Buffalo Trace Binny's Small Batch Select #25 Kentucky Straight Bourbon

VITALS:

- $26

- 90 Proof

- NAS

- Batch #25

- Kentucky

As I make my way through any bottle, I keep notes as I go. Just little notes here and there that I keep in my Notes app on my phone. That way whenever I pick up on something or am actually paying attention, I can record that and revisit it later when I'm ready to sit down and write my blog post. However, with this one things didn't quite work out that way.

This bottle I bought right before the pandemic while on a lunch break. So, when I got back to work, I put the bottle in my desk, where it remained.  And thanks to the pandemic there it remains for quite a long time. My pours from this bottle were few and far between, and were, quite frankly, during those few times I actually had over the past year to sit down with colleagues and enjoy a pour. I wasn't exactly engaging in note-taking. When it came down to the last pours, though, the realization hit me that I hadn't taken a single note. So, this blog post is based on what I was getting in those last few pours, and what I recalled noticing in some of my earlier pours (and that recollection must be taken with a grain of salt). 

On the nose I got a bit of a candied orange note, with a nice blend of sweet, bitter and citrus. I got just a touch of cinnamon spice to add to the balance, as well as a bit of a yeasty pastry note. What I liked more, however, and what I remembered being a bit more prominent on earlier pours, though, was the nice vanilla and cola note. 

The flavor hit that cola note as well, and the orange note seemed to come through as well, though it didn't come across as "candied" or overly sweet at all. There's a German drink called spezi (pronounced spet·see). It's basically equal parts orange soda and cola, with a little bit of lemonade. I used to make a poor man's version as a kid whenever we were at a restaurant where you got to pour your own fountain drinks.  That's what this reminds me of (surely completely unrelatable!!).

It, of course, had those traditional notes you'll find in Buffalo Trace--toffee and cinnamon, a light amount of vanilla. This one did have a bit of a cocoa note to it as well that I thought set it apart a bit from standard Buffalo Trace.  The chocolate note worked really well with the graham cracker note that I was getting as well. It also had a lightly sweet cookie note to it, like a sugar cookie but with not so much sugar. 

I feel like this is a short and sweet review. But, the fact of the matter is that this was a very good Buffalo Trace store pick. You can never go wrong with these in the first place, and this was one of the better ones that I can recall enjoying. It made for a great desk whiskey, and it never disappointed whenever I brought it out.

Grade: B+