Single barrel whiskey

Single barrel whiskey (or single cask whisky) is a premium class of whisky in which each bottle comes from an individual aging barrel, instead of being created by blending together the contents of various barrels to provide uniformity of color and taste. Even whiskeys that are not blends may be combined from more than one batch, or even from differing years to achieve their consistency. The whiskey from each barrel is bottled separately, with each bottle bearing the barrel number and in most cases the dates for the beginning and end of aging. Each barrel is thought to contribute unique characteristics to the finished whiskey. Recently, however, there has been some controversy over whether single cask whiskies are indeed all from single casks. Whiskies sold by Scottish distilleries such as Ben Nevis and especially GlenDronach as "single casks" have been revealed to be vattings of multiple barrels, which may themselves have been of different kinds, with the "single cask" designation referring only to the final cask of maturation.^[1] In the absence of specific regulation of this language it is not clear to what extent such practice is prevalent in the industry as a whole.

Single barrels may further be at cask strength or non-chill-filtered to further avoid adulterating the taste of a cask.

Brands

Below is a list of some single barrel whiskeys:

Scotch

• Balvenie (has released several single cask bottlings of single malt Scotch whisky^[2])
• Many independent bottlers of single malt Scotch whisky produce single cask offerings
  • Berry Brothers & Rudd
  • Master of Malt

North American

• Buffalo Trace Distillery (a Sazerac Company distillery)
  • Blanton's (a single barrel Bourbon) ^[3]
  • Eagle Rare (a Bourbon brand which has 10 and 17 year single barrel expressions)
  • Elmer T. Lee (named for Buffalo Trace Master Distiller Emeritus)
  • Rock Hill Farms (a single barrel bourbon)
• Heaven Hill
  • Elijah Craig (a bourbon brand which has multiple single barrel expression)
  • Evan Williams (a single barrel vintage bourbon^[4])
  • Henry McKenna (10 year bonded single barrel)
• Jack Daniel's Distillery (a Brown-Forman Corporation distillery)
  • Jack Daniel's Single Barrel (a single barrel Tennessee whiskey)
  • Jack Daniel's Silver Select (available at duty-free shops)^[5]
• Jim Beam (has released a single barrel bourbon)^[6]
• Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (an independent bottling company)
  • Michter's (a brand which has single barrel bourbon and rye^[7] expressions)
  • Willett Pot Still Reserve (a single barrel bourbon)
  • Willett Family Estate (single barrel bourbon and rye^[8])
• Knob Creek Distillery (a Beam Inc. distillery)
  • Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve (a bourbon aged 9 years)^[9]
• Four Roses Distillery (offers single barrel bourbon)^[10]

See also

• Bottled in bond
• Single malt whisky
• Small batch whiskey

References

1. "Glendronach Confusion (or What is a "Single Cask"?)". My Annoying Opinions. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
2. Helen Arthur (2002) [1997]. The single malt companion (in Dutch). Translated by Lisbeth Machielsen. Libero. p. 66. ISBN 9057642360.
3. "Blanton's - The Original Single Barrel Bourbon"
4. "Evan Williams - Kentucky Straight Bourbon"
5. Silver Select Single Barrel
6. Leonard, Devin (December 32, 2014). "Jim Beam's New Single-Barrel Bourbon Is 95 Proof, and Kid Rock Likes It". BusinessWeek.com. BusinessWeek. Retrieved March 20, 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Bourbon's Bistro Whiskey List, Bourbon's Bistro. (Accessed January 2011)
8. • • Wells & Wells Inc. (Single Barrel Whiskey, just like our founding fathers used to brew!)
   The newest Willett family estate Rye, StraightBourbon.com. (Access date January 2011).
9. "Knob Creek - Single Barrel Reserve"

External links

• "Single Barrel and Small Batch Bourbon"