Type Bourbon | Producer Buffalo Trace Distillery | Region USA > Kentucky > Frankfort | ABV 45% | Volume 700 ml | Price (AUD) ~$65
House notes
Buffalo Trace is the bourbon you recommend to friends because it is cheap, available, and flat-out better than bottles that cost twice as much. Rye grass, brown sugar, baking spice, and just enough oak to keep the whole thing honest. It is not showy. It is not hunting. It is what you pour two fingers of into a rocks glass at 8pm on a Thursday and then you text the group chat. The mash bill leans slightly rye-forward, which is why it runs an Old Fashioned without going cloying and why it holds up in a Whisky Sour without getting hidden by the lemon. If someone tells you this bottle is boring, they are wrong and also a little bit stressful.
What it pairs with
The working bourbon. Old Fashioneds, Boulevardiers, Manhattans at a stretch, Whisky Sours, Mint Juleps, and the occasional Paper Plane if you have Aperol in the cabinet anyway. Food-wise, pairs with anything smoked, braised, or deliberately caramelised: sticky ribs, pulled pork, steak with black pepper sauce, or dark chocolate that is not messing around. Cuts through fat, respects salt. Also extremely good neat with a small glass of water while you wait for the roast to rest. The bottle that earns three different uses in a single night without complaining.
About the producer
Buffalo Trace is distilled in Frankfort, Kentucky, at what its owners claim is the oldest continuously operating distillery in America (they have a point). The Sazerac Company owns it and makes roughly every second bourbon you’ve heard of, including Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and Pappy Van Winkle.