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Town Branch Single Malt Whiskey Review & the Legality of Private Barrel Picks in Kentucky
May 17, 2026
On this episode, I'm reviewing Town Branch's 11 year old single malt whiskey aged in Oloroso sherry casks while talking about new bills in the state of Kentucky that could help save private barrel selections from becoming illegal. Plus, I'm talking about a Japanese whiskey heist that involved over 7.7 million yen worth of whiskey! Questions or comments? Reach me at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Chat about this week's episode on the Bourbon Bytes Whiskey & Gaming Lounge Discord server at http://www.BourbonBytes.com Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BourbonBytes Subscribe on YouTube for live streams and more: https://www.YouTube.com/BourbonBytes (https://www.youtube.com/BourbonBytes)
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0:00
Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, I'm reviewing an 11-year-old single malt from Kentucky
0:04
Say what? Talking about a bill introduced in the state of Kentucky to help save single-barrel pigs
0:10
And talking about a massive Japanese whiskey heist that you probably haven't heard of
0:22
Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bites Podcast. I'm your host, Clifton, and today we have so many crazy news stories that I just had to record this podcast as soon as news broke
0:33
But before I get heated and talk about single barrel pigs potentially being illegal, I need to get something in my glass
0:40
So today I'm going to pour a interesting whiskey that I didn't really know existed
0:44
This comes to us from our friend Swan, who is formerly of This Is My Bourbon Podcast, although he may make appearances every now and then
0:51
he recently moved to a new state but he sent me the sample before he moved and I'm so excited to
0:57
finally get into it this is something that kind of like blew my mind when I read about it this is
1:01
an 11 year old single malt whiskey from Kentucky that's 100% ex-sherry barrel aged it's just
1:08
blowing my mind because I'm such a fan of sherry aged scotch and single malts that the fact that
1:14
one came from Kentucky I just I just can't comprehend it but I'm so excited to get into it
1:17
this is Town Branch's Single Malt Oloroso Aged Whiskey. This came out very end of 2020
1:26
I have not had anything from Town Branch. I know they're very well known for their
1:29
bourbons. They do a lot of experimental stuff as well but yeah I've never tried anything from
1:33
the distillery so the fact that the first thing I'm trying is an 11 year old single malt that just
1:38
that just blows my mind. This one also comes in at cast strength. It is 110.2 proof. I don't
1:44
really know what to expect from this. I know it's made from 100% malted barley. Like I said
1:48
it's a single malt in the very traditional style. I know there's a lot of American single malts
1:53
but I can't really think of any others from Kentucky. You guys may know some more, but
1:57
this is definitely the first one I've tried from Kentucky. So I'm so excited to get into it. So
2:01
let's go and get that poured. So while that opens up, I do want to talk about one new TTP label that
2:07
caught my eye. This one is a new release from Single Cast Nation. It's actually labeled as
2:12
Single Batch Nation because it's not a single barrel. But this is a release of New York Straight
2:19
Bourbon Whiskey. So this is a five-year-old cast-strength bourbon whiskey. It's distilled
2:25
at Black Button Distilling out of Rochester, New York, which is a brand that I swear I've heard of
2:30
recently. I just don't know where. I definitely haven't seen their products locally. But they
2:34
started in 2012, and they are Rochester's first grain-to-glass distillery since Prohibition. So
2:39
they are very small. So the fact that Single Cast Nation is working with them to get a special
2:45
release, I mean, that's huge. Single Cast Nation is some of the best at picking casks, whether it's
2:50
scotch or even bourbon. They've done some fantastic wild turkey releases. So the fact
2:55
they're working with a New York-based distillery for a bourbon is super exciting. This one comes
3:00
in at 58.3%. It is non-chill filtered. It is full cast strength. And it's just really exciting. I
3:06
don't know much about this. They usually are pretty transparent in terms of upcoming releases
3:10
so I'm sure we'll hear a bit about this soon. It was distilled in July 2016, bottled in February of
3:16
this year. There's only 400 bottles of it, so I imagine it's going to be pretty, pretty pricey. I
3:22
mean, I would think, you know, with it being a small batch of a craft distillery, it wouldn't be
3:28
too extreme, but it's really exciting to see Single Cast Nation involved with these smaller
3:33
distilleries. They do such a great job with the bigger ones. I can't wait to see what they're
3:37
doing with these. They have to be really excited about these distilleries to feature them for an
3:41
official release. So stay tuned for that. I'm definitely going to try to get my hands on it if I
3:45
can. But in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy this crazy single malt whiskey from Kentucky. Let's go
