By Richard Thomas
Rating: B-
(Credit: Sazerac)
The twist for this particular installment of Benchmark Bourbon, a Buffalo Trace whiskey made from the #1 bourbon mash bill and intended as a mass market, bargain shelf product, it draws from barrels aged on the top floors of their rickhouses. In describing Benchmark Top Floor Bourbon, Buffalo Trace Distillery wrote “top warehouse floors tend to age faster as heat rises.” That is broadly speaking true, if over-simplifying things.
The thermal and air circulation properties of the rickhouses ensure that the top floors are often quite toasty; in my experience, the top floor of a four-story rickhouse will be well above freezing even on the iciest of Kentucky winter days. On a sweltering Kentucky summer day, you might be able to fry an egg once the skillet heats up to the ambient air temperature up there. That heat tends towards two maturation outcomes: increase water evaporation, thereby raising the alcohol content; and increase the absorption of wood flavors from the barrel. Other processes that take place in maturation are not accelerated, and some (which require that lost water to take place) may actually be retarded. So, it’s not actually turning out older than its numerical age suggests, but it certainly has the most barrel influence of any of the Benchmarks.
The Bourbon
Benchm Bark Top Floor is believed to be aged for four years, so similar to Bonded in that sense without actually being bottled in bond, and one reason why is that it is bottled at 86 proof. The color of the pour is mid-amber.
Keeping all that in mind, I was surprised by how light of a bourbon it is. In most respects, it’s very much like the standard Benchmark–brown sugar, vanilla–but with some added notes of butterscotch and cherry cola, plus a stronger note of oak.
The Price
Most online retailers have this marked at $25 to $30, so the Buffalo Trace fever mark-up has afflicted Benchmark as well. This is despite an MSRP of $17. But the bottle sometimes pops up for as little as $15, so I suggest never paying more than $20 for it. This is meant to be a bargain, so don’t give the price gougers the extra profit.
