Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel 2024 No. 427 70cl / 63.8%abv

Blanton’s distillery

Blanton’s started producing single barrel bourbon of exceptionally high quality in 1984. In his final year, Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee who had worked under Colonel Albert B. Blanton in the 40’s (president of the distillery until he retired in 1952) sought one last innovation. Mr Lee was responsible for much of the distillery’s moderisation and growth, climbing from maintenance engineer to plant manager/master distiller and earning a lifetime achievement aware in 2002.
When Blanton would entertain important guests he would handpick “honey barrels” from the center cut of Warehouse H in the distillery, and have each bourbon was bottled one barrel at a time. Elmer reinstated this practice and thus  christened the bourbon “Blanton’s Single Barrel”. This created the first ‘super premium’ category of bourbon and the first single barrel bourbon.
Warehouse H, a metal warehouse, was constructed in the whiskey boom following repeal of prohibition in 1933. Blanton discovered the metal warehouse aged the bourbon differently, capturing the temperamental climate of Kentucky, becoming a favourite of Col. Blanton. To this day this is where Blantons Single barrel is aged.
The Stoppers
The horse and jockey atop the bottle stoppers are now a recognized trademark of Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon. The rich heritage and tradition of horses in Kentucky parallel that of bourbon. This is their way of paying homage to this Kentucky heritage. Beginning in 1999 a collector’s set of eight different stoppers was produced. The set features a horse and jockey in different strides and poses resembling the stages of a horse race, from beginning to end.
Each stopper is marked with a single letter that spells Blanton’s when the set has been completed. The final stopper, marked by “S” always finishes the race in victory! (Blantons Bourbon, 2024)