Bulleit Single Barrel

The tasting of this bourbon was courtesy of one of my bourbon drinking buddies. His review is also included. Nose: This had a slightly sweet scent with a decent bit of alcohol. It was also slightly medicinal. Palate: On the first sip, I picked up a decent amount of heat in the finish. It has a nice, oily (but not overly oily) mouthfeel. I picked up a decent amount of rye spiciness. The finish is on the lesser side of medium, with more rye spiciness coming through. The rye actually seems to overpower other flavors, which I think are there, but just not that easily detected. In later sips, the finish seemed to get “chewier”. Comment: This guy is 104 proof. It is basically the standard Bulleit that you are used to, only it is bottled from a single barrel. So….you get the flavor unique to that barrel and, at a higher proof. So….on paper, this should be, perhaps significantly, better than the regular Bulleit…if a good barrel was chosen. I’d say it probably is, mostly because of the higher proof, but probably not THAT much better to justify the extra expense. I concur with my co-reviewer’s assessment that this is definitely better than the Bulleit 10 year old, which has disappointed me from the start. Guest Reviewer’s Thoughts: Nose: Very rich and sweet smell with lots of alcohol on the nose. It's hard to get many flavors on the nose because of the heavy alcohol smell but I was able to pull out vanilla extract. On one stiff I thought I might have smelled pear but later sniffs could not pick this back up. Palate: Some slow heat on the tongue on the first snort. This eventually made me want to swallow a little earlier than I would like. The finish was short and the classic Bulleit 90 proof orange label began to come through with tobacco flavors and hints of vanilla. This review is the first time I've ever recognized the familiar bourbon tobacco notes. I know I've tasted it in many, many bourbons but this is the first time I've actually recognized it. I credit reading reviews from the internet to opening my senses a bit since tobacco is frequently mentioned. Later sips unsurprisingly (for me, since I always seem to taste this) brought out some dark cherry. Comments: We later compared this to both the Bulleit 10 year and the classic orange label Bulleit. It is definitely better than the 10 year. But at $60 a bottle, I'm not sure it's THAT much better than the regular Bulleit. But if you are a huge Bulleit fan, I'd say you could certainly do worse (like buying the 10 year).