3:50
in and give it a nose. Oh man, that is so sherry forward and I'm in love. I love a sherry, whether
3:56
it's a sherry finish on a bourbon or a sherry cast maturation of a single malt. No idea what to
4:01
expect flavor profile wise it's actually been a minute since i've had an american single malt in
4:05
general i've had some from texas i've had some from washington but i never have i ever had one
4:10
from kentucky so town branch you you've got my you got my interest so let's go ahead and give it a
4:15
taste cheers oh man wow that is definitely a sherry bomb it's leaning towards like the the fruitiness
4:23
of sherry like i'm getting like some dark red fruits maybe some raspberry there very malty but
4:28
not in a scotch kind of way. It's almost like a, um, I mean, it's running like a granola bar. Like
4:33
there's some dark chocolate in there with the raspberry. That's, that's, that's really
4:37
really unique. Something I've never had on a single malt before. I got to go for a second sip
4:42
It's surprisingly not very sweet. I mean, it's 11 years old. There is some oak influence. It's
4:48
it's very subtle though. I think the most dominant thing to me is that fruitiness from the sherry
4:52
cask. I'm getting so much dark red fruits, um, but not in a sweet kind of way. It's almost like
4:58
the sweetness has been extracted from like a raspberry and you're just left with the actual
5:02
essence of the fruitiness there blended with like some dark chocolate and some really really oaty
5:08
um i don't know i guess it's just the way the malted barley is presenting itself it's super
5:13
dark and like oatmeal like that also like granola bar um that it the finish really leaves you with that same kind of feeling too It like you just ate a raspberry dark chocolate granola bar That the best way
5:24
to describe it. I'm very intrigued. Now this was released at $75, but when you look at the fact
5:30
that it's 11 years old, I mean, the distillery town branch didn't really start until 2012
5:34
So this has either been kind of like in the works since the beginning, or potentially they did source
5:39
it, you know, they don't really say for sure. Um, I've looked at a couple of articles online and
5:44
they're also kind of unsure about it. Um, but wow, it's not exactly the type of sherry bomb I
5:50
typically enjoy. I like sherry bombs that are really sweet as well. Um, some that come to mind
5:55
are, um, Abelora Buna. That one to me is a perfect definition of a sherry bomb scotch. Um, but that
6:01
one has a lot of sweetness going with it too. So this one to have the lack of the sweetness, I think if you're someone that doesn't like sweet whiskeys and you like the more malt forward
6:08
like whiskeys or scotches this will be for you i do think it's good i just don't think it's you
6:13
know 100 what i'm looking for with a like a sherry bomb of a whiskey needless to say though to see a
6:19
distillery out of kentucky doing something so unique and so non-kentucky i'm a big fan of so
6:25
keep an eye on town branch i'm very very curious to see what else comes from them because if they're
6:30
experimenting like this this early on then that gets me really excited for um what's next again
6:35
And I haven't had their regular bourbon either. So maybe I should try that before trying some of these other crazy things
6:41
But I'm very, very intrigued by this. I just think it's not necessarily for me
6:45
It's not my favorite kind of sherry. But thank you so much, Swan, for letting me try this
6:50
It's so unique. And I'm curious to hear if you guys have tried this. Let me know what you think of it
6:54
It's so interesting that it's not sweet. I expected it to be sweet
6:58
But nonetheless, it's very enjoyable. So I'm going to continue to sip on that while I tell you about a massive news story
7:05
involving legislation around private barrel picks in Kentucky. So this all was brought to our
7:10
attention back in December, actually. I was actually part of Fred Minnick's Repeal Day Expo
7:16
where he interviewed a lot of important figures in the whiskey industry. And one of these was
7:21
Senator Damon Thayer of Kentucky. And he kind of hinted at the fact that barrel picks may go away
7:28
if rules don't change. And I think that caught everyone's ear. Everyone was like, wait, what
7:33
And I feel like all the group chats were like, what's going on? What's going on? It later got some clarity
7:37
And it's basically true. I mean, the state of Kentucky is at risk of losing the opportunity to offer single private
7:45
barrel picks. And it's because of what's written into the ABC laws there
7:49
So one of the biggest problems is the law that states that a distillery shall not provide
7:54
more than one and three fourths ounces of samples per visitor. If you've been to Kentucky, you know, distilleries are very, very light with their pours
8:03
They definitely don't overpour you the whiskeys, especially when you're trying a flight of different whiskeys from the brand
8:09
They pour you the smallest amount. Usually it's like a quarter of an ounce, which is crazy because I've been to other distilleries in other states that aren't as strict about that
8:18
But Kentucky is very, very strict. And it's always kind of been that way, which is kind of understood
