The wonderful people at New Era have done what nearly every lover of bourbon has always dreamed of—turned their love of this golden elixir into a full time occupation. For Zane Brammell it started with simply sharing his love of the spirit with hundreds of other people and eventually developed into this wonderful new brand. Along the way he enlisted some industry veterans to help his cause, and that's how we connected through an old friend, Kris Comstock of Buffalo Trace fame. Kris was integral to our success in the early days of K&L's KY Barrel program. Our selection was to take place in a little restaurant in the tiny, historic town of Midway, and my colleague Stephanie Manning joined for the festivities. We enjoyed a hearty lunch before cracking into their samples and, despite my insisting we wanted anything except more Wilderness Trail, this barrel stood out among the eight samples we tried. The classic Black Label Wilderness Trail recipe, but aged MUCH longer than we've seen from the distillery's single barrels, which never even crack into the 6 year range. Anyway, it was such a revelation we knew we couldn't let it slip from our grasp. New Era's fun newsprint labels were the perfect canvas to utilize the beautiful art designed by Stephanie's own grandmother, Dorelle Heisel. Her exquisite, mind-bending design represents perfectly the dimensional enigma that this barrel represents. Anyway, let's have a taste! The color is a vibrant mahogany (1.6). The nose is so tight and tied up after opening it needs plenty of AIR! Don't make the mistake of guzzling this right out of the bottle. No, no, it's got so much there, but needs time and air. If you let it wait out, you'll notice an incredible array of sweet confectionary flavors, but the baked apple, cherry compote, and dark chocolate notes dominate. On the palate, some very unusual combinations here with big cinnamon and leather coming in after roasted oak, sweet baked orchard fruit, and jammy red fruit. It's not quite like anything else out there to be honest, and it's hard to pinpoint another distillate in the same flavor range, but that doesn't stop it from being completely delectable. Occasionally, different and delicious are one and the same, and this is a perfect example of that. New combinations of classic flavors, but it will especially reward the most patient drinkers.