Carbon & Oak

The single most useful thing on a bourbon label isn't the age or the proof — it's the mash bill. Here's how to read it.

In 1984 Elmer T. Lee bottled one barrel by itself and accidentally invented modern bourbon hunting. The history behind Blanton's, Warehouse H, and the stoppers.

This one just happens to carry the name of the man who started it — the master distiller who selected the barrels that became Blanton's, and later got a bottle carrying his own name.

Named for a stretch of rich farmland along the Kentucky River, Rock Hill Farms is one of Buffalo Trace's most elusive single barrel bourbons. Like Blanton's, Elmer T. Lee, Hancock's Reserve, and Ancient Age, it's built from the distillery's famous Mash Bill #2—a higher rye bourbon recipe that Buffalo Trace has never officially disclosed but has become legendary among bourbon enthusiasts. For years, Rock Hill Farms quietly lived in the shadow of Blanton's and Elmer T. Lee, yet

This bourbon review may come with a small amount of bias, as I originally hail from Virginia and had the pleasure of discovering A. Smith Bowman Distillery nearly seven years ago. While I never had the opportunity to taste Batch #2, I've followed these releases closely and have enjoyed what the distillery has put forward so far.