8:22
It's to basically prevent you from getting drunk at the distillery and not going out and actually buying the whiskey
8:27
and also to keep you off the road so let's be real like if they're completely getting wasted
8:31
every distillery tour every bourbon trail trip would just be an absolute mess so i i kind of get
8:37
the reasoning behind the law but when you think about a private barrel pick i mean they are
8:42
definitely trying more than just an ounce and three quarters of whiskey they are often sipping
8:48
straight out of the barrel so this kind of opened kentucky up for a chance to actually be like sued
8:53
by other states because other states like hey you're doing all these private barrel picks but
8:57
you're letting people drink so much whiskey straight from your distillery. What about the distributors? What about the retailers? Hey, they're not getting a cut of that. So that's kind of why
9:04
this is kind of an emergency situation, and lawmakers were really quick to take action
9:10
So as of February 10th, there was an initial bill introduced by Kentucky State Senator John
9:15
Shekel, I think it's pronounced, and that was SB 160. And this was an emergency action
9:21
and it was allowing distilleries to sample whiskey straight from the barrel without
9:25
you know, those regulations. The biggest thing is they defined the actual private selection event
9:31
as something that's legally, you know, an actual event. It's not just like they're giving this to
9:35
consumers because previously, you know, it was limited to the consumers only got this. But
9:39
if this is actually a private selection package, as they label it, the laws can kind of be bent a
9:44
little bit with those private selects. It also allowed manufacturers to ship samples to people
9:50
involved in a pick. Um, and they actually say that the sample size is not just, you know, the
9:55
the one and three fourths of an ounces that's per person. So let's say there's 10 people on a pick
10:00
you're getting, you know, 10, I can't do math in my head, but you're getting, you're getting over
10:05
10 ounces of whiskey, um, for the entire group, which is still, you know, very limited. Um, but
10:11
you know what, it's a step in the right direction and it's a step to prevent them from being sued
10:14
I think that's the biggest thing they're trying to avoid potential issues in the future. Um, so
10:18
it's good that this was made aware beforehand. I do feel like this whole limiting the amount
10:23
that people can consume directly from a distillery is kind of BS. And again, that's just from
10:27
my perspective I just a consumer I not a brand I not a liquor store or a distributor So I don know the ins and outs of that I just think if you making a pick you want to be sure about your selection I don want to be told that I only have an ounce and three quarters of an ounce to do that pick from And that total That not per barrel
10:45
So let's say you get four barrels. You're basically getting a quarter of an ounce per barrel if you follow the legal guidelines. Now, how many people are actually doing that? I don't
10:53
know for sure. I'm just saying that this is kind of an issue, and it's good that they address it
10:57
Now, do I think that it was addressed maybe in the wrong way? I don't know
11:01
I honestly think they should just get rid of that limit in terms of what they can serve you
11:06
But I know there's a lot more legalities involved with the distributors and things like that
11:11
So I get that side of things. But man, is it such an overcomplication of something that should have been so simple
11:16
in terms of removing that limit? But I think there's a lot more going on behind the scenes that we don't actually see
11:21
Another interesting thing that was introduced in this bill was to allow the distiller to
11:26
sell these private selections at retail. So they no longer had to go through the distributor to
11:31
sell private barrel picks. If they did it on site, you know, they can sell that on the premises
11:36
which is really interesting. I know when I went to South Carolina, there was a distillery that
11:41
was selling single barrels on site. Now they weren't picks. I mean, I think Kentucky Pure
11:45
List does the same thing. They sell single barrels. They're not picks per se. Now we don't
11:49
know for sure, but they're just single barrels that are selected by the distillery and they sell
11:53
on site. So I'm curious if this kind of like enhances that maybe like brands like myself
11:59
like, you know, Bourbon Bites, if Bourbon Bites were to do a pick in Kentucky, maybe I can
12:02
collaborate with the distillery and sell it on site. I don't know for sure. No promises, but
12:07
this is a really interesting change and I'm excited to see where it goes. But that's not all
12:11
because on February 14th, they further expanded this thanks to representative Chad McCoy in
12:17
Kentucky. He introduced HB500, which kind of elaborated on some of these same ideas. Again
12:22
And they're taking action really, really quickly with this. I mean, this is February 10th, February 14th
12:26
They are piggybacking off of each other. So this said a lot of the same things, but it added a few other things that could be
12:31
