Featured at World Whisky Day 2019: Balcones made the world take notice when their single malt began winning blind tastings against more established whiskies from Scotland and Ireland, along with a bevy of competitive gold medals beginning in 2011 and not looking back. They are continually listed near the top of American whiskies in various publications and have an array of core range offerings along with more limited experiments. The Balcones Single Malt Reserve 101 is a single cask of their “1” Texas Single Malt, specifically bought by Houston whiskey bar Reserve 101 and aged in European oak casks. Sourced from an early relationship with Balcones co-founder, Chip Tate, this malt is not on their regular menu. Even if you do get a chance to try it, there is no guarantee the staff will tell you where the only liquor store in the city is where you can buy a bottle. We’ve been sworn to secrecy for this barrel (though feel free to visit Reserve 101 and cozy up to the bartenders to see if they’ll spill the details), but encourage everyone to seek out a single cask expression.
Distillery: Balcones
Region: Foreign
Age: NAS
Strength: 56.2%
Price: $74.59
Maturation: European oak cask
Barrel: Number 11641, distilled 3/5/16, bottled 12/20/17, bottle 10 of 215
Location: Waco, TX
Nose: Chili smoke, cinnamon, maple
Palate: Maple, vanilla
Finish: Cinnamon
Comments: Water can dial back a little of the intensity for you, though it is mighty fine right out of the bottle too.
Adam – This whiskey isn’t scotch. It isn’t Irish whiskey or French whiskey or Australian whiskey. It is damned American. There’s a reason Balcones Single Malt often tops the list of American whiskies, whether focusing on the rise of craft whiskies or including the quintessential American spirit, bourbon. It is big, it is bold, it is complex and maybe most of all, evocative of a place. I love the strident smoke paired with cinnamon, tinged around the edges of maple and vanilla. I’d love to do a side by side comparison with their regular single malt but this bottle has disappeared too quickly. It is single malt that is hard to quantify but easy to enjoy. It’s just really good! From what I remember of the standard offering, this single cask with European oak adds some of the sweet maple qualities that aren’t present in the regular. Of course this is all from a single barrel anyway, so these lush variances are to be expected, appreciated, and mourned once they are gone. While you may not be able to find this exact bottle without great difficulty, rest assured the regular single malt is quite available and worthy of acquisition.
Jenny – This Reserve 101 reminds me of red hot chili peppers. It makes me think of spicy cooking. I like it. The nose lures you in, and you get smacked in the face.
Meghan – The nose on this is beautiful. It doesn’t do it justice to describe it as eating pancakes and syrup in a lumberyard, but that’s the best I’ve got. There is a very perfume-y quality to the nose. I can imagine getting a whiff of this as some classy elderly lady walks past her doorman to the waiting town car on her way to the Met Opera. Or, perhaps what Joan Crawford might have worn. The palate is nowhere near as sweet. In fact there is a very surprising spicy heat to it, a sweetness that has to come from the oak, with a woody tenor to it. It’s sweet in a way I don’t think I’ve encountered outside of a whisky, hence why I’m assuming it’s barrel related. There isn’t much of a finish but the cinnamon heat does linger in the mouth, like those cinnamon gummy bears that always got stuck in my teeth as a kid.
You can almost taste the Texas in it.
Michael – The overwhelming impression for me is of drinking a liquid Red Hot. There’s more to it than that but that is my takeaway. I love it.
Caitlin – The Reserve 101 is like hot roasted chilies. You can almost taste the Texas in it.
Ben – The nose is like you’re cooking desert in a different room. Like someone is baking cinnamon muffins with fruit and I can’t smell the fruit, but the sweetness is affected by the fruit.
