Piggyback Single Barrel Legends Series: Brothers Osborne
Piggyback SiB Legends Series: Brothers Osborne
Cost: $50 for 750mL bottleAge: 6 years
Proof: 96.56
Mash Bill: 100% rye
Reviewed neat in a rocks glass.
Appearance: Chestnut (1.2) in color, very oily looking.
Nose: Sweet and spicy with caramel, caramelized oak, tons of vanilla, Hot Tamale candy vibes, a light orange zest, and a light smoky/charred note as well.
Palate: I immediately get the sweet notes of caramel, vanilla, and sweet oak. There’s a definite barrel char note, and most intriguing is a mix of spice notes. It’s kinda like there’s just a bunch of spices all jumbled together and from sip to sip they may replace each other or show up together in harmony: rye spice, black pepper, clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. When I lick my lips, I’m picking up a definite simple syrup note. This has a good mouthfeel in that it’s slightly on the creamy side and easily coats the palate.
Finish: It’s a pretty long finish. A very light hug high in the chest and back of the throat. Notes of sweet oak, vanilla, clove, and barrel char linger for a good while. The citrus note from the nose I lost track of on the palate but returned in the finish. I love the sweetness and the vanilla that linger. I’m used to the spicey notes of rye whiskies lingering the longest usually, so this is a nice change.
Rating: 7.1/10
Overall: This is a really good PiggyBack Single Barrel selection from WhistlePig. It’s not quite as good as the r/bourbon Piggyback pick I had last year, but it’s surprising how sweet this one is. It’s quite different from the typical PiggyBack 6yr profile in that sense. The amount of sweetness that I find in this bottle makes it hard to believe it’s 100% rye, but when the spice hits on the palate, it certainly reminds you of this fact. Just that bouquet of so many different spice notes is really nice and adds some complexity as you’re chasing various spice notes with each sip.
Behind the Bottle
This bottle was picked up “on accident” by a relative of mine. They were intending to just pick up a regular PiggyBack 6yr. It wasn’t until I was visiting them this weekend and noticed it was a single barrel pick and mentioned it that they realized what they had was more than the regular PiggyBack. 😊
WhistlePig started their “Legends Series” single barrel picks for PiggyBack 6yr 100% rye a few years back now. To date, I believe they have only done 3 offerings under this legends series: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake, Big Papi (David Ortiz), and Brother’s Osborne. While this is the only expression from this series I’ve tried now, based on reviews online, they’re all quite exceptional and well worth the chase if you are a fan of WhistlePig. And really, this makes sense if you think about it. WhistlePig is obviously targeting well known figures to add a name to these single barrel offerings for this series. Therefore, I’m certain WhistlePig staff is hand picking some of the absolute best barrels they have when soliciting the likes of big names like these to attach to their product.
This particular bottle is finished in “custom high toast barrel heads.” This didn’t immediately mean anything to me, so I had to do a little research. The only thing I figured out is basically they toast the inside of a barrel, including the barrel heads, to finish this bourbon off in. There’s no indication of how long it was finished in “high toast barrel heads,” so it’s hard for me to determine if it did anything significant. However, I will say the type of caramelly sweetness and the barrel char notes that kept showing up are notes that I would associate with a toasted barrel, so maybe there’s something there.
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
WhistlePig started their “Legends Series” single barrel picks for PiggyBack 6yr 100% rye a few years back now. To date, I believe they have only done 3 offerings under this legends series: Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake, Big Papi (David Ortiz), and Brother’s Osborne. While this is the only expression from this series I’ve tried now, based on reviews online, they’re all quite exceptional and well worth the chase if you are a fan of WhistlePig. And really, this makes sense if you think about it. WhistlePig is obviously targeting well known figures to add a name to these single barrel offerings for this series. Therefore, I’m certain WhistlePig staff is hand picking some of the absolute best barrels they have when soliciting the likes of big names like these to attach to their product.
This particular bottle is finished in “custom high toast barrel heads.” This didn’t immediately mean anything to me, so I had to do a little research. The only thing I figured out is basically they toast the inside of a barrel, including the barrel heads, to finish this bourbon off in. There’s no indication of how long it was finished in “high toast barrel heads,” so it’s hard for me to determine if it did anything significant. However, I will say the type of caramelly sweetness and the barrel char notes that kept showing up are notes that I would associate with a toasted barrel, so maybe there’s something there.
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
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