really positive for the bourbon tourism industry. So in addition to all the things I mentioned before from the previous bill, this one also
12:39
allows the private selection events to sell at fairs, festivals, and as well as farmers markets
12:46
So they're really opening up the fact that people can have separate satellite retail
12:51
events the distilleries themselves can actually sell their single barrels at events like fairs
12:56
and things like that um that now they're only allowed one apparently only one off-site premise
13:01
retail site for each um distillery so they aren't letting them you know go franchise to go to every
13:06
state fair everywhere but it's super interesting that they are allowing at least that right so it
13:12
almost makes you want to go to kentucky during fair season right like i think that there's a
13:15
chance to really try and buy a bunch of private selects that you wouldn't have the opportunity to
13:19
otherwise. Now, again, we don't know how this is actually going to pass in terms of legislature
13:24
or how other distilleries are going to implement it, but it is really interesting that they're
13:28
already thinking about things like this. They're also allowing distillers to purchase jointly
13:32
branded souvenir packages from microbreweries, which we hear a lot about distilleries and
13:37
breweries working together, whether they are offering the beer barrels to finish the whiskey
13:41
or they are offering the whiskey barrels to age the beer. There's a lot of collaboration there
13:45
So the fact that they're allowing them to sell like little packages of the two brands together is really cool
13:51
Another interesting aspect of this HB500 was defining barrel aged and batch cocktails
13:57
So they really wanted to target that specifically, which is kind of interesting
14:01
I know that that's a thing now. We're seeing a lot of barrel aged Manhattans or old fashions from brands like High West, which, of course, isn't Kentucky
14:09
But there's I think Buffalo Trace has one as well. I forget the name of it. I've done a stream about it on my YouTube channel
14:14
So they seem to be really wanting to define that. But not only that, they are allowing a retailer to keep distilled spirits or wine in a container for preparing their own barrel aged and batch cocktails, which is interesting as heck
14:29
So that to me, I mean, again, I'm just reading this as a pleb. I'm just a consumer
14:33
to me it sounds like retailers like liquor stores will be able to keep distilled spirits like like
14:40
bourbon in a container and sell it as barrel aged and batched cocktails so again this is all like
14:48
it's still a bill it's not passed you know remember the whole like how a bill becomes a law
14:51
but it sounds like a liquor store can literally take some bourbon and mix it with some bitters
14:57
and some simple syrup and release a batch cocktail under the name of that store again correct me if
15:03
I'm wrong. That's just how I'm interpreting this. It's very legally formatted in terms of the way
15:07
they're describing it. So let me know if you know anything about that. To me, that's crazy
15:11
interesting. I know a lot of bars will do that. They'll do their barrel-aged cocktails, but the
15:16
fact that a liquor store could potentially do it too, that's unique on itself. I don't even know
15:20
how they would be able to sell that. I don't know. Maybe I'm interpreting that completely wrong. Let
15:24
me know for sure if I am. But that's kind of the summary of those two massive legal issues in terms
15:31
of private barrel selects. One of the biggest issues I saw people bring up
15:35
on social media was, you know, a lot of people are doing a barrel pick
15:39
with the distillery in Kentucky. They are then taking that barrel of whiskey that they picked
15:44
taking it across state lines. And instead of partnering with a liquor store
15:48
you know, the legal distribution process, they are kind of like, you know, taking the whole barrel and you know selling it out the back of their trunks which I mean I not going to say I opposed to that I not going to say I never done something like that I just saying I think they trying to crack down on that a little bit And hopefully that
16:02
not to the detriment of consumers like us. I mean, I love trying picks from local groups
16:07
whether they're in, you know, Kentucky, New York, Tennessee, I love just a chance to try their picks
16:13
But if maybe they're working on a way to legally get those to people outside of those states
16:17
I do think that should be maybe a bit more regulated versus, you know, people literally
16:21
just selling them out of their trunks in parking lots. I hope this doesn't hurt the consumer because let's be real
16:27
When it comes to private slacks, it's all about pleasing the consumer. Yes, it is about the group that did the pick or the sword that did the pick
16:33
But in reality, you want to get that whiskey in the hands of as many people that you can
16:39
I mean, yes, there's a whole secondary market, which we'll save that for a separate conversation. I'm just saying, I think these rules are set to help improve things rather than hurt them
16:47
And it's basically giving them the backing. If another state were to come in and be like, hey, Kentucky, you're doing this illegally
