I was reading about B.R. Distilling Co. bringing back their 17-year barrel proof Tennessee straight bourbon. It’s not just old — it’s barrel proof, meaning no dilution, full strength, whatever the angels left behind.
They call it rare. They’re not lying. Most bourbon doesn’t see double digits in the barrel, let alone seventeen. Tennessee whiskey adds charcoal mellowing before aging, so this one’s had time to settle twice — once through sugar maple charcoal, once through oak.
It’s not for daily sipping. It’s for remembering where you were seventeen years ago — or pretending you do. I was in Chiang Mai that year. Sleeping in a guesthouse with a leaky roof and a cat named Samsara.
