Newbie Question: "Hand Selected Casks"...

[jcgsbg]

Hello all, and thanks for the great site. My newbie question is this: I often see borbon designated as a "hand selected cask" or barrel, and I wonder what the criteria for selection might be. Can one barrell of, say, Buffalo Trace be all that different from another? Please note that I do not mean to appear skeptical--I'm not smart enough to be skeptical (just ignorant!)
Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

[bourbonv]

You would be suprised in the differences between individual barrels. It is the mingling of these barrels that creates the standard taste profile of a big brand.

[cowdery]

"Hand-selected" seems like a funny term. As opposed to what? Foot-selected?

But selecting and evaluating individual barrels -- either for a single barrel bottling or for mixing together for a standard bottling -- is one of a distiller's most important tasks. Yes, individual barrels do age differently, due to differences in the wood itself, and different aging conditions due to a barrel's warehouse location.

[jcgsbg]

Thanks for the responses. I think what I should do is buy a "hand-selected" bottle of Eagle Rare or Buffalo Trace, buy a "regular" bottle, and try a blind taste test. Sounds like a win-win proposition!

[EllenJ]

jcbcsb,
It depends on who's doing the selecting.
Most retailers (perhaps including the Chicago stores Chuck's familiar with) are happy enough to get a little sticker they can put on their bottles; they couldn't care less about "selecting", mainly because most of them don't know bourbon from Shinola. On the other hand, the spirits guru at my favorite liquor store (The Party Source, in Bellevue, Kentucky) is probably three or four times as knowledgeable as some well-known whiskey writers and when he selects what will be a single barrel bottling of a normally vatted brand (such as Buffalo Trace or Pappy 15/107) you can easily taste the difference between that and the normal bottlings. That's because when he ("he" being Jay Erisman, by way) is given samples of the range being offered (the distillery limits your choice to about half a dozen potential barrels), he, being a whiskey enthusiast like us, tends to favor one extreme or another of the range, rather than go for the middle. If you have such a person selecting at your favorite store (and you should be able to get a good idea just by talking with him), go for it. Buy a bottle of the "normal" product from somewhere else and do a side-by-side. You'll be enjoying a rare opportunity that not everyone gets a chance to experience. And since this website is really oriented toward tastings and tasting notes, please relay your results. I'm positive they will be anxiously received.

[cowdery]

Just when I was beginning to think I am the most cynical person here.

Buffalo Trace has a program that allows retailers to "hand select" what will be their exclusive, single-barrel offering of a brand that, otherwise, is not single barrel. In every case, the distillery provides samples from barrels that have already been determined to match that particular brand's profile. So, they are single barrel and they are whatever the person doing the selecting liked best of the samples offered, so how desirable that "hand selected" bottle is will be directly related to how closely your tastes parallel those of the person doing the selecting.

It's ultimately subjective but if the person doing the selecting is a good judge of American whiskey, it will be good. If they aren't, at worst it will be about the same as any bottle of that brand that has not been hand-selected.

I have on my counter now a "hand-selected" bottle from Cork and Barrel, another emporium in John's neck of the woods, of Weller Antique. I must say, I'm not crazy about it. That doesn't mean it's bad or that the person who selected it doesn't know what he's doing. It just means our tastes don't exactly coincide.

Do I feel like I got a bad deal? Not at all, I got to taste something a little bit different, maybe even a little bit outside of my comfort zone, and that's a big part of the fun of exploring whiskey.

I salute BT, by the way, for this program. I think it's fun for the retailers and way cool for we consumers. Not incidentally, it also ensures that the retail will buy a minimum of 21 cases of a particular expression, so it's not exactly a bad deal for BT and the distributor.

[bunghole]

Well Chuck when you're talkin' 'hand selection' it kinda makes some females blush.

Now ima knows that strong and stalwart men such as ourselves shouldn't give a rat's ass, but Mike in Georgia does and so does his wife.

So what in the hell does 'Hand Selection' mean

ima NEEDS to know

[Brewer]

In addition to retailers being able to pick their own barrel, individual consumers may do so also. A group of us purchased a barrel from BT a few years ago. What a fun experience that was! BT had 6 barrels set out in the tasting room, and we all sampled both uncut, and cut, versions from each of the barrels. We then made our selection, and BT bottled it for us, sent it up to LeNells, from whom we each got our own allotment.

BTW, there was a big difference in each of these bourbons. Depth of color, nose, taste were all different. And if I remember correctly, these were consecutive barrels from the same area of the warehouse, barreled at the same time, etc. Why the huge variability, I do not know. But, as I said, it was a fun experience, and I think we got a damn good single barrel of BT.