16:53
They're like, actually, we had a law passed in 2022 that allowed us to do this
16:57
So that's one of my hopes from this. But I just want to let you guys know what's going on
17:01
Because again, this is all breaking news from the past week or so. So I wanted to share with you guys
17:06
And lastly, before we wrap things up, I came across a story on my Apple News
17:10
It was like a notification the other day. I was like, wait, what? There was apparently a massive Japanese whiskey theft that happened last year that we're just
17:19
now learning about. And this is from Vice, where I'm getting this story from. But apparently, a Japanese man was arrested earlier this week for stealing 170 bottles
17:27
of Japanese whiskey from a former client's home. And this whiskey totaled over $66,000
17:34
So apparently, what happened was this man lived in southern Japan, and he left his house
17:40
to go abroad from March 2020 to April 2021. So over a year he was away and he apparently had this
17:47
massive whiskey collection, like I said, with over 170 bottles, you know, worth over 66,000
17:53
which by the way is 7.7 million yen, which is sounds a lot more extreme, but still $66,000
17:59
of whiskey, like holy crap. So apparently the victim returned to his house in Japan and realized
18:04
that a lot of things were missing from his liquor cabinet. And not only that, but some expensive
18:09
um, whiskeys were replaced by bottles of carbonated water. Like what, at first I thought this was like
18:15
they were literally filling the whiskey bottles with like colored water. Um, I don't know for sure
18:19
if that's the case. Again, it doesn't really go into detail what that means. Um, but some of these
18:23
whiskeys were worth over $3,000 each. Um, they don't tell you what exactly the bottles were. I
18:29
kind of, as a whiskey nerd, I really want to know like what was stolen, like what was the most
18:33
expensive bottle stolen, but still this is crazy. Over $60,000 of Japanese whiskey. Um, and it
18:39
actually took them months to find the guy that did it because there were lots of people going in and
18:43
out of the house again this is over a year's worth of time but it turns out that the guy that was
18:47
actually looking after the house of um this guy disappeared like at the end of like watching the
18:53
house so it's kind of suspicious that like he would watch it for over a year and then just like
18:57
completely disappear um so that ended up helping them find them they actually investigated like
19:02
online liquor stores and stores in the area um to see if they could find these bottles and try
19:07
them down and sure enough they absolutely did so this guy had actually taken these bottles from
19:11
this guy's house and sold them to like online liquor stores to liquor stores in the general area
19:16
and thought he would get away with it but no they kept a record of who sold them the bottles
19:20
and this is all like able to be tracked down because the guy that owned the whiskey actually
19:25
kept a log of all of his bottles i don't know for sure if he kept you know the the date of you know
19:29
filling and all that stuff um but he was able to provide this information to the police and police
19:34
could actually try it on those bottles now the sad thing is those bottles weren't necessarily
19:38
returned to him at this point at least in the investigation they i think are still on the
19:43
shelves of these liquor stores that bought them from the suspect again i think it's still being
19:47
investigated but that's just crazy and maybe just a warning like hey lock your lock your stuff up
19:52
right keep a keep an inventory and if you are letting other people into your house that that
19:57
probably shouldn't be exploring your whiskey collection um just make note of you know when
20:02
their in and out and have someone double check your whiskey collection from time to time because that's really scary to think about that this guy like stole over sixty thousand dollars worth of
20:10
whiskey like oh my gosh I couldn't imagine not that I have sixty thousand dollars of whiskey but
20:14
you know if you count up all my bottles like literally I'm probably at you know over a thousand
20:19
it's kind of sad to think about but some of them I mean especially on like secondary now my bottles
20:23
are all open I'm really good about opening all my bottles so um they wouldn't be able to flip
20:27
them as new bottles but you know what but you never know people might be just you know buying open bottles and especially if they want to refill them or whatever so keep an eye on your
20:34
stuff guys but I just want to share that story um and wrap up this podcast thank y'all so much for
20:39
listening if you enjoyed this episode make sure to leave me a rating and review on your favorite
20:43
podcast platform whether it's apple or spotify I think those are the only ones that let you do
20:48
reviews now but if you leave me a review I'm happy to read it out on the next episode uh if you want
20:54
me to of course but thank y'all so much for listening this has been bourbon bites cheers
20:57
and I'll talk to you next episode
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