Barrell Seagrass
Barrell is sometimes great - sometimes they get weird. Started by Joe Beatrice in 2013 with Tripp Simpson joining the team just a few years later, Barrell is a “nutty professor” type of producer. They are a non-distilling producer: their sources are (mostly) well-known, even with NDAs in place (Dickel, Bardstown Bourbon Co., Alberta Distillers, MGP, etc.) but there are a few secrets still to be found.
For a few years now, they’ve been putting out special blends that they’ve created. Sometimes it’s about blending sources, sometimes about blending ages, sometimes both, sometimes adding finishes to one or more of the component whiskies (or rums for that matter! - the “Come Together” pick I have from them is awesome). Hell, I’ve posted so many reviews of their stuff at this point that I’m committed to trying whatever comes out, no matter how odd.
Enter Seagrass. “An ode to coastal memories,” Seagrass blends American rye whiskey from MGP and Canadian rye from (I think) Alberta Distillers. Assuming Barrell used their usual aged stock, this means 7-8YO rye from the former and 13-14YO rye from the latter. The blend is then finished in a mix of Martinique Rhum Agricole, Madeira, and Apricot Brandy finishing casks.
Right off the bat, that sounds sweet. Not cool sweet, sickly sweet - each of those three alone could be a solid finisher (and to be honest, I’ve had Barrell single barrels finished in each of the last two that were fantastic). All together? Yeesh…if not too sweet, I was 95% sure it was going to be too many cooks in the kitchen. But, of course, I tried my absolute best to be objective and go in with an open mind. I thought Armida would be weird and too complicated, and yet was surprisingly pleased with it (not going to win my whiskey of the year, but more well-integrated than I expected). So, maybe I’d be wrong about this one too.
Nope.
It’s tasty, and some parts are nice (I hate using that word but it’s appropriate here), but it’s also a classic case of trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together. I’m reminded of a cooking axiom: when you think you have a finished, well-composed dish, remove one element. It’s likely you didn’t need it, and the rest of the plate will be cleaner and more focused for its removal.
Barrell didn’t need to use three different finishing casks on this. They just didn’t. The Madeira is completely lost, the Rhum Agricole is at best a background vegetal/sugar cane note, and the apricot brandy dominates. The base blend is there, somewhere between being overpowered and being present. If I’m reading it correctly, the base blend is the same as Barrell Rye Batch #003, so the base blend should be pretty good.
Keeping in mind that this is the third named Barrell release (following Dovetail and Armida), for me the blending has gone backward. I really love Dovetail (even with Dickel in it!!!), Armida was good if not spectacular, and this was overly complicated.
Because this was such a unique pour, I want you to check out my friend Mike’s review at Bourbon Culture and my friend John’s review at Bourbon Finder. Spoiler: both rated this higher than I did. That being said, it’s one of those blends that need multiple tastings and multiple perspectives, and I encourage you to read through their thoughts, too - then get your ass back here and check out some other Barrell reviews below!
Thanks to Barrell and their marketing team for the samples. As always, full editorial control remains with me; I thank them for the opportunity and hope they continue regardless of good, great, bad, or middling reviews.
Barrell Seagrass: Specs
Classification: Blended American and Canadian Rye
Origin: MGP and Alberta Distillers
Mashbill: Undisclosed
Proof: 118.4 (59.2% ABV)
Age: NAS
Location: Indiana and Canada
Barrell Seagrass Price: $80
Barrell Seagrass Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Light amber/green iced tea. No rims, lots of droplet legs.
Nose: Lots of flavors burst through - this isn’t a shy nose - but all are kind of…not muted, exactly, but stunted? Artificial candies like someone emptied a mixed bag of off-brand candies into a bowl and melted it. Some very sweet rye ekes out - we’re talking Angel’s Envy Rye-level sweetness.
Palate: Spicy up front, again feels like a flavor overload that’s muddled. If I focus hard, I can pick out the different finishes, but it’s a struggle. The apricot brandy is by far the strongest, with the Madeira almost nonexistent. If you didn’t know what Madeira tastes like, you wouldn’t know it was there. Some extra body is there, maybe from the Canadian rye? Mouthfeel is light but coating and quickly reaches every corner of my mouth with orange candies becoming clearer.
Finish: Spicy, woody, and creamy, medium-length with some Necco wafer dust/chalkiness.
Overall: There are at least one too many things going on here. My gut says one too many finishes, for two reasons: one, assuming the base blend is the same as Barrell Rye Batch #003, I know I like that base. Two, the Madeira is a loss for me - it has so little impact as to be negligible as a component. Building off of that, though, there are three considerations: did the Madeira underperform because there wasn’t enough, because the other components were too strong, or because it wasn’t a good triad of finishing casks that would speak to each other well. That last one is a kicker…mixing a rawer, vegetal-type Rhum with fortified wine and a full-fledged fruit brandy just sounds too much to me. Look - this was interesting, it was flavorful (if way overcomplicated), so it’s worth a try for me, but not my favorite.
Final Rating: 5.8
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close (Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel)
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary (GTS, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B518 and B520)
8 | Excellent | Exceptional (12+YO MGP Bourbon, Highland Park Single Barrels)
7 | Great | Well above average (Blanton’s Original, Old Weller Antique, Booker’s)
6 | Very Good | Better than average (Four Roses Small Batch Select, Knob Creek 14+ YO Picks)
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary (Elijah Craig Small Batch, Buffalo Trace, Old Grand-Dad Bottled-in-Bond)
4 | Sub-par | Many things I’d rather have (A.D. Laws Four Grain, Compass Box “Oak Cross”)
3 | Bad | Flawed (Iron Smoke Bourbon, Balcones)
2 | Poor | Forced myself to drink it (Buckshee Bourbon and Rye)
1 | Disgusting | Drain pour (Virginia Distilling Co. Cider Cask)
More Barrell Reviews
