Hirsch The Single Barrel SLV23010 Straight Bourbon Whiskey

The nose opens with vanilla, caramel, clove, sweet pipe tobacco, corn, and cherry coke. The palate has a sweet cookie dough/ snickerdoodle character with baking spices, pepper medley, finishing with present oak notes. Enjoy! D&M Tasting Notes

We were fortunate to be able to get ahold of Hirsch’s master blender Kevin Alsan and he had the following to say and explain his process. This ‘Single Barrel’ is in fact a blend of fifty barrels that began their lives at different distilleries in Kentucky. He selected 35 barrels from Bardstown Distilling Company (who Hirsch primarily uses as their stills under contract) that have a mash bill of 74% Corn, 18% Rye, and 8% Malted Barley. Their lowest age was 4 years, 2 months, so that is what appears on the label. He then selected 15 barrels from another distillery in Bardstown that for contractional reasons he cannot name, but with a mash bill of 72% Corn, 13% Rye, and 15% Malted Barley, we have deduced is Wⓘ||ⓔt. These barrels have a minimum age of 5 and half years. He then vatted these together and after being quite happy with the blend he put them back in the original barrels to age further (he wouldn’t say for how long.) As Kevin explained to us: “The barrels were mostly on the lower floors of the rickhouse and [thus] the proof stayed lower. This was intentional, I really wanted to offer a single barrel that wasn’t so hot you need to add water, but high enough in abv (sic) to still add water based on the drinker’s preference.” 55.1% ABV Michael Kennel, D&M