Barrell Bourbon Gray Label Release 5 (Fall 2022)
A new Barrell Craft Spirits Gray Label Bourbon is here - and boy did this label cause controversy.
Like the previous Gray Label Bourbon releases, Barrell Bourbon Gray Label Release 5 (Fall 2022) is also at cask strength. When the TTB label was first released, however, the placeholder proof was below 100 proof. While no release had been above 106 and change, they had also never gone below the 100 proof mark.
And people. went. bananas.
Think I’m joking? Go check out the post on @ComingWhiskey on Instagram and read some comments. If you dare, venture into whiskey Reddit (but don’t blame me).
There was something else missing, too. An age statement. All four previous releases were age-stated at 15 years, yet this had no age statement at all.
For a bottle to cost $249.99, have no age statement, be percentage points above 100 proof (even if that is cask strength, which it is), is a bold move.
And I’m struggling with whether it was worth it.
The points above are all subtractions - so let’s take a quick look at what was added.
For the fifth release, Joe, Tripp, and the Barrell team took the five-mashbill blend and finished it in 36-month air-dried-stave barrels, constructed from staves/barrels that had held previous Gray Label Bourbon editions (where the staves were air-dried, how the staves were broken apart and reconstructed, and a host of questions about that process remain unanswered). The idea is that the bourbon finished in these re-used staves would take on the creamy, soft oak qualities seen in whiskies aged in long-term air-dried stave barrels (at an added expense, of course, since the air drying is quite expensive).
Setting price aside, this is a great bourbon, on the cusp of excellent. I think it achieves what the Barrell team sought to achieve, based on press releases, news, and their own website. The oak is certainly the star - and you know I don’t like overoaked whiskies - yet never becomes woody. It is creamy and lends huge body to this bourbon, with some oak-driven pepperiness around the edges, enough to keep things interesting but never distracting.
The bourbon is fruity, mildly drying, brightly acidic at first like the flesh of a stonefruit right around the pit, with candied orange peel and ginger that’s crystallized almost to the point of losing its zing. It’s a masterclass in blending, truly, and earns a 7.9 as you’ll see below.
The problem is simple, though: it misses the forest for the trees. And I worry that Barrell’s team is doing the same.
The context of Fall 2022 is quite different from 2018 when the Gray Label line debuted, and is still different from when the Gold Labels debuted just about a year ago. Consumers of all interest levels are being more cost conscious in response to a looming recession and increased inflation. The premiumization we saw in spirits during the COVID pandemic is clearly waning, though the formal data is nascent. Secondary prices, often the first marker of consumer pullback (particularly for whiskey drinkers who are invested enough to be on secondary markets) have been stalling or even falling for six months now.
And yet, Barrell has forged ahead with Gray and Gold Label releases at $249.99 and $499.99 apiece, respectively. Many if not all of those whiskies (and rums, to be fair) are great-to-excellent spirits, and even those I haven’t liked have still shown skillful blending and creativity. Unfortunately, those bottles are sitting on shelves. After asking two dozen - literally, two dozen - friends of mine around the country, each in a different state or market, all 24 confirmed what I was seeing in New York: the bottles aren’t moving.
I’m choosing this particular review to sound an alarm for a reason. Again, this is a fantastic bourbon, but it’s one that wins the battle at the risk of losing the war. I’ll allow Barrell and its competitors in the premium whiskey space those six months of pullback, but they have to recognize that they’re swimming upstream against three different currents:
Transparency: people further and further afield from whiskey nerd-dom want to know what’s in their bottles. Barrell might be constrained by NDAs in terms of what distillery something came from, but there are a lot of areas under their own control in which they can be more open. Take, for example, Barrell Vantage: there was a massive opportunity to educate the consumer on oak types, what works best with each whiskey, why different species like mizunara and French oak are used or not, all from a bottle that retails at around $80. Instead, it was left to reviewers to fill in the gaps. Barrell has never shied away from naming Dunn Vineyards on their Dovetail releases - they should seriously consider other areas where names, places, techniques, etc. are explored and explained better. They don’t have to be Waterford Whiskey, but they can reduce the opacity.
