Bull City Bourbon Club

08/23/2023

Be sure to visit our friends Alley Twenty Six for and $4 pours of one of our favorite Smooth Ambler Spirits club picks, “When the Leche Breaks”!

When Alley Twenty Six and the Bull City Bourbon Club put their heads together for a Whiskey Wednesday pick, great things happen. Come taste a wee dram of TONIGHT's bottle:

OLD SCOUT 6 YR
"When the Leche Breaks"

These special selections offer our customers a different unique or exciting bottle of whiskey to serve at a break-even price. It’s our way to offer our guests a chance to learn about these premium whiskeys without breaking the bank. Whiskey enthusiasts and novices are all welcome.

Today's pick is only only $4 a dram.

Learn more:
OLD SCOUT 6 YR
"When the Leche Breaks"
Aged 6 yrs. 3 mo.

116.4 Proof!

Nose: dulce de leche in a big way, cake icing, cream cheese icing, buttery sweetness, almost confected/candied, soft/chewy caramels, slight Werther's Originals, sweetened condensed milk, Thai tea, real cinnamon spice

Palate: more spicy than sweet like the nose, almost middle eastern/Moroccan/exotic spices, rich, warming, Garam Masala, chai, allspice, mulled cider, baked apple, crumb crust, crumble topping

Finish: medium to medium+, again very nicely balanced, drying exotic spices, a little cardamom and caraway, barely perceptible but present toasty oak.

🥃

06/15/2023

Happy from your friends at BCBC! Reflecting on a year of great barrel picks past, and looking ahead at those yet to come. Cheers 🥃

06/14/2023

Be sure to visit our friends Alley Twenty Six tonight for and as they’ll be pouring up $7 pours of our BCBC Angels Envy barrel pick!

Here are some notes from the Bull City Bourbon Club about this weeks pick, the Angel’s Envy “Bull City” Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels for $7 a dram.

“We were surprised at how variable the samples were given the nature of Angel’s Envy finishing their bourbon in port barrels, but “Bull City” represents an easy standout unanimous selection. Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Angel’s Envy barrel program is the ability to customize the proof. You all probably recognize that the normal shelf product is bottled at 86.6 proof. But, when doing a barrel selection you can choose the bottling proof up to 110. Ultimately we chose 110 proof as this minimizes dilution of the barrel preserving the richness (you can dilute it yourself further if you choose) and seemed a great fit for the barrel we chose. Nearly a 24 proof point increase from their standard product, this represents a great value middle ground between the standard product and their limited edition yearly cask strength releases. A satisfyingly rich pour with a balanced deep sweetness, this is yet another pick that we’re looking forward to sharing!”

The nose offers soft new leather wallet, cinnamon yeast rolls, Raisin Bran crunch, stewed strawberries and crème brûlée. One the palate this whiskey drinks rich with notes of strawberry jam, marzipan, Caramelized sugar, sweet pipe to***co, baking spice, nutmeg and port. The finish is long, delightful rounded sweetness with wine tannins.

03/18/2023

We’re excited to announce the arrival of our Barrell Single Barrel 14yr Rye “Canadian Bakin’”! While this pick quickly sold out to the club, we encourage those who miss out to give it a try by visiting our restaurant partners Alley Twenty Six, NanaSteak, Dashi, Juju Durham, and Beer Study!

At over 14yr old, this high age statement Canadian rye comes in at a whopping 133.46 proof. Rich and satisfying with notable confectionary notes, we named this one after it’s delicious bakery-steeped profile. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the proof and age statement…this is a SHORT barrel, yielding a total of only 90 bottles!

Many of you know that Barrell is a non-distilling producer (NDP), which means that they source their whiskey. What they are best known for is their blending, it’s how they really put their mark on the whiskey they source. However, as they taste through lots of barrels….they identify some standouts that they pull for their single barrel program. So where do they source from? All over! KY, IN, TN, Canada. Interestingly, their single barrel rye program is split between Indiana (MGP) and Canadian ryes…offering pretty different profiles. Following our selection last year, we again chose to go with a high age statement Canadian rye. These can be uniquely delicious and are getting harder and harder to come by... when was the last time you had a 14+yr rye at $100 or less? But fortunately, with some effort and a little luck, we nabbed this one for the club!

