blanton's red hba select review
Blanton's Red HBA Single Barrel Select
Distillery: Buffalo Trace
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 46.5%
Composition: Buffalo Trace Mash #2, speculated to be ~15% rye
Aged: Rumored to be ~8 years
Color: 1.3/2.0 on the color scale (russet, muscat)
Price: $55 in Japan for this particular pick, but I doubt that’s normal
From the back of the bottle:
“The finest bourbon in the world comes from a single barrel.”
Distillery: Buffalo Trace
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 46.5%
Composition: Buffalo Trace Mash #2, speculated to be ~15% rye
Aged: Rumored to be ~8 years
Color: 1.3/2.0 on the color scale (russet, muscat)
Price: $55 in Japan for this particular pick, but I doubt that’s normal
From the back of the bottle:
“The finest bourbon in the world comes from a single barrel.”
blanton's red hba select overview
Guess what…Blanton’s Red barrel picks exist, and turns out there’s a Blanton’s Red HBA Single Barrel Selection, dumped 5/29/18 from Barrel 79, aged in warehouse H on rick 52. I was under the impression that only “regular” Blanton’s picks were a thing, but I guess you learn a thing or two when exploring Japan.
Then again, the brand is owned by a Japanese company and Blanton’s Red is a Japan-exclusive, so I guess it makes sense that a pick like this might only exist in Japan.
Anyways, just like the usual Blanton’s Red (check out that review here), this is an at least 8 year old single barrel bourbon using Buffalo Trace’s mashbill 2. The only difference is that someone outside of Buffalo Trace, in this case the HBA, picked the barrel.
Ironically, I mentioned in my Blanton’s Red review that I would probably get another one of these if the price was right, and turns out $55 was the right price. This is an abnormally low price, but I’m not complaining.
But who is / are the HBA? Turns out the HBA is the Hotel Barmen’s Association Japan. I couldn’t find anything on the internet about this pick, but I did learn that the Hotel Barmen’s Association Japan is an organization working to improve the quality of barkeepers.
To copy and paste from the association’s website (and translated from Japanese to English), “The Society will improve the qualities of hotel barmen and food and beverage service workers by improving their hospitality skills, thereby enhancing the hospitality of hotel and other food and beverage services and improving the convenience of domestic and foreign travelers. The purpose is to contribute to the development of Japan’s tourism business and international goodwill, to improve eating and drinking manners in the general public, and to build a bright eating and drinking culture.” There’s a lot there, but more or less it sounds like it’s a trade association that also offers bar-related qualifications to elevate the bar experience.
Let’s find out if the Hotel Barmen’s Association Japan enhanced the existing Blanton’s Red experience in this Blanton’s Red HBA Single Barrel Select review.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for my reviews and comparisons (because they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass, Set of 6, Clear, 6 Pack. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
Buffalo Trace Lineup of Reviews
blanton's red hba select smell
This Blanton’s Red HBA pick has a mix of honey and caramel, vanilla, cherry, strawberry, apple, orange, toasted oak, clove, licorice, fennel, and honeycomb. It’s a little herbal and earthy, but doesn’t make me think high-rye bourbon, more sugar and fruit forward with herbal, oak, and spice in the background.
It smells very nice, but I wish that it would open up more (it’s been airing out in the bottle for around 3 weeks and I swirled it vigorously before letting it rest in the glass for 45 minutes). The scents are a little shy and not that expressive, so it is tough to tease out some of those scents and fully appreciate them. I really think they’re in there, but held back by something.
Swirling helps it open up a little, bringing slightly more floralness to the honey and caramel nougat, then toasted vanilla, cherry, strawberry, apple, orange, roasted oak, cinnamon, and dark chocolate. The heat stays in the background. This HBA pick has a more sweet and fruity-forward personality, not so much a high-rye one, with decent density.
From memory it’s quite different that the non-pick Blanton’s Red I already reviewed. I just wish this pick would open up more, because I think it’s holding back some great scents.
blanton's red hba select taste and aftertaste
Caramel, vanilla, toasted oak, cherry, strawberry, apple, orange, clove, licorice, and fennel kick off the initial flavors. It’s quite vanilla-y with a good amount of sweetness and fruit. The herbalness comes 3rd, which is not what I expect from Blanton’s in general. Over time I get hints of this darker sweetness that’s honeycomb, caramel, nougat, and chocolate.
There’s a little alcohol bite as well, but it’s pretty normal for the ABV. All of that said, this Blanton’s Red HBA pick tastes very good, but nothing stands out yet largely in part because everything tastes all muddled together. It’s not muted or flat, it just feels like there’s something covering and muting some of the flavors.
“Chewing” brings out a bit more caramel nougat, honey, vanilla, toasted oak cherry, strawberry, apple, orange peel, clove, cinnamon, and chocolate with lighter licorice and fennel. It’s a little dark with the sweetness and oak, and a little bright with the fruit and herbalness.
For a “high-rye” bourbon, I don’t get much in terms of earthy notes, and there really isn’t that much herbalness either, especially when they were more prominent in the non-pick Blanton’s Red I already reviewed.
This HBA pick has a nice slightly more forward sweetness and fruitiness that’s certainly appealing and adds a decent roundness and viscosity, but nothing quite pops or stand out to make this excellent. To sum it up, it does a lot well but doesn’t excel at anything.
At first, toasted sugars, cherry, apple, orange, roasted oak, clove, licorice, and fennel linger on the finish. The roasted oak has a slightly stronger presence, which lingers with the the licorice and clove. “Chewing” leaves a very similar aftertaste. Nothing really stands out, but it’s pleasant and enjoyable nonetheless
Place on the Whiskey Shelf
Blanton’s Red Single Barrel HBA Pick is tasty and interesting, but not quite the game-changer or elevated experience I had hoped for a pick (hope and expectations doesn’t affect the rating). It’s more sugar and fruit-forward and less herbal than the typical Blanton’s, steering more into Eagle Rare and John J Bowman Single Barrel territory at times. If anything, this probably is very similar to John J Bowman Single Barrel.
The flavors have a nice viscosity and roundness, but my biggest critique is that it never really pops or stands out to me in any particular way. It’s very good across the board, but for some reason the scents and flavors are a bit muddled and closed-off, therefore preventing it from being “Top Shelf”.
I don’t know if that will change with more air time in the bottle, but for better or worse my review only captures what I know up until I do the review. Regardless of my tone, I’m honestly very pleased with it for $55.
Thinking about when this pick was done in 2018, I wonder if the HBA group had a particular profile in mind or they just picked the best one they were offered. I’ll probably never find out if Buffalo Trace sent the group a few samples or the group trekked all the way to Kentucky, but that would have been one heck of a trip across the Pacific Ocean.
Either way, this Blanton’s Red HBA Pick is great to drink but not quite the slam dunk a likely very rare Blanton’s Red Single Barrel pick probably could be. Then again, it’s still one of the better Blanton’s versions out there.
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