Blanton’s The Original Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey
Blanton’s is one of the most recognizable bourbon brands in the market. It used to be very accessible, but in recent years as premium bourbon has become more coveted, it is harder to find and far pricier than even 6-7 years ago. That said, it is a beautiful bottle, with lots of information on the label for whiskey nerds (myself included) and a premium metal horse topper, each of which has a letter. The full collection spells, you guessed it, “BLANTONS” (see below).
The bottle I will be reviewing is Barrel No. 2885 Bottle No. 241 and was dumped on 12-13-2018. As with all Blanton’s, the barrel was aged in Warehouse H with this barrel being specifically on Rick No. 1. In full transparency, I have had this bottle for a while so it was not freshly opened for this tasting. I do have a newer bottle that is unopened, it is a store pick that I recently picked up so perhaps I will taste that in the future to do a comparison.
ABV: 46.5%
How it smells…maple syrup, vanilla, oak, cinnamon, allspice, cloves
How it tastes…starts off with warm baking spices and then some honey sweetness. Ends with some rye spice and finishes with a mouthful of vanilla and a bit of drying bitterness on the linger.
Price….This particular bottle was purchased for $60 a few years ago. My newer, store pick bottle was $80.
Rating...🥃🥃🥃
Final thoughts…This is a difficult review for a number of reasons. First, by their nature, single barrels will have more variability as the whiskey is from one specific barrel so the blenders haven’t been able to utilize larger volumes of whiskey to craft a particular flavor profile. Secondly, the price has appreciated so rapidly that it is hard to fall in love with it on a value basis. Is it a great whiskey? Of course….but at what cost? For some, this is THE whiskey they want on their shelf all the time. I certainly used to drink Blanton’s pretty regularly and amassed the entire horse topper collection (evidenced in the picture below), but that was when I bought the bottles for $45. I still love this bottle, but I can’t support it as fervently as I once did at the new price point. 3x 🥃 seems like the right rating for my $60 purchase price….2x 🥃 if I bought this at the new price.
Price aside, from a taste profile, I found that it drank a bit hot for a 46.5% ABV bourbon, a bit too oaky, and there was a mild bitter note at the end that I didn’t love. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin the entire sip, but still enough to downgrade it a bit. At $45-50, this is a nice little bourbon, but current prices are up to $80 and even $100 in some regions (if you can find it) and that is just absurd. If I were to have tasted this bottle and bought it at the current market prices, it would have been downgraded to a 2x 🥃. While bourbon prices are on the rise, there are still plenty of bottles that I would rather buy than Blanton’s. I am sure this is not going to be a popular view, but feel free to write a comment if you think I am right or even if you think that I am a moron.
