A recent TTB label approval is sending waves through the community of Bourbon lovers and their future bank accounts as this label shows Diageo is most likely planing to release a 24 year-old single barrel Bourbon under the Blade and Bow label. The Bourbon looks to be distilled at the mythological Stitzel-Weller Distillery in 1991, the year before the SW shut its doors for good.
The label also mentions that this barrel was “recently discovered” which is so cool! In a time of amazing technology like GPS, SnapChat, and Tinder it really is amazing that people are still finding entire lost barrels of Bourbon. It makes me wonder why I’m not seeing an “American Pickers” type of reality show where Diageo barrel hunters go out and unearth barrels of whiskey by lifting up the hood of an old car in someone’s shed, or by moving an antique Coke machine out of the way in a junkyard. This is a million dollar idea, people.
If it’s true they are really releasing just one barrel, this shit is going to be REALLY hard to get, and REALLY expensive. I can’t wait to watch the internet and see how it goes…and hey, if you’re reading this and you end up with a bottle, will you send us a sample? While it’s obviously a blast to poke fun at the marketing and whatnot, I bet this stuff is going to be good.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for Blade and Bow 24 Single Barrel, but until then, we’ll be drinking things that don’t require a second mortgage. Cheers!
Hey – these aren’t really “lost” and “found” barrels. The “recently discovered” stuff is just marketing. The distillery changed hands several times before a predecessor company to Diageo shut the distillery in 1992. Diegeo sold off most of the brands and supplied the Van Winkle family and others with stock. Diegeo has known all along what is in those barrels. Remember, when they bought the property and its stock, the whiskey market was rock-bottom in this country. Now that the market has returned they are releasing this stock under a number of marketing schemes, most notably Orphan Barrel. And, as anyone who has tried Orphan Barrel can tell you, though some of it is good (particularly, imho Barterhouse for such an old whiskey) none of it is great and none of it is worth more than 60 or 70 bucks a bottle. A whiskey that has been sitting in oak for 24 years is going to be of very questionable quality (definitely over-oaked) and one wonders what secret manipulation (besides getting under proofed) that stock will undergo to make it drinkable. I get it though: people want rare and people want original stock on their shelves and don’t necessarily care that you can’t age good whiskey for 24 years in a oak cask.
Hey Mike! Thanks for the comments. Our comments about people still finding lost barrels were pure sarcasm, hence the joke about finding a barrel under an old car hood. The marketing is impressive, and seems to be serving Diageo very well. We agree with your opinion of the releases too (just see our review of Forged Oak). Thanks for reading and commenting!
What do you think of this offering? it seems like a decent opportunity but is it real.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/blade-bow-24-year-old-burbon-from-stitzel-weller/x/15545633
Well it’s for a good cause, but $3000 for a bottle of bourbon is A LOT. Also it looks like only one person has bought in so I wouldn’t expect it to actually happen.
Thank you for the advice.