For the nearly 150,000 of you who’ve joined us in some way, shape or form in the past year, thanks for drinking with us! Cheers to you, and to the exciting news we have to share for the year ahead; more on that at the end of the post.
Last year about this time, we set our sights on a handful of bourbons which were on our bucket list to try. With so much great bourbon and so little time, it’s good to be specific when setting goals and expanding one’s bourbon horizons. Below, and in no particular order, are the top bottles on this year’s Bourboneur Bucket List. My resolution for 2024…get hands on these bottles!
A Buffalo Trace product you’ve maybe never heard of the Old Charter Oak line is an experimental line that the distillery uses to innovate and push the boundaries predominantly through utilization of varying oak species for its casks. Previous releases in the series include Chinkapin Oak, Mongolian Oak, French Oak and Canadian Oak. My favorite of the four is Chinkapin, but I’ll be curious to see how the Spanish Oak stacks up. European oaks tend to impart drier, spicier notes and I have a feeling this will have a bit more gravitas to it than a few of the other expressions. Lastly, yes, this is still a bourbon despite Buffalo Trace’s use of Spanish Oak –remember for whiskey to be a bourbon it only needs to be in “new, charred oak casks” the requirements don’t state a specific speciation of oak. Most the bourbon we know today is aged in American oak or Quercus alba barrels.
The oldest age stated whiskey row release from Old Forester, this bourbon celebrates the 100th anniversary of Owsley Brown blending together barrels of different mash bills at his downtown Louisville location and bottling them under the Old Forester name. Some speculation suggests that barrels that fail to make it to the quality control process for King of Kentucky are finding their way to this bottling…nonetheless, these have already started to trickle out on the secondary and this Bourboneur’s hope is they become just as common as any other whiskey row release. But for now, just in cases, please keep it quiet.
“Made by ghosts” Boone County’s spirits pay homage to those little-known nineteenth century characters in you guessed it, Boone County Kentucky, who paved the way for where the distillery is today. A lot of their juice was/is sourced from MGP, surprising, I know. This new release has some legs under it and has been getting a fair bit of buzz, enough so, that I’ll be shifting attention that direction at some point to explore this a bit further for myself. Future post alert.
Heaven Hill puts out some great stuff, and their decanter series is rarely ever a miss. This is now their 12th release, bottled in bond at 100 proof with a suggested retail price just over a Benjamin. I’ve personally not once, not ever, seen this out and about so secondary is likely going to be my jam. It’s tracking around 4x retail…I’ll be sleeping on this for a short bit to see if there’s a bit of price erosion once the new wears off a bit.
What’s been described as a “knockout” by some, this elegantly simple bourbon is the product of a former denim and fashion executive that seeks to “evolve the identity of bourbon by uniting authenticity with modernity.” Hand-picked by big names in the business, Denny Potter and Jane Bowie, this has gotten a fair bit of buzz - enough so that I’ll be looking to add this to the garage bar shelves and share with my friends and neighbors to see how it lands with the collective.
Certainly, 2023 was a hell of a year and 2024 stands to be even better! Over the past year nearly 150,000 of you joined along in some way, shape or form, be that the one million Bourbon Blue Book searches or the thousands who’ve signed up to receive our weekly email. Coming in the weeks ahead we’ll be launching our mobile app which you can add to your phone's home screen to take Bourboneur on the go. The new app will incorporate all the existing features available on Bourboneur as well as an expanded offering of tools and resources to help Bourboneur’s everywhere become whiskey wise. Want to keep up with Bourboneur and our upcoming launch, bottles drops and more? Join our community of thousands by scrolling down and subscribing to our weekly email list – you can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and yes, even TikTok. Show us some love and give us a like on your favorite platform, or all of them and keep up with all the Bourboneur happenings!
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