After reading many good reviews of Henry McKenna Single Barrel I decided to pick up a bottle of it. The price tag was less than $30 which did not seem bad for a 10-year-old single barrel 100 proof Bourbon. My bottle was selected by Frugal MacDoogal and was barrel 1449 barreled on 12/10/03. The reason that is significant is while others rave about this Bourbon, I found it lacking and boring. I held my tongue about it and decided to take another run at it over the weekend and it remained boring and lacking depth. To say I am disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Now the bottle is not bad, there are no crazy fusel solvent notes, no vegetables, nothing wayward, but if I wanted a pedestrian Bourbon I would have bought one. The nice thing is another barrel will probably be different, and by the time I need to purchase another to put in the queue this one will certainly no longer lurk on the shelves and I will also be sure to not purchase it again from Greene’s or Frugal. There are enough positive reviews out there to make me interested in trying this one again, but if you do see 1449 on the shelf, you might want to pass it up for something more interesting.
