Orphan Barrel Barterhouse 20 Year Old Bourbon (revisited) Review

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I have decided to revisit some of my old reviews after giving them poor scores many years ago. I can admit that over the years, my palate has changed and grown. In some cases, a contaminated or bad bottle may have been at fault. Whatever the case, sometimes I’ve given an unusually low score to a widely-loved whiskey. In an effort to ensure I’m giving the most honest assessment of a bottle, I am going back to revisit certain bottles to see if anything changes. These revisited reviews might contain additional information if something was wrong or if any information was incomplete since the original posting.

Introduction

I’ve received numerous messages and complaints from the moment I published my first Barterhouse review back in 2020. The score I gave it was a 4.5/10 which seemed way too low for a bottle that is still widely loved. I freely admit that my experience came from a 2 ounce sample bottle that I tried over two sessions. This caused me to trade away my unopened bottle because I believed I would not like it.

Over the next few years, I was sent blind samples of Barterhouse from two different friends. After rating both of them much better, I decided to re-do my review. I sought out another bottle just to make sure. So without further ado, here is my updated tasting notes and rating.

Updated History

My first review was full of errors in the backstory of how Barterhouse (and Orphan Barrel in general) came to be. Here is a more accurate one in its place:

Diageo was conceived from a merger between Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. Before the merger, the Guinness company owned United Distillers which was primarily based out of Kentucky. Shortly after the merger was complete, Diageo began selling large portions of their United Distillers assets (see: distilleries) in an effort to consolidate resources.

The first step was to sell the Bernheim Distillery (complete with 7 brick aging warehouses) to Heaven Hill. Their contract stated that Heaven Hill would continue to produce bourbon for their IW Harper line. After the sale, large amounts of barrels were moved 3.5 miles down the road to the former Stitzel-Weller distillery for storage. Stitzel-Weller hadn’t been used for distillation since 1994, but the warehouses had lots of extra space for barrels. The barrels that Diageo moved from Bernheim were more than likely intended for use in IW Harper products.

Most of the barrels would continue to set and age at Stitzel-Weller due to a lack of demand. It was the late 90’s/early 00’s and whiskey hadn’t exploded yet. These excess barrels couldn’t be used in other Diageo products like Bulleit because they had such low rye content. Diageo probably also determined that they were too valuable to dump into the cheap blended whiskey brands that they owned. They also didn’t meet the specs of a Tennessee Whiskey which meant that using them in George Dickel products was out of the question. It wasn’t until 2013 when product planners had the bright idea to create a new brand for them. Orphan Barrel was born.

The Story of Orphan Barrel

The original story for Orphan Barrel that Diageo tried to pass off was that these barrels were “hidden away” and “long forgotten.” Savvy enthusiasts knew that story didn’t make sense due to alcohol tax regulations that declare all barrels must have a tax collected on them each year. In reality, Diageo/Orphan Barrel knew exactly where these barrels were and had been waiting for the right moment to bottle them up. Orphan Barrel was the perfect way to do that.

Barterhouse was such a success in 2014, that a second batch was created later that same year. Each batch consisted of around 45,000 bottles. Barterhouse uses 20-year-old barrels made from a mash bill that contains 86% corn, 6% rye and 8% malted barley. This is the same recipe you’ll find in many other Orphan Barrel products like Forged Oak, Rhetoric, The Gifted Horse and Fable & Folly. It’s also the same bourbon used in IW Harper 15 Year Bourbon.

Updated Tasting Notes

Nose: After just a few sniffs, it’s apparent how much antique oak, stale tobacco and varnish notes this bottle has. It is dangerously close to that dusty funk that really old whiskies have. Is it because it was distilled around 1993 which kind of borders that era? I think so. There’s a certain essence that Barterhouse carries that reminds me of what Old Forester smells like from the early 90’s. The fruit notes – which I can still find despite two decades in a barrel – smell old and shriveled. Almost like a handful of hard candies that you find in an old coat in the closet. Vanilla notes can also be found. The nose is definitely a blast from the past.

Palate: The flavors I find are similar to the notes I found on the nose. There are varnish, stale cigar wrapper and musty antique oak notes aplenty. The mouthfeel is slightly drying, but never seriously bitter. Light flavors of sweetness come by way of caramel hard candies. Speaking of hard candies, the fruit notes resemble those, Christmas fruitcake and even banana runts. There is no heat from the alcohol content, just a little from the baking spices that pop up every now and then.

Finish: The finish is almost all “soft oak” and fades somewhat quickly. There are some baking spice notes like cinnamon, fennel and cardamom, but they’re light and almost undetectable. Vanilla and a mild sweetness (brown sugar) wrap it all up.

Score: 7.7/10

My opinion on Barterhouse has changed a lot over the past couple years. No longer is it a bourbon I despise with loads of bitter notes. It’s become more balanced with sweetness and is pretty pleasing to partake. I don’t know if this is a result of my palate growing and changing or if the bottle I had previously was just bad. What I do know is that this is a bourbon I would give guests to show them what ultra-aged whiskey can taste like – without breaking the bank.