Char level four is the heaviest standard burn a bourbon barrel gets, and Blanton’s Special Release Char No. 4 is a single barrel bourbon built to show what that extra fire does. Deeper char pulls more from the oak vanilla and caramel sweetness up front, a smoky, earthy edge behind it as the whiskey works through Kentucky summers in Warehouse H, the metal-clad warehouse the brand has always pulled from. Bottled at barrel proof, each barrel in the release lands at its own strength, so the number on your label belongs to that barrel alone. The 2022 run totaled four barrels and 832 bottles worldwide. Open it for a vertical alongside the standard bottling, neat, and let the char do the talking.