Broken Barrel Whiskey recently teamed up with Los Angeles Distillery on Broken Barrel’s first distillery Collaboration Collection, a cask-strength wheated bourbon whiskey finished with Tokaji and single malt staves.
The new expression is available online and at retail in California for a suggested price of $110 per 750ml bottle.
Broken Barrel is known for using broken barrel staves from multiple combinations of barrel types.
For this limited-edition release, it marks a new journey for Broken Barrel founder and CEO, Seth Benhaim. In a prepared statement, he said he approached Total Wine & More and Dr. Lewis Harsanyi of Los Angeles Distillery earlier this year about a collaboration.
Benhaim called LAD “one of California’s most impressive distilleries,” a state-of-the-art facility led by Dr. Harsanyi, who for the past 35 years has sold, imported and built brewing and distilling systems across the industry. In 2014, Harsanyi founded the distillery.
This collaboration saw the two companies select three, 5-plus year old wheated bourbon barrels. Each barrel aged in new charred Hungarian white oak, selected specifically by the Hungarian-born Dr. Harsanyi. He customized each barrel to his own specifications, the densest, highest quality new Hungarian white oak barrels.
“Hungarian barrel staves are far denser (30-34mm) than American staves (25-28mm),” Harsanyi said. “For this project, I developed custom 200L elongated barrels and then carved wood grooves into the staves to increase the wood surface area (+68%) and impart more flavor.”
Benhaim’s experience sourcing both liquid from multiple distilleries and barrels from around the world lends to the flavor, feel and finish of his limited-release whiskeys.
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For this expression, he suggested using Tokaji Aszu staves, (known as the “king of wines and wine of kings”) as well as Harsanyi’s favorite, ex-single malt barrel staves, to reveal a last and final sweet-leathery kick to the bold cask strength wheated bourbon.
During the finishing process, the barrels were emptied into their own drums before adding broken barrel staves to finish the whiskey, in this case for just a few months.
“Our personal connection and the combination at every step of the process is something all whiskey enthusiasts will appreciate, enjoy and share,” Benhaim said. “This special collaboration was made exclusively for our best customers in our home state of California.”
The 2022 Distillery Collaboration is available in Total Wine & More locations throughout California, and within both the Broken Barrel and LA Distillery gift shops.
The whiskey features a mash bill of 51% corn and 49% wheat and an Oak Bill (Benhaim’s term to denote the combination of various barrel staves used) of 80% Tokaji Aszu staves and 20% ex-single malt staves.
The whiskey was bottled at 130-132 proof (65%+ ABV) and has a suggested retail price of $110.
For more information or to find a bottle, check out www.brokenbarrelwhiskey.com or www.lawhiskeystore.com.
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