There are many facets to the history of this very unique whiskey that has now taken on iconic status. The intriguing story of Blanton’s Bourbon includes the fact that this was a nameless bourbon. Early bottles carried the words Blanton Distilling Company on the neck of the bottle. The name Blanton’s did not appear until early 1990, which is fascinating for a bourbon first released in 1984.

Not the first single-barrel bourbon

Often, you will hear the repeated mantra that Blanton’s was the first single-barrel bourbon. While it was a trail-blazing product designed to sell whiskey with its unique positioning, it was not the first single-barrel bourbon. Over the years, there were multiple single-barrel releases. However, Blanton’s became the first mass-marketed single-barrel bourbon.

Credited to Elmer T. Lee

You will hear how Elmer T. Lee thought about the specific areas of warehouse H that Colonel Blanton preferred for finding honey or sugar barrels. He was fond of the bourbon from that particular warehouse in specific locations. However, Mr. Lee was not alone in the search for a new brand to sell bourbon. Sugar Barrel Bourbon was one of the early registered names considered for this special single-barrel release.

Elmer had encouragement

Two distillery owners and executives, Ferdie Falk and Robert Baranaskas, encouraged Elmer to develop a new whiskey to challenge Maker’s Mark. The red wax-clad brand of bourbon was making headway in the market and sold as a premium bottle of bourbon whiskey. You will find that marketing campaigns pitted Blanton’s against Maker’s Mark and vice versa. All of this helped contribute to the eventual and ever-expanding bourbon boom.

The bottle had to be unique.

If you were trying to enter the market as a premium product and position yourself against the elegant and recognizable Maker’s Mark bottle, you had to be different and stand out. Blanton’s interesting bottles were located and sourced from the Glenshaw Glass Company of Pennsylvania, and these unique bottles have become one of the most iconic decanters in the whiskey world. Blanton’s was not the first brand to use the bottle design. Bourbon Supreme and Kentucky Tavern issued releases, but now only Blanton’s is offered in that bottle design.

The horse stopper

The inspiration for the horse bottle stopper was an antique wine stopper. The horse stopper is now legendary, and a legion of fans are trying to collect each of the eight individual horses representing a horse race—the modern stoppers have letters affixed to them and spell out the word Blanton’s. The equine-themed stopper began with the first bottles issued in 1984 and was modified to include a little more detail in 1993. However, in 1999, the Sazerac company began the lettering process you find on current Blanton’s bottles.

An early setback

Upon being released in 1984 and selling for about twenty-four dollars a bottle, the first widely marketed single-barrel bourbon flopped. The demand in the United States was slow, but the brand succeeded in Japan. At this point, Age International owned the Blanton’s brand, and the owners were the previously mentioned Falk and Baranaskas. They sold about a quarter of the interest to Japanese businessman Takara Shuzo, giving him the first right of refusal to purchase future shares. Takara purchased the remaining shares and sold the distillery to Sazerac. However, he retained Age International with several significant brands, including Blanton’s.

Buffalo Trace and Blanton’s

Buffalo Trace continues to produce whiskey for Age International, including Ancient Age, Blanton’s, and Elmer T. Lee. Each Barrel of Blanton’s continues to spend time in the historic Warehouse H. Today; barrels are probably also rotated through additional warehouses due to the brand’s success and the limited size of Warehouse H.

Blanton’s special releases

Today, there have been more than fifty special releases of Blanton’s Bourbon worldwide. Certain special-release bottles are available only in Japan, but some now appear in the U.S., including Blanton’s Gold and Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel. The typical Japanese release is about two years longer than its American counterpart.

The intriguing story of Blanton’s Bourbon

Blanton’s Bourbon has earned its place as one of the leaders in identity and demand in a category with dozens of iconic brands and bottles. Whether bourbon enthusiasts like or loathe Blanton’s, they indeed recognize it. You can have some mixed results by its very nature as a single-barrel bourbon. However, I have sampled Blanton’s Black, Blanton’s Red, Blanton’s Gold, and Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel; each is an excellent whiskey. It has genuinely reached almost mythical qualities in today’s bourbon mania.