I was asked by one of my favorite liquor stores to take part in multiple private barrel picks last week. Luckily, it lined up with a few vacation days, so I jumped at the chance.  The store is the Wine Palace (follow on Instagram here) in Livonia, MI. For my Michigan friends, they are located on Middlebelt Rd., just north of I-96.  This is a family run business since 1987.  If you’re a whiskey guy, like I am, you’ll find a huge selection.  If you prefer other spirits, they’ve got you covered as one of the best-selling stores in the state.  Owners Cliff & Kelly have become fast friends over the past few years, and I always make it a point to stop by and throw some business their way.  Funny, they’re only located about 3 miles from my childhood home.  But I never visited them until I moved to Nashville and began my whiskey journey.  I say they invited me, but I’ve been vocal that I’d love to do a barrel pick with them.  So, when Cliff’s son, Louie reached out, I immediately made if fit the schedule.  We ended up selecting private barrels at four different distilleries.  Christmas in July for me!  What a week. I’ll be writing about these individually in the coming weeks but I’m going to kick off with our trip to Four Roses.

But to begin, let me explain what a private barrel selection is.  Barrel picks at distilleries are private experiences where an individual or small group select an entire whiskey or bourbon barrel that will be bottled for the group, in this case the Wine Palace, and sold at their store.  The bottles will include a special sticker indicating it is part of a barrel select program. There is great demand for these bottles over standard bottles on the shelf.  Let me explain why.  Every barrel is unique.  Depending on its age, placement in the rickhouse as it matures, proof, etc.…there will be bottles that simply taste better than others. The demand is great for these as they normally indicate a higher level of quality and taste.  The distillery typically pulls barrels they have tasted and have reached maturity and has them available for tasting.  Your group picks what they feel is the best barrel from that sample.  And we picked out a beauty.  Here’s how it went…

We arrived at Four Roses in Coxs Creek, Kentucky for our 10:00 am appointment.  There was Louie, me and two of Louie’s friends from Michigan that had previously completed barrel picks with him-Mike and Mansour. Now I have consumed my fair share of whiskey over the years but very little of it this early in the morning.  We were greeted by Four Roses Ambassador Mandy Vance.  She explained the process and we went to work.  Serious business, guys.  This is an investment of ~ $15,000 and these need to sell at the store level to recoup the investment and turn a profit. Four Roses has a great room to accomplish this.  They had already rolled out ten barrels from which for us to select.  In front of each of us, at our tasting station, was a wooden lazy susan that held ten glencairn’s, one for each barrel to taste. We started the clock.  There was roughly two hours to sample and agree on a unanimous choice. We began by thieving samples from each of the ten barrels, each of us alternating turns distributing the bourbon.  It quickly started to smell very good in that room. Next to the glasses, there were oyster crackers to help cleanse and reset the palate in between tastings.  Plenty of water and some coffee beans to clear your sense of smell (nose). I’m not a coffee guy but find a light whiff of these beans are very effective in accompolishing their task.

Mandy went thru their recipes and yeast varieties. Four Roses has two recipes, one with a higher Rye content, and five proprietary yeasts that range from floral, herbal, delicate fruit, light spice and floral essence.  If you do the math, that’s ten separate recipes to navigate. As a group, we tasted each barrel together, writing down tasting notes, our guesses on proof and mashbills.  Mandy sat at the front of the room with her computer.  She had all the answers, but we wanted to break it down ourselves. There we sat tasting each glass and discussing the positives and negatives. Luckily, we were all pretty in synch with our tastes.  We ended up narrowing it down to three barrels and advanced to the knockout round.  We each went back for second and third tastes, barking out the attributes we believed to be favorable. We finally arrived at a decision-Barrel #4 was the winner.  Mandy then went thru the ages, proofs and specific mashbills of each barrel.  I’m not going to lie. It was such a fun process.  My brain struggled on how I could get paid for this every day and switch career paths.  It was a blast.  Our Barrel ended up being the OBSO, with a 60% corn/35% rye/5% malted barley mashbill, 118-120 proof and came in at 10 years 6 months of age.  I detected caramel, butterscotch and spice from this choice. We ended the visit by all ceremoniously signing the barrel head.

We left with a nice gift bag from Four Roses and more importantly, some great memories.  I do not know how any other distillery can top their efforts.  But I’m here to try!  Next, the barrel will sit its turn to be bottled and shipped to Michigan.  I would expect this to arrive in the fall and probably be held back until Black Friday.  I can’t wait to get my bottles from this.  It was delicious and will taste even better knowing I had a hand in its selection.  This is a guaranteed winner.