Someone asked me recently what a honey barrel was. And continued that if the barrel had “honey” in it then wouldn’t that disqualify it as a true bourbon?
To set the record straight: it’s true, bourbon cannot have honey in it! Nothing but water, the grain and yeast. But that’s not what we’re talking about when we use the term “honey” when describing a barrel pick! Lol.
A honey pick is a barrel of whiskey that exudes such exceptional character, depth and richness that it dwarfs the profile of neighboring, peer barrels. Something about its location in the rickhouse, the wood itself or any number of external factors has somehow caused an individual barrel to take on deeper flavor and develop characteristics far beyond most others.
But that’s the beauty of a “barrel pick” and not allowing that most exceptional of barrels to get blended in with the rest and grabbing it for our own selfish, thirsty and bourbon loving desire!
In the last 9 months our company has uncovered and purchased at least four (arguably more!) honey barrels! Our 1792 Barton Bottled-In-Bond, the Colonel E.H. Taylor Single Barrel, the Four Roses OESV and now most recently; the John J. Bowman Bottled-In-Bond Bourbon from Virginia! (Picked by our talented AGM Wayne, Brian, Jeff and our Bourbon Savvy Bev Director JP!) The latter we hope to have in the house by August!) The other three are being hyper ingested at quaff rate!!
This week our team is heading back to Kentucky to select a barrel with none other than world famous Master Distiller Eddie Russell himself at the Wild Turkey Distillery!!
We’re confident that our superstar bartender and manager, Anne, Jeff, Brian and the team will be like busy bees (see what I did there?!) and keep us on this super sweet, honey barrel roll!!
Greed is good! Go get it!!!
Cheers!
Fitz
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