Looking to connect?  I’m on Instagram or you may reach out to me via Email or Discord if you’d like to discuss bourbon, request reviews, or anything else.

Check the video below for the review Jay and I did on Weekly Whiskey.

The Gray Label 24 Year Whiskey is what happens when the blending team over at Barrell Craft Spirits gets their hands on batches of 24 year old Canadian whiskey.  One batch brought with it a fruity vibe, and the other a more woody tone.  Barrell did what anyone would do.  What’s that?  They finished them in a combination of Oloroso Sherry and XO Armagnac casks, of course!

Joking aside, this is definitely another showcase of Barrell’s ability to see the big picture.  Just releasing a straightforward whiskey with a high age-statement isn’t enough.  They look at everything as an ingredient, and try to make a product that is more than the sum of its parts.

Let’s take a look at the press information from Barrell Craft Spirits:

The BCS Gray Label Whiskey features 24-year Canadian whiskey barrels, a portion of which were finished in Oloroso Sherry barrels and Armagnac casks. When the timing and flavor from the finishing casks peaked, all of the components were carefully blended together and bottled at cask strength at 121.64 proof (60.82% ABV).

Barrell Craft Spirits

Capitalizing on the fruit-forward batch and using the woody batch to hold things together sounds like a great combination for the whiskey enthusiast, coupled with the proof point (121.64 proof) there’s no doubt this is an expression for the serious whiskey drinker who’s looking for something totally off the beaten path.  How does it work?  Let’s find out!

All in all this is a tasty whiskey that brings layers of flavor and unique characteristics to the table.  It doesn’t strike me quite the way the Gray Label Seagrass 16 did, but they can’t all be absolute flavor monsters.

Where this one was better than average (but not a top performer) for me, my co-host Jay certainly liked it.  Just goes to show that each palate appreciates different things.  Looking forward to the next Barrell release, as these guys are totally crazy in all the right ways.  Cheers!

TheBourbonFinder thanks Barrell Craft Spirits for graciously providing us a sample of their product. Being able to try new things in the whiskey space, without strings attached, is an opportunity we greatly appreciate. Per our review ethos, we provide objective reviews and commentary on media samples of spirits and products; remember, friends, these are the good old days of whiskey!

Our grading system: As mentioned in our About Us page, we’re excited to share bourbon with our friends, family, and readers. There are enough critics, cynics, and curmudgeons in the whiskey world as it is, so our goal is to foster the bourbon community in a positive way by bringing fun and entertaining content whenever possible–as such–we decided that applying precise scores to whiskey was simply too serious for us (and didn’t accurately showcase variability in taste from day to day). We use a simple grade school system to apply a grade to the whiskeys we review because we feel it is indicative of the whiskey’s grade for us on that particular day. A grade of a “B” today may very well be a “B+” or even a “B-” on another day, so rather than focusing on a precise score today that may not stand the test of time, we are just sharing our overall grade of that pour for that one tasting. Pour a bit and enjoy, friends, these are the good old days of whiskey!