Having just found myself the owner of the newest release from Blood Oath, Pact Number 9 and at retail to boot, I thought I'd carve out this week's post to discuss this relatively unique brand and why one (or all) of their nine releases may be worth adding to your collection. Intriguingly, this brand seems to be a relatively known but unknown bourbon and has trucked along modestly flying under the radar for many Bourboneurs for the past nearly decade. Given my focus on value, the cherry on top for Blood Oath is that over the nine years now that this bottle has been released, the price point has only increased by roughly ten bucks or so until this past year when it saw a relatively large uptick in MSRP, perhaps playing catchup to the overall market. That said, I only paid just over a hundred bucks for mine so take the pricing with a grain of salt. In a world of inflationary pricing and distillers looking to cash in on the ever-increasing popularity of America's native spirit the brands current $100ish price point is not overwhelming related to the quality of the pour.
Blending bourbon hasn't always been seen positively, in fact, for some, it's still considered a relatively dirty practice. Certainly, back in 2015 when the Blood Oath line started, blending wasn't in vogue, and it was more about single barrel bourbons at the time. The brands ethos is really tied to highlighting the skill and nuance that accompany blending. The first Pact released by Blood Oath was suggested to be a "masterful union of well-bred bourbon." Blending has come a long way in a decade and on the whole, there has been an uptick in production and quality. You need look no further than Little Book released by Jim Beam and blended by the one and only Freddie Noe or a cadre of releases from High West out of Utah and the list goes on and on. For Blood Oath, the "Oath" that comes along with each Pact is to never disclose where the whiskies that are blended together in each release come from. There's an attempt to avail some mystery and cloak and dagger style intrigue...at the end of the day it's probably something that most simply just gloss over.
Every single Blood Oath bourbon is bottled at the exact same proof, 98.6. Interestingly, 98.6 is used because it is the same temperature as blood.
Below we review the nine bottlings released so far in the Blood Oath lineup, as it relates to how many bottles have been released each year, its associated MSRP at release and the current valuations on the Bourbon Blue Book™, our proprietary resource which tracks the weekly ebbs and flows of valuations on nearly two thousand different brownwater bottles. As this changes with the market, this is but a snapshot in time.
The driving force behind the Blood Oath brand is John Rempe, a Certified Food Scientist (CFS). Brief aside, a food scientist for those of you who are wondering wth is that, is a field of study which uses chemistry, biology and other sciences to study the basic elements of food. Prior to jumping into the bourbon space, he developed carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks. Certainly, there has been some interesting bridges he's been able to build in the blending arena thanks to his background. Since joining Luxco it's not all been bourbon however, having had a hand in the development of other lines of spirits. Of note, John also had a hand in the development and creation of Rebel Bourbon.
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