Blanton's
Blanton’s is a bourbon whiskey from the Sazerac Company . The bourbon, reintroduced in 1984, was the first single barrel whiskey on the market - this means that when the whiskey is bottled, the contents of many barrels are not mixed with one another as usual, but the entire whiskey comes from a single barrel. Due to the success of Blanton's have today all major bourbon manufacturers have one or more single barrel whiskeys on offer. Blanton's was the first bourbon that was deliberately produced in small numbers at a high price, thus setting a trend that changed bourbon production significantly over the past 20 years. Blanton's is made in the Sazerac Buffalo Trace distillery . Blanton's is striking because of its clasp, which is crowned by a small figure of a racing horse . The whiskey is named after Albert Blanton, the former manager of the Buffalo Trace Distillery.
history
In 1895, Colonel Albert J. Blanton founded the bourbon distillery Blanton Distilling in Frankfort (Kentucky), where Blanton, unlike other American distillers, produced a whiskey ( Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon ), which was created without mixing the individual barrel contents.
In the early 1980s, the bourbon industry was in crisis. Boom years up to the 1970s had led to a strong expansion in production; after a slump in sales around 1980, manufacturers were sitting on large stocks. Around the same time, an interest in high quality whiskeys at high prices began to develop in Japan, to which the Scots responded first by bringing single malt whiskeys from a single distillery to the market and selling them at high prices in Japan.
The Buffalo Trace Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee remembered that his predecessor Albert Blanton had already bottled particularly well-matured whiskey from individual casks in the 1930s and 1940s and gave it away to business partners. Lee himself also fed any visitors with whiskey straight from the barrel, which he stored in warehouse H. When the Ancient Age owners asked Lee to develop a special whiskey, Lee came up with the idea of offering this whiskey commercially and selling it as a single barrel.
The Ancient Age Distillery (now Buffalo Trace) started an advertising campaign for Blanton's as a quality whiskey, which also included numerous blind tastings, and sold for about double to triple the price of what bourbon otherwise cost on the market. Blanton's itself was only a medium success, but inspired Ancient Age / Buffalo Trace and all other suppliers to offer their own limited, expensive whiskey and thereby open up a new market segment.
Manufacturing
Whiskey matures a little differently in every barrel and over the years this can result in significant differences in taste between the whiskeys of individual barrels. Normally, the distilleries therefore blend (mix) the contents of many barrels with one another in order to create a consistent taste over the years. Blanton's comes from only one barrel, which ensures differences in taste between individual bottlings, but only particularly well-matured whiskey from the best barrels should come into the bottles. The barrels from which Blanton's is bottled all come from warehouse H at Buffalo Trace. This is the only warehouse there that is made of metal. In contrast to the other brick buildings, it heats up and cools down faster, which helps the whiskey to mature more quickly. The whiskey matured there for six to eight years before it was bottled. Blanton's is distilled from " Mash # 2" at Buffalo Trace, which with 13% to 15% rye is the most rye-containing mash in the distillery and gives Blanton's a comparatively intense and spicy taste.
The striking bottle design with the attached racehorse figurine alludes to Kentucky as the home state of horse breeding and in particular of the Kentucky Derby . There are a total of eight small figures that show the horse and rider in different phases of a race from the start to the finish. A letter is engraved in each cork. If you put all eight closures next to each other, the letters result in the word "Blanton's"
In the USA Blanton's is sold with an alcohol content of 46%, in some export markets there is also a "Gold" edition with 51% and a barrel strength edition, which means that the whiskey is no longer watered up after it has matured Drinking strength diluted by about 66% alcohol.
Remarks
- ↑ a b Michael R. Veach: Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage University Press of Kentucky, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8131-4165-7 .
- ↑ a b Ron Givens: Bourbon at Its Best: The Lore and Allure of America's Finest Spirits Clerisy Press, 2013 ISBN 1578604044
- ^ Gilbert Delos: Les Whiskeys du Monde. Translation from French: Karin-Jutta Hofmann: Whiskey from all over the world. Karl Müller, Erlangen 1998, ISBN 3-86070-442-7 , p. 131 f. ( Blanton’s ).
- ↑ a b c Mike Flamino: Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon - Review , Whiskey Lately Reviews March 20, 2014
- ↑ Heather Greene: Whiskey Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life Penguin, 2014 ISBN 0698169859