Breaking Bourbon Evaluates Barrell Craft Spirits' New Line of Three Ultra-Premium Spirits

NEW YORK, Feb. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Breaking Bourbon, one of America's top whiskey oriented forum review websites, had the honor of tasting the Barrell Craft Spirits' line of Ultra-Premium Spirits. In recent years, Barrell Craft Spirits has become synonymous with quality in the spirits industry. Its premium bottlings live up to the prestige and numerous awards earned by the company.

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Barrell Craft Spirits is an independent blender and bottler based in Louisville, Kentucky. They blend products that explore different distillation methods, barrels and aging environments, and bottle them at cask strength. Every batch is produced as a limited release and has a unique profile. Breaking Bourbon has written more reviews about the company in the past and often awards high ratings.

The premium line consists of three limited releases:

    --  Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon - a complex blend of 15-year-old straight
        bourbon whiskeys. Bottled at a cask strength of 105.1 proof.
    --  Barrell Craft Spirits Whiskey - a 25-year-old American whiskey finished
        in Sercial Madeira barrels. Bottled at a cask strength of 111.2 proof.
    --  Barrell Craft Spirits Rum - a complex blend of 13 to 21-year-old vintage
        rums from Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana. Bottled at a cask strength of
        124.2 proof.

Eric, one of the Breaking Bourbon founding members, tasted each of the three ultra-premium spirits. He evaluated their tasting profiles and overall value. The results and Eric's honest opinions can be accessed via the online version of the review.

Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon

    --  Nose: A strong fruit-filled burst of strawberry, plum, whipped cream,
        and pecans. It's nicely layered, with the scents given ample room to
        breathe and develop. Punctuated with sweet and vanilla-oaked roundness
        throughout.
    --  Palate: A nicely integrated set of sweet and savory flavors grounded by
        a mellowing of oak. A slow rollout of cherry, honey, and caramel is
        nicely contrasted by leather, and cocoa.
    --  Finish: A slow ramp up, yet manageable amount of heat that interjects
        spice, mild dryness, oak, and a degree of finality.

Conclusion: Impressively complex, refined, certainly one of the best bourbons. A beautiful marriage of restrained sweetness, mellowed oak, and balanced heat. A true standout of its time.

Barrell Craft Spirits Whiskey

    --  Nose: Typical whiskey aromas of caramel, vanilla extract, and seasoned
        oak upfront, which thankfully take a backseat to a more exciting array
        of red fruits. Simple at first, but it quickly opens up to reveal a more
        complex and sweet side. Nicely constructed.
    --  Palate: A wide range of flavors hit at once. Sweet apricot and cherry
        are blended with cocoa, cinnamon, and mild spice. It's well balance for
        such a flavorful sip.
    --  Finish: A touch of dryness develops against a mild-medium oak front.
        Nutmeg, leather, and dark raspberries flourish as heat slowly ramps up,
        but overall it sips lower than its proof.

Conclusion: Rich flavors, packed in a well-balanced whiskey. The Madeira finish is a nice addition and helps blurring the lines between the entry and finish with its sweetness. By no means is the finish understated, it's very much present, but mild overall making for an excellent whiskey.

Barrell Craft Spirits Rum

    --  Nose: A lively blend of apricot, pineapple, green apple, cream cheese
        frosting, fresh lumber, and oak. It easily draws one's attention as the
        sweet fruit-filled blend is very alluring and satisfying.
    --  Palate: It carries honey and lemon notes though an amalgam of molasses,
        clove, and star anise. It's a tasty interplay that presents its depth of
        flavors well.
    --  Finish: Burnet brown sugar, cinnamon, and oak are both long lasting and
        satisfying as this warm finish comes to a close. Heat is present, but
        manageable and necessary.

Conclusion: A marvelous rum, with lingering flavor, sometimes a bit overpowering. An easy drinking rum, on everyone's taste. Barrell Craft Spirits' Rum seems to have been created with a softness in mind. It's blend surprisingly doesn't sacrifice complexity or proof in order to accomplish this. As a side note, the casks used for this rum were on an Atlantic voyage that lasted almost a year before reaching US.

The general feeling is that the premium line has raised the standards and exceeded expectations:
"Going into this tasting, I figured Beatrice and Stimson taste a lot of barrels for all of their products, and they come across a few honey barrels from time to time. I expected this new premium line to be at minimum, on par or a bit better than some of the best Barrell Batches they've released. While this turned out to be certainly true, I just didn't expect the extra level of complexity, refinement, and sophistication these spirits exhibit. I'm sure everyone wants to know where I would rank these on our rating scale. It seems lately we rarely taste bourbon that enters the four-barrel range. I would easily put these above that and I'll leave it at that for now." - Eric, Breaking Bourbon

About Breaking Bourbon

Breaking Bourbon is the leading bourbon and American whiskey-focused website. Established in 2014 as an online resource designed by bourbon enthusiasts, for bourbon enthusiasts, Breaking Bourbon is one of the fastest growing whiskey websites in the world. The site delivers original content, transparent and honest reviews, industry commentary, ongoing bourbon release updates, and more serving bourbon enthusiasts no matter where they are in their journey.

For more information: http://www.breakingbourbon.com
For media inquiries: bbteam@breakingbourbon.com

About Barrell Craft Spirits

Founded by Joe Beatrice in 2013, Barrell Craft Spirits is an independent bottler of unique, aged, cask-strength sourced whiskey and rum spirits. They combine multiple blends, from products obtained via different distillation methods, barrels, aging time and environments. Each new release is limited and has a unique flavor profile. Barrell Craft Spirits has been distinguished with numerous awards including Best Bourbon, Best Small Batch Bourbon, Double Gold, Best Over Proof Rum at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Forbes Best American Whiskey 2018.

SOURCE Breaking Bourbon