesn’t taste like it. I suspect some of the fruity notes come from the mash but the mesquite and Worcestershire notes… I just don’t know. Rating this is inherently difficult for me. I would take almost any full proof bourbon over this and practically and Scotch. Not that I think this is bad, it’s just incredibly different. For what it is (Texas barbecue on the 4th of July sort of thing) I’d say it’s a solid 3.5, which might be selling it short but it’s the sort of thing I enjoyed trying but wouldn’t ever seek out. Thanks to @ghill40509 for the generous sample! Certainly makes me want to get more into American malts!

Total Wine store pick. 65.3% ABV Oh wow, this nose is great with brown sugar, vanilla cream, stone fruit, fig, tobacco, leather, oak, smoke sausage, and caramel. Ethanol is noticeable, but it IS 130+ proof after all, so slightly lower than expected given that. Palate offers rich caramel, vanilla, marshmallow, pancake batter, a hint of maple, date, molasses, raisin, nougat, smoke, and cinnamon sugar. Wildly decadent. Finish is ridiculously long and complex with notes of creme brûlée, caramelized sugar, dark chocolate, flan, plum wine, charcoal, nutmeg, pomegranate, and date supported by an undertone of black pepper and toasted wood providing welcome balance. Mouthfeel is full bodied and oily, but with a hint of effervescence/airiness that really accentuates things. Thank goodness, because a sandpaper/graininess here might have really spoiled things. Very intense and challenging and not for the faint of heart but those willing to brave it are rewarded with something truly exceptional. Not something I would reach for every day; more like a “have to be in the mood” whiskey but it’s an experience. Loads of sweetness, spice, and heat here but it all integrates very well. At $104, it is pricey but in no way out of whack given the quality and uniqueness of the experience. Definite rebuy status.

This one's from Tower in Georgia aged 51 months in New American Oak and 63.9% ABV. N: Faint cinnamon on the nose with no ethanol. Maybe a bit of oak. P: Big oak with the cinnamon again and then going into something like Mexican Hot Chocolate. Not too complex, just a cinnamon, milk chocolate, spice bomb. F: Lingering finish that continues to remind you of the palate. Overall, not a terribly complex whiskey, but it is just really, really good at what it does. I would be very confused if I got this in a blind. Not what I think of when I'm looking for a single malt. Like ither American Single Malts, I'm getting a chocolate note, but this is smoother, rounder, creamier(?), and brings an overall cinnamon note that just hangs around. Absolutely worth checking out if you like American Single Malts or spiked Mexican Chocolate. The 100% Rye version of this takes the Mexican Hot Chocolate note to the next level, but I'll save that for another review. Don't sleep on these!

Malted barley, sawdust, honey, caramel, and raisin on the nose. A drop of water brought out haybales, corn, grass and a subtle peachiness. ‘Merica! Palate is brown raisin bread, summer fruit, tangy salted nuts, molasses, leather, and oak. There’s a shifting baseline of sweet and savory that’s not easy to pin down. Oregano and caramel, cinnamon and cocoa, rosemary and brown sugar swirling around. Long spicy savory finish. A great entry in the evolving USA whiskey category that deserves to be compared with stand-outs from St George and Redwood Empire and High West and Barrell and Cedar Ridge.