Our First James Pepper Decanter Single Barrel

James E. Pepper is still a new name to a lot of people, but they’ve been making a splash in the whiskey world for quite some time. Several years ago, their Old Pepper line featured some well-aged sourced bourbons that were highly sought after alongside brands such as O.K.I., Belle Meade, Blaum Brothers, Boone County, and Smooth Ambler. In our opinion, James E. Pepper has been one of the most enjoyable brands both on the sourced side and now with their own distillate.

After placing #27 on Fred Minnick’s Top 100 American Whiskeys of 2023, their Barrel Proof Decanter Bourbon started getting a lot of attention. More recently, they added their Barrel Proof Decanter Rye, which really impressed us and has been one of the best ryes we’ve had so far in 2026.

It’s been over a year since our last picks, but back in August I visited the Pepper Distillery to select our first Barrel Proof Decanter Bourbon single barrel. This was one of the first times in recent memory where I very clearly knew I had to veer from my personal tendency to look for the most complex barrel and instead go for the most flavorful one.

This barrel is 6 years old with a 51% corn, 49% rye mashbill, and has that sweet, nutty, caramel and maple profile that immediately makes me think of Woodford Reserve, and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

The nose opens with sweet maple butter on cornbread pancakes, almond liqueur, maraschino cherries, butter-toffee chip cookies, and elegant sweet oak.

The palate is absolutely crushable, with creamy butter pecan ice cream, dried cherry and cranberry, and loads of rich, spiced, sugar-coated damp oak. Reminiscent of Woodford Batch Proof, it continues with chewy sweet pecans and silky caramel.

The finish highlights more of the aged oak note, perfectly balanced with milk chocolate, spiced almonds, and more of those cranberry and cherry notes, though this leans much more toward caramelized sugar than fruit.