Baker’s Single Barrel Bourbon

In late 2019 Baker’s changed from a Small Batch Bourbon to a seven year minimum age Single Barrel Bourbon. I was quite excited to find a bottle of the new Single Barrel while NCABC was having a sale on Baker’s ($55) and before they increased the price. The neck label declares the Bourbon was barreled in 01-2011 and was 8 years 6 month in age. The serial number was 000027306 from warehouse CL-D and the proof was 107. After purchasing I raced home to pull the cork on the new fancy schmancy bottle which was ultra cool looking. Imagine my surprise when I found a Single Barrel Bourbon which didn’t blow my socks off. Thinking back I recall liking the Small Batch better. Anyway, the nose was filled with oak, brown sugar, leather, pepper, cherries/dark fruits, and alcohol. The flavor was pleasant brown sugar, oak, leather, light pepper, more light dark fruits, and alcohol. Had I only had a single glass and stopped my impression would have been the bottled lacked complexity. Over time as the bottle drained it grew on me. The alcohol was present, yet restrained, and the oak lets you know this is a Single Barrel Bourbon. I’m still struggling to determine if the complexity is high enough to command the price point. Would I suggest you rush out and snag a bottle? Only if the price point is less than what I paid, $55. Anything more and you must make a conscious decision to purchase. Of course if it is less I’ll snag more as it is quite drinkable. I do realize other bottles might have better complexity so I shouldn’t count this one out quite so quickly, but I want any bottle which costs more than $50 to be worth the price of admission.

Old Elk Single Barrel Cask Strength Picks

Our local Bourbon group picked two barrels of Old Elk which were the first Old Elk Single Barrel Cask Strength bottles distributed in NC. One barrel was affectionately named “First In Flight” and was 108.2 proof while the second barrel was dubbed “Second To None” and was 106.9 proof. The price point was $61 for each bottle including taxes. I was excited to try the Old Elk Single Barrel since the standard offering in NC is blended. Another reason for excitement is their Master Distiller, Greg Metze, was previously the distiller at MWGP. Readers should be familiar with MWGP as many sourced Bourbons and Ryes originate at the Indiana distillery. The bottles were ultra cool with the custom labels and stoppers which listed the group name. My personal preference was Second To None over First In Flight and while I didn’t take notes on the flavor, it was filled with all the standard attributes of oak, brown sugar, light spice, and restrained alcohol despite the higher proofs. I would have preferred a bit more complexity and a slightly lower proof, but they were not my picks. I tend to gravitate to 100 proof Bourbons and these did exhibit a bit more alcohol than my preference and I’m not inclined to drink with ice or a splash anymore so I only tried them neat. As an experiment I mixed the two to see the result and still preferred Second To None. They were decidedly different in flavor with First In Flight being more restrained and having a lighter color. I’m still trying to decide if the price point was just a bit much, but to have a couple of the first bottles in NC it was worth the price of admission.