Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel Comes to the United States

FRANKFORT, FRANKLIN COUNTY, KY (Aug. 27, 2020) For Blanton’s fans, Buffalo Trace Distillery is making Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel available in the United States this fall. This announcement follows Buffalo Trace Distillery announcing earlier this year that Blanton’s Gold Edition will be available annually in the United States, starting in summer 2020.

Like Blanton’s Gold Edition, Straight From The Barrel will be limited, and released once every year in the U.S.  This is the first time Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel has been made available in the U.S. It joins Blanton’s Original Single Barrel, bottled at 93 proof and the aforementioned Blanton’s Gold Edition, bottled at 103 proof.  As its name suggests, Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel is an uncut, unfiltered bourbon. The recipe is the same as Blanton’s Original and Blanton’s Gold, but the proof will vary from barrel to barrel.

“Blanton’s continues to be one of our most sought after bourbons,” said Kris Comstock, senior  marketing director. “Fans in the U.S. have asked us to make Straight From The Barrel available here at home, so we’re happy we’re able to accommodate that starting this fall.”

Like the other two in the Blanton’s stable, Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel showcases a horse and jockey atop its stopper, in various poses to emulate the running of a horse race. The eight different horse and jockey stoppers feature a letter that collectors save to spell out the brand name “B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S.”

Tasting notes for Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel describe it as notes of dark chocolate, caramel and butter with earthy undertones of walnut and hazelnut on the nose. The palate delivers intrepid notes of warm vanilla, oak, toasted nuts and a rich spiciness with hints of butterscotch or honey, with a deep and resonate finish.

Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon, the world’s first single barrel bourbon, was created in 1984 by Elmer T. Lee. Named after former distillery president Colonel Albert B. Blanton, Elmer recalled how Colonel Blanton would handpick “honey barrels” from the center cut of Warehouse H for the many parties Blanton held. Many years later, the Distillery called upon Elmer to create a new bourbon in 1984 and Blanton’s was born – the world’s first single barrel bourbon.

buffalotracedistillery.com

Today, Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon is one of the most revered and award winning bourbons on the market. Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel will start shipping from Buffalo Trace Distillery this fall on a very limited basis. Suggested retail pricing is
$150.

For more information on Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel visit www.blantonsbourbon.com.

While I believe there is a level hype associated with [nearly all] Buffalo Trace products, and there are areas where you will pay so much for them that it’s seldom going to represent a good value–I can’t deny that some outstanding whiskey rolls out of the distillery and I’m excited to see them bringing more products to the US market.  The fans have asked–hell they’ve more or less demanded that SFTB become available on home soil, and the Blanton’s brand has delivered.

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!