Details:
Barrel
Canadian rye, undisclosed distillery
14+ year age statement
133.46 proof

Tasting Notes:

👃 Sticky Lemon bar with powdered sugar, pine sap, shortbread, clearly Canadian rye and overproofed, aged pine, golden raisins in syrup

👅 Sweetness from golden raisin syrup, Underripe pear, pear tart, walnut, frangipane (almond marzipanesque custard), pine sap, pine tree, wooden chest made of pine

🏁 Long and pleasant, rich and sweet, light cracked peppercorn

Cheers,
🥃 Your BCBC Admin Team

02/26/2023

Simply the best 🥃

01/17/2023

Be sure to visit our friends Alley Twenty Six tomorrow afternoon for pours featuring our recent Heaven’s Door barrel selection, “Dramcake”! Cheers 🥃

We have a new exciting pick for tomorrow. The Bull City Bourbon Club pick Heaven’s Door Single Barrel “Dramcake” for $5 a pour.

"From the distillery partnered with Bob Dylan, this was the very first barrel pick from the brand in North Carolina. Because of the way the pick process worked, we had to wait a beat to make sure we secured our top choice (of the 7 barrels we sampled), despite being the first group to pick and luckily we did! Living up to its MGP source, this one pleasantly surprised us and we’re excited to share it with the group and local bourbon community." -

Coming in with a mashbill of 75% corn, 21% rye and 4% malted barley and 122.1proof.

On the nose enjoy tropical notes, strawberry, pancake, whipped cream and taffy.
On the palate cola candy gummy and root beer float, candy apple, faint oak, gentle acidity, pralines, and sticky butter pecan ice cream.  The finish is long and gentle with hints of caramel, honey vanilla and light sweet oak.

12/24/2022

We’re excited to announce the arrival of our Ry3 Whiskey Toasted Barrel Finished Cask Strength Rye! We are additionally happy to say that there are bottles available to the community at the Durham ABC HWY55 store on a first-come, first-served basis! We also encourage those interested to give it a try while visiting our restaurant partners Alley Twenty Six, NanaSteak, Dashi and Juju Durham!

Finished whiskey is hard to do well (you’ve probably noticed we don’t pick very many) without drowning out the base spirit. That said, we find that secondary wood barrel finishing (double oak, toasted barrel, etc) provides a more natural finished product that can compliment the base whiskey. Even then, there’s a fine line; too little finish and what’s the point, but too much and it can become too sweet (added wood sugars) and begin to lose the character of the original whiskey. To that end we worked with Phenomenal Spirits to taste through several toasted samples until we found our just right “Goldilocks” barrel. The character of the rye shines through while carrying with it an added butteriness and subtle uniquely toasted notes of browned butter and charred maple wood…a perfect complement to cold winter nights of this Holiday Season!

Barrel Details:
RY3 - 3 component blend
(MGP rye, Alberta rye, 14yr MGP light whiskey)
Toasted Barrel Finish -26
Proof: 120.6

Tasting Notes:

👃fresh caramel corn, vanilla extract, molasses, browned butter, golden brown marshmallow

👅browned butter, caramel corn, cooked peach, dark molasses, charred maple wood, sugar yeasted donut, chicory, orange zest

🏁 medium, bitter lemon, balanced alcohol, charred maple, lemon custard, coffee bean

🥃Cheers
- Your BCBC Admin Team

12/24/2022

We’re excited to announce the arrival of our Woodinville Whiskey Co. Cask Strength Rye pick, “Apryecot Jam”! We are additionally happy to say that there are bottles available to the community at the Durham ABC HWY55 store on a first-come, first-served basis! We also encourage those interested to give it a try while visiting our restaurant partners Alley Twenty Six, NanaSteak, Dashi and Juju Durham!

With only approximately 30 single barrels allocated to the product line nationwide this year, this offering is extremely limited. Furthermore, with only a handful of these barrels selected by groups, we were honored to be one such group, and the first in NC to make such a pick! This one was quite meaningful to us and really came full circle as we made the first barrel selection of their bourbon when they first came to NC back in 2020 (Honey Smack’d).

Now this rye is unique in a few ways. The first and most obvious is that it is distilled and aged in Washington. Also…it is 💯% rye! Typically whiskies require malted grains in order to enable important enzymatic processes, however Woodinville went the scientific route and simply supplemented the enzymes. Though we were excited, we weren’t sure going into it what to expect exactly, but the results positively surprised us. In the end, we were thrilled to choose a heavily bourbon leaning rye (crazy given the 100% rye mashbill) with strong apricot notes which we aptly named “Apryecot Jam”! We’re excited to introduce this pick to the group and NC, and hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Barrel Details:
Woodinville
100% Rye Mashbill
Barrel #8337
Proof: 115.48

Tasting Notes:

