Barrell Craft Spirits, based in Louisville, Kentucky, is an independent blender and bottler of unique, aged, cask strength sourced whiskey and rum, recognized for its blending expertise. We design, produce, and launch Spirits with a focus on what people want now and not what has been successful in the past. This affords us access to some of the most interesting and delicious spirits in the world.
Our goal is to select and blend products that explore different distillation methods, barrels and aging environments, and bottle them at cask strength. Every batch is produced as a limited release and has an intentionally distinct flavor profile.
Barrell Craft Spirits has been highly rated by Whisky Advocate, including Editor’s Choice, and was named Best American Whiskey of 2018 in Forbes by whiskey authority Fred Minnick. We’ve been awarded Best Bourbon twice at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC), once in 2017 and again in 2020. Other SFWSC awards include Best Small Batch Bourbon, Best Small Batch Bourbon over 11 years, Best Small Batch Bourbon 6-10 years and Best Overproof Rum, as well as nine Double Gold medals and seven Gold medals. Our award-winning line of products is currently sold in 43 states throughout the United States.
Our goal is to select and blend products that explore different distillation methods, barrels and aging environments, and bottle them at cask strength. Every batch is produced as a limited release and has an intentionally distinct flavor profile.
Barrell Craft Spirits has been highly rated by Whisky Advocate, including Editor’s Choice, and was named Best American Whiskey of 2018 in Forbes by whiskey authority Fred Minnick. We’ve been awarded Best Bourbon twice at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC), once in 2017 and again in 2020. Other SFWSC awards include Best Small Batch Bourbon, Best Small Batch Bourbon over 11 years, Best Small Batch Bourbon 6-10 years and Best Overproof Rum, as well as nine Double Gold medals and seven Gold medals. Our award-winning line of products is currently sold in 43 states throughout the United States.
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BARRELL BOURBON®
Barrell Craft Spirits blends exceptional bourbons out of ingredients sourced from all around the nation. Our extensive stocks of high-quality casks mean we can craft extraordinary blends that maximize the nuances of each ingredient, yet always add up to more than the sum of their parts. We’re progressive in our ideas about blending, but traditionalists when it comes to the identity of bourbon. We never add any coloring, flavoring, or water. Instead, we release all of our limited-edition bourbons totally pure, without chill filtration and at barrel strength to replicate the incredible experience of drinking directly from the cask. Each batch contains a range of ages and styles to add layers of complexity. The age statement on the front of the bottle always refers to the youngest barrel in the batch. We also tell you everything we can about the provenance of the contents—barring, of course, those few secrets our suppliers make us swear to keep. BARRELL RYE®
We love intense flavors, so it’s no surprise that we adore rye whiskey. Grown around the world, no other grain delivers a bigger range of flavors or more regional specificity. That translates into singular, characterful whiskeys that form the base of some of our very favorite cocktails. In a marketplace crowded with rye, ours stand out. All of Barrell’s ryes are created to be greater than the sum of their parts—even though we think their parts are pretty exceptional. We source whiskeys from producers around the world, giving us deep reserves of blending stock accessible to no other producer. In true Barrell fashion, our limited-edition rye whiskeys showcase unique blends released at cask strength without chill filtration, giving them our signature intensity. With rye, we also enjoy experimenting with distinctive finishes to layer in nuance and complexity—because life is simply too short to settle for anything other than full flavor. BARRELL WHISKEY®
