Bourbon By Nino Marchetti / September 19, 2016 Oh Rebel Yell, how you try. This once-well bourbon has desperately wanted to move from the bottom shelf of the liquor store to where the more premium bottlings hang out. The latest attempt at scaling the bourbon mountain comes in the form of Rebel Yell Single Barrel, a 10-year-old variant of the primary expression.Rebel Yell Single Barrel, according to non-distilling producer Luxco, was aged for one decade and then bottled, one barrel at a time, at 100 proof. It is a hand-bottled, wheated bourbon being made available in limited numbers this fall for a price point of around $50 a bottle, a serious leap from the $17 average price tag for Rebel Yell’s standard expression at retailers across the country.It’s interesting to note that Luxco is going out of its way to showcase the relative uniqueness of this Single Barrel release, particularly against its lower end kin:Being bottled barrel-by-barrel, each bottle will have a unique flavor profile — depending on how it aged, where in the rickhouse it was placed and the flavors that developed within that barrel. In addition, each bottle includes the barrel number and an “aged since” date on the silk-screened front label. Each bottle, complete with a premium matte finish closure and natural wood cork, is sold in individual boxes.Whether or not this makes it worthy enough to warrant the price bump is something we will leave to a future review down the road. For now though, we will leave you instead with thoughts on it from Fletcher Buchman, Luxco brand manager.We are excited to take the classic Rebel Yell recipe and age it 10 years, creating a robust and complex finish. By bottling each barrel independently, we are creating a unique flavor profile specific to each batch. Some bottles may have a stronger vanilla and caramel flavor, some may favor more oak and wood tones, others may have more floral or tobacco notes, creating a unique tasting experience that may vary from bottle to bottle.
