Blanton’s Single Barrel
After rambling on excessively about whiskey pricing and value in the intro of my last review, I’m going to try to keep today’s intro short and sweet. Blanton’s Single Barrel. One of the most iconic of bourbon brands and bottle designs. Produced by Buffalo Trace in Frankfurt, KY, using their “high rye” mashbill. Like basically all Buffalo Trace products, Blanton’s is currently allocated and not as easy to find as it used to be.
Back in the days when Blanton’s was easy to get—and believe it or not, it was once considered to be something of a shelf turd (and not all that long ago, either)—it was a bottle I regularly kept in my home. In my earliest days of bourbon exploration, Blanton’s was the first “expensive” bottle I ever bought. Yes, it wasn’t very long ago that a $50 bottle was considered expensive for bourbon. Funny how quickly that’s changed.
It had been a few years since I last bought a bottle of Blanton’s, but as I’ve mentioned in a few other posts recently, I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic towards my early whiskey drinking days and as such have been revisiting bottles I had otherwise stopped buying years ago. Plus, regardless of whether or not you like the whiskey, you can’t deny that a Blanton’s bottle itself is one of the best looking whiskey bottles in existence and looks damn fine sitting on your shelf. OK, I guess you could deny that, as your aesthetic opinions might suck, but at the very least it’s an undeniably unique and iconic bottle design. But bottle design be damned if the whiskey inside is no good…
Per the label, my particular Blanton’s Single Barrel bottle was dumped on 11/12/18 from barrel number 2366, which was stored in warehouse H on rick number 44 (love those details on the label, too bad it’s missing an important one—distillation date or age statement).
Blanton’s Single Barrel Review
Type: Bourbon
Region: Kentucky
Age: NAS
ABV: 46.5%
Nose
One of the more dessert heavy bourbon noses. Cocoa powder. Vanilla milkshake. Malted milk balls. Very rich caramel, like you’d find in high quality candy. Banana cream pie with a graham cracker crust. Brown sugar and vanilla. It’s sweet, but not too sweet—some rye spice, dark cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh oak bring balance. Quite an appealing nose.
Palate
Sweet dark chocolate, reminiscent of a Dove bar, or perhaps chocolate milk. Yes, chocolate milk for sure. Caramel candies. Vanilla marshmallow. Cherry cordials. Dried apricot. Butter mints. A bit of spice, ground cinnamon and nutmeg. The mouthfeel is light and airy, yet manages to maintain a rich and velvety creaminess. All told, a lovely experience.
Finish
Somewhat short in length. The butter mints which appeared on the backend of the palate continue through the finish, along with vanilla extract, candy corn, berries, and dried apricot. Some spiciness as well, particularly cinnamon and clove. Not bad, but I wish it lingered a bit longer.
Overall
I was pleasantly surprised by this bourbon. Like I said in the intro, it had been a few years since I’d last had Blanton’s, and I half expected to be disappointed by it. The last time I’d had some, I remember it being somewhat mediocre (which is the main reason why I hadn’t bought a bottle in a while)—perhaps I was simply in a foul mood that day.
Blanton’s is one of Buffalo Trace’s “high rye” mashbill bourbons, and as such varies a bit from some of the distillery’s other standards (for instance, Eagle Rare). That said, even though it is higher in rye content, the rye spice is not really all that pronounced. It’s there just enough to provide depth and to save the whiskey from being too sweet.
The US version of Blanton’s is sometimes dismissed for being lower in proof. Do I wish Blanton’s was bottled at a higher ABV? Yes. I generally prefer my bourbon to be at least 100 proof. But even at 93 proof, Blanton’s is quite a tasty pour with a nicely creamy mouthfeel. The only area where this bourbon suffers from the lower ABV is the finish—I image a higher proof version would result in a more powerful and lasting experience. I do hope that someday the international cask strength version of Blanton’s comes to the US (of course if it did, it would probably be impossible to actually buy), but the good old standard Blanton’s Single Barrel is really quite a well-rounded and enjoyable pour even without a sexy high ABV.
SCORE: 7/10
Final Thoughts
The last bottle of Blanton’s I bought was a 2013 bottling. I happen to still have a little bit of that bottle left (I had completely forgotten about it in the back of my whiskey cabinet), so I did a side by side of the 2013 version with this current 2018 bottle. Being a single barrel product, you’d expect a little variation from bottle to bottle and year to year, but I was surprised to find that they are actually quite similar. The 2013 had many of the same dessert notes, but dialed back a bit, and also added a bit of leather and some darker/dustier notes. The 2018 version is a bit more vibrant and fresh. It’s not exactly a fair comparison, since the 2013 bottle has been open and oxidizing for the last four or five years, nonetheless, I actually prefer the 2018 bottle more. It’s good to see that the quality of Blanton’s hasn’t fallen off over the last few years.
Buying Advice: I tend to think that Blanton’s is a little overpriced for what you’re getting, but it’s not so overpriced that it isn’t worth buying. Yes, bottles such as Henry McKenna BiB and 1792 Small Batch are about half the price of Blanton’s and are both superior bourbons (in my opinion), but Blanton’s offers some fairly different flavors and is one of those drams that can be enjoyed by whiskey novices and veterans alike. It’s worth picking up a bottle every now and then. Blanton’s, like all Buffalo Trace products, has become somewhat difficult to obtain in some parts of the US, but it should still be findable at around $60 or less if you hunt a bit.
Questions about my scoring system? Refer to the Review Method & Scoring Scale page.
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