I wrote about the innovative Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project earlier this year when they announced it. Now I've had the chance to taste through the first release, and I thought I'd give you my impressions.
First, the tasting process is really fascinating. Each release has a number of constants and a number of variables. For the first release, the variables were grain coarseness (fine, average or coarse), what part of the tree the barrel was made from (top or bottom) and mashbill (wheat or rye). Everything else was constant. This gave the taster the opportunity to measure these factors alone.
I came away with this with a few impressions. The bottom cut barrels were almost always more intensely flavored than the top cut. This wasn't always a good thing. In some of the rye recipe bourbons, bottom cut barrels seemed to produce more vegetal flavors, while top cuts were more balanced and elegant.
Grain coarseness is not something I could really pin down as having a distinct impact, though I liked the average grain bourbons better than both the fine and coarse grain.
Interestingly, this whole project is probably less likely to produce a single "perfect bourbon" (as was originally touted) than to give Buffalo Trace an extremely specific idea of what elements produce what flavors, allowing them to fine tune their vatting and know more specifically how to produce desired flavor profiles.
The whole tasting process is fascinating, and I intend to taste through the whole 192 bottle series (splitting it with a group). Should you? In most cases, I would say no.
These are not the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. None of the bottles I tasted in the first series was great. They mostly ranged from good to pretty good, but I can't say I would recommend running out and buying any of them. If you can even get them individually (many stores are selling them only by the case) and you want to get a glimpse of the project without investing in 12 bottles, I would recommend getting a pair of bottles with one variable. For instance, barrels 99 and 100 from the first release are both wheaters with average grains, but one is a top tree barrel and one is a bottom. Taste these two and you will get some sense of the impact of the part of the tree the barrel comes from. You could make similar match ups based on any of the variables which will give you some of the experience.
Would I recommend getting the whole set to anyone? Only the most serious whiskey geeks who have whiskey geek friends to share with. There is no way I would be doing this if I wasn't splitting it. It's just too much not-great bourbon. But if you are a serious geek and have some geek-friends, you will have a unique educational experience.
I'll be tasting through the second release soon, and I'll post my reactions.
I'd like to try the rye recipe ones only, but alas...that's a lot of $ to semi-blow on product that may not be as good as baby Saz
ReplyDeleteIMO the rye recipes have been better than the wheat... I've actually seen a couple of these bottles floating around LA in the last few weeks. Steve likes 99 & 100 and I saw them (this evening) on Westwood. I thought the 60s were good and I know I saw those floating around too. Keep your eyes open.
ReplyDeleteBear in mind these are bourbons though, so they're closer to Eagle Rare, Buffalo Trace, etc than Sazerac which is a true rye.
Bottles 99 and 100 are actually wheat recipe.
ReplyDeleteRC, what does "on Westwood" mean? At Wally's? In a bar? Just hanging out on the street? Being drunk out of brown paper bags by UCLA students? Do tell.
And yes, as RC said, these were rye recipe bourbons, not straight ryes like Saz. I think the entire BTSO are bourbons.
Green Jug had them for sale individually for $90/bottle. The best ones were long gone.
ReplyDeleteAhhh... I completely spaced on 99/100 being wheaters, but had a sneaking suspicion I'd fumbled that later.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 99 & 100 were at least until recently at Wally's. So they were probably $150/bottle. I can't remember where I saw the 60s though... Wine House? Not sure. I was just surprised to see them at all and found them here and there.
And also just sitting forlornly on the side of the street, out in front of Shamshiri, with a sign that said "AMERICAN BURBIN: CHEEP" but no one was taking them up. Kind of sad.
Your tasting ideas are great ... but in my experience completely impractical. There is no way to find out the profile of these bottles beforehand unless you know someone who has reviewed that bottle; as even Buffalo Trace won't share the bottle profiles with you until you rate them.
ReplyDeleteIs there a published list somewhere?
I'd love to try some of the Rye bottles but don't know which bottles are rye and which aren't.... and at a suggested retail of $46 and bay area pricing in the mid 50's, I feel for you southlanders.
ps. I'm enjoying my #4.... which (I got lucky) is a rye...
Chris, a number of reviewers have published profiles of each release as they have come out, including John Hansell and Drinkhacker.
ReplyDelete