If you’ve been following bourbon long enough, you remember a time when the high demand bottles of today were much easier to buy, and for a lot less. The now nearly impossible-to-find (at its suggested price) Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon was once a frequently overlooked paperweight on store shelves before its spectacular rise in popularity. Often resting in its cardboard box packaging collecting dust, its unique compact, round bottle design and $45 price tag, which was considered high at the time, sat among many lower cost options. A consumer base that had not yet caught “bourbon fever” may have been partly to blame for its lack of attention. Blanton's was one of the first bottles I reviewed when we founded Breaking Bourbon, and in my review, I questioned why it wasn’t getting more attention.

Since then, we’ve seen Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon rise in popularity from readily available on just about any shelf, to a bottle that sells for multiple times its asking price and a level of demand that could even be described as excessive. So what caused Blanton’s surge in popularity?

Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon was introduced to the market in 1984. The brand was created at the helm of Elmer T. Lee, the master distiller of Albert B. Blanton Distillery at the time, which is now known as Buffalo Trace Distillery. Blanton’s was created in honor of Colonel Albert B. Blanton as a high-end bourbon for the Japanese market. Originally it was an export-only product serving Japan’s growing appetite for upper-tier bourbon, a fact that would later help fuel bourbon’s popularity domestically.

Blanton’s was marketed as the first commercially sold single barrel bourbon. A single barrel bourbon is one where each barrel is individually selected and bottled, as opposed to the standard practice of emptying many barrels to create a batch for bottling. Seemingly innocuous by today’s standards, the concept of a commercially available single barrel bourbon was revolutionary because it resulted in variations of flavor profile from barrel to barrel which was the opposite of what brands were trying to accomplish at the time.

Interestingly, the Blanton’s brand isn’t owned by Sazerac, Buffalo Trace Distillery’s owner, and the company behind many of bourbon’s more popular brands today. In fact, Sazerac distills and markets Blanton’s under contract. We have to rewind over four decades to get the full story, which was highlighted by industry expert and author Chuck Cowdery on his blog in 2013. Bourbon was experiencing a dramatic slowdown in the 1980s, and in 1983, Age International, Inc. acquired the Albert B. Blanton Distillery, along with the Blanton’s brand and others. Age International, Inc. was created by industry giants Ferdie Falk and Robert Baranaskas, former CEO and President (respectively) of Fleishmann’s who ventured off to form their own company. Less than 10 years later they sold a portion of their shares to Takara Shuzo Co., a Japanese company, who later acquired the remainder of shares for $20 million, creating a nice payday for Falk and Baranaskas. Takara Shuzo Co. sold the distillery to Sazerac, but retained ownership of the Age International brands, which includes Blanton’s. Sazerac retained exclusive distilling rights to this day.

Unlike other Buffalo Trace bourbons which are aged in brick warehouses, Blanton’s is aged in Warehouse H, the distillery’s only steel warehouse (though new warehouses are metal clad with insulation). Warehouse H was constructed in 1935, which was commissioned by Albert Blanton soon after Prohibition ended. The warehouse was known to be Albert Blanton’s favorite, and the brand markets the fact that Blanton’s bourbon barrels are taken from the “center cut” or middle sections of the warehouse, a story seemingly taken from the pages of Shakespeare himself when it comes to the bottle’s namesake.

Every bottle of Blanton’s originates from a single barrel, and no two single barrels are exactly alike. Blanton’s doesn’t have an age statement, but it’s typically aged from 6-8 years though limited releases can exceed this. Bottle labels include the barrel dump date, which inspires collectors to find bottles that align with personally identifiable dates like birthdays and anniversaries. Blanton’s has an iconic bottle shape and horse topper, which comes in eight different versions, each with the horse and jockey in a different position and each with a letter, ultimately spelling out B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S if you collect them all.

The Blanton’s line of bourbons is an expansive set of releases built around a flagship product, which expands out to a core set of releases, and then further into a significant and increasing number of limited edition micro-releases.

The brand’s flagship product is officially known as Blanton’s Original Single Barrel Bourbon, which is bottled at 93 proof and is the version the United States consumer base is most familiar with. It spearheads the brand’s core lineup, which includes Blanton’s Gold Edition (103 proof), Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel (barrel proof), and Blanton’s Special Reserve (80 proof). To complicate matters, Blanton’s has long been an export-focused brand, catering to Japanese and European markets. In 2020, Buffalo Trace announced that Blanton’s Gold and Blanton’s Straight From the Barrel would be released in the U.S. in limited quantities. While the Blanton’s website currently states Straight From the Barrel is only available in “Select International Markets,” we confirmed this does include the U.S. Blanton’s Special Reserve remains export only. Consumers should pay attention to the two standard bottle volumes when purchasing online, which is either 750mL or 700mL, an indication of whether the bottle they are purchasing was originally meant for the U.S. market (750mL) or the export market (700mL). Notably, Gold and Straight From the Barrel are very difficult to find in 750mL format, so plan on the 700mL format if you’re looking to add one to your shopping list.

