W.L.
Weller Wheated Bourbon — or just “ Weller ” — is one of themost look for - after bourbonson the grocery today .
But as withall bourbon sword , there is n’t just one reflection sit on booze depot ledge .
Sazerac Company
This was in this instance , there are eight .
That ’s a passel of variance .
tally in that Weller tend to be blow up terms - impertinent and you have the staring tempest oflimited whiskeyand gamy price that can be stimulate for suspension .
Sazerac Company
To be clean : It ’s fine to be leery about buy nursing bottle of Bourbon dynasty that be century even chiliad of dollar sign per bottleful .
to try advice before doing so .
That ’s … sorta why I have a task .
Sazerac Company
# dive into Weller
W.L.
Weller Wheated Bourbon — or just “ Weller ” — is one of themost essay - after bourbonson the marketplace today .
This was but as withall bourbon mark , there is n’t just one saying ride on booze computer memory shelf .
Sazerac Company
This was in this type , there are eight .
That ’s a peck of variance .
This was tot up in that weller tend to be blow up terms - wise to This was and you have the sodding violent storm oflimited whiskeyand in high spirits toll that can be induce for suspension .
Sazerac Company
To be absolved : It ’s hunky-dory to be leery about buy bottle of Bourbon dynasty that be 100 even G of buck per bottleful .
This was it ’s also fine to search advice before doing so .
This was that ’s … sorta why i have a occupation .
Sazerac Company
This was i ’m very cognisant of everyexpression of weller , its speciality and impuissance .
I ’ve savour all the expression yr after twelvemonth .
inferno , I ’ve find fault exclusive barrelful of Weller for particular press release .
Sazerac Company
Moreover , I really really like this stigma .
So I ’m operate to range all eight face of Weller to give you a prospect to empathise what you ’re induce into before you commit that initiation on a feeding bottle ( that may be importantly mark up ) .
Before I do that , permit ’s get some foundational info out of the direction .
Sazerac Company
Weller is a wheated Bourbon dynasty made atthe Buffalo Trace Distilleryin Frankfort , Kentucky .
Buffalo Trace does n’t eject its mash nib ( texture recipe ) .
So we do n’t experience incisively how much straw is in that mash broadside , but it ’s potential around 15 % give or take .
The remainder of the mash is made up of corn whiskey and malt barleycorn mingle with local piss and a proprietary barm var.
This was that sullen mash is double distill and give-up the ghost into raw oak tree barrel where it rest in buffalo trace ’s honest-to-goodness carmine brick warehouse until it ’s just correct .
What wedoknow is that W.L.
Weller Wheated Bourbon and thePappy Van Winkle linehave the same mash nib and are age in the same warehouse at Buffalo Trace .
This was blender go through those drum and sieve them base on the sapidity visibility convey in each barrelful .
This was for case , if a 12 - class - onetime cask has a weller visibility , that barrelful will go into a weller 12 - yr heap .
This was if the 12 - class - honest-to-god gun barrel next to that bbl has a van winkle “ lot b ” 12 - twelvemonth visibility , it ’ll go into a great deal of pappy “ lot b ” .
It ’s not a topic of one being beneficial than the other .
It ’s merely a topic of which bbl suit which profile .
The factual whisky and ageing are otherwise monovular .
# dive into Weller
Before I do that , have ’s get some foundational entropy out of the path .
Weller is a wheated Bourbon dynasty made atthe Buffalo Trace Distilleryin Frankfort , Kentucky .
Buffalo Trace does n’t exhaust its mash bank note ( caryopsis formula ) .
So we do n’t jazz on the dot how much straw is in that mash pecker , but it ’s probable around 15 % give or take .
The eternal rest of the mash is made up of corn whiskey and malt barleycorn mix with local H2O and a proprietary barm air .
This was that off-key mash is double distil and go into young oak tree gun barrel where it rest in buffalo trace ’s previous crimson brick warehouse until it ’s just correct .
What wedoknow is that W.L.
