Review: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel #80 (2026)
Buffalo Trace’s Single Oak Project was one of the most ambitious bourbon experiments in history, a project that took eleven years to complete from start to finish and which involved the creation of 192 different barrels of whiskey, each differing based on seven variables, including the following:
• Mashbill (wheat or rye recipe)
• Entry proof (105 or 125 proof)
• Stave seasoning (six or 12 months of air drying)
• Wood grain size (tight, average or coarse)
• Barrel char level (number three or number four char)
• Tree cut (top or bottom half)
• Warehouse type (wooden rick floor or concrete floor)
Make one barrel of whiskey using all of the above variables in unique combinations and you’ll end up with 192. I tasted every single one of them, a process which took four years (and which only one other person outside the distillery accomplished — my friend and noted spirits writer Paul Pacult).
In 2015, I ventured to Frankfort, Kentucky with Pacult and a handful of other whiskey writers to go over the results of consumer and expert reviews of the 192 bottles in the Single Oak Project. We re-tasted and debated the five most highly rated bottles in the collection — numbers 80, 82, 109, 161, and 179 — and eventually agreed on a winner. Barrel #80 was tops out of the entire lineup.
The bourbon’s stats: rye mashbill, 125 entry proof, 12 months of stave seasoning, average grain wood, aged on concrete ricks, #4 char barrels, staves drawn from wood cut from the bottom half of tree. I gave it an effusive A at the time.
From there, Buffalo Trace set out to recreate this whiskey to see if magic could strike twice. The original plan was to release it in 2023, but the deadline slipped a bit to 2026. At long last, here it is: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel #80, the recreation, now commercially available.
Naturally, I had to get my hands on this to review it. So here goes, with my 193rd review of the Single Oak Project.
Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel #80 (2026) Review
The nose of the whiskey charms right away. The rye spice pops, but it’s tempered by classic overtones of chocolate and caramel. Vanilla and baking spices continue an almost iconic aromatic presentation of a juicy, rye-driven bourbon. A smoldering, clove-driven element builds with time in glass, evoking a pinch of barrel char. All told: A complete classic.
The palate struck me right away with a citrus note, bright with both orange juice and peel, though it quickly subsided after a bit of time in glass. What remained behind from there is again the stuff of any number of classic bourbons: vanilla soda, milk chocolate, caramel dripping over nougat, and late-game notes of crushed almonds, mint, and milky cafe au lait.
This is a decidedly a sweet whiskey, unabashedly filled with dessert notes and finishing with extreme ease, almost carefree. Fans of bruising hazmat fare will find this whiskey far too tame for their liking. I however consumed far more of my 375ml bottle than I thought I would, nipping in again and again to let its delightfully sunny, silky flavor roll over my tongue.
Of course you want to know: How does it compare to the 2014 release? And my response is that, based on my tasting notes from 12 years ago and my recollections of the 2015 event at the distillery, I think Buffalo Trace nailed it. I didn’t note the citrus in 2014, and I wouldn’t call the finish of the 2026 version anything approaching bittersweet chocolate, but the rest of the bones of the original whiskey are 100% intact. My assessment of the original Barrel #80 — “a lovely after-dinner sipper,” as I put it — remains wholly unchanged in this 2026 doppelganger. Proof, perhaps, that arcane aging variables can have a bigger impact than you might expect and can indeed be repeated. Or, equally likely, that lightning can strike twice.
Grab it if you see it.
A / $75 (375ml)
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