Buffalo Trace Gave Its Grail-Level Bourbon to a Surprising Partner

One of Buffalo Trace Distillery’s oldest bourbons is being sold by the company’s small sister brand, catering to elite whiskey collectors.

A bottle of The Last Drop Release 37 27-Year-Old Buffalo Trace Bourbon shown at an angle against an illustrated background of whiskey drops

By Ben Bowers

Published April 28, 2025

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Over the last two decades, Buffalo Trace distillery has cemented itself as the preeminent source of rare, covetable, and highly valuable bourbon.

Even if you exclude Pappy Van Winkle from its roster—though the distillery has produced the whiskey inside the bottles for over twenty years, the list of collectible brands in the company’s portfolio is staggering.

Buffalo Trace Distillery has a long tradition of producing highly coveted bourbons. But one of its oldest and most impressive releases ever isn’t bottled under a Buffalo Trace-owned label.

Ben Bowers

The brand’s flagship Buffalo Trace Antique Collection remains an annual white whale that usually requires lottery-winning luck to buy at anything close to MSRP. Bottles of Elmer T. Lee, Stagg Jr., and O.F.C. Vintage are mostly in the same boat. Even entry-level bottles of Blanton’s, Weller, E.H. Taylor, and Eagle Rare are often a struggle to find.

Yet, despite this murderers’ row of labels, one of the oldest, grail-worthy examples of Buffalo Trace bourbons ever made by the distillery isn’t bottled under any of them.

A Label Focused on Rarity

A collection of three bottles of The Last Drop whiskies. Two are sitting on a shiny table, and one is sitting on top of a wooden whiskey box with the Last Drop emblem. — As the name implies, The Last Drop was created as a way to distribute some of the rarest whiskeys on earth.

Founded in 2008 by industry legends Tom Jago and James Espey — the minds behind Baileys and Johnnie Walker Blue Label — The Last Drop Distillers was built around a simple, rare ambition: to hunt down the world’s finest, most elusive spirits.

Their first release, a 1960 blended Scotch crafted from over 80 different malts and grains (many from now-closed distilleries), set the tone for what would become a defining ethos — quality, scarcity, and storytelling.

Since then, The Last Drop has quietly expanded its portfolio to include impossibly old whiskies, cognacs, rums, and ports, each offered in tiny, highly sought-after batches.

All In the Family

A bottle of Sazerac Rye on a wooden table next to a poured glass of Rye — The Last Drop was acquired by Buffalo Trace’s parent company, the Sazerac Group, back in 2016. Though the company has continued to operate independently in the year’s since, it’s unlikely the collector focused brand would have ever gotten access to 28-year old Buffalo Trace bourbon without some family connections.

In September 2016, Buffalo Trace’s parent company, the Sazerac group, purchased Last Drop Distillers for an undisclosed sum, concluding what at least one founder had previously publicly speculated might be the brand’s natural trajectory.

“‘I always saw it as being maybe, one day, a halo brand in somebody’s stable,” founder James Espey explained in an interview with Scotchwhisky.com in August of 2016.

Though The Last Drop has continued to operate independently within the Sazerac Company’s vast portfolio of brands, it is easy to see how broader family ties inspired the label’s 37th limited release.

Very Old and Very Expensive

THE LAST DROP
27 YEAR OLD KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY shown sitting on a wood table next to two cherries and a glass of poured whiskey. — Only 508 bottles of The Last Drop’s release number 37 will be available at a price of £9,999.00 (inc VAT).

The Last Drop Distillers’ release No. 37 is a 27-year-old bourbon made from Buffalo Trace barrels chosen by Master Blender Drew Mayville and Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley.

It’s a blend of three of some of the oldest barrels in the entire Buffalo Trace distillery, which were filled in 1995, 1996, and 1997 and spent at least some of their long years aging in the company’s experimental Warehouse P.

It’s a blend of three of the oldest barrels in the entire Buffalo Trace distillery, which were filled in 1995, 1996, and 1997 and spent at least some of their long years aging in the company’s experimental Warehouse P.

The final product was bottled uncut and unfiltered at 121.8 proof (60.9% ABV) – which is remarkably potent for whiskey this old.

Warehouse P is one of Buffalo Trace’s two well-known experimental facilities specifically designed to push the boundaries of whiskey aging thanks to a slew of advanced climate control capabilities.

eagle rare 25 whiskey — Eagle Rare 25 is another example of a very old bourbon distilled by Buffalo Trace that aged in the brand’s experimental Warehouse P facility.

This backstory shouldn’t surprise collectors and close followers of Buffalo Trace’s most exclusive releases. Warehouse P has also helped create other ultra-old bourbons, including Eagle Rare 25, launched in 2023.

While it’s natural to assume a bourbon this old would lean heavily on harsher wood flavors, The Last Drop’s official tasting notes suggest that careful aging has provided this elite whiskey with more depth in the form of “notes of vanilla, oak tannins, rich caramel, and leather” that taken together “pushes the boundaries of bourbon beyond all expectations.”

Of course, no one should expect a whiskey with this much hype to be remotely accessible.

508 individually numbered sets are available worldwide, costing a whopping £9,999.00 (inc VAT). Each set includes a 700ml bottle, a 50ml miniature, a tasting book, and an engraved stopper cork, all presented in a bespoke oak-framed case.

The Last Drop Release No. 37 27 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

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About the Author: Ben Bowers is the Co-Founder and Chief Content Officer of Gear Patrol. Throughout his tenure in media, Ben has written and reported on everything from consumer tech to whiskey, watches, cars, camping, and personal style. These days, he gets to write less than he’d like to.