

The fruits are given extra depth with stronger vanilla and caramel scents. Nose: Sweet and fruity notes like cherries, raspberries and grenadine syrup. The cherry notes from the palate turn a little more medicinal like a cough syrup. Nutmeg and cinnamon accompany cornbread and caramel. I can even find some faint oak as I roll it around in my mouth.įinish: After the sip is complete, the baking spices begin to reveal themselves. There is a prickle of rye spice notes that are restrained by sweeter vanilla flavors. It accompanies the traditional cherry notes. An extra set of fruit notes can be found too – peach and orange peel. Palate: Switching from an 80 to 90 proof version sure puts things into perspective quickly. Caramel, cherry and cinnamon all play nicely with a little bit of seasoned oak spice. 8 is still present, but doesn’t seem as bothersome. The youthful graininess I observed in No. The same notes are present, but all of them feel stronger – like a real bourbon! 8, the nose on this glass of Small Batch immediately smells miles ahead. Nose: Coming fresh off of my glass of Benchmark No.

Buffalo Trace is the cheapest bottle outside of the Benchmark line, so it felt right to put it in here too. Benchmark is the cheapest, but Benchmark Small Batch isn’t too far behind it. In this review, I’m going to compare Buffalo Trace, Benchmark and Benchmark Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.Īll three of these are so similar that they beg comparison. This would hopefully take some of the heat off of their more aged options like Buffalo Trace, Colonel E.H. This strategy would still allow Buffalo Trace to keep the masses satisfied with a cheap bourbon (not to be confused with bottom shelf) that they could quickly make a lot of. In this way, they hoped that consumers would find more than one to buy.
Small benchmark whiskey full#
They rolled out with 5 new bourbons called Small Batch, Top Floor, Bonded, Single Barrel Bourbon and Full Proof. None of them were priced over $22 (your store may mark it up more though). So Buffalo Trace decided to test this out by expanding the Benchmark line. They also knew that even if they did, the kinds of people who buy it aren’t going to buy more bottles until they ran out.īut research shows that those same customers could be more inclined to buy a new version of their old standby if they saw the same kind of value in it. They knew they couldn’t cut the price range any more than it already was.
Small benchmark whiskey how to#
Finally, the topper is the cheapest design in the industry – a foil screw-cap. Be careful when tightening it or you’ll ruin the threads! The Original Benchmark Lineup expandsīuffalo Trace spent some time trying to figure out how to get more people to buy Benchmark. In terms of packaging, the glass bottle design hasn’t changed in forever which allows Buffalo Trace to buy in bulk over a long time. 8 (also known as adding a little water to it) to the bare minimum allowed by law – 80 proof. It’s also bottled at only 3 years old (the label states “at least 36 months old”). The areas that they cut costs on are not hidden either. Since that time, it’s always been a budget bottle. It wasn’t always owned by the Sazerac company (the parent company of Buffalo Trace) but was acquired by them in 1989 from the Seagram Company. Say hello to Benchmark bourbon.īenchmark Bourbon has been around for decades. However, we are seeing the results of the latter right now. We won’t be able to experience the result of their expanded bourbon production for several more years. The second is to release products with less age so they can make it faster. The first is to build more capacity (warehouses and distilling equipment) so that they can make more. And once they’re gone, they’re gone. Even lowly Buffalo Trace Bourbon, their namesake, now has “Limit 1” signs on it whenever you can find it on a shelf.īuffalo Trace has two solutions to their problem. How do we know that? Because every Buffalo Trace product they put out seems to be instantly allocated.Īllocated means that stores can only buy a certain amount from their distributor.

They are practically the gold standard of the industry. It is tough to think of another distillery that sells better products – from top to bottom – than the Buffalo Trace brand.

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