Stagg Batch 22A is Buffalo Trace's barrel-proof bourbon at full strength: 132.2 proof, or 66.1% ABV, with no water and no filtration. It carries a 2022 batch code but reached shelves in early 2023, and its strength is high even by Stagg standards.
About This Bourbon
From 2022, Stagg batches carry a year-and-letter code instead of a running number. 22A was intended as the first release of 2022, but a labelling delay held it back, so 22B came out first in the winter of 2022 and 22A followed in early spring 2023. It was bottled at 132.2 proof with no age statement. Reviewers were struck by how well the fruit and spice hold together at that strength.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Dark caramel, black cherry and toasted oak, then cocoa and a strong spice prickle.
- Palate: Big and concentrated, with toffee, dark fruit, charred wood and brown sugar; big, but balanced.
- Finish: Very long and warm, with black pepper, oak and bitter chocolate.
Serving & Food
At 66% it rewards patience. Pour a small measure at room temperature into a copita, taste it neat, then add cool water a little at a time until the fruit comes forward. It stands up to rich food: braised short rib, dark chocolate truffles or a wedge of aged Gouda.
How to Enjoy
Barrel-proof bourbon drinkers and anyone following the Stagg batches year by year.
Product Details
Producer: Buffalo Trace Distillery
Expression: Stagg Batch 22A / early 2023 release
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, uncut and unfiltered
Mash Bill: Buffalo Trace Mash Bill #1 (low rye)
Proof / ABV: 132.2 / 66.1%
Age: No age statement (around 8 to 9 years)
Format: 750mL
About the Distillery
The Stagg name honours George T. Stagg, a nineteenth-century whiskey salesman who went into business with Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. and built the O.F.C. Distillery in Frankfort into one of the largest of its day. The distillery later carried Stagg's own name and is known today as Buffalo Trace, owned by the Sazerac Company.
Two bourbons now use his name. George T. Stagg is the long-aged annual bottling in the Antique Collection. Stagg, introduced in 2013 as Stagg Jr., is its younger sibling: bottled uncut and unfiltered from barrels of around eight to nine years, on the distillery's low-rye Mash Bill #1. Buffalo Trace dropped the 'Jr.' from the label in 2022.