Our First of Two SWEET Releases This Week 🍯

As we’ve mentioned in our Sunday Review emails, Nancy Fraley is the Master Blender of Seven Three Distilling. We like to joke that the Seelbach's selection process simply follows Nancy’s blends. She’s responsible for blending the Still Austin Tanager and the popular J. Henry Anniversary Blend.

When we talk about independent bottlers as a category, there’s an art to it. I’ve personally seen blends put together by experienced blenders that far surpass the individual barrels. The same holds true for single barrel selection and finishing. Nancy understands flavor profiles and the effects of a finishing barrel, and she put together a perfect combination with today’s release.

Seven Three Distilling is a New Orleans-based distillery with an array of unique and delicious spirits, plus a lively tasting room with great cocktails and even better vibes. After getting such a great response to our Steen’s barrel releases, it was only right to run it back for another pick during this year’s NOLA Bourbon Fest. 
 
I walked into Seven Three’s rickhouse and was greeted by a flight of bourbon pours to taste through blind. Each barrel was equal parts delicious & distinct - a wonderful problem to have when selecting a barrel. Ultimately my inability to choose just one led to me choosing two phenomenal barrels yet again. First of the two is a 7.5 year cask strength honey finished Wheated bourbon with beautiful floral and fruit notes that immediately made me feel like I was personally being ushered into the spring/summer season with every sip.

The team uses Bernard’s Honey, made right there in Louisiana. The wheated Whiskey Tree matured in a char 4 barrel then went into a second char 4 barrel that was seasoned with honey. The bourbon finished for one year and four months in the deep Southern Louisiana heat.

While it joins the ranks of some fantastic honey-finished whiskeys before it, there’s something about the fruit and touches of floral in Seven Three’s wheated bourbon that pairs perfectly with this finish - a barrel you’ll likely see in our end-of-year blind rankings of finished whiskeys.
 
The nose is rounded, honied, and slightly prickly. It also feels very sweetly earthy too, combined with a heavy dose of charred oak, jasmine tea, and French vanilla ice cream. 
 
The palate is plump and silky, giving this beautiful powdered candied fruitiness from grape to strawberry to peach on the front of the palate, before moving into more sticky honied peach notes in the mid palate, and ultimately leading to sweet bruleed oak and buttery peach cobbler topped with whipped cream. 
 
While sweet, the whole pour feels a bit more elevated and lifted. Similar to our cane syrup wheated single barrel, it carries these softer honeysuckle and jasmine tea notes lingering well into the long finish.