Chris Stapleton and Buffalo Trace Just Teamed Up on a New Blended Whiskey

Jonah Flicker
·2 min read
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Buffalo Trace is known as being the source of expensive unicorn bottles from brands such as Pappy Van Winkle and the Antique Collection, as well as producing its affordable and dependable eponymous bourbon. And now the Kentucky distillery is launching a new blend, Traveller Whiskey, and it has some celebrity backing—Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Chris Stapleton.

This is also not the first time that Buffalo Trace has collaborated with Stapleton: He picked a couple of single barrels of E.H. Taylor Jr. over the past few years to benefit his charity, Outlaw State of Kind. But the real star behind this whiskey is Buffalo Trace master distiller Harlen Wheatley. Traveller is a blended whiskey, meaning it’s an assemblage of spirits from various “award-winning distilleries” owned by the Sazerac company, according to the brand, as opposed to only using whiskey distilled at Buffalo Trace. So possible sources include Buffalo Trace itself, A. Smith Bowman, Barton 1792, and potentially some foreign operations. More than 50 blends were tested before Wheatley settled on number 40, which is what you will find in this bottle. And unlike the aforementioned Pappy, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, or even W.L. Weller, this whiskey will be widely available and unallocated.

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“In creating Traveller, we tried over 50 different recipes, experimenting, testing, and adjusting until we found a complex and approachable flavor profile worthy of the whiskey drinker who will enjoy it,” Wheatley said in a statement. “In the end, there was one clear winner—Blend No. 40—that everyone agreed was worthy to be Traveller Whiskey.” In other words, this is meant to be an accessible, everyday drinker that is more along the lines of Buffalo Trace Bourbon than a limited special release like E.H. Taylor or something from the Experimental Collection.

We got an early taste of Traveller Whiskey, and it’s an appealing sipper that should please both novice and expert whiskey drinkers, with notes of brown sugar, caramel, maple, vanilla, oak, and baked apple on the palate. Thankfully, it’s bottled at 90 instead of 80 proof, and that higher ABV goes a long way in helping to elevate the flavor. You can find Traveller Whiskey starting this month (SRP $40), although it’s not readily available online at the moment. Will Traveller go the way of Weller or Pappy and balloon in price on the secondary market? It seems like that might not be the case, but only time will tell.

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