Barrell Craft Spirits Gray Label Bourbon 15 Year (2018 Release)

I’ve done regrettable things a plenty. This seemed like a setup but my spoiler alert is that I am honestly pleased with going for broke and causing my wife to further question my (in)sanity. This is NOT Fred Minnick’s WLW bearing bottle. No, for better or worse this 105 proof bottle is batch 2 (2019/2020) of Barrell 15y blend. There may be some batch 1 still out there and I’ll probably never know if it’s better, worse or the same. With my dad on the back porch for my birthday, cool night and a fire pit. Pandemic. Election year. RBG died today. Nose from a neck pour is flat, oddly flat at first. No nuts, no spice, no sweetness. Then vitamins. Then faint leather and earth. Raisins. Andes mints? A few floral notes. Wet oak and fall leaves. More funk, more vitamins, slight sweet antifreeze. Odd. Sweet tobacco and minerals Batman! The MGP multi-phase plate is there, as are the mineral/Flinstones Dickel flavors. Sweet up front with a clove spice tingle and then a mid-palate earthiness and powdered sugar sweetness with fading heat and a viscous coating like buttered bread that turns into a lasting tobacco varnish. Candy corn, clove and cedar for days... Three pieces of advice my father gave me tonight. 1) Learn to let as much roll as you can, especially with the kids. 2) Enjoy your kids, we all know they grow up too fast. 3) Don’t take anything I say as advice too seriously. Does this qualify as inception?? At some point I’ll shell out for a pour of WLW but in this moment I feel no need to do so. In this moment I am at last satisfied. For now. ————— So, perhaps I was caught up in the moment. This is not a 5.0 pour. But I also don’t think it’s bad by any stretch. Maybe a little overpriced. As I’ve worked this over for the past year it has retained a thicker texture with a nice balance of musty sweetness, dried fruits, minerals and… nuts. The oak, likely thanks to the TN component, doesn’t hit you like hot, dry splinters as one would expect from a KY 15 year. For some the replacement of astringent oak with roasted chestnuts might actually be a win. I feel like it avoids being too edgy to a fault though. Dropping to a 4.5 but could go as low as 4.0 or 4.25 based on the price and the fact that I like ECBP B520 better for 1/4 the cost.

2019 release Nose: caramel, citrus, vanilla, cherries and herbs Taste: fruit jumps out first with little burn. Orange zest, cherry pie, leather and vanilla. Slightly tart. The longer it sits in your mouth the more it ebbs and flows between these different flavors. Great mouthfeel. Water brings the fruit forward on the nose and the leather, fruit, cherry pie and wood out on the taste Finish: slow building heat that’s never overpowering punches through the fruitiness of the taste and eventually fades into cinnamon and then spearmint that lingers for several minutes. The minty, menthol finish is the most defining note of this pour. Opened my bottle ASAP to see if I wanted to stock up on this. It’s a good pour but I will not be going back for more at this cost **Edited review after bottle was open for 2 weeks. The menthol finish isn’t quite as intense and seems more balanced with the spice and cherry. Bumped rating up .25. This is growing on me. **3rd edit- once the bottle had time to breathe (3 months) the menthol characteristics have a faded substantially and I’m left with waves of Rye Spice, citrus, peppercorns and cherry that come and go and come again in the finish. I said I wouldn’t buy more...and that was a lie... 15004 bottles made, but only 15000 available to the rest of you fools at the moment. I never want to be without this and I will buy this bottle at every available opportunity if the price is right.

Nose - roasted peanut, cocoa, toffee, vanilla, cinnamon, red berry, orange vitamin, sweaty oak, anise, black pepper, moderate ethanol burn. Taste - toffee, orange vitamin, vanilla, roasted peanut, baked apple, chocolate malt, cinnamon butter, leather, nutmeg, black cherry, dry oak, moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium length with roasted peanut, orange, and baking spice flavors. I have the great fortune of possessing three separate Barrell 15 Year samples, the 2019, 2020, and 2021. Starting here with the 2019 release, the nose has a strong dry roasted peanut quality. Cocoa powder, orange vitamin, and toffee are also very present. It’s rich, but very drying. The palate carries the same roasted peanut quality or possibly something similar to a homemade peanut butter. Malted chocolate, black cherry, and strong baking spices round out a nice, albeit slightly bitter and drying, palate. The mouthfeel and finish are above average. So the Dickel is definitely strong with this one. That telltale orange vitamin minerality is unmistakable. Further, there’s a very present musty peanut quality that makes me think of Beam, but I can’t verify that. Overall, this is very good bourbon. It’s extremely close to being great bourbon, but those Dickel vitamins and a borderline unpleasant bitterness hold it back for me. A big thank you to @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington for providing the generous sample!

I’ve had quite a few good bourbons, maybe 3-4 damn good ones, and 2 that I thought were spectacular. This outdoes all the ones I’ve ever had. It’s a new offering from the chaps at Barrell, a blend of 15 yr olds from IN, TN and KY. Imagine walking into a chocolate covered cherry. That’s what the nose of this is...heavenly cherries dipped in sinfully sweet chocolate. Taste follows with caramel, cloves, nutmeg, and more cherries. This is hands down one of the most complex, complete, and exciting bourbons I’ve ever tried. At $250, it’s not cheap...but was a worthwhile splurge to spend with family over Christmas. We had a few things open, but this was the only one that finished quickly that evening. My only regret—-I wished I squirreled away a few more pours for latter. If you can find it, don’t hesitate to get it right away.

Nose: A lot of old oakiness (think of the smell of sanding an old piece of oak wood, dried fruits like a fig with a molasses sweetness too. Some vanilla creeps in but has that old whiskey smell that I love! Palette: A dried fruit sweetness like a candied fruit or even a raisin-like taste is quickly overcome by old oak spices, like cinnamon or clove that has been in the spice rack/drawer for a while. Finish: Is long and lingering with more oakiness but a nice sweet cherry candy appears if you retrohale as you finish it. It stays on the palette just like some older bottles of whiskey I've had does. All in all an amazing bottle!

I’ve had so many amazing bourbons. Bucket list bourbons. I takes breaks from barrell and everytime i come back to it I’m shocked how much better this is than most. The nose is so complex i get something different in every pour. It’s nutty, it’s citrus, it’s soft and it’s still bourbon if that makes sense. It’s 106 proof and there is ZERO alcohol on the nose. The pallet is citrus at first, however the more you drink the more you get wood and nuts. If you can find this bourbon do not hesitate to buy it. P.S. smelling the empty glass is the only time i get the “tabacco” smell experts describe. And it’s great.