Since its inception in 2013, Barrell Craft Spirits has been killing it on the American whiskey scene. The latest is Vantage, BCS’s new ongoing series.
Helmed by Founder Joe Beatrice, Louisville-based Barrell Craft Spirits is a creative sourcing and blending company whose Barleycorn award-winning expressions include Seagrass, Armida, and Dovetail. Barrell Vantage joins the lineup, a combo of straight bourbons sourced from Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The juice is aged in barrels with varying levels of toast and char before finishing in virgin casks. These include Mizunura, French, and toasted American oak. Like most Barrell products, Vantage is bottled full strength at 114.4 Proof (57.22% ABV), and the MSP is $90. To learn more about Barrell Vantage, check out the company’s press release below.
BCS’s unique vantage point in the whiskey world, combined with a passion for experimentation and nuance, enables the team to discover new flavor profiles and complexities in bourbon blends. Barrell Vantage is the result of deliberately pairing specifically identified bourbons with carefully selected cooperage, giving rise to a final expression that focuses on the subtle flavors and their compounding profiles.
Each component whiskey in Barrell Vantage is finished separately, then systematically combined according to a blending process fueled in equal parts by a scientific approach, experience, creativity, and experimentation. This process focuses on the wood characteristics and the specific flavor contributions that each cask contributes to the blend. The result is a masterfully blended, perfectly balanced representation of the harmonious synergy between bourbon and barrel.
Through past introductions including Armida, Dovetail, and Seagrass, the BCS team has many years of experience with three-part barrel finishing. With Barrell Vantage, the team applied those same techniques to the oak itself, using different char levels, toast levels, and oak origins to create a multidimensional blend. Ultimately, Barrell Vantage is defined by balance and depth of flavor and highlights the blending expertise that’s come to define Barrell Craft Spirits.
“Barrell Vantage is a bourbon dedicated to the arts of barrel selection and blending,” said BCS Founder Joe Beatrice. “We drew upon our years of blending expertise, creativity, and testing to create a bourbon with impeccable balance and depth of flavor that embraces different char and toast levels, along with its oak origins. Barrell Vantage is an exciting step forward in our never-ending journey to take bourbon to new heights.”
Founded in 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky, BCS selects and blends products that explore different distillation methods, barrels and aging environments, and bottles them at cask strength. BCS’s extensive stocks of high-quality casks mean they can craft extraordinary blends that maximize the nuances of each ingredient. Creative finishes, a liberated approach to blending, and a deep-seated commitment to releasing each whiskey at cask strength guides every product release.
Barrell Vantage was distilled in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, and then crafted and bottled in Kentucky at cask strength, 114.44 proof (57.22% ABV). It is now available at select retailers and online via the BCS website at barrellbourbon.com for the suggested retail price of $89.99 for a 750ml bottle. The BCS award-winning line of products, which includes batches, ongoing releases and limited releases, is currently sold in 48 states throughout the U.S.
"Barrell Vantage is a bourbon dedicated to the arts of barrel selection and blending.”
— Joe Beatrice, Founder Barrel Craft Spirits
Barrell Craft Spirits®
Barrell Craft Spirits® is an independent blender of unique aged, cask-strength whiskey and rum spirits, that is recognized for its blending expertise. The company selects and blends products that explore different distillation methods, barrels and aging environments, and bottles them at cask strength.
Barrell Craft Spirits®, Barrell®, Barrell Bourbon® and Barrell Rye® are registered trademarks owned by Barrell Craft Spirits LLC.
Spirits writers, marketers and designers are among the most influential forces in the spirits industry. Their opinions, ideas and creative talents inform and influence consumer perceptions and buying decisions. The John Barleycorn Society was started by a group of spirits journalists seeking to honor excellence in all facets of the industry. The journalists spent several years creating a comprehensive competition that became the John Barleycorn Awards. An elite team of authoritative and influential spirits journalists was selected to administer the flagship component of the Awards, a blind tasting competition destined to become the preeminent arbitrator of spirits taste, quality and character.
