What Goes Down at a Bourbon Barrel Pick Tasting? An Inside Look with Greens Farms Spirit Shop

Greens Farms Spirit Shop and its sister stores have long been a must stop for bourbon enthusiasts looking to add sought after bottles to their collection.

To pick, or not to pick, that is the question that Nick Conti and a small crew of whiskey enthusiasts are faced with regularly when it comes to making barrel picks for his three spirit shops Sav-Rite Liquors in North Haven, Ye Old Wine Shoppe in Wallingford, and Greens Farms Spirit Shop in Westport.

According to a pretty great article on Beverage Dynamics, Conti was one of the pioneers in Connecticut back in 2013 for liquor stores making barrel picks. For more about him, it’s a nice read about Nick’s career in the wine and spirits industry and what he looks for in a barrel pick, which I’ll get into here based on my experience sitting in on a session and tasting plenty of bourbon in the process.

Owner Nick Conti and the team don’t only get sent samples from major distilleries to make picks, they frequently travel all over to get up close and personal with the people that craft the good stuff. Most recently they’ve been at James B. Beam Distilling Co., Michter’s, and Buffalo Trace. More “good stuff” will undoubtedly make it to all of Conti’s stores.

Who Gets to Attend?

I’m sure that’s the question most of you likely want to know. Safe to say it’s a blend—brown liquor pun intended.

I’ve seen Greens Farms and Ye Old post that they’re looking for taste testers on Instagram to sample bourbon, rye, scotch, rum, and even tequila. Usually it’s a random casting call, but if you can do spontaneity and you know and enjoy quality hooch, it’s worth sliding in their DMs. Mostly, the willing drinkers are good customers and spirits afficionados that are friends of the stores. Safe to say there’s plenty of quality conversation, laughs, and lots of nerdy bourbon chatter.

The point is, if you’re at a tasting, you are so damn lucky.

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What’s On the Menu?

This is the fun part. This isn’t just about making the pick, there’s a pregame and an after party—well, sometimes on the after party part. I’ll explain.

Before making the pick, Conti gathered up four bottles sold at his store, a bunch of waters (gotta stay hydrated and keep the palate clean between bottles, folks!), and as it pertains to Greens Farms, we headed next door to Vanish Media Systems to do the tasting in their lounge area. Shout-out to great neighbors!

The stores are always capturing content for the ‘gram. It’d be a good idea to follow so you can snatch up those barrel picks: @greensfarmsspirits

On this particular sweltering summer evening—because who doesn’t love sipping high proof booze on a 90 degree day—our lineup consisted of 1792 Full Proof Bourbon, Rebel Cask Strength Single Barrel Select, Starlight Distilleries Carl T. Huber’s Bourbon (finished in honey barrels), and Corazón Tequila with a bourbon twist, as this one was aged in Weller Full Proof Bourbon Barrels. To be clearer, that particular Corazón was aged in Greens Farms Spirit Shop’s personal Weller Full Proof Bourbon pick barrels.

And of course, if you’re into the good stuff, you’re welcome to bring something along to share with everyone. And maybe, just maybe, Conti will crack open something major like the Russell’s Reserve 13-Year Barrel Proof that finished off the night.

What About the Pick?!

Well, that happened…or in this case didn’t.

I’ll explain.

If you don’t know how picks work, it’s simple. Stores like Greens Farms, Ye Old, and Sav-Rite have built a reputation for whiskey and sell a lot of it. Distilleries send them samples from different barrels, those samples are tasted by very willing participants, it’s discussed, and the store has an option to buy it as that store’s exclusive pick.

Got it? Good.

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For Conti to make the choice to buy a barrel pick, it doesn’t only have to meet taste standards, he has to know he can sell it to customers. The nose (aka, the smell), he said wasn’t as high on the criteria list as the other two.

This time around, the samples of Three Chord Bourbon with a toasted barrel finish didn’t meet anyone’s taste standards despite our collective and differing taste buds. The short version consensus? Too harsh in both flavor and ethanol-y alcohol punch. Would it be a hard sell? Most likely. And that makes it a “no.”

The Russell’s Reserve 13 made up for it, though.

And there’s always a next time, for which I offer tribute. Pick me!

greensfarmswine.com, yeoldwine.com, + savriteliquors.com