For us, the American Whiskey category is all about creativity. Fewer rules and regulations than bourbon means a winder cannon of options. This allows us to be more experimental when it comes to sourcing, blending, and creating batches of whiskey that are truly greater than the sum of their parts. Our goal is simple, but audacious: Become the most creative, forward-thinking, and progressive whiskey blenders in the nation. That doesn’t mean we’re compromising our principles. We’re still meticulous in sourcing the best whiskeys and finishing casks from our favorite producers around the world. A global mindset and years of experience in the industry mean we can get our hands on rare and unusual whiskeys that no other company can. When blending every limited-edition batch, our goal is always to create whiskeys that are unique and expressive of their ingredients. That philosophy is reflected in our transparent labeling, which gives you as much information as possible about exactly what’s in the bottle. Think of it as a road map to a brand-new whiskey experience. AMERICAN VATTED MALT
We partnered with small and large producers across the country to select whiskeys that express the full diversity of American terroir and style. The resulting blend is remarkable, and we are proud to be the first to showcase the growing category of American single malt in this way. We chose the name “American Vatted Malt” as an homage to the old Scottish category of vatted malt, which was once the preferred nomenclature to describe a blended whisky made entirely from single malts. Today, the Scots refer to that style as blended malt, but affection for the term “vatted” lives on. As a new category, American single malt producers are notoriously creative, looking to their local environment and regional traditions to create distinctive whiskeys. That meant the blend was a challenging one technically, as it asked us to bring together a plethora of unique components. Never before have we strived to balance the distinctive tang of Southwestern mesquite smoke with the sweet and creamy maltiness of malted barley, or contrast briny coastal peat with the warm vanilla character of toasted oak. The resulting blend is complex and multi-faceted, rewarding the drinker with unfolding layers of flavor. This first release of American Vatted Malt was years in the making, as many of the components in the blend come from emerging distilleries that have never traded or sold bulk whiskey before. The physical and logistical work of sourcing and blending with a group of small, independent producers is neither easy nor short, but we believe it lays the groundwork for a new, exciting, and collaborative future. INFINITE BARREL PROJECT
The tradition of keeping an infinity bottle is well known to whiskey collectors and aficionados around the world. Take the last ounces of each whisk(e)y bottle as you finish it, and pour them into a bottle you’ve set aside. Barrell Craft Spirits is honoring the Infinity bottle tradition in our own way by introducing the Infinite Barrel Project. THE INTENT OF THIS PROJECT is to create an ever-changing whiskey blended from barrels of mature whisk(e)y. We began by selecting barrels for their flavor contribution and complexity and blending them in a larger single, or "Infinite" vessel. At each bottling we remove a portion of that whiskey and replace it with other barrels that will complement the remaining blend. We then repeat the process - bottling a portion and adding newly selected whiskeys each time. You can find which whiskeys are present in each bottling by referring to the bottling date on the front label and going to that page on our site. HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM THE SOLERA PROCESS?The Infinite Barrel contains fractions of many whiskey barrels in a single blend, while a solera ends up with fractions of the original whiskey in many barrels. Our objective is to create a unique blend for every bottling. The solera process, however, is designed to create a consistent product every time. At its most basic, the solera process starts with a single barrel or group of barrels of a specific age. A fraction of the first group of barrels is put it in the second group of barrels, a fraction of that second group is put in the third group and so on. The solera process is designed and symmetrical. We think of our Infinite Barrel Project as a solera in reverse. It's unpredictable and asymmetrical, constantly evolving - even whimsical. We're certainly having fun blending it.
