Published on April 29th, 2020

Coronavirus Impact on Single Barrel Selections

It is no secret that distilleries all around the world have shut down to visitors during the Coronavirus pandemic. With increased safety in mind, distilleries are taking every precaution to help flatten the curve. This being said, the single barrel selection process has also come to a halt. It is not out of the ordinary for distilleries to send a few barrel sample options for us to taste. After we have reviewed the samples, we then pick which barrel we think would be best for our customers.

Sending samples may be easy when you are only sending it to a few accounts. Now that everyone would need this type of service, keeping track of what barrel samples were sent to what accounts and which barrel they picked would be a logistical nightmare. For the time being, distilleries will now be selecting the single barrels for each account.

We have just received our first distillery selected barrel from New Riff. Yes, it is unfortunate that we were not able to experience the immense satisfaction of touring their facilities and sampling right out of the barrel but leaving the selection process to the professionals has its advantages. We’d like to think that if we were given the samples, this is the barrel we would have picked.

 

New Riff Single Barrel Private Selection

Barrel # -16-8256

Barreled: 2/29/2016
Bottled: 3/19/2020
The first note on the nose is lavender, sharp oaky peanut-butter fudge, and spiced cherries. The first sip starts off on the hotter end, but then quickly turns to sweeter flavors. Notes of mesquite, pie crust, black cherries, and cranberry sauce. The finish is clean and very savory. Overall, this barrel offers rich complexity at a great price.

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