Review #10 - Starlight Single Barrel Bourbon
A Total Wine Single Barrel store pick: "Patrick's Pick," from barrel no. 16307. When Total Wine first rolled into our city a few years ago, this was one of our first purchases - local barrel picks were rare to find, and we were interested to see what they could offer.
Sporting a mashbill of 58% corn, 27% rye, and 15% malted barley, there should be some spice here, as well as a possible bit of softness from the barley. With the growing hype around this distillery in the last couple of years, can this single barrel live up to its reputation?
Starlight Single Barrel Bourbon
USA - Bourbon
Price Paid: USD 50 (2021)
Current Locally Available Price: USD 55 (2023 - for a similar bottling)
Age Statement: 4 Years
Strength: 54.7% ABV
Details: Not chill filtered
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 12 months; bottles at 80%, 50%, and 40% fill level at times of review. Tasted neat in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: A big bomb of bourbon notes: brown sugar, maple syrup, rich oak, and caramel; vanilla is leaping out of the glass. The oak contributes wood sugars, plenty of spice like nutmeg, mild anise, and even a little bit of cookie or biscuit. Not much in the way of fruit notes, we're mostly contained to baking spices and sugars here. There are also several young spirit notes: corn, a bit of other grains, and a decent ethanol kick. Later, we do get just a smattering of leather and molasses.
Palate: Thick mouthfeel here, oily and in your face and hot. Sweetness from vanilla and maple syrup at first, but we quickly move into dry spice like mild black pepper, a hint of rye, oak spice, and cinnamon; there is white pepper and a touch of paprika as well. The longer this opens up, there is slightly more variety in the flavors, with a savory meat, brown sugar, wood oils, and a hint of mild cherry showing up in different tastings.
Finish: Medium-long finish, it lingers with wood oils, some sweetness and slowly increasing wood tannins, but they never get too harsh. The heat from the palate is still there, it's quite hot, and the oak feels a bit dry and young; in terms of flavors, we're finding maple, light brown sugar and baking spice, and just a hint of mild green apple.
Final Note: This packs a punch, but, despite the tasting notes listed, this feels like it starts to fall down a little bit on complexity (not entirely surprising considering the age); still, for a cask strength single barrel pick, this seems like decent value. There are a lot of your classic bourbon notes here, nothing too exotic, but it's a solid sipper that could use some ice or water dilution once in a while to tame the heat.
Our Average Rating: 6.3 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.74