👃 licorice, big spice, cassia cinnamon bark, light raspberry tones, raisin, dates, candied fig, peach, apricot (both fresh and dried), smells like a woodinville product, smells a little bourbon leaning

👅 churros, apricot jam (cooked down), raisinettes, matcha latte, pine/spruce, bergamot, slightly sweet cream, a creamsicle but w/ apricot instead of orange, smoky guava, grilled pineapple

🏁 med/med plus finish, spicy but with a freshness, golden raisin, some acidity, minerality, grilled pineapple

🥃Cheers
- Your BCBC Admin Team

12/12/2022

We’re excited to announce the arrival of our second Elijah Craig Barrel Proof pick, “‘Lijah Like Sunday Morning”! While this pick was quite limited, just under 10 bottles will be publicly available at the North Pointe ABC store starting tomorrow morning (12/12)! We encourage those who miss out to give it a try by visiting our restaurant partners Alley Twenty Six, NanaSteak, Dashi and Juju Durham!

As many of you know, last year was the first year that Heaven Hill Distillery began offering the option to select Elijah Craig picks at barrel strength. We’ve always loved the triannual batches of ECBP, and similarly loved our first ECBP selection “Bull in Elijah’s Shop”…so we were excited to choose another this go round!

The pick process this time was a bit of a roller coaster, but in the end it really couldn’t have turned out any better! After tasting through a handful of samples, we found a winner we were happy with…only to find out that that barrel was actually unavailable due to a glitch in the system. The Heaven Hill rep went above and beyond to help rectify the situation and generously provided a new selection of samples. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we actually found one that we liked even better than the barrel we’d previously picked! This one comes in a bit over 8 years and 126.9 proof from warehouse E, Floor 4.

Barrel Details:
Elijah Craig (Heaven Hill)
Mashbill: 78c/10r/12mb
Barrel: 6688118
Age: 8+ yr
Warehouse: E
Floor: 4
Proof: 126.9

Tasting Notes:

👃 leather, to***co, plum, cranberry, candied walnut

👅 oak sugar, strawberry jam, dark cherry, vanilla, pecan morning bun

🏁 long, bakery notes, pecan, molasses, Kentucky hug

🥃Cheers
- Your BCBC Admin Team

12/10/2022

We are excited to announce the arrival of our Heaven’s Door Single Barrel “BCBC - Dramcake”…one of the first NC! Fortunately there are extra bottles to go around and are available to the public starting TODAY(12/10) at the New Durham ABC HWY 55 location! You can also try it while visiting our restaurant partners Alley Twenty Six and NanaSteak!

From the distillery partnered with Bob Dylan…this was the very first barrel pick from the brand in NC. Because of the way the pick process worked, we had to wait a beat to make sure we secured our top choice (of the 7 barrels we sampled), despite being the first group to pick…and luckily we did! Living up to its MGP source, this one pleasantly surprised and we’re excited to share it with the group and local bourbon community. Cheers 🥃

Details:
Heaven’s Door (MGP)
MGP Low Rye Mashbill - 75 corn / 21 rye / 4 malted barley
Barrel #22653
Proof: 122.1
Retail is 59.95 each

Tasting Notes:

👃 Tropical, red fruit (strawberry), pancake, whipped cream (canned), taffy pull

👅 Cola candy gummy, root beer float,
State fair candy apple, faint oak, gentle acidity, pralines, sticky butter pecan ice cream

🏁 long and gentle, caramel, honey vanilla, then long but light sweet oak

Cheers
- Your BCBC Admin Team

12/07/2022

Don’t miss out!

In celebration of JoAnn Street joining us this Thursday evening our this week we are pouring our special collaboration with the Russell's Reserve "Back Alley Bird”.

This week’s pick is a 8½ year Single Barrel pick from Wild Turkey under the Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel label. Coming in at 110 proof and non-chill filtered. Available for $5 a dram today while supplies last!

On the nose the drinker enjoys wafts of stone fruits and cherry are prevalent. Candy corn and subtle spearmint are followed by pops of white pepper, touches of caramel and vanilla. On the palate fruitcake, prominent toasted marshmallow, burnt sugar, caramel and vanilla echo their appearance in the nose. Dry cocoa and a pleasing spice end the sip. It finishes with notes of smoked maple, cinnamon and dry cocoa.

11/25/2022

Check out our friends at Beer Study - Durham today for their Special Black Friday Event, during which they’ll be releasing a triple threat collab beer from Southern Pines Brewing Company aged in our BCBC Smooth Ambler barrels! Cheers!