04/15/2026
Today's piece comes with a little history lesson.
Before 1984, every bottle of bourbon was blended from multiple barrels. Then Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky had a bold idea. What if one bottle came from ONE barrel, chosen by hand? That bottle was Blanton's Single Barrel, and it literally changed the entire bourbon industry forever.
Every detail on Blanton's is personal. The dump date, the day the bourbon left the barrel, is handwritten on the label. This one? October 1, 2012. Hand-selected. Hand-filtered. Hand-bottled.
Now here's where it gets really fun. Since day one, every Blanton's bottle has been topped with a hand-cast metal horse and jockey stopper. In 1999 they introduced 8 unique poses, each one a different stride in a horse race, each stamped with a letter that spells B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S. Collectors hunt for years to complete the set. Finish it and Buffalo Trace will mount them on a real bourbon barrel stave for FREE.
This bottle is hitting my booth Thursday, complete with the iconic "O" stopper. One piece of bourbon history, ready for its next home.
Thursday. My booth. Cheers 🥃
The Thrifty Magpie Co in Senatobia, MS. Open Monday-Saturday.