Barrell Bourbon Batch 036 Review

It feels like it’s been a long time since we’ve seen a new batch of bourbon from Barrell. Since Batch 035’s release in 2023, there’s been a lot of things happening within the company. For starters, there appears to be a looming sense that Barrell isn’t doing well financially. In early 2024, the big news was that Barrell Craft Spirits appeared to be putting up their barrel-aging warehouse, most of their barrel inventory and one of their facilities for sale. Their large sales team was laid off as well. Rumors were rampant that Barrell had grew too fast, too soon and were close to collapsing. I was shocked.

Joe Beatrice, Barrell’s founder, seemed to deny these rumors. Sure enough, almost half a year has gone by and they’re still in business. Was it all just a big misunderstanding? I’m really not sure.

I mention all of this because it seems like Barrell’s next batch of bourbon was delayed an abnormally long time. For the first five years or more of business, Barrell was releasing 4 bourbon batches per year. But over the last two years, it’s dwindled to 2. This could be explained away by saying that Barrell has actually increased whiskey sales through their many other labels like Private Release Rye, Cask Finish Series and Stellum.

Unique vs Consistent

For the first 30 batches, the formula Barrell used to blend seemed to be “let’s make a batch that tastes like ____” So they’d sort through their barrels and pick out the ones that would help achieve that profile. But something changed shortly after Batch 30. It seemed as if Barrell started every batch using a foundation of pre-batched bourbon from the same distilleries as its base. Then they added in whatever they wanted to make it slightly different.

This has resulted in Batches 031 to 035 tasting very similar to each other. And while I generally found those profiles to be very good to great, I have to admit that I’ve become slightly bored with them – and that’s coming from a self-proclaimed Barrell fanboy!

Most other reviewers I’ve talked to share similar opinions. Barrell hasn’t necessarily rested on their laurels to get to this point, I just think they’re being stretched too thin.

Batch 036

Barrell’s bottle shape is iconic, but it feels like it might be getting a bit long in the tooth. New glass is a big investment, so rather than ditching it, they decided to change up the label. Now the batch number is listed in a very large font. Much of the layout feels familiar enough that it shouldn’t alienate any longtime Barrell customers, but bold enough to grab the attention of new customers.

Barrell then decided to move the component list (and their ages) to the front of the label. We can see that Batch 036 uses 9 year old bourbon from Kentucky (likely Barton), 7.5, 8 and 10 year old bourbon from Indiana (MGP) and 8 and 15 year old bourbon from Tennessee (Dickel). They have left the derived mash bill on the rear label which indicates it would be 79% corn, 16% rye and 5% malted barley. If there is anything significant to glean from that information, it’s that most (maybe all) of the bourbon from MGP is the new-ish 99% corn, 1% malted barley recipe. The math begins to make sense once you factor in that Barton and Dickel both use 8% malt in their recipes.

The profile notes on Barrell’s website doesn’t seem to indicate that there was any sort of theme to the blend. It just spells out the dominant flavor notes from each set of barrels. You can view them for yourself here if you want. In the meantime, let’s get down to tasting. A special thanks to my friend Mike for sharing. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: The nose is flooded by an array of fruit notes. I’m picking up on Bing Cherries, orange flesh, Grape-flavored Jolly Ranchers, a faint hint of banana. There is also scents of warm cinnamon rolls and a decent amount of seasoned oak.

Palate: The fruit notes continue onto the tongue. Cherries and orange zest continue along with some lemon, vanilla bean pod and a little bit of floral flavors in the background. Spice notes seem to share the stage equally with the fruit notes. I am able to pull out flavors like cinnamon, clove, allspice and black pepper. Tannins revolve around dry leather and oak. The tannins seem to both have a dry aspect to them which is somewhat of a turnoff, but one that I find only pops up occasionally. Finally, all of these notes are capped off with just a tinge of minerality.

Finish: The finish sees cherry cola flavors combine with dry wood notes. Spices linger like cinnamon and black pepper along with a touch of rye spice. The minerality turns into crushed rock and coconut shell. It’s a slightly unique finish, but I feel like I’ve had this before with other Barrell products

Score: 7.7/10

While Batch 036 is by no means a bad batch, it didn’t do too much for me when I considered it alongside Batch 034 and 035. They are all quite similar. They are also made to be crowd-pleasers for the average bourbon consumer. It’s not easy to find this much fruit, spice and oak notes all in one place for this price. But if money is tight these days or if your liquor cabinet is bulging at the seams, then I can see skipping this batch and waiting for one that’s truly unique.

Final Thoughts

A lot of people assume I’m some paid Barrell spokesperson. I am far from it. I enjoy Barrell products, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to shower them all with praise. Barrell Bourbon 036 is a very good batch with lots to like in it, but nothing about it stands out from the previous batches. I wish that Barrell would abandon these foundational blends and throw us an all Tennessee blend or an all Kentucky blend sometime (or maybe a blend from just 2 states instead of 3). They are still small enough to be nimble in their approach to these blends, so why not take the risk?

But if you want the real truth with my thoughts on this batch, it’s this. If you’ve never tried Barrell before, Batch 036 is a fine bottle to purchase to witness their blending prowess for yourself. But if you’ve been faithfully buying batches for a long time like I have, you’re not going to find much different with Batch 036 compared to the last 2 years of batches. Luckily, Barrell makes so many products that you should be able to go out and find something that’s different and also suits your taste. I hope something changes in the near future to get them back to the fun, unique company we all know they can be.