Whiskey-loving cruise ship goers will find an interesting new option on the bar list on Holland America Line voyages this spring, as the fleet is adding a Buffalo Trace single barrel selection. This marks the first time that Buffalo Trace has taken to the high seas with a single barrel offering.
For this inaugural voyage, Holland America’s drinks team selected Buffalo Trace barrel 002, which was filled in December 2015 and aged in Warehouse U on floor 5 and rick 34. The barrel yielded 192 bottles, which debut this month at Holland America cruise ship’s Ocean Bars, where it can be sipped neat, on the rocks, or mixed in an Old Fashioned.
As whisky’s popularity has soared over the past decade, cruise lines have been adding new and interesting whisky options to their bar and dining repertoires, including single barrels. Princess Cruises, for example, has offered single barrel selections from producers including Jack Daniel. Oceana Cruises last summer partnered with independent bottler Chapter 7 on a single cask scotch whisky to celebrate the christening of a new cruise ship, Vista, last year. That whisky, also named Chapter 7, was a 20 year old whose cask yielded 304 bottles, all of which were available for sale on Vista’s maiden voyage last summer. Many cruise ships now have dedicated whiskey bars onboard, and Oceana has also done other deep dive programs with top whisky makers such as Macallan.
The top bourbon makers’ single barrel programs are notoriously difficult to join, as demand far outweighs supply. Bars and store owners have an easier time of it than regular consumers, who usually lack the licensing and the buying clout. Cruise ships are an ideal venue for whisky, as the passengers are a captive audience with plenty time on their hands and a likely sense of adventure for enjoying the whisky’s nuances.
