What is Flavor Drift in whiskey? A little background first.

Bourbons are made with the same recipe: certain percentages of corn, barley, rye, wheat or other grains, a certain strain of yeast, aged in white oak for a certain amount of time. While all that is true, there are factors that influence whiskey within those elements. Single Barrel whiskeys are known to have subtle differences from one another. Grain terroir is currently being explored by some distilleries, so the grain may affect flavor. We know that where whiskey is stored in a rickhouse can change is flavors because there are cool spots and hot spots in the rickhouse.

In the case of Eagle Rare in particular, sometime after 2014, they removed the Single Barrel designation from the whiskey and it it now a batched product (many barrels vatted together then bottled). This increases consistency through the whiskey from bottle to bottle and from year to year. Some customers will prefer this, others are wanting those subtle differences every time they open a bottle.

The whiskeys we’ll be tasting at the event are as follows:

(Palate Warmer): Mellow Corn Bottled in Bond Corn Whiskey

Buffalo Trace Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Eagle Rare 10yr Single Barrel bottled in 2014

Eagle Rare 10yr Small Batch bottled in 2024