Every now and then a whiskey is released that makes you ask, “is this really worth the same price as a used car?” A week or so ago, I received a package with a small sample of one such whiskey. I held off reviewing it because of life, work, and all that jazz; but also because I was honestly incredulous.
How much better can a $4,000 bottle — that’s the MSRP, not the secondary markup retail price — really be? Well… let’s find out together.
Before I dive in, let’s look at what The Las Drop is. The line is a super rare shingle that’s part of the wider Sazerac Company, which includes huge rum, cognac, and whiskey distilleries all over the world in one way or another (sometimes production, sometimes just distribution). The Last Drop is a program wherein the last great barrels of cognac, rum, or whiskey are blended or bottled as-is as one-off vintage releases. In most cases, these are single barrel releases with 150 to 200-ish bottles of 50-year-old rums or a single Buffalo Trace barrel from when the distillery was still called the Old Fashioned Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery. In short, The Last Drop releases are where Sazerac drops its rarest and most sought-after bottles of booze — expressions that are literally never going to be seen again. Ever. Hence the price point is in the thousands for these bottles.
Now that you have a little context, let’s dive into this brand-new $4,000 bottle of Kentucky whiskey and see if you should spend a couple of months’ rent on it.
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The Last Drop Signature Blend No. 28 A Blend Of Kentucky Straight Whiskeys
ABV: 60.7%
Average Price: $3,999
The Whiskey:
This blend is from Buffalo Trace’s Master Blender Drew Mayville, who’s been at the distillery since 2004. Mayville created this blend by sampling bourbons and ryes from the rarest and sometimes oldest barrels of whiskey in Buffalo Trace’s vast and numerous warehouses. While the exact details of the final blend are unknown, we do that the whiskeys in this blend are some of the rarest that the distillery had on its ricks. And since it is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey, this is technically a “blended straight whiskey.”
The Bottle:
The bottle comes in a nice box with an oak frame that’s perfect for gifting or storing. It also comes with a 50ml sample bottle with a tasting book in case you want to save the bottle for the vault but still actually taste the juice.
Tasting Notes:
What’s amazing is that the moment you open the bottle, you’re whisked away to Buffalo Trace on the nose. It’s that dark red brick and black mold with the old rickhouse beams, dirt floors, sour mash fermenters, and green grass with fall leaves crunching under feet. The nose then starts to deepen into sticky toffee pudding, old dried-up figs, black-tea-soaked dates, burnt orange, cinnamon sticks, dried ancho chilis, firewood pitch, and a creamy underbelly of vanilla and toffee.
The palate warms with an ABV buzz that leads to soft vanilla cream with tart but dark berries floating next to orange zest and salted caramel. There’s a sense of old boot leather and Kiwi boot cream next to waxy cacao nibs, cherry cream soda, pecan and dark chocolate clusters, pistachios, and roasted root veg — think caramelized parsnips and carrots next to a Yorkshire pudding. The end becomes a luxuriously soft and creamy sip of stewed black cherries with anise and clove next to holly bushes and fir needles with a little bunch of spices — cinnamon sticks, star anise, dried rose, a stick of pine, dried orange peel — tied with an old waxy piece of twine.
Bottom Line:
Yeah, it’s amazing. Just f*cking amazing.
Is it worth $4,000? Yes. No.
I don’t know what you’re into.
I know this: it truly does taste amazing. It’s a hell of a thing that this isn’t a bourbon or rye, as it would easily be in the number one spot for those respective end-of-year lists. Moreover, these bottles tend to gain massive value if kept for investment. So maybe hold onto one for a decade and then buy a new car in ten years?
Ranking:
99/100 — This is up there with the best of the best.
How To Buy:
There are only 1,458 bottles floating around out there and a fair few have likely already been snatched up. Your best chance is to ask at your local very high-end whiskey retailer. Otherwise, this will likely pop up at charity auctions or aftermarket retailers soon enough (for a much higher price).