In addition to the core lineup, Blanton’s micro-releases have drawn the attention of enthusiasts from around the globe. The limited releases include rare Japanese exclusives such as Takara Black and Takara Red, which were first released in 1994, along with Takara Silver and Takara Gold beginning in 1999. Given the brand’s longstanding presence in France beginning in 2006, a long list of French spirits shop La Maison du Whiskey exclusives have been released over the years. Later in 2019, Blanton’s introduced special edition bottlings to the European market, which includes the 2022 release of Char No. 4 exclusive to Greece. Be sure to visit this The Whisky Ardvark article for a more exhaustive list of releases, including a collection of bottle images.

Roman philosopher Lucius Seneca’s quote, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity," could not be more true when applied to Blanton’s surge in popularity. Speaking in general terms, Blanton’s was never unpopular, per se. In certain markets it maintained a strong consumer base from its introduction in 1984, and weathered the bourbon category’s overall decline in popularity that shuttered distillery doors nationwide. It continued to compete during American consumers’ honeymoon phase with light colored spirits including vodka and gin, along with the subcategory of flavored vodka, which experienced a surge of popularity beginning in the late 1980s into the early 2000s. This was fueled in part by what’s referred to as the cocktail renaissance and the craft cocktail movement that followed.

At the turn of the century, the craft beer movement was also well underway, and paved the way for the concept of premiumization, small batches, and attention to detail when it came to alcohol consumption.

Decades behind craft beer, bourbon and American whiskey had started its initial journey down the same path. Demand for premium-positioned bourbons and American whiskeys started to rise, and brands began putting more emphasis on the category. Beam introduced Booker’s Bourbon in 1988, Buffalo Trace introduced the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (BTAC) in 2000, and Heaven Hill kicked off Parker’s Heritage Collection in 2007, to name a few. In 2012, the late celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain sipped Pappy Van Winkle on an episode of The Layover, stating “If God made bourbon, this is what he’d make.” Later he promoted his fondness for Old Fitzgerald bourbon, a historic brand that would later see its own expansion inside the premium whiskey space. The list goes on and on, but you get the idea. Premium whiskey was getting popular, and brands, media, and most importantly, consumers, were onboard.

The advent of readily available internet in the 90s, followed by social media and smartphones in the following decade played a role as well. Twitter and Facebook became publicly accessible in 2006, and other lesser known online forums were naturally more readily accessible and increasingly utilized. The iPhone was introduced soon after in 2007, leading to an era where everyone essentially had a computer in their pocket. People from around the world were connecting on many interests, which helped fuel niche hobbies…bourbon collecting and everything related to bourbon’s rich cultural ties included. Brands with unique attributes attached to them that were aimed at offering more than just a low-cost pour benefited from this, allowing consumers a new opportunity to venture as far down any rabbit hole as their hearts desired.

As it turned out, Blanton’s early popularity abroad helped position the brand on solid footing for expansion inside the U.S. Entering into the 2010s and then spiraling upward into the 2020s, bourbon saw a swell in popularity domestically. Premium brands, single barrels, enthusiast groups, local and online communities, and with that rising prices all came to define the category. The number of distillers, producers, and brands across the U.S. surged, and premium brands, hands on experiences, and tangible storied nuances attached to the brands were at the forefront. The Pappy Van Winkle brand, which eventually became bourbon’s unofficial holy grail, transitioned to being distilled by Buffalo Trace, the same distillery that makes Blanton’s.

To say these occurrences exemplify John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “A rising tide lifts all boats,” as it pertains to Blanton’s, is an understatement. Blanton’s was practically designed for it. It carried a higher price tag than most bourbons, it was a single barrel, it was high quality, and its packaging both stood out from other bottles coming across as a unique, highly curated premium product.

Met with humble beginnings dating back to 1984, Blanton’s weathered the storm that was defined by tepid bourbon demand at the onset, but the brand came out strong. Sure Blanton’s established solid footing abroad in earlier years, but domestically it was a different picture until recent decades. The stars aligned, and everything that mattered less when it came to bourbon at one time, suddenly mattered more and found itself on a much larger scale. Behind Blanton’s there was always a story to be told, and eventually the market was ready to listen.