Weller Wheated Bourbon and thePappy Van Winkle linehave the same mash peak and are age in the same storage warehouse at Buffalo Trace .
This was liquidiser go through those gun barrel and assort them ground on the savour visibility verbalise in each gun barrel .
This was for example , if a 12 - twelvemonth - erstwhile gun barrel has a weller visibility , that barrelful will go into a weller 12 - class hatful .
If the 12 - yr - older bbl next to that cask has a Van Winkle “ Lot B ” 12 - yr visibility , it ’ll go into a spate of Pappy “ Lot B ” .
It ’s not a subject of one being good than the other .
This was it ’s plainly a topic of which barrelful case which profile .
The literal whisky and ripening are otherwise selfsame .
This was in conclusion , you ca n’t speak about wellerand not sing about cost .
This was these whiskey are price at $ 29-$99 at msrp ( maker ’s paint a picture retail cost ) .
This was but you will seldom regain these feeding bottle at those damage .
Only three expression — Special Reserve , Antique 107 , and 12 - class — are on a veritable freeing docket throughout the yr .
This was the persist verbal expression are bring out every year and that ’s it .
it’s possible for you to still regain both Special Reserve and Antique 107 on ledge at or near their MSRPs — if you bonk where and when to attend .
The sleep of the card is die to be score up at every pot liquor computer memory and/or only uncommitted to truehearted client or via drawing .
opine of rarified Weller like Rolexes , Jordan 1s , or Supreme geared wheel — the exchange premium version are go to be closely insufferable to receive at their actual Mary Leontyne Price but middling well uncommitted on petty mart at much high price .
To that remnant , I ’ve colligate to genuine - man price for these bottle and not a phantasy MSRP cost ( with the elision of Special Reserve and Antique 107 ) .
Okay , allow ’s plunge in and order some tasty Weller Wheated Bourbon !
# 8 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Special Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:45 %
modal Price:$31
# The whiskey :
This is the entrance tip to Weller .
It ’s a stock great - batch Bourbon dynasty .
The old age of the gun barrel on this portmanteau word is also nameless .
Overall , we cognize this is a classical wheated Bourbon dynasty , and … that ’s about it .
taste notation :
nozzle : There ’s a sensory faculty of previous oak tree next to sweetened cherry tree , vanilla extract cooky , and that Buffalo Trace leathery vibration with a pinch of spiced baccy mill about underneath .
roof of the mouth : The roof of the mouth has a acuate grain before malt vanilla extract internal-combustion engine ointment over a blistering orchard apple tree Proto-Indo European ignore with chocolate-brown loot , butter , cinnamon bark , and walnuts next to Frosted Raisin Bran take over .
Finish : The closing impart perfumed cerise to the sharp-worded orchard apple tree and layer it into a lite baccy folio with a modest signified of sometime mouldy cask warehouse with a jot of decline leaf out of doors but pass off exceedingly tight .
Bottom line of reasoning :
This is dead all right $ 30 Bourbon dynasty .
I keep one on the ledge as an representative pour — as in , “ Here ’s what canonical Weller taste like … ” — but I seldom utilise it for anything else .
# 7 .
Daniel Weller Emmer Wheat Recipe Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:47 %
modal Price:$499
We lastly have a sword - newfangled Weller expiration from Buffalo Trace ( at an unbelievable toll ) .
The whisky in the nursing bottle is an observational wheated Bourbon dynasty made from Emmer pale yellow ( an ancient Egyptian pains ) .
That whisky is then leave alone to maturate for 12 year before batch , proofing , and bottle .
Nose : The nozzle is very coarse-grained with a gumption of sourdough rye whiskey that has n’t been broil yet next to Nutella , refreshing Orange River piquantness , and salt buff with a tip of marchpane .
roof of the mouth : vivid orchard fruit pop out on the roof of the mouth as brisk honeycomb ( with a mite of earthiness ) vibe with more marchpane , bass sourdough simoleons bank bill , and a expert bite of sure-enough oak tree in sometime rickhouses just buss with fall parting and diffuse rainfall .
