
Single barrel whiskey (or single cask whiskey) is a premium class of
whiskey
Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...
in which each bottle comes from an individual aging
barrel
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...
, instead of coming from blending together the contents of various barrels to provide uniformity of color and taste. By contrast, some other whiskeys, even ones that are not
blends, may be combined from more than one batch, or even from differing years to achieve consistency. The whiskey from each barrel is bottled separately, with each bottle bearing the barrel number and in most cases the dates for the beginning and end of aging. Each barrel is believed to contribute unique characteristics to the finished whiskey.
There has been some recent controversy over whether single cask whiskeys are indeed all from single casks. Whiskeys sold by Scottish distilleries such as Ben Nevis and GlenDronach as "single casks" have been revealed to be vattings of multiple barrels, which may have been of different kinds, with the "single cask" designation referring only to the final cask for maturation.
In the absence of specific regulation regarding this language, it is not clear to what extent this practice is prevalent in the industry as a whole.
Single barrels may further be at
cask strength or non-
chill-filtered to further avoid adulterating the taste of a cask.
Brands
The following is a list of some single barrel whiskeys:
Scotch
*
Balvenie (has released several single cask bottlings of
single malt Scotch whisky)
*
Glenfarclas (The Family Casks series)
* Many
independent bottlers of single malt Scotch whisky produce single cask offerings
**
Berry Brothers & Rudd
**
Scotch Malt Whisky Society
North American

*
Buffalo Trace Distillery (a
Sazerac Company
Sazerac Company, Inc. is a privately held American alcoholic beverage company headquartered in Metairie in the metropolitan area of New Orleans, Louisiana, but with its principal office in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is owned by William ...
distillery)
**
Blanton's (a single barrel Bourbon)
**
Eagle Rare (a Bourbon brand which has 10- and 17-year single barrel expressions)
**
Rock Hill Farms (a single barrel bourbon)
*
Heaven Hill
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private family-owned and -operated American distillery, founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a vari ...
**
Elijah Craig (a bourbon brand which has multiple single barrel expressions)
**
Evan Williams (a single barrel
vintage bourbon)
**
Henry McKenna (10-year
bonded single barrel)
*
Jack Daniel's Distillery (a
Brown-Forman Corporation distillery)
** Jack Daniel's Single Barrel (a single barrel
Tennessee whiskey)
** Jack Daniel's Silver Select (available at
duty-free shop
A duty-free shop or store is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will ...
s)
*
Jim Beam (has released a single barrel bourbon)
*
Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (an
independent bottling company)
**
Michter's (a brand which has single barrel bourbon and rye expressions)
**
Willett Pot Still Reserve (a single barrel bourbon)
**
Willett Family Estate (single barrel bourbon and rye)
*
Knob Creek Distillery (a
Beam Inc. distillery)
** Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve (a bourbon aged 9 years)
*
Four Roses Distillery (offers single barrel bourbon)
See also
*
Bottled in bond
Bottled in bond (BIB) is a label for an American-produced distilled beverage that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, as origin ...
*
Single malt whisky
Single malt whisky is malt whisky from a single Distillation, distillery.
Single malts are typically associated with single malt Scotch, though they are also produced in various other countries. Under the United Kingdom's Scotch Whisky Regulat ...
*
Small batch whiskey
*
Outline of whisky
References
External links
"Single Barrel and Small Batch Bourbon"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Single Barrel Whiskey
Bourbon whiskey
Whisky