Bourbon County Brand Barleywine - 2-Year Reserve
Goose Island Beer Company in Chicago, Illinois, United States 🇺🇸
Barley Wine - Barley Rotating Out of Production|
Score
8.09
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After 5 years away, we couldn’t think of a better way to welcome our Barleywine back into the Bourbon County Brand family than with a 2-year reserve. We were fortunate to be able to age this year’s expression in three exceptional sets of barrels from varying releases of the Old Fitzgerald’s Bottled In -Bond Decanter Series: 14, 16 and 17-year-old barrels. These exclusive barrels and the subtle nature within them further showcase the complexities found in our barleywine—a tapestry woven of rich malt, entwined with notes of toffee, vanilla and warming spices.
John E. Fitzgerald was a bonded US Treasury agent who had access to the rickhouses where bourbon barrels were aged. Using his keys, Fitzgerald let himself into the rickhouses, thieve bourbon from the best barrels, and take jugs home for himself—thus committing larceny. When it came time to dump the barrels, some were found to be unusually light and exceptionally smooth. These barrels became known as “Fitzgerald barrels.” Registered in 1884, and later sold to “Pappy” Van Winkle, the historic Old Fitzgerald brand carried on the legacy.
Today, john E. Fitzgerald lives on in award-winning bourbons: Larceny Small
Batch, Larceny Barrel Proof, and the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series. Unlike other bourbons, these are made with wheat, resulting in a smooth profile that showcases extraordinary distilling pedigree at work.
For this Reserve, we worked with our friends at Old Fitzgerald to obtain three exceptional sets of barrels of varying ages from the distillery's Old Fitzgerald’s Bottled-In-Bond Decanter Series. This Reserve offers us a rare opportunity to highlight the distinct characteristics of our rich Barleywine aged in 14-year, 16-year, and 17-year-old barrels of an amazing bourbon pedigree. Bringing back our classic English-style Barleywine for the first time since 2018, we knew this was going to be something special. Our Two-Year Barleywine Reserve evokes the rich intricacies from that of Old Fitzgerald’s Bottled-In-Bond Series for a velvety taste of rich malt, entwined with notes of toffee, cherry, vanilla, fig, and almond.
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Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 7.5 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Bottle - cellared for 3 years. So good - very drinkable at a boozy 17%. Shared in celebration - lovely.
Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8
11/24/23. Clear ruby. Aroma of toffee, raisin, vanilla, caramel. Taste is toffee, raisin, caramel, mild whiskey. Full bodied.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 9.5
Bottle, 500 ml, shared at my Grande. Dark brown with beige head. Intensive caramel and bourbon, toffee, warming. Nice complexity. Medium bodied. Warming.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Panda at home thanks to Tipple. Pours dark brown with a tiny wispy head. Aroma is boozy dried fruit, molasses, bourbon, caramel, figs. Taste is boozy dried fruit, molasses, toffee, loads of boozy bourbon barrel. Boozy but really well balanced. Cracking.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
500ml bottle. Heavy with raisins, prunes, figs, hints of bourbon, vanilla, syrup, toffee and woody notes. Hints of warming alcohol but surprisingly balanced and complex.
Heavy with raisins, prunes, figs, hints of bourbon, vanilla, syrup, toffee and woody notes. Hints of warming alcohol but surprisingly balanced and complex.
Syrupy, sweet, boozy. Caramel and toffee, bourbon, raisin, prunes, hefty. Excellent.
Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Just now noticed I hadn't entered my impressions from last year's BCS Media preview: They have done a stronger BCS, but not a barleywine this big. The barleywine is always one of my two favorite variants, and we tasters are always happy to see it. Brewmaster Siebel notes that they took 60% of the beer and switched them between barrels after the first year. Yeah, like I could have told the difference. Also, he said this version was tweaked from their King Henry barleywine of a few years back. There’s a big nose of the familiar barleywine smell. Maybe some more malt upfront, but then the smooth bourbon character comes through. Despite the higher alcohol, it’s much smoother; there’s some fruit in the background, and then a bit of wood.
Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 8.5
Flaska från 2022, Fitzgerald. Kastanjebrun, relativt klar men försvinnande nätt beige krona. Verkligen fatdriven och träig. Rejäla fattoner, bra med hetta, blött trä, alkoholvärmande. Maltigt i botten, även om främst blir bärare åt fatet. Bröstkaramell, en lätt nötig ton, höstlöv, kolaremmar längre bak om man verkligen letar. Finns en viss ton av härsken nöt som stör i doften.