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Seelbach's Private Reserve Amburana Finished Bourbon Batch 004
Regular price
$139.99
Sale
Age: 9 Years & 5-months
Finishing Barrel: Amburana Barrels
Mash Bill: 99/1 Corn/Malted Barley
Source: MGPi
Proof: 110 Proof; Barrel Strength
Bottle Count: 432 bottles
Tasting Notes: Dried cherries, stewed apples and a touch of maple. Cloves and cinnamon round out the nose. The palate is mulled apple cider and buttery croissant. It mixes in a nice touch of spice, aged oak and dried orange peel. The finish is long. It hits with a little more oak peel, dark tobacco and oak.
Short Story: Seelbach's adage is "we create blends that no one asked for or knew they wanted." We pride ourselves on being the first to discover new finishing combinations. After tasting multiple iterations of Amburana finishes, we knew this was one we had to try. Adding the Seelbach's spin, we started with a blend of 9-year and 5-month-old bourbon. This is one of the oldest bourbons ever finished in an Amburana barrel. The result of using this exotic Brazilian wood adds notes of holiday spice and maduro cigar tobacco.
Long Story: On paper, this is the simplest Seelbach's Private Reserve to date. When we got into the actual blend it became much more complicated. I first tasted an Amburana finish about two years ago. When selecting private barrels the distillery teased a new project. They let us sample their Amburana finished bourbon. It was so different I couldn't get it out of my head! Since then, we've selected 6+ Amburana barrels at Seelbach's. That's when I decided I wanted to give our own blend a shot.
Most of the barrels I've had in the past were 5-years or younger. I wanted to see how the Amburana would interact with older bourbon. I tracked down some 9-year MGPi bourbon barrels. They're from the 99/1 Corn/Malted Barley mash bill. This mash bill is fruit forwards with lots of dried cherry, stewed apples and brighter notes. It lacked spice. This made it a perfect pairing for the cinnamon and cigar tobacco heavy Amburana barrels. There's is one problem with Amburana finishes. To me, they're the heavily peated Scotch of the Bourbon world. Amburana can dominate a profile.
With all that, I set out to blend the oldest, balanced, crowd pleasing Amburana blend. The base blend was the easy part. I could've chose any three barrels from the 9-year lot. It married nicely and set the perfect foundation. Next was the finish. There were two 60L Amburana barrels to work with. After running tests with 1L of bourbon, I thought I may pull the barrel after a day. Because of the surface area decreases when you add 60L of bourbon it rested for 7-days. I was checking in on the first barrel every day. When it hit a point of medium Amburana on the nose but heavy on the palate I knew it was ready. That cinnamon swirl and maduro tobacco was fantastic.
The final phase was blending the unfinished bourbon with the finished. At around 67/33 Finished/Unfinished we found the sweet spot! It was this perfect balance. It was everything I love in an Amburana finish but subtle and nuanced. That aged oak mixes with apple strudel and cinnamon swirl. At some points it's apple cider. At others it's cigar smoke and cinnamon sticks. I hope you enjoy this blend!
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