Casey Jones Barrel Cut Single Barrel

Casey Jones Barrel Cut Single Barrel

Purchased for $49 at Casey Jones Distillery in Hopkinsville, KY.

NAS, buuttt…”up to 3 years in white oak” barrel per their website

101.8 proof

This is, as best I can tell, a whiskey blended with a rum. Reviewed neat in a glencairn.

Appearance: A burnished, copper color. Medium, syrupy legs.

Nose: Sweet, sweet sweet! Brown sugar, vanilla bean, oatmeal.

Palate: Vanilla, brown sugar syrup, sweet oak. It has a soft mouthfeel and coats the palate very easily.

Finish: There’s a very faint hug that shows up about 5 or 6 seconds after you’ve swallowed and it just barely warms the center of your chest and then fades away. There is a slight bight at the back of the through, but nothing significant. There’s a woody, sweetness that lingers on the palate.

Rating: 4.5/10

Overall: It’s tough to be objective with this one and rate it for what it is…which…I’m still not completely sure what it is, but most like a moonshine. But what I do know is it’s not a bourbon. And I’m pretty certain it’s not even a whiskey. However, it is trying very hard to disguise itself as one in my opinion. Therefore, I’m subjective with it and comparing it to other barrel aged, barrel proof, brown waters that I’ve had. EDITED: As someone pointed out to me after first putting out this review, they pointed out that the labeling states "spirits distilled from corn and cane." So that likely means this is a blend of corn whiskey (spirit distilled from corn) and rum (spirit distilled from cane).

It's not bad, but its sub-par compared to other whiskeys and bourbons that I’m used to. It’s definitely something different and is nice to break up the monotony at times. It’s very sweet and not very complex, though. Therefore, it’s solidly in the 4.0-5.0 range of ratings.

Behind the Bottle: The Casey Jones Distillery is named after…well…Casey Jones, who was a prolific moonshiner and bootlegger. Arlon “AJ” Casey Jones, the master distiller at Casey Jones Distillery, is the grandson of Casey Jones, and he still uses his grandfather’s iconic square pot still design.

Casey Jones was very well known in the prohibition era and to bootleggers for his very well made stills and for making them in a square shape so that they were easy to load into a wagon or the back of a pickup truck so that if the lawmen were on the way, it was easy to load up the still and get out of Dodge!

Casey Jones Distillery is mostly known for making moonshine. However, they do have a bourbon offering now and are trying to appeal to the bourbon and whiskey world. As such, they have two “barrel cut” products: a single barrel and a double barrel. Nothing on the website or on the bottle of this “Barrel Cut Single Barrel” uses the word “whiskey.” Therefore, I’m pretty confident that this expression is likely best described as a “barrel aged moonshine.” But I also can’t find anything that says this expression is a “moonshine,” but I’m guessing that’s because it’s barrel aged (and I think moonshine technically isn’t). So, I say all that to ask that if you know what the proper name of this spirit is, please let me know below!

1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.

2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.

3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.

4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I’d rather have.

5 | Good | Good, just fine.

6 | Very Good | A cut above.

7 | Great | Well above average

8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.

9 | Incredible | An all time favorite

10 | Perfect | Perfect