BARRELL DOVETAIL Dovetail took almost a year to get right, from blending to labeling, all coming together in a seemingly perfect point. We have produced limited releases of Dovetail using the same ingredients and process. With each bottling, there are proof variations. Dovetail is blended to highlight some of our favorite flavors. Woody bourbon; terroir driven Dunn Cabernet; toasted French oak; Late Bottled Vintage Port pipes; black strap molasses casks; all working in tandem to create a buttery and deep whiskey as unique as it is delicious. BARRELL ARMIDA Armida is a blend of three Straight Bourbon Whiskeys finished separately in Pear Brandy, Jamaican Rum, and Sicilian Amaro Casks. The ripe, floral pear notes provide a soft entrance into a whiskey that is adorned with hints of spice and arid citrus derived from the Amaro casks (and also the toasty bourbon itself). This mélange of flavor is framed by the tropical sweetness found in rum finished whiskeys. Armida is a journey for the palate: from a brisk northern orchard to an ancient island, it ends up exactly where we intended, with an immensely complex and satisfying whiskey. While constructing the blend for this whiskey, Joe was taken by how nostalgic some of the combinations of flavors were. Joe’s mother’s family had a farm in the northeast where he would often spend time in the summer and autumn. These brisk, orchard fruit memories inspired many of the first test blends and so, Joe named the project after his mother’s formal name, Armida. BARRELL SEAGRASS Barrell Seagrass is an ode to coastal memories, blended to evoke the joy of a day on the beach and an evening listening to the soothing rhythm of waves. Hot sun, brisk air, dry sand, and oceanside vegetation are brought to mind. A ripe and inviting tropical nose and grassy, bright body evolve to a finish as long as the view down the shore on a clear day. Seagrass highlights the grassy oceanside notes we love in rye and the opulence and spice of finishing barrels. It is a blend of American and Canadian rye whiskeys, with each ingredient meticulously sourced and finished separately in Martinique Rhum Agricole casks, apricot brandy casks, and Madeira barrels. Each component whiskey brings its own attributes to Seagrass, revealing unique layers of flavor from start to finish. In classic Barrell Craft Spirits fashion, Seagrass is a true original, with its own unique personality in the BCS Portfolio and the whiskey landscape at large. BARRELL VANTAGE Vantage is a blend of straight bourbons finished in three distinct expressions of virgin oak: Mizunara, French, and toasted American oak casks. The result is a warm, elegant bourbon that highlights the many dimensions of oak. The BCS team has drawn on years of experience with three-part barrel finishing, used previously in Armida, Dovetail, and Seagrass. With Vantage, those same techniques were applied to the oak itself, using different char levels, toast levels, and oak origins to create a multidimensional blend. Each component whiskey in Vantage is finished separately, then systematically combined according to a blending process fueled in equal parts by a scientific approach, experience, creativity, and experimentation. This process focuses on the wood characteristics and the specific flavor contributions that each cask contributes to the blend. The result is a masterfully blended, perfectly balanced representation of the harmonious synergy between bourbon and barrel. SINGLE BARREL PROGRAM Barrell Craft Spirits has a selection of single barrels which we're excited to make available to retailers, bars and restaurants. Each single barrel is a true single barrel - bottled at cask strength without combining it with any other barrels, unlike Barrell batches, which are bottled from a selection of several barrels blended together to a specific flavor profile. WE CURRENTLY OFFER 14-year-old Tennessee Bourbon 13-year-old Tennessee Bourbon 14-year-old Canadian Rye 7-year-old Indiana Rye PRIVATE RELEASE RUM The Barrell Private Release Series is a project in detailed blending on a scale small enough to allow extreme precision. This is the first time in our company’s history that we have offered “micro” blends to the public. The Private Release Series lets us exercise our blending expertise while maintaining a single barrel-like scale controlled entirely by hand and by palate. Our goal is always to maximize the best attributes of each component. Every ounce of every ingredient changes the overall character of these blends, as does the barrel that each one is aged in. For that reason, these barrels take months to polish and perfect. While we may be able to replicate the recipe for these releases, the unique nature of each ingredient and the barrel they are married in makes every bottling singularly special. Each release of our Private Release Rum is a unique blend of rums from Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana, as well as Rhum Agricôle from Martinique. Once created, these blends are married in single casks, many of which were previously used for other spirits and/or wines. BARRELL CRAFT SPIRITS We’re thrilled to announce the release of our new line – Barrell Craft Spirits – which has been in the works for three years. Our intent is to blend a set of spirits defined by absolute balance and deep flavor layering. The barrels harvested for this limited release were selected for their refined properties and extraordinary flavor profile. Bourbon This complex 15-year-old bourbon was blended and bottled at peak maturity so you can experience its true flavor. It is a perfect union of grain and barrel, with an old, oaky nose and a deep, honey- maple palate that reveals the lushness of the grain. 15-year-old Bourbon Whiskey Distilled and aged in TN, KY and IN Crafted and bottled in Kentucky 106.52 proof cask strength bottling Mash bill: corn, rye and malted barley |