Back in September, I met up with a fellow blogger for his first trip to the Party Source. It's in the Kentucky part of the Cincinnati Metro area, and he'd just moved to Ohio. We'd never met in real life before, and I'm always up for a bit of whiskey shopping, so I was more than willing to make the drive from Louisville to Cincinnati.
And boy did I fill my cart. I didn't get anything too special, but everything I did get was unavailable here in Minnesota, so that made it special to me. I must have bought like eight to ten bottles of bourbon. I doubt I spent more than $12 on most of them. It was fun. A lot of chatting. A bunch of shopping. Good times had all around.
So of course, after heading back to Louisville, we decided that since we were driving right past Westport Whiskey and Wine that, well, we'd probably better stop in. I mean we are right there. It'd be a shame to have to drive all the way back over here, wouldn't it? (Not going to mention we were visiting a friend later in the week that lives about 15 minutes from there...)
After we had convinced ourselves that this was, indeed, the best course of action we stopped in and took a look around. WW&W is not a huge mega-store. It's a nice sized store that has a decent selection and has had a private selection of one sort or another, every time I visit. I can't remember what we actually went in looking for, but I'm pretty sure we didn't find it. What I found instead was a liter bottle of a store pick Buffalo Trace. I hadn't picked up a Buffalo Trace for a while, so when they offered me a sample, I was pretty sure that I was going to buying it if it was at all good. And it was. It was very good.
Or well as good as anything can be in a tiny disposable plastic shot glass.
Buffalo Trace Private Selection, Westport Whiskey & Wine
Purchase Info: $37.99 for a one-liter bottle at Westport Whiskey and Wine, Louisville, KY.
Details: Barrel # 111, 45% ABV
Nose: Cinnamon sugar, crisp apples,and almonds.
Mouth: Fresh Green apple, almond, and baking spices rounded out by vanilla and oak.
Finish: Warm with lingering vanilla and apple.
Thoughts: This is a tasty variation on the Buffalo Trace flavor profile. This is a good example of why I like store picks.
If you've had standard Buffalo Trace, then the store pick is...
Fruitier on the nose with more prominent cinnamon. The mouth is softer with more fruit and spice, but with less pronounced almond notes. The finish is a little warmer.
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