Weller Craft Your Perfect Bourbon (CYPB), 2018 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

In the Fall of 2015, Buffalo Trace was looking to expand the Weller lineup with the addition of a new label. Instead of letting their product developers just make something, they tried something new. They built a webpage asking for help in deciding which characteristics they wanted in a bourbon. The more questions you answered, the more it steered the overall profile of the bourbon. In the end, it was reported that the overwhelming majority of entrants wanted to see a wheated bourbon aged 8-10 years with barrels plucked from the highest floors of the rickhouse and bottled between 95 and 99 proof. This would ultimately become Weller CYPB.

Weller Craft Your Perfect Bourbon

The inaugural release of Weller CYPB was met with excitement in the enthusiast’s community.  There were also plenty of opponents to this release with the main beef being “there’s not enough regular Weller to satisfy demand, so why are you rolling out with a new one?”  But Buffalo Trace has shown time and again that they simply don’t care. 

So how is this first release? Let’s find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Fruit forward with notes of cherries and baked pears. I find a sweetness that smells more like maple than caramel – what a treat! I also find that it shares the spotlight with some brown sugar scents. The dessert notes continue with buttery pie crust and cinnamon-dusted pinwheels. Additionally, the oak notes are really intense – which is somewhat a surprise to me since it’s only 8 years old. I guess the higher floors get pretty hot!

Palate: Rich flavors envelop my tongue like flat cherry cola, orange marmalade and cinnamon rolls with vanilla icing. Furniture polish and tobacco leaf round out the delicious tannins. These are what gives this bourbon a leg-up against similar aged competitors like Elijah Craig Small Batch or Knob Creek Small Batch. Looking back at the fruit notes, it does kind of give me some of the same vibes as drinking an Old Fashioned. I can even find some oak spice lurking within. Each sip is very well-rounded.

Finish: Cinnamon Red Hots combine with white pepper that smolders a bit on my tongue. Strangely, I get a touch of licorice – where was that before? Some brown sugar and cherry notes remain. The oak spice remains and gives this some added age. This comes off as a 10 year old bourbon – at least.

Score: 8.1/10

This is a really great bourbon that doesn’t deserve the amount of hate it gets. I find this rich and sweet with plenty of pleasing notes that any bourbon enthusiast would want in their glass (maple, anyone?). These bottles continue to come down in price on the secondary which could mean that many people don’t agree OR that it’s just settling into a fairer price than it was ever listed at. Either way, no wonder it ranked very highly on my list of every Weller release, ranked. 

A final thought I had while wrapping up this review was just how similar the concept of Weller CYPB is to Parker’s Heritage Collection Promise of Hope.  Both concepts showcase a bourbon that spends its life on the top floor of a Rickhouse for far longer than most barrels would be allowed (10 years for POH and 8-10 for CYPB).  They’ve even bottled within 1% ABV from each other.  So if you like one, chances are high you’ll like the other.