Barrell Craft Spirits Cask Finish Series: Tale of Two Islands Quick Review

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My reviews tend to be long-winded and very in-depth. I know that many readers don’t have the time or patience to read them all. This is why I have decided to create a “Quick Review” format. I’m not going to cover backstories, distilling methods or anything like that if I know I’ve covered it in a previous review of a similar bottle. You’ll find that a lot of these quick reviews will be based on single barrel picks because their backstory is usually the same with the exception of the group that picked them.

Introduction

This is the first of two releases by Barrell Craft Spirits for their Cask Finish Series. You can read about the other one here. The series debuted in 2023 with Barrell finally deciding to apply a finishing treatment to straight bourbon and still labeling it as a bourbon. This is something they had previously been opposed to – with Joe Beatrice going as far as to only call it a “Whiskey” at that point. I guess he’s changed his mind.

Barrell Craft Spirits Cask Finish Series: Tale of Two Islands

One of the forgotten experiments that Barrell Craft Spirits released back in 2018 was a Jamaican Rum finished in peated (Islay) Scotch casks. The end result was super strange – kind of like eating rotten fruit next to a tire fire. If that sounds good to you, then I know you are a true lover of rums.

Anyway, I guess they kept those empty casks around for more than half a decade because Barrell took them and put bourbon into it. But if you think I just covered the most intriguing part about this bourbon, I’m not done yet. According to their Barrell’s website (and Breaking Bourbon’s review), the bourbon is a blend from two different states: Indiana (5, 6 and 9 years old) and Maryland (5 and 16 years old).

Did you catch that? A 16-year-old bourbon from Maryland? Originally I was dumbfounded as to where that would have come from. Then I saw on the back label of the bottle that it was a typo. The Maryland component is only listed as 5 and 6-years-old. Bummer. But now it’s time to get on with the tasting notes. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Molasses and brown sugar scents rise up for sweetness. I find scents that are earthy, oaky and a little bit chocolatey in places. I can also get a faint smell of smoke. Fruit notes like pineapple, dates and vanilla show off some of the underlying rum influence. It’s got a lot going on and there aren’t too many whiskies like it – and that’s a good thing.

Palate: The heat and flavors are much more aggressive than I was expecting. I can taste the fiery heat of cinnamon, black pepper and hot honey. Sweetness comes from brown sugar. I can detect a strange wet oak note along with ash. The former I’m not particularly fond of and the latter is something I would expect from the peated Scotch. Interestingly, there is a strong “rye” presence with notes of wintergreen mint and licorice rope. Fruits come in waves with lemons, cherries and bananas being the most common.

Finish: The heat from the palate follows on the finish. Baking spices take over the most influential notes on the finish and include cinnamon and allspice. Tannic notes like charred wood remain along with a lingering smokiness as the sip subsides. Fruit is still fully in play at the end with the rum making its biggest contribution here. I can find mangos, cherries and pineapple. It’s very nice.

Score: 7.8/10

I’d say this bourbon has more rum influence than Scotch. The heat is much more perceptible than any other Cask Finished Series I’ve had, but it’s not like it’s out of control. I’m starting to pick up on the fact that rum finishes typically do drink hotter than the proof states – does anyone else feel that way too?

I was happy to find a good assortment of unique fruit notes in this dram. Some of them don’t jibe with each which sometimes comes off as a mouthful of flavors all competing for your attention. I would still recommend Tale of Two Islands for anyone looking for something different in their glass. It’s not every day that you find rum, peated Scotch and bourbon flavors all in the same sip and Barrell Craft Spirits has pulled it off nicely.