Background

It’s time to check in on the latest and greatest from Seelbach’s Private Reserve series! Back in April, I took a look at Batch 004, which is a 9 year Amburana finished bourbon. The short summary is I really enjoyed it, even though I’ve been pretty mixed and/or out on the deluge of Amburana finishes that are so hot right now.

Seelbach’s churns out some pretty radical experiments under this line. Batch 003, for instance, was finished in Triple Sec & Pinot Meunier Champagne barrels, and this batch is no exception. To start, they sourced four year bourbon from Bardstown… which we can guesstimate came from Heaven Hill based on the location and the mashbill (78/10/12). Those barrels traveled down to Florida where they spent an extra six months aging in the fourth circle of hell. Ten barrels were then blended together, and from that blend two toasted French Oak barrels and two ex-bourbon maple syrup barrels are filled (with the rest of the blend being saved for a future project). After 3 months of finishing they put together the final blend, which ended up being a 60/40 ratio of bourbon French Oak to maple syrup. Ok, clearly Seelbach's worked hard on this so let's reward that effort with some notes!

Seelbach's Private Reserve Batch 005 - Toasted French Oak and Maple Syrup finished Bourbon (4 Years, 111.3 Proof)

Nose: Sticky, sappy pine needles. I'm honestly getting so much "Christmas tree" on the nose it's hard to say much else. But it's a very natural scent, not like an air freshener.

Palate: Natural maple syrup… and then still it's like drinking a liquefied Douglas Fir. Cloves and allspice are present as well but above all else it's big tree energy.

Finish: It turns slightly more wintergreen here and leaves a syrupy texture impression behind. Oh yay, more sap and tree needles.

Sub-par (4/10)

Overall: A disclaimer, this may be a cilantro whiskey and I'm in the soap camp. I brought this to a blind tasting, two of us got these Christmas notes, the other two got big maple syrup. Four is not exactly a representative sample, but I did find it interesting there were two almost completely divergent experiences from our group. As such, feel free to take my review with a grain of salt. I like what Seelbach's is doing with these private releases a lot, and will likely keep supporting them. This one just missed me.