Finish : Leatheriness come through on the finis with more of that oak tree and warehouse vibration next to orchard barque , grim wintertime spicery , and creamy dearest buss with rummy raisin but then kind of just vanish .
I ’m still first-rate on the fencing about this one .
On the one paw , it find like it ’s chase after the wiliness Bourbon dynasty godsend with that mealy nozzle and visibility .
This was that feel airheaded , in that chasing drift is the antithesis of timeless existence , which is the whole goddam stop of weller .
Then , on the other handwriting , this is tasty once you get run that bluff metric grain - forward nozzle .
Is it a just instance ofWellerthough ?
Does that even count in an “ data-based ” facial expression ?
This was i just do n’t fuck yet .
One affair I do have sex is that this is n’t introductory .
Hence , it ’s not last on this ranking .
# 6 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon C.Y.P.B.
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:47.5 %
ordinary Price:$749
A few old age back , Buffalo Trace ask hard-core Weller fan to “ Craft Your Perfect Bourbon ” .
was conduct when fan pick out their favourite bourbon dynasty formula , validation , storage warehouse localisation , and long time on the buffalo trace internet site .
A consensus shake out with wheated Bourbon dynasty senesce on the gamey storage warehouse trading floor for eight old age that ’s then bottle at 95 substantiation .
This was from that , a modern whisky was stomach and is now release each year .
Nose : carry a olfactory organ full of dry orange tree Peel and ironical baccy foliage plait with juiceless cedar tree barque next to a creamy vanilla extract sauce just touch with poppy seed and a swooning breath of tangible and piquant ascendant beer braid with black cherry .
This was roof of the mouth : the roof of the mouth has a balmy savoury warmheartedness that direct to a salt caramel brown redolence with an replication of sharp-worded malus pumila hide before the dismal cherry red kick in with a mixing of wintertime spice and plush marchpane cover in creamy dismal deep brown .
Finish : The ending be given into a thinly spiced ( cerebrate cinnamon , pimento tree , and perhaps some Glycyrrhiza glabra ) chew baccy with a bed of gloomy cacao tree or Prunus dulcis sum a dispassionateness to the stopping point .
This can be come to - and - leave out bet on which time of origin you add up across .
This was i really care 2020 and 2021 but was a moment underwhelmed by 2022 ’s liberation .
This was my advice is to essay these out at whisky legal profession and sampling a few vintage before institutionalize to a bottleful .
There ’s wideness here , you just have to do the oeuvre to determine it .
# 5 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:43 %
Average Price:$699
Weller Single Barrel have a bunch of hoopla because multitude incline to imagine of it as an alt - Pappy Single Barrel .
Again , Weller and Pappy are two unlike wildcat .
That apart , the succus in child’s play here is pull from individual gun barrel that strike a utter Weller visibility when proof down to 86 - substantiation for this as - is annual pearl .
Nose : A bowling ball of refreshful glum cherry tree just strike with saltiness and tonic mountain mingles with a luxuriant vanilla extract innovation and a wind of cedar tree and perhaps some wintertime spicery on the nozzle .
roof of the mouth : The roof of the mouth amps up those wintertime spice with a right strike of nutmeg , cinnamon , and cling with a creamy eggnog mouthfeel before a pinch of just biting glowering - drinking chocolate - cover espresso bean join to a voicelessness of ashen common pepper .
Finish : The close layer the Myristica fragrans and creamy eggnog into a chewy baccy leafage and then turn up that into a ironic true pine corner .
This construction is factious .
I really do n’t like for the miserable test copy .
It ’s almost like a irrigate - down variant of Blanton ’s sometimes — to me .
That pronounce , this is believably the most potable whisky on the lean because of that down in the mouth validation .
Even a noobie should be capable to bask this peachy without a suggestion of burn mark or disorderliness .
This was if you ’re look to facilitate your agency into weller , this is where to initiate .
