Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 91 |
| Style |
Bourbon American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In |
Kentucky United States |
| ABV | 55.65% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $79.99 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Review Updated | 2023-12-20 |
Seelbach's Private Reserve Batch 5 Bourbon Review
Seelbach's Private Reserve Batch 5 Price and Availability
Founded in 2018, online spirits retailer Seelbach’s has in recent years dabbled in releasing its own whiskeys, including single barrels, blends, and finished expressions. Batch 5 of the brand’s “Private Reserve” collection is a Bardstown, Ky.-sourced bourbon with a 78 percent corn, 10 percent rye, and 12 percent malted barley mashbill. (The exact distillery is undisclosed.)
The 4-year-old straight bourbon whiskey was finished for around three months in a combination of toasted French Oak and ex-bourbon maple syrup barrels. The final blend was 60/40 French Oak to maple, and the release — 1064 bottles in total — was bottled at 111.3 proof. All finishing occurred in Florida, with the brand emphasizing the hot environment’s impact on the final expression.
It’s a complex approach for a relatively young bourbon. Let’s see how those efforts paid off!
Seelbach's Private Reserve Batch 5 Bourbon Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Nose
Maple candy starts on the nose, like crystalized, sugary, maple-flavored rock candy on a stick, the kind you might find in a zoo gift shop or carnival. That’s followed by a hint of still-warm, fresh peanut brittle, graham cracker, and pralines.
It’s sweet and decadent, a blend of dessert scents that gradually dissipate over time to reveal more traditional bourbon notes just beneath. After the initial pop of sweetness, there’s a bit of citrus peel — a lemon twist, and I would have welcomed even more — along with a tiny bit of baking spice.
What starts indulgent develops more balance with oak and spice entering the fray just in time. There’s also a small underlying hint of spearmint gum at the very end of a long sniff.
Taste
While maple leads on the nose, oak dominates at first sip — which comes in remarkably docile for its 111.3 proof. It’s far less sweet than the nose first suggests, and initial tastes are certainly in line with the toasted French oak finish. It’s woody without too much astringency, and a remarkably subtle progression of tannins builds over a couple returns to the glass.
Lightly sweetened citrus develops across the midpalate, almost as if from an orange extract or fruity cough drop. It’s complex enough on its own, but I can’t help searching for the maple I was getting on the nose; there’s a tiny bit of that influence here, but it’s far more subdued than virtually every other maple finished whiskey I’ve tried.
As far as the palate is concerned, this is a toasted finish first, with maple largely relegated to the nose, though it doesn’t lose sight of the bourbon base in either phase.
Finish
The finish is long and heavy on pepper, made even more pronounced by the progression from sweet (the nose) to oak (the taste) to spice at the very end. There are also notes of leather and cinnamon chewing gum, along with sour lemon.
A drop or two of water helps bring out some additional floral notes and tempers the finish for a more gradual, enjoyable end.
Rating
91/100
Recap
Seelbach’s isn’t afraid to take some big, innovative swings with its private releases, and Batch 5 is no exception. Yet it’s still a remarkably restrained pour that borrows lovely elements from disparate components, leading to an enchanting — though imperfect — experience from nose through to finish. Customers who secured one of these bottles have something fun and undoubtedly different to share with friends, and it beckons discussion with every pour. My hope is that Seelbach’s continues to tinker with its in-house releases, because those big swings will almost certainly (and in some prior releases, have) hit rich paydirt from time to time.
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