Cost: prices are rising across the board, and nowhere more explicitly than in whiskey. Some brands can weather that: Booker’s has risen from $49.99 to $69.99 to $74.99 and now to $99.99 MSRP, but I know if I leave a Booker’s on a shelf it’ll be gone within a few hours, days at most. Same goes for Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, Knob Creek, Wild Turkey Rare Breed, even MGP-sourced ryes. Single barrels are no longer guaranteed sellouts, and people aren’t buying bottles just because a group tells them to anymore (to a point). Unlike these releases, which are sub-$100 or thereabouts, Barrell is asking consumers to shell out $249.99 or $499.99 for the Gray and Gold labels, and consumers are flatly rejecting that request. Sure, some bottles have sold - some always will. But plenty have not, and they need to pay attention: premiumization no longer guarantees a sale.
Competition: Barrell, perhaps more than any other NDP, showed the whiskey world that blending was beautiful. From their earliest releases, they have shown skill, growth, creativity, and a willingness to blend and finish. The many brands, distillers and non-distillers alike, owe them a great debt. Unfortunately, Barrell risks becoming a victim of its own success. Distilleries and NDPs specializing in blending and/or finishing are popping up every day, and while some will inevitably fail (and I hope Good Times is one of them) there are enough to flood the market. I look at Milam & Greene’s Unabridged Volume 1, Bardstown B0urbon Company’s Fusion, Discovery, and Collaboration releases, and the finishings and blending from Doc Swinson’s as a mere handful of the bigger-named examples. Look at any of them - they’re all comparatively priced for Barrell’s core range, and even Bardstown’s most expensive releases are on-par with the Gray Labels. This might be the toughest current to fight against, but addressing the previous two will certainly help.
This isn’t a woe-is-them critique of Barrell, and nobody is suggesting they’re anywhere close to faltering. What I’m trying to get across is that there are several issues that they face, and that this new release - as great-to-excellent as it is - fails against all three of them.
I know I’m fortunate enough to have the Barrell team read my reviews, and I truly am thankful for the opportunity to review their products (objectively, of course). I hope this isn’t the last review of theirs I get to do. Maybe they know something I don’t about the market, and maybe their liquid strategy is prepared to adjust in ways not yet manifested. For the meantime, though, I remain concerned as a consumer and await the next move.
Thank you to Barrell Craft Spirits and Ro-Bro Marketing for providing this sample for review purposes without restriction.
Barrell Bourbon Gray Label Release 5 (Fall 2022) Whiskey: Specs
Classification: Blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskies
Origin: Undisclosed Distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee
Mashbill: Undisclosed (5 Mashbills)
Proof: 100.58 (50.29% ABV)
Age: NAS
Location: Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee
Barrell Bourbon Gray Label Release 5 (Fall 2022) Price: $249.99
Barrell Bourbon Gray Label Release 5 (Fall 2022) Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Amber maple syrup. Medium rims, fast droplets on thin legs.
Nose: Warm, toasted oak and cinnamon. Tangy, puckeringly sour yellow nectarines and plums. Wood is drying but not distracting. Scraped vanilla beans. Fresh orange juice and yellow cake batter. Sweet cornbread.
Palate: Yellow cake with vanilla funfetti frosting. Oak builds quickly, drying but also with a huge body and immediately coating mouthfeel. A bit of orange, pink peppercorns, and a coating warmth that brings out floral scents. The flavors are rounded and balanced. Mouthfeel is thick and creamy, coating, mild peppery bite and minimal proof. Cooked stonefruits emerge.
Finish: Holds on from the tip of my tongue to the back of my throat. Coating and creamy and long. The astringency from the oak, the bright acidity from the stonefruits, and the creaminess all balance each other beautifully.
Overall: Did I mention this was balanced? A masterclass of blending. The oak is clearly the star, yet is never woody or dominating. All cream and coating, with enough pepper to cut through and highlight the astringency. I don’t miss the proof.
Final Rating: 7.9
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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