Overview: Blade and Bow has introduced a new ultra-rare bourbon release priced at $2,500 per decanter. This Louisville-based brand offers a limited edition of 1200 bottles sourced from barrels aged since 1993.
The Full Story
The Louisville-based brand is preparing a preview of what will be one of the priciest and proof-iest American whiskeys of the year. This release was bottled straight from the barrel, without any significant dilution. It has an ABV of 82.1 percent. The liquid is incredibly rich and utterly evocative. Immediately upon uncorking, it struts with force towards your nostrils, surrendering notes of bergamot, darkberry fruit, and singed cedar. The palate is piquant, with ginger, cranberry, and molasses as top notes, all backstopped by a profound minty tug.
Nicole Austin, who heads up whiskey development for Diageo, Blade and Bow’s parent company, notes that the aromas and flavors can reveal themselves differently as the strength changes. There is no single answer to where that balance should be. That makes this whiskey such a special experience for serious enthusiasts. Only 1200 bottles of this Blade and Bow release were made. The limited release comes from the same tranche that Austin used to assemble the initial Blade and Bow 30 from last year.
Additional bottles will also be available shortly thereafter by way of limited drops at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery throughout the holiday season. If you flew in to buy it from the source, you’d better plan a road trip back. Any whiskey bottled above 70% ABV is considered hazardous material by the federal government and can’t be flown in commercial airplane holds.
Production & Profile
This release was bottled straight from the barrel, without any significant dilution. This explains its extreme metric of 82.1 percent ABV. But that extreme metric belies a liquid that’s incredibly rich and utterly evocative. It bites but never burns. Immediately upon uncorking, it struts with force towards your nostrils, surrendering notes of bergamot, darkberry fruit, and singed cedar. The palate is piquant, with ginger, cranberry, and molasses as top notes, all backstopped by a profound minty tug.
Sipping this bourbon is actually intended to be something of an interactive experience. If you add more than several drops of room temperature water you’ll be incrementally rewarded with floral aromas as well as bittersweet swirls of currant and cassia.
Brand & Industry History
The limited release comes from the same tranche that Austin used to assemble the initial Blade and Bow 30 from last year. That is: 96 total barrels that sat in the historic Stitzel-Weller rickhouses since the spring of 1993 (though they weren’t distilled at this hallowed site, but at another undisclosed Kentucky production site nearby). An immense degree of stewarding was necessary to ensure the juice wasn’t “over-oaked” along the way, as is so often the case with any American whiskey of this age. The careful curation involved moving them around the warehouse as needed—to keep them in cooler, less-reactive environments—and consolidating the stock, repeatedly, as those thirsty angels slowly sapped each vessel of volume.
What This Means
Any whiskey bottled above 70% ABV is considered hazardous material by the federal government and can’t be flown in commercial airplane holds. If you flew in to buy it from the source, you’d better plan a road trip back. Thankfully for the jet set, the brand is also using the occasion to re-release what’s left of that original 30-Year-Old, bottled at a relatively tame 109-proof. It returns at its original suggested retail price of $1200.
Consumer Takeaway
Only 1200 bottles of this Blade and Bow release were made. Every one delivered in a custom-made leather box. The precious cargo rolls out across select US markets in mid-November.
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