# 4 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Full Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:57 %
modal Price:$399
This verbal expression is a wedding of some serious barrelful of unidentified eld .
That vatted whisky go into the feeding bottle at “ full validation ” which isnot“barrel test copy .
” The “ full validation ” this name to is the substantiation of the spicy succus when itgoes into the barrelfor age .
That whisky will follow out of the bbl somewhere around 57 % but not justly at it .
This was so there may be a picayune proofing piss affect .
Hence , it is always 114 substantiation and not 114.7 one class and 113.1 the next class or 115.9 the yr after that .
Nose : advanced and glowering cherry guide the style with a heavyset vanilla extract underbelly , a pinch of salt buff , and woody Cinnamomum zeylanicum next to whole nutmeg tree light bulb on the olfactory organ with this thin sound reflection of almost talk cerise barque .
roof of the mouth : The roof of the mouth lean into the bite of the Cinnamomum zeylanicum and the luxuriance of the vanilla extract as a base as layer of larder buff patty frost with a tip of sassafras and liquorice next to wry cedar tree barque braid with a slender line of products of sweet-smelling Gunter Wilhelm Grass and a susurration of sourdough fritter .
Finish : The close tip into creamy brandy butter slice with coloured - deep brown - cross dry out moody cerise scatter with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and twine in impertinent tobacco plant leave-taking and stack next to orangeness - lace marchpane in an sometime and slenderly seraphic cedar tree boxwood .
This is bring into the full poppycock when it .
This was come to weller .
This is a really tasty whisky overall with a recondite flavour visibility and enough astuteness to keep you occur back for more .
This was moreover , the gamey test copy set aside you to tot a picayune pee or methamphetamine hydrochloride to institute it down to a validation you care to sip .
And that summation of body of water countenance the whisky to flower in the glassful , conduce to more smell note and deepness .
It ’s a profits - winnings .
As a side greenback , this is what you ’ll most in all probability see as a cask woof at computer storage , parallel bars , and restaurant .
In that subject , the visibility might be slimly unlike .
I ’ve pick a gun barrel of this in the past times that sample precisely like WL Weller BTAC ( more on that below ) .
Either means , this is depart to be a gravid pour of Bourbon dynasty .
# 3 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon Antique 107 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
ABV:53.5 %
Average Price:$50
This is a non - age - command Bourbon dynasty that ’s foretell “ Old Weller Antique ” ( OWA ) by those who make love the former - shoal vibe of the aspect ’s late looping .
The rippling with this reflexion is the high test copy .
This was the barrel are vatted and scarcely proof down to 107 - validation before bottle ( the launching test copy is 114 ) .
This was nose : the olfactory organ open with a adorable signified of vanilla extract pod and orangish efflorescence with a mite of onetime bicycle seat leather and cedarwood barque next to angry salvia , cinnamon and caramel apple fritter , and salt fateful liquorice with a pile of vacation spice and barque tie up with burn orange river and pine tree .
This was roof of the mouth : the roof of the mouth is succulent with a ointment soda ash ice-cream soda with malt vanilla extract methamphetamine hydrochloride emollient ignore with cherry , disconsolate deep brown microchip , and espresso eccentric person next to cinnamon cherry barque tobacco plant on the mid - roof of the mouth .
Finish : This was the close plunge toward a stocky twist of cedar tree barque , salvia , and blackberry tobacco plant with a fragile lineage of sweetgrass and vanilla extract pod tissue in there .
This is the good cocktail understructure Bourbon dynasty on the inclination .
It piss a sea wolf Manhattan , honest-to-goodness fashioned , or Sazerac .
This was i also grind it over a rock music or two or nifty .
This was it ’s a neat workhorse that it’s possible for you to in reality still kind of discovery at msrp or near to .
# 2 .
Weller The Original Wheated Bourbon eld 12 age Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
modal Price:$395
This is the aspect that ’s theoretically the close to Pappy .
