One of the top blending houses in the whiskey business, Barrell Craft Spirits, just gave one of its best cask-finished whiskeys, Toasted Seagrass, a major upgrade. This expression was recently released in a very limited run with a long secondary maturation in toasted oak barrels, but it’s nearly sold out so you should act fast if you want to scoop up a bottle.

Barrell Craft Spirits was founded by Joe Beatrice in 2013, and over the years the company has built its reputation on sourcing high-quality whiskey from distilleries in different states and countries, and blending the liquid into unique expressions. In addition to the batches of bourbon that it releases throughout the year (the latest is Batch 38), BCS also gives many of its component whiskeys unique and interesting cask finishes before blending them together. Such is the case with Seagrass, one of its core expressions. The regular edition of Seagrass is a blend of American and Canadian rye whiskeys that are finished in Martinique rhum, Madeira, and apricot brandy barrels and bottled at cask strength (as are most BCS whiskeys).

There’s also Grey and Gold Label versions of Seagrass that are much older, having been aged for 19 and 20 years respectively. And now there’s the new Toasted Seagrass, which was recently released in a run of just 350 bottles priced at $199 each. This is the same core blend that you’ll find in regular Seagrass, each component whiskey finished separately in the three cask types mentioned above. But the blend then spends an additional 36 months in what BCS calls “Grand Cru Toasted American Oak.” We asked what that means exactly, and a rep for the company said that refers to 300-liter barrels made from four-year air-dried staves that were given a light toast—the best from the cooperage. Due to its limited availability, we did not get to try a sample, but the official tasting notes describe flavors like honeycomb, white chocolate, lime zest, golden raisin, sweet grass, and mint on the palate, along with some apricot tea, cherry, lemongrass, and maple. 

This is not the first excursion into the world of toasted oak for BCS, referring to barrels that have been toasted instead of deeply charred—something that has become a common secondary maturation in American whiskey. Last spring it released an excellent 12-year-old bourbon finished in toasted oak barrels, and it also has a 20-year-old single barrel bourbon finished in toasted oak (this one made our 2025 Best of the Best list). According to the BCS website, inventory is running low on the new Barrell Toasted Seagrass, but there are still bottles to purchase if you’re interested in trying for yourself.