The Single Oak Project was Buffalo Trace's large public experiment into what oak does to bourbon. Each 375ml bottle holds whiskey from a single barrel made from a single tree, bottled at 45% ABV, so every bottle in the series is slightly different from the next.
About This Bourbon
The work began in 1999, when 96 American white oak trees were chosen for their growth rings and origin. Each tree was cut into a top and a bottom section, and each section became one barrel, 192 in all. Seven variables were then played against each other: rye or wheat recipe, 105 or 125 entry proof, six or 12 months of stave seasoning, tight, average or coarse grain, concrete or wooden rick floor, #3 or #4 char, and top or bottom cut. All 192 bourbons were aged for eight years and bottled at 90 proof.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Vanilla and toasted oak, caramel corn and sweet baking spice; rye barrels lean spicier, wheat barrels softer and more bready.
- Palate: Brown sugar, char and sweet grain, with the oak setting the tone: firm and drying in some barrels, rounder and creamier in others.
- Finish: Medium, with vanilla, dry oak and lingering spice.
Serving & Food
Best enjoyed neat and unchilled in a nosing glass, ideally next to another Single Oak barrel so the differences show. At 45% it needs little or no water. Keep food simple: roasted almonds, aged cheddar or dark chocolate.
How to Enjoy
Side-by-side tastings, whisky clubs and anyone interested in how wood, recipe and warehouse shape a bourbon.
Product Details
Producer: Buffalo Trace Distillery
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Series: Single Oak Project
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
Age: 8 years
Cask: Single-tree American white oak barrel (one of 192)
ABV: 45% / 90 proof
Volume: 375ml
Edition Detail: Single-barrel release from a 192-barrel oak experiment; recipe, char and warehouse vary by barrel number
About the Distillery
Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, has been running barrel and recipe trials for more than two decades, and keeps tens of thousands of experimental casks in its warehouses. The Single Oak Project was the most ambitious of these.
Between 2011 and early 2015 the distillery released the bottles in 16 rounds, 12 different barrels at a time. Drinkers rated them online, and in 2015 barrel #80 was named the public favourite: a rye-recipe bourbon from the bottom half of its tree, with staves seasoned 12 months, average grain, a #4 char, filled at 125 proof and aged in a concrete-floored warehouse.