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I know there's been some talk about the "experimentals" coming soon from Buffalo Trace. I recently bumped into the spec sheets of 3 of these yet to be released products and I will share them with you here.

I hear that all 3 are from one of a kind barrels so they will be in extremely limited supply and bottled at 375ml so they can spread them around a little more. The price for one of these babies is expected to be around $50 a bottle, making them expensive as well as rare.

So I was wondering, has anyone had the pleasure of tasting any of these products yet?

Not yet but it sounds good, I can't wait.

Very interesting, thanks. Note the French barrel had the highest rate of evaporation even though aged less long than one of the other barrels. This is almost certainly because the French wood is more porous than American oak. The fire pot approach sounds interesting, here too outage was high (but not as high as the French barrel) because (I would think) the dryness took some of the water from the wood and made it more porous. The double barreling sounds most interesting and I am sure it will please those who enjoy a barrely dram.

A tip of the hat to BT for trying these different approaches.

Gary

Mark Brown brought some of the French oak aged bourbon to a bourbon weekend at John and Linda Lipman's house a couple of years ago. It was very nice at barrel strength, but as Marvin pointed out, the more water you added the more it tasted like Buffalo Trace. At about 90 proof it was hard to tell the two apart. Of course the bourbon was two years younger then so it will be interesting to see what the finally expression ends up tasting like and at what proof they put it into the bottle.

It has been 2 years, but I seem to recall that at barrel proof it was very sweet with vanilla and caramel with very little spice but some ripe pear fruit. Avery nice drink of bourbon. Mark also brought some white dog for the wheated bourbons that night. It was good but would have been out standing at less than 125 proof.

Mike Veach

It appears that they are planning to bottle all 3 of these expressions at 90 proof.
Hopefully the extra 2 years in the barrel more than compensates for the drop in proof.
Thanks for the info, I look forward to tasting these and any other "experiments" that Buffalo Trace might have up their sleeve.

An article on the BT experimental collection made the Louisville Courier-Journal on Friday April 21st.

http://www.courierjournal.com/apps/pbcs ... 2330822605

Back on Feb 26 2006 I found the Buffalo Trace webcams - and happened to spot some very large push carts filled with some interesting looking bottles - so I zoomed in on them and noticed they contained bottles of Experimental Collection Bourbon.

The carts were placed in a location in a room that was lit poorly - so I could only read a few of the labels that were pointing towards the webcam.

Where would a body get one of these?

My buddy Art scored a set of BT Experimentals yesterday from a well connected liquor store. (Don't even ask, the store only got 4 sets and they are long gone.)

Art was kind enough to pop the "French Oak" bottle and give me a pour. It was quite unique and enjoyable. I look forward to another glass after the bottle has breathed a bit to see how it opens up and decide if I would want to drink something like this all the time.

Now, in the tradition of the great Chuck Cowdery, I will give you my initial review of something you will probably never get to taste...

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Very unique nose. It took me a few minutes to pin it down but it definitely smells of Chartreuse or Benedictine liquor. Aromas of cinnamon, grape candy and spices.

Medium body, light on the palate. Slight oiliness. A hint of Benedictine liquor. Spicy. Caramel only came out after warming the glass in my hand.

Dry finish with hint of sweetness and spice. Short at first, but growing longer and longer as I got through the glass. Clean finish with cinnamon and spices.
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Hopefully I'll follow up on these notes in a few weeks if Art is kind enough to part with another pour

Mike

I thought the French Oak was very light and sweet with a slight hint of spiciness and certainly will not be confused with the standard Buffalo Trace product. MikeK's description of "Chartreuse" was spot on, as it does have a faint herbal nose to it.

It's definitely a very nice whiskey. Kudos to BT for performing such experiments! I look forward to trying more of them, that's IF I can get my greedy little hands on them...

Art,

Have you tried any of the other 2 bottles? I'm looking forward to trying the "Fire Pot" variety. When did these become available in MA?

I've only opened the French Oak so far. I'm trying my best to control the urge to open every new bottle that I buy.

I just heard from my "dealer" here in MA on Friday afternoon.
So hopefully they will be showing up around your neck of the woods soon.
I wonder if LeNell might be able to get her hands on these babies...

Art L wrote:I wonder if LeNell might be able to get her hands on these babies...

Yes, word is that LeNell is getting in a few of these. Lookin' forward to their arrival!

I assume all this bourbon has been bottled and shipped out by now and that one would have a difficult time locating any, right?

RIGHT.
Joe