Blanton’s Original Single Barrel is the bourbon that created the single-barrel category in 1984, and it still drinks like the argument for it. Every barrel comes out of Warehouse H at Buffalo Trace the distillery’s only metal-clad warehouse, where wider temperature swings push the whiskey deeper into the wood. Blanton’s is bottled at 93 proof from a higher-rye mash bill, one barrel at a time, each bottle hand-labeled with its barrel number, rick, and dump date and topped with one of eight horse-and-jockey stoppers. Caramel and orange peel up front, rye spice through the middle, a clean oak finish that doesn’t overstay. An allocation staple it moves quickly when it hits shelves. Pour it neat for someone stepping up from wheated bourbons to something with more bite.