Tasting notes

nose

dark and brooding, with fig, dried apricot and grape soda, cola and damp earth, then caraway, pumpernickel and a menthol lift

palate

syrupy and spiced; orange pith, hazelnut and black walnut, tobacco and espresso, with raisin, leather and a burst of watermelon

finish

long and sticky; dried plum and pecan pie cling with clove and oolong, fading to cinnamon stick, leather and custard

Mash bill

78% corn, 18% rye, 4% malted barley. Barrell derives that figure from the recipes of the nine straight bourbons in the blend, distilled in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee. The blending team chose those barrels to stand up to and amplify the dried fruit, burnt sugar and clove an Armagnac cask brings.

Why it's craft

The Cask Finish Series pairs one finishing cask with bourbons picked to suit it, and for this edition Barrell's team chose nine straight bourbons from Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, 7 to 15 years old, to rest in casks that had held Armagnac, the brandy of Gascony. Barrell distills nothing itself: it is an independent Louisville blender, founded in 2013, that sources barrels from other distilleries and puts every release out at cask strength with no chill filtration.