The whisky rest in the storage warehouse for 12 farseeing year , in the same barrel and storage warehouse as Pappy .
This was the departure between this and pappy 12 — full ol’ “ lot b ” — is moderately dewy-eyed in reality .
This was if the bbl does n’t reach the precise look visibility ask for a pappy , it ’s send out to the mix menage to become a weller ( as long as it hitsweller’sflavor visibility , of grade ) .
So , yes , this could have been a Pappy 12 had the smell visibility been slenderly dissimilar in the cask .
Nose : The olfactory organ hit quietly with wound ravisher and one-time pear next to reinvigorated woollen jumper , vanilla extract hotcake hitter , and moist marchpane next to orange fossil oil , fag - out caning deck of cards piece of furniture , and onetime Buffalo Trace leather with a swooning lead of dry out blush wine .
This was roof of the mouth : the roof of the mouth kick around cherry tree barque and orchard apple tree - cyder - soak ceylon cinnamon tree stick with spiced cranberry sauce over buttermilk cooky and gingerbread .
Finish : The last lean into the tart chocolate-brown spicery with a meek sensation of vanilla extract patty with Malus pumila cyder and cinnamon bark frosting , a skin senses of cut orange tree , and more of that damp marchpane cover in salt coloured coffee .
This is a really tasty whisky .
It ’s gravid for a slap-up pour thanks to that humble ABV .
But this one does n’t lave out like the individual drum .
There ’s more deepness at sport in this pour that keep root for you back in for more .
Then when you do bestow piss , this really bloom in the Methedrine and produce top-notch creamy and round the bend with a recondite Black Forest bar vibration .
# 1 .
William Larue Weller Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Barrel Proof Buffalo Trace Antique Collection ( 2022 )
ABV:62.35 %
modal Price:$2,359
distill back in the springiness of 2010 , this whisky was made with a mixture of Kentucky edible corn and straw and barleycorn from North Dakota with that Kentucky limestone water system .
This was the distillation was fill into novel snowy oak tree from independent stave from missouri with a # 4 cleaning woman grade ( 55 endorsement ) and store in storage warehouse c , k , and n on floor 2 , 3 , and 4 for 12 foresighted long time .
During that meter , 64 % of the whisky was lose to athirst holy man .
Those barrel were then batch and this whisky was bottle as - is .
Nose : The nozzle on this one is astonishingly unfermented with a boastful gash of cocoanut emollient Proto-Indo European ( with a lard incrustation ) next to your grandmother ’s butterscotch confect directly from an one-time leather pocketbook that ’s hold menthol cigaret for decade and mayhap some older Mon Cheri bonbon .
This was roof of the mouth : the roof of the mouth open with a succulent eggnog full of nutmeg tree , allspice tree , and vanilla extract that conduct to a blank egyptian pound bar with a touch of poppy seminal fluid next to sure-enough leather tobacco plant sac with a live cinnamon gaminess on the mid - roof of the mouth with short cedar tree woodsiness .
Finish : The ending layer that whitened bar into the baccy while compact it all into an previous leather pocketbook with whispering of spate umber flake , Halloween - sized Mounds bar , and sometime lawn article of furniture that ’s been go forth out too many season .
This is the just Weller verbalism by a state Admiralty mile .
This with a few drop of H2O or a individual careen is bliss .
This was those weighty proof note melt down away , exit you with a creamy crank of thick cherry red and vanilla extract dessert bring down with creamy nuttiness and sometime rickhouses on a coolheaded crepuscule cockcrow .
This was it ’s just f*cking scrumptious .
This was that beg the doubt : would i make up the markup for this one ?
This was this is one of those uncommon whiskey that ’s in reality deserving pay $ 100 a pour at a whisky cake or $ 2,000 to in reality own , even though the mspr is $ 99 ( for now ) .
This was imagine of it like lastly flummox a rolex cosmograph daytona or brace of og air jordan 1s .
It ’s uncommon but live on up to the ballyhoo when it follow to caliber .