Distillery: Sourced from distilleries in Tennessee, Ohio, Wyoming, New York, Texas, and Indiana
Proof: 115.34 proof
Age: No Age Statement (blend of 5,6,7,9,14
Mashbill: Undisclosed
Price: $90
Company
Barrell Craft Spirits is an independent blender and bottler of whiskey and rum based out of Louisville, Kentucky (they also distill and age in Indiana and Tennessee). They pride themselves in making spirits that people want now and not focusing on what people liked in the past. Their ultimate goal is to select and blend products that explore different distillation methods, barrels, and aging environments, and bottle them at cask strength.
Production
Every year, Barrell Bourbon releases a unique New Year batch. This year, Barrell sourced their bourbon from some new states (like Ohio) and made 4x more bottles compared to 2020’s batch.
Nose – 92/100
Very unique — I got hints of strawberry and watermelon with notes of vanilla, oak, and gingerbread.
Palate – 92/100
The watermelon carried over to the palate, along with the oak and hints of baking spice. It’s light and spicy.
Finish – 91/100
Starts sweet with lingering watermelon and quickly fades into pepper. It’s pretty short.
Value 90/100
This is a really unique, cask-strength bottle of bourbon. I’m not sure I’ve ever tasted anything like it (crazy how much watermelon I tasted). It’s really good and actually kinda refreshing.
But I think this belongs in the $70 range instead of $90. There are tons of traditional, well-aged, cask strength bottles you can get for the same price (like a Knob Creek 12 year for instance). For me, if I’m shopping for a bottle that’s close to $100, I most likely wouldn’t select this one. But hey, it’s a limited edition bottle so what the heck (and it’s a great bottle by all means).
Verdict – 91.25/100
We score each bourbon based on nose, palate, finish, and value.
Scoring System:
- Platinum – 95+
- Gold – 90 – 94
- Silver – 80 – 89
- Bronze – <80
Barrell Bourbon provided a sample free of charge. Rest assured that this didn’t influence our review.
Hunter Branch is the Founder and Director of Editorial for Bourbon Inspector. He has been writing about and professionally reviewing bourbon since 2020 (and has been drinking it for much longer). He’s been able to interview big names in the bourbon industry like Trey Zoeller from Jefferson’s Bourbon and his work has been featured in publications like TastingTable, Mashed, and more.