Buffalo Trace Releases Eagle Rare 30, the Brand’s Oldest Bourbon Yet

Buffalo Trace Distillery is releasing Eagle Rare 30, the product line’s oldest bourbon yet. Bottled at 101 proof in a 750-milliliter decanter, the ultra-mature whiskey will roll out in limited quantities to retailers, bars, and restaurants beginning in May with a suggested retail price of $12,500, the distillery announced in a release.

A Bonhams auction, opening on April 24 and closing May 8, will kick off Eagle Rare 30’s release and offer up the first two publicly available bottles of the new whiskey. The worldwide rollout will then begin through parent company Sazerac’s distribution network.

Brand tasting notes highlight rich, sugary aromas of cherry, honey, and brown sugar balanced by nuts, tobacco, and smoke on the nose. The full-bodied palate features stone fruit and caramel flavors. A long and unctuous finish begins with a sweetness that gives way to a nuanced smoky element.

Eagle Rare 30 comes over two years after Buffalo Trace debuted the brand’s then-oldest bourbon at 25 years old. Both Eagle Rare 25 and 30 were aged in Buffalo Trace’s Warehouse P, its maturation site dedicated to experimenting with extended age statements. The inaugural 30-year-old whiskey is just the second expression to come from the experimental storeroom.

Distillers in more temperate climates like Ireland, Japan, and Scotland have an easier time than U.S. whiskeymakers releasing products with high age statements. Buffalo Trace’s — and much of American whiskey’s — Kentucky location worsens the challenges that elongated aging brings, as warmer temperatures can increase loss to the angel’s share and amplify barrel-induced flavors to unpleasant degrees. The distillery designed Warehouse P to find a workaround for high-age-statement American whiskeys.

“The environment within Warehouse P allows us to manage those effects, softening the extraction and preserving the nuanced flavors that define exceptional ultra-aged bourbon,” says Buffalo Trace Distillery master distiller Harlen Wheatley in the release.

To produce ultra-mature whiskeys despite the climate in the American South, Buffalo Trace says it experiments with variables like barrel char and placement, oak type, temperature, and humidity. The distillery famously keeps its mashbill specifications undisclosed.

Eagle Rare 30 is packaged in a hand-blown crystal decanter adorned with a gold-plated eagle’s wing and a glass eagle sculpture. The box encasing the bottle features doors with an etched design of outstretched eagle wings.

The article Buffalo Trace Releases Eagle Rare 30, the Brand’s Oldest Bourbon Yet appeared first on VinePair.