Buffalo Hint’s Single Oak Undertaking was one of the formidable bourbon experiments in historical past, a challenge that took eleven years to finish from begin to end and which concerned the creation of 192 completely different barrels of whiskey, every differing primarily based on seven variables, together with the next:
• Mashbill (wheat or rye recipe)
• Entry proof (105 or 125 proof)
• Stave seasoning (six or 12 months of air drying)
• Wooden grain measurement (tight, common or coarse)
• Barrel char degree (quantity three or quantity 4 char)
• Tree lower (prime or backside half)
• Warehouse kind (picket rick ground or concrete ground)
Make one barrel of whiskey utilizing all the above variables in distinctive combos and also you’ll find yourself with 192. I tasted each single one in all them, a course of which took 4 years (and which just one different individual exterior the distillery completed — my good friend and famous spirits author Paul Pacult).
In 2015, I ventured to Frankfort, Kentucky with Pacult and a handful of different whiskey writers to go over the outcomes of client and skilled opinions of the 192 bottles within the Single Oak Undertaking. We re-tasted and debated the 5 most extremely rated bottles within the assortment — numbers 80, 82, 109, 161, and 179 — and ultimately agreed on a winner. Barrel #80 was tops out of all the lineup.
The bourbon’s stats: rye mashbill, 125 entry proof, 12 months of stave seasoning, common grain wooden, aged on concrete ricks, #4 char barrels, staves drawn from wooden lower from the underside half of tree. I gave it an effusive A on the time.
From there, Buffalo Hint got down to recreate this whiskey to see if magic might strike twice. The unique plan was to launch it in 2023, however the deadline slipped a bit to 2026. In the end, right here it’s: Buffalo Hint Single Oak Undertaking Barrel #80, the recreation, now commercially accessible.
Naturally, I needed to get my fingers on this to evaluation it. So right here goes, with my 193rd evaluation of the Single Oak Undertaking.
Buffalo Hint Single Oak Undertaking Barrel #80 (2026) Evaluate
The nostril of the whiskey charms immediately. The rye spice pops, nevertheless it’s tempered by traditional overtones of chocolate and caramel. Vanilla and baking spices proceed an nearly iconic fragrant presentation of a juicy, rye-driven bourbon. A smoldering, clove-driven factor builds with time in glass, evoking a pinch of barrel char. All advised: A whole traditional.
The palate struck me immediately with a citrus word, vivid with each orange juice and peel, although it rapidly subsided after a little bit of time in glass. What remained behind from there’s once more the stuff of any variety of traditional bourbons: vanilla soda, milk chocolate, caramel dripping over nougat, and late-game notes of crushed almonds, mint, and milky cafe au lait.
This can be a decidedly a candy whiskey, unabashedly stuffed with dessert notes and ending with excessive ease, nearly carefree. Followers of bruising hazmat fare will discover this whiskey far too tame for his or her liking. I nonetheless consumed way more of my 375ml bottle than I believed I might, nipping in time and again to let its delightfully sunny, silky taste roll over my tongue.
After all you need to know: How does it evaluate to the 2014 launch? And my response is that, primarily based on my tasting notes from 12 years in the past and my recollections of the 2015 occasion on the distillery, I feel Buffalo Hint nailed it. I didn’t word the citrus in 2014, and I wouldn’t name the end of the 2026 model something approaching bittersweet chocolate, however the remainder of the bones of the unique whiskey are 100% intact. My evaluation of the unique Barrel #80 — “a stunning after-dinner sipper,” as I put it — stays wholly unchanged on this 2026 doppelganger. Proof, maybe, that arcane getting old variables can have a much bigger influence than you would possibly count on and might certainly be repeated. Or, equally possible, that lightning can strike twice.
Seize it in case you see it.
A / $75 (375ml)
Buffalo Hint Single Oak Undertaking Barrel #80 (2026)
USD75
