Review #782 - Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon (Rick 9, Barrel 1769)
Blanton's is a single barrel bourbon brand from Buffalo Trace which uses their 'mashbill #2' - that's their high-rye mashbill, which is speculated to contain between 10% and 15% rye by proportion, though the exact amount isn't publicly disclosed. All Blanton's barrels are aged in warehouse H of Buffalo Trace's campus, and while there are several varieties of this brand (standard, Gold, Straight from the Barrel, and many more), all of them are bottled as single barrels.
This specific barrel of Blanton's was dumped in the latter half of 2024; while this brand doesn't show any age statement on the bottle, it's believed to generally use bourbon aged between 6 and 8 years old, which would put distillation of this spirit sometime between 2016 and 2018.
Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon (Rick 9, Barrel 1769)
USA - Bourbon
Price: USD 80 (2026)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 46.5% ABV
Details: Warehouse H, rick no. 9, barrel 1769; dumped on November 4, 2024
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 3 months; bottles at 100%, 90%, and 80% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Syrupy brown sugar, almost maple syrup - it's soft and sweet. Subtle fruits like dark grape and blackberry appear, and we get some sweeter baking notes such as creme brulee, vanilla, and caramel. There's a musty side to the oak, and we find accents of orange peel and graham cracker.
Palate: Wood spice is dominant, but it doesn't taste too old; spiced caramel, vanilla, icing sugar, and some peppery tannins come next. We get hints of fruit like strawberry, a bit of candied pecan, and there's a soft rye grain note in the background. The mouthfeel is medium-thin.
Finish: Vanilla, powdered sugar, caramel - still quite sweet. We do get hints of wood spice and a nondescript dark fruit, but it's quite soft and rounded overall. This finish has a medium length.
Final Note: This is a pretty typical Blanton's single barrel bourbon - decent stuff, especially if you like very sweet bourbons, although this particular example did have a nice oak spice on the palate. While there is some fruit, which we typically associate with Buffalo Trace bourbons, that part of the profile wasn't too strong on this bourbon; instead, vanilla and caramel took center stage. The mouthfeel is okay, nothing stellar, and the finish is a pretty average length as well. Decent bourbon, but a little lackluster overall.
Value is okay, just about average in our books, at least if you can find this bottle around the suggested retail price of $70 to $80. This bottle is becoming a bit easier to find, so be careful about overpaying for that name recognition.
Our Rating: 6.8 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.34
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
