Single Barrel Bourbon started with Blanton’s in 1984. 

Nearing retirement, Master Distiller Elmer T. Lee was tasked with creating a bourbon of exceptionally high quality.  With careful reflection, he recalled the earlier days of his career in the late 1940s when he worked under Colonel Albert B. Blanton.  Colonel Blanton was the president of the distillery until 1952. 

Mr. Lee remembered that when Colonel Blanton would entertain dignitaries and other important guests, he would handpick “honey barrels” from the centre cut of Warehouse H and have that bourbon bottled one barrel at a time to share.

As a tribute to Colonel Blanton’s old tradition, Elmer T. Lee decided to name this new bourbon “Blanton’s Single Barrel”. And the world’s first commercially produced single-barrel bourbon was born, revolutionising the bourbon world forever.

Both Colonel Blanton and Elmer T. Lee dedicated the better part of their lives to ing the world’s finest bourbon. And at Blanton’s, we believe the finest bourbon in the world comes from a single barrel.