Barrell Bourbon Private Release: Blend A40i Review

Barrel Craft Spirits brings the exclusivity of store and private barrels picks to its portfolio in stunning fashion.

Blend A40i Tasting Notes

Nose: Robust notes of nutmeg, chocolate, and caramel rush out of the glass. Soft charred oak rounds things out. There's minimal heat, but spice from the nutmeg tickles your nose. It's a great overall experience.

Palate: Pronounced notes of caramel, brown sugar, and chocolate make themselves known in the front and mid palate. The back palate is full of nutmeg and sweet oak. Each note blends together to create an outstanding and unique flavor profile.

Finish: Each sip coats your mouth with creamy notes of nutmeg, caramel, and oak. Light chocolate notes linger on the tall end of each sip, before cinnamon spice slow dances its way to a long and memorable "Kentucky hug".

The Barrell Bourbon Private Release Story

Barrell Craft Spirits is a non-distiller producer and doesn't distill their own whiskey, which mean they can't technically offer private single barrel selects to stores, organizations, or states. So instead they decided to produce 49 unique barrel strength blends and offer them through a private release program. Each blend is limited to between 150 and 180 bottles.

It's honestly a genius move on their part. Barrell Craft Spirits already producers some of the best bourbon and rye whiskey blends in the world, and with their PrivateRelease program they're playing to all of their strengths. Selecting and blending bourbon barrels to produce world class bourbon.

The good news doesn't stop there. All 49 of the Private Release blends include age statements and the percentages of every barrel that goes into each bottling. Barrell Craft Spirits is putting it all out there and letting the chips fall where they may. Amen to that.

All 49 of Barrell's private release blends include age statements and the percentages of every barrel that goes into each bottle.

Final Thoughts

Private Release blend A40i is a fantastic bourbon. It's dominate chocolaty caramel and nutmeg spice notes are well balanced and unique, but still maintain a bourbon taste profile. It's mouth feel is excellent and it has a memorable finish.

Barrell Private Release bottles retail for $110 and in my opinion that's money well spent. With that being said, all 49 blends are different and chances are you won't be able to find blend A40i by the time you've read this review.

Luckily Barrell Craft Spirits provides tasting notes and age statements for each blend on its website. Even if you don't plan on buying a bottle, it's a lot of fun to just nerd out on all of the information they provide. Click here to view Barrell's full Private Release blends and where they can be found.

I hope the bourbon industry is taking note of what Barrell is doing with it's Private Release program. They're providing consumers with what they want, exclusive and unique bourbons with information about the barrels that go into each bottle. Not a lot folks in the bourbon industry seem to be willing to do that anymore.

If the other 48 Private Release blends resemble the quality of blend A40i, Barrell is about to make a lot of people happy.

Final Score: 284 out of 379 Kentucky Miles (Outstanding bourbon and worth the price of admission)