Review of Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series Amburana Edition 001

Barrell Craft Spirits launched the Cask Finish Series in September 2023. According to their press release, the intent of the series is to utilize “the company’s blending and finishing expertise to make bespoke blends of straight bourbon whiskeys with unique finishes.” The series will introduce two blends each year, beginning with Amburana and A Tale of Two Islands.

The bourbon kicks things off with an aroma that’s clearly influenced by the distinctiveness of the Amburana finishing barrels. Warm, familiar scents of cinnamon, nutmeg, and gingerbread cookie combine with graham cracker and a touch of honey over a foundation of baking spices. Pulling a deeper inhale reveals a bit of charred oak, but it remains quite mild against the more robust initial scents. While Amburana barrel finishing can have an overpowering influence on whiskey, it’s kept in check on the nose, maintaining a high degree of balance with the underlying bourbon.

Sweet flavors of honey, graham cracker, and gingerbread are counterbalanced by cinnamon, baking spices, clove, and light charred oak. A caramel undercurrent forms underneath. The flavors are warming and rich, with a buttery texture. Like the aroma, the taste of the bourbon highlights its Amburana barrel influence impeccably, never going too intensely into the Amburana flavor spectrum. Despite the high proof, the bourbon avoids crossing over to overly hot territory making for a sip that’s easy to hold in your mouth and chew on.

The bourbon’s spice notes become more prominent in the finish, ramping up in intensity against a sweet base of honey, gingerbread, and brown sugar. Cinnamon, allspice, and a citrusy Christmas spice mix akin to a simmering holiday potpourri join the sweeter flavors. Vigorous but manageable, the long finish caps the sip off nicely. It leans into highlighting the flavors driven by the Amburana finishing, but keeps them balanced against the base bourbon to a notable degree.

Amburana is a species of tree native to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Peru. Amburana wood has a tight grain, and has been traditionally used to age Cachaca (though most Cachaca is aged in oak), a popular Brazilian spirit made from fermented sugarcane juice. Amburana is also used for lumber, and craft brewers took a liking to it before bourbon producers did.

Amburana finished bourbons became increasingly popular in 2023, but the overall volume of products has remained low as Amburana wood is limited, and the style has been primarily used for single barrel and small quantity releases. The impact of finishing in Amburana casks isn’t subtle, the wood adds a tremendous amount of unique flavor typically resulting in a polarizing final product that some love and others downright hate.

Being known for their blending capability, Barrell took a more balanced approach for their Amburana finished bourbon. It highlights the familiar notes of cinnamon, gingerbread cookie, nutmeg, and clove that I often notice with this finishing style, but maintains the underlying structure of the bourbon. As it seems all too easy to overdo Amburana finishing, this balance is likely attributed to the fact that Barrell took an unusual approach of blending non-finished bourbon back into the finished portion of the batch. Whether not frequently practiced, or just rarely disclosed, it’s an approach you don’t often hear brands talk about with respect to their finished whiskeys.

So far Amburana finished bourbons have been mostly limited to bourbons in the middle of the single digit age range (or do not state age at all), though Seelbach’s released a few fantastic older 9-year-olds ($140) and there is an

Review of Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series Amburana Edition 001