I tried the new $7.5K Weller Millennium at Buffalo Trace. I’m almost sorry I did
I had a rare opportunity to taste the new Buffalo Trace Millennium No. 2, and I have bad news for most of us: It’s really good.
Why is that bad news? Because this was probably the only time I’ll ever taste it.
The Kentucky distillery has been ramping up production — they doubled the distilling capacity in 2022 as part of their $1.2 billion expansion and have more warehouses aging more barrels of bourbon than ever. Sometime this fall they will fill the 9 millionth barrel.
But this particular bottle, like the first Millennium released last year, dates to a much earlier and much scarcer time, from the first years of the modern Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1999, when not nearly as much was being made.
And it’s a bit of miracle there’s any left in the first place from those early days.
There’s a reason there are so few ultra-aged bourbons: Kentucky’s massive temperature swings mean a lot is lost to the “angel’s share” of evaporation, and often what is left is terribly oaky and not palatable.
But over the last decade, Buffalo Trace has expanded on an experiment Sazerac began in 2013 with Warehouse X, an exploration of environmental effects on barrels. About 10 years ago they added a small cold storage area that has since been expanded and is now called Warehouse P, the same warehouse that aged Eagle Rare 25, the oldest expression yet in the Eagle Rare portfolio.
Although none of the Weller Millennium No. 2 barrels were moved into that area, such experiments could extend the life of barrels we get to taste in the future.
Buffalo Trace won’t disclose a lot of specifics. (They wouldn’t tell me the temperature of the room I was standing in and would not allow any photos. For example, I’d say somewhere between really chilly sleeping temperature and meat locker.)
Millennium 2 contains at least a little bit of whiskey (2.9%, according to the packaging) from 2001, as well as 2003 (46.5%) and 2006 (50.6%) that somehow survived in a dark spot on a low floor somewhere apparently.
Buffalo Trace also won’t say exactly how many bottles of Millennium 2 were made, although if you buy one, it comes with a certificate of authenticity that will tell that individual bottle’s number.
Given the circumstances, there can’t be a huge number, and given the price tag (suggested retail price is $7,500), even if I came across one, I am unlikely to buy it. (Buy a bottle of rare whiskey or make my annual Roth IRA payment? Hmm.)
But a least a few lucky bourbon collectors already have. When Buffalo Trace did a surprise bottle drop at the gift shop July 25, the 200th anniversary of William Larue Weller’s birthday, they sold out what they had on hand immediately, according to Andrew Duncan, Sazerac global brand director.
Which made me glad I’d decided to take Buffalo Trace up on an invitation to do a tasting that included the Millennium and Weller 18, the new wheat whiskey release that’s available only in airport duty-free shops at the moment.
I, and a couple of other lucky journalists, got the inside pour, along with a chance to see behind the scenes a bit on how this whiskey came to be and how it compares to other versions of Weller.
Weller is one of the distilleries most popular brands with everyday bourbon drinkers and with collectors. It’s a wheated bourbon, meaning the rye used in the mash bills for Buffalo Trace Bourbon and for Blanton’s is replaced with softer, sweeter wheat. Many fans consider it sort of the everyday drinker’s Pappy Van Winkle, since they are thought to start with the same recipe.
At my tasting July 30, we started with a bit of treat: We “thieved” from a barrel of 8-year-old Weller. Buffalo Trace doesn’t sell a barrel-proof version of Weller, so this was a chance to see what it tastes like in its original form. Although it was much higher than the 90-proof version sold as Weller Special Reserve, it still drank quite smoothly, with loads of familiar flavor.
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Once inside the tasting bar in the basement of Stony Point, the house that Albert Blanton built on the property in 1924 (and the same bar where Chris Stapleton tasted his Traveller Whiskey), we sampled Weller Special Reserve and Weller 12, both excellent, lots of caramel and vanilla as expected.
Then we tasted Weller 18, which is a wheat whiskey, not a bourbon, so it has even more wheat in the recipe. With a suggested retail price of $499, I didn’t want to like it, but it was smooth, creamy and delicately fruity.
For the big finale, we sampled Weller Millenium No. 2, and I might be really sorry I did. It was special, complex, with the caramel and vanilla, and with lots of fruitiness. The longer I sat with it, the more it opened up and notes like bright apple came out.
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It was, to me, the best of the four by far. And I’m probably never going to drink it again.
Is it 200 times better than Weller Special Reserve (that’s roughly difference in price)? Well, no, not to me. And that thought gives me comfort. Because Weller Special Reserve is the one I can afford, and find, if only on trips to the distillery gift shop, and that’s still pretty darn good.
This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
