Distillery: Barrell Craft Spirits Sourced from IN and Canada
Proof: 118.4
Age: NAS
Mashbill: Undisclosed
BACKGROUND: Barrell Craft Spirits is a whiskey company that started in 2012. They source and blend all of their whiskey instead of distilling their own whiskey and they are very transparent about it. Barrell Craft Spirits continues to expand their offerings with bourbon, rye, and other types of whiskey including unique blends and finished whiskey. They gained an immense amount of fame from their batch 009 and most recently, their batch 21 earned double gold in 2020. They offer bourbon, rye, and American whiskey. Barrell Craft Spirits are always experimenting with different whiskeys and this is their newest experiment. Barrell Seagrass is a Rye Whiskey from MGP and a distillery in Canada that was finished in Martinique rum, Madeira wine, and Apricot brandy barrels and was bottled at cask strength.
NOSE: The nose is as we expected with tons of sweet fruit notes, over a bed of rye spice. There are scents of green apple, apricots, peach, raw sugar cane, tropical citrus, and vanilla that play together to build a sweet dessert like nose but there are spicy rye notes underneath all of the sweetness to make this one not overly sweet. Overall, it is a sweet, tart, and spicy nose. (21/25)
PALATE: The sweet notes dominate the palate giving Seagrass a juicy mouthfeel. The most prominent flavor I pulled was fruit syrup with some tropical papaya and pineapple flavors as well as grape, red apple, and apricot. The fruit notes are off the chart on this one and the rye doesn't make itself known until the end of the palate. Overall this is a juicy fruit bomb. (32/40)
FINISH: The rye spice that was noticeable on the nose shows itself on the finish as it was hiding on the palate. There are still some fruity notes but the finish is dominated by rye spice and pepper. It is quite long and smooth with a light floralness to it. (23/25)
VALUE: Barrell Seagrass has an SRP of $80 which is fair given the cost of the rum, Madeira, and apricot brandy barrels as well as the sourcing cost. Especially offered at cask strength for a rye whiskey this is a fairly priced whiskey. (7/10)
Overall: 83/100
FINAL THOUGHTS: Barrell Seagrass is a very unique and flavorful rye whiskey that shows how rye whiskey can still be sweet when finished and blended properly. We love what Barrell Craft Spirits have got going on and they continue to release really cool and unique whiskey. We recommend to anyone who enjoys fruit bombs or sweet whiskey. This is excellent in a cocktail or as a nice dessert dram.
Similar & Slightly Better Whiskey: Treaty Oak Ghost Hill Bourbon
Similar & Equal Whiskey: Whistle Pig 12 Year Old World Cask Finish
Similar & Slightly Worse Whiskey: Angel's Envy Finished Rye
Tell us what you think and give us some feedback!
Scoring Legend:
96-100: The perfect dram, juice of the gods
90-95: Near perfect, truly incredible whiskey
85-89: Amazing whiskey, will always try to keep a backup bottle of this
80-84: Very good, some minor flaws here or there
75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink, Will try and keep a bottle on the shelf
70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get this
60-69: Decent, would offer this up to non whiskey drinkers
50-59: Not my cup of tea
Below 50: Give away
