What happens when you get an invite to go to a 5-Floor Buffalo Trace bourbon tasting?
You go, dammit!

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The Buffalo Trace Distillery is known for pumping out some of the highest quality bourbon on the market. From Blanton’s SFTB to George T. Stagg, this distillery knows bourbon. Buffalo Trace ages their bourbon on 5 separate floors in their warehouses.  When two barrels that rest side-by-side can taste different, you better believe there’s a noticeable difference for each floor.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon is known for being an easy sipper at 90 proof and helps get the party started. Hitting shelves at Big Red Liquors back in Dec of 2016, private barrels of Buffalo Trace were hand-picked by Beau Beckman, the barrel manager for Buffalo Trace. For only $84.95 – 5 Different Buffalo Trace Single Barrels (375s) from 5 Different Warehouses, and 5 Different Floors – it was a heck of a deal.

Here is a blurb from Big Red:

When we asked Beau Beckman, Barrel Select Manager for Buffalo Trace to pick a different single barrel from 5 different warehouses, each from one of 5 different floors, we were sure he’d say “no, too complicated,” but when the answer came back “yes,” we immediately got to work, building 5 amazing different flavor profiles which would reflect the CORE flavors produced at the historic Buffalo Trace distillery. We asked that the single barrels be bottled as 375s so we could offer all 5 at an amazing price! All the single barrels are a MINIMUM of 8yrs old, barreled in February, March, and April of 2008, packaged in a neat box.

With a small group, we had a handful of combinations to rank the best bottle of the group.  But before we spill the beans, let’s jump into the notes on each bottle.

Floor 1

Soft Vanilla, Baking Spices, Crème Brûlée, Malty

Floor 2

Light Leather, Subtle Citrus, Fruit, Biscuity

Floor 3buffalo trace bourbon tasting bourbon sippers

Sweet: Toffee, Caramel, Brown Sugar

Floor 4

Red Fruit, Vintage Leather, Oily, Complex

Floor 5

Oak Spice, Cinnamon, Pine, Orange

We nosed and tasted our way through each of the bottles and Floor 4 consistently caught praise from each person.  Though we ended up with different rankings, we all agreed that #4 was a gem.

My own personal ranking evolved through the evening as I enjoyed them. What started with 5, 4, 1, 2, 3 ended with 4, 1, 5, 2, 3.

buffalo trace bourbon tasting bourbon sippers

You won’t be disappointed with any of these bottles and if you ever have the chance to grab a private barrel pick of Buffalo Trace, do it. We wanted to give a huge shout out to Beau with Buffalo Trace and John Cuni, who both made big things happen for this to come together the way that it did!

buffalo trace bourbon tasting bourbon sippers

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