The red label means export: Blanton’s Single Barrel Red is a Kentucky straight bourbon bottled for the Japanese market, drawn one barrel at a time from Warehouse H at Buffalo Trace Distillery. Stateside bottles arrive as reimports, which is why the “Takara” cream-and-red label reads differently from the domestic Original. Bottled at 93 proof from a high-rye mash bill, it leans into honey, caramel, vanilla and soft baking spice, and this being single barrel bourbon every barrel runs a little different. Japanese-edition bottles move quickly when they reach US shelves. Pour it neat next to the standard Original and settle which side of the Pacific got the better barrel.