Cask Finishes From Barrel And Bardstown, Lost Lantern Far Flung Bourbon, and More

Blends and cask finishes are here, there, and everywhere in this week's new releases. Both Barrell Craft Spirits and Bardstown Bourbon Co. have not one, but two new whiskeys out: From Barrel, its latest Cask Finish series, an armagnac-finished blend of straight bourbons, and a new single barrel line of microblends, while Bardstown Bourbon has collaborated with Maison Ferrand for a second cognac-finished blend and also introduced the 13th bottle in its Discovery Series. Elsewhere in the U.S., independent bottler Lost Lantern has unveiled its latest Far-Flung blend of bourbons, Chattanooga Whiskey explores maple syrup cask finishing, and Pursuit Spirits has an 11 year old cask strength bourbon. Across the pond, Bunnahabhain has revealed the first single malt in a new three-part annual series.

Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series: Armagnac

ABV: 56.5%
SRP: $85
Availability: Limited

Barrell Foundation Single Barrels

ABV: Varies
SRP: $TBD
Availability: Limited

Barrell’s latest Cask Finish Series is an armagnac-finished blend of 10 year old Kentucky bourbon; 7, 8, 11, and 12 year old Indiana bourbons; and 9, 13, 14, and 15 year old Tennessee bourbons. The final blend has a derived mashbill of 78% corn, 18% rye, and 4% malted barley. A limited release, the new whiskey is available at barrellbourbon.com and in select retailers nationwide. Previous iterations of Barrell’s Cask Finish Series include bourbons finished in amburana, rum, mizunara, ice wine, and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks.

In tandem with the new Cask Finish bourbon, Barrell has debuted a new line of micro-blended bourbons that it’s calling its Foundation single barrels. Each Foundation bourbon starts with two 5 year old Indiana bourbon barrels. Those components are blended together, then re-barreled into new charred oak and stored in Barrell’s Kentucky rickhouse for additional maturation. The rick number will be prominently featured on each Foundation single barrel label. According to the Barrell, Foundation single barrels are currently produced in batches of about 40 barrels, and will only roll out to select markets.

The single barrels join Barrell's Foundation blend of straight bourbons, which launched in October 2023. That whiskey was a monumental one for the blender, as it marked its first foray into non-cask strength bourbon.

Bardstown Bourbon Co. Discovery #13

ABV: 55.4%
SRP: $140
Availability: Limited

Bardstown Bourbon Co. Ferrand Cognac Finish (2025 Edition)

ABV: 53.5%
SRP: $140
Availability: Limited

For its 13th Discovery Series release, Bardstown Bourbon Co. master blender Dan Callaway first started with a blend of four distinct Kentucky straight bourbons.

The majority of the blend (45%) is a 9 year old Kentucky bourbon with a mashbill of 74% corn, 18% rye, and 8% malted barley. Joining it is another 9 year old Kentucky bourbon, made from 78% corn 10% rye, and 12% malted barley (22% of the blend); a 15 year old Kentucky bourbon, made from a mash of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley (20% of the blend); and an 8 year old Kentucky bourbon, with a mash of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley (13% of the blend).

In a first for Bardstown’s Discovery Series, the final blend is double barreled, seeing secondary maturation in two different varieties of oak. About 61% of the blend was finished in new oak for 4 months, while the remainder was finished in Hungarian oak for the same amount of time. After this secondary maturation, the barrels were batched together once more, then bottled.

The second new release from Bardstown is a rehash of its 2022 collaboration with Maison Ferrand cognac. Like the Discovery #13, the 2025 Ferrand Cognac Finish is a blend of four components: 73% 9 year old Kentucky bourbon (74% corn, 18% rye, 8% malted barley); 10% 11 year old Kentucky bourbon (78% corn, 13% rye, 9% malted barley); 10% 12 year old Kentucky bourbon (75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley); and 7% Kentucky rye (95% rye, 5% malted barley). The whiskey spent 15 months in cognac casks from Ferrand.

Both new releases are available at Bardstown Bourbon Co. in Bardstown, Kentucky and at its Louisville tasting room.

Chattanooga Whiskey Barrel Finishing Series: Michigan Maple Syrup Cask Finished Bourbon

ABV: 47.5%
SRP: $60
Availability: At retailers in select states, at the distillery, and seelbachs.com

Tennessee-based craft distillery Chattanooga Whiskey has released the seventh entry in its ongoing Barrel Finishing Series. As the name suggests, this expression was finished in maple syrup casks which were sourced from Michigan. The liquid is a blend of two bourbons, including the brand’s flagship high-malt Barrel 91 recipe, and its Barrel 76 mashbill that contains two types of aromatic malts. The blend was aged for 3 years in new charred oak before being transferred into the maple barrels, where it rested for 1 year.

Pursuit Spirits Mellwood Legacy Collection: Old Anvil 11 year old Cask Strength Bourbon

ABV: 59.7%
SRP: $100/375ml
Availability: Exclusive to Pursuit Spirits’s Whiskey Row location

Back in April, independent bottler Pursuit Spirits launched its Mellwood Legacy Collection, named for the Mellwood Distillery in Louisville, where Pursuit has its blending facility. The initial launch included two bourbons: 6 year old Mellwood Bottled in Bond and 7 year old Derby Town. This latest release is the line’s oldest yet, coming in at 11 years old.

Old Anvil comes from an undisclosed Kentucky distillery, and has a mashbill of 70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley. Founders Kenny Coleman and Ryan Cecil purchased these barrels at 5 years old in 2019, during the brand’s early years. When the whiskey turned 11 years old, the pair determined that the whiskey was finally ready to be bottled. A limited number of bottles were released exclusively at Pursuit’s Whiskey Row location, which just opened this month.

Lost Lantern Far-Flung Bourbon III

ABV: 62.4%
SRP: $100
Availability: Limited

Independent bottler Lost Lantern focuses on stocks from craft distilleries around the country. Its Far-Flung Bourbon series is so named because it showcases bourbons that are not from the traditional origin states of Kentucky and Tennessee. This third release in the series combines bourbons from Frey Ranch in Nevada, Still Austin in Texas, West Virginia’s Smooth Ambler, Mississippi-based Rich Grain Distilling, Rock Town Distillery in Arkansas, and Wollersheim Distillery in Wisconsin. All the liquid is 4 to 8 years old.

Bunnahabhain Westering House Collection: Turas Math No. 1 Islay Single Malt

ABV: 55.9%
SRP: $192
Availability: Limited

Islay distillery Bunahabhain, best known for its unpeated and sherry-forward single malts, is debuting a new three-part annual series called the Westering House Collection, which is meant to explore the distillery’s maritime roots. The first expression in the range, Turas Math No. 1 (Scottish Gaelic for “good journey”), is a marriage of two 15 year old single malts that were aged in different casks. The first one spent the entirety of its maturation in sherry casks sourced from coastal bodegas in Jerez, Spain, which contributes saline and maritime notes to the final blend. The other component was first aged for 10 years in refill oak casks, before transferring into amarone wine casks from Veneto, Italy for an additional 5 years.