BLOOD OATH TRILOGY 4TH EDITION PACT 10, 11, & 12
BOURBON WHISKEY
KENTUCKY, USA
WHY BUY:
There are lots of bourbon obsessives out there, and John Rempe is one of our favorites. He’s turned his company, Blood Oath, into a cult hit label, thanks almost entirely to his fanatically intricate way with blending, which results in bourbons that are built for the purist: balanced, finessed, and wonderfully nuanced. This terrific trilogy bundles the past three years of his tinkering, Pact 10, 11, and 12, and no two of them taste even remotely alike:
- Pact 10 marries a 16, a 12, and a 7-year ryed bourbon through a double finish in Cabernet Franc and then Merlot casks
- Pact 11 turns to Añejo tequila barrels from the mountains of Jalisco, which brings out the pepperiness of the bourbon
- Pact 12 goes the furthest of them all, aging three ryed bourbons and finishing the youngest in Montepulciano and then Sangiovese, an Italian two-step no distiller has ever thought to try
Every bottle clocks in at exactly 98.6 proof — the temperature of the human body at rest, and a number Rempe was adamant about sticking to — and every recipe gets locked away the moment it's released. Once these three are gone, that’s it: they’ll never be repeated. And if our recent tasting is any indication, you’re not going to have them around for long, when they arrive.
OUR TASTING NOTES:
Pact 10 opens with a burst of raspberry against a rich caramel backdrop, with notes of black pepper moving in at the edges. And then, just as you settle into that groove, red stone fruit and cocoa arrive and an already complicated bourbon only deepens and becomes more complex and mysterious. There's real tension here as you go, a sweet-and-savory push-pull that carries all the way to the finish. Pact 11 is the mischievous pour. Cherry and citrus lead, duking it out for supremacy, before the influence of the tequila barrels asserts itself, in the form of vanilla and black pepper notes and a soft, spreading warmth. We loved the hints of chocolate that lingered on the tongue long after the last sip. Pact 12 is the most ambitious of the three bottlings. The Sangiovese influence arrives early, with dried herb and tomato leaf, before soft stone fruit and caramel take over and deepen the attack. Now comes rich notes of leather and deep, toasted oak, courtesy of the Montepulciano barrels. The finish is long, with baking spice and black cherry winding around one another like vines on a trellis.
THE STORY:
The saga of Blood Oath begins, fittingly, not with a distillery but with a vow. Blood Oath attests that every batch is the undertaking of one man, John Rempe, a food scientist by trade and a self-described student of bourbon. This man, it says, is loyal to no one family, favoring no one distillery, bound by no one philosophy. His stated goal: to seek out bourbons that are rare and wonderful, famous and forgotten, then bottle them in combinations previously unimagined for a lucky few. He has sworn never to reveal where he finds his bourbon. Rempe launched Blood Oath, in 2015, with Lux Row Distillers, and his mission was not just to make great bourbon; it was to lob a provocation. His belief was that American whiskey had long treated blending as something faintly disreputable, and he decided that the taboo deserved to be tested (and, ideally, exploded). Each annual release became its own numbered Pact, built not from a single mashbill but from barrels of wildly different ages, with sometimes double-digit stock married to younger, livelier components. As for casking, he ignored tradition and honored the truth of his own palate, hence the highly unusual barrels he’s employed for these three. He has said that he does not care about pedigree, provenance, or reputation, and this stubbornness and purity has given his company a stubborn and proud m.o. that for us and many others is simply thrilling.
FUN FACT:
Every Blood Oath bottle is proofed to exactly 98.6, the temperature of the human body. This is a detail Rempe has never budged on since the very first Pact. Some bourbon lovers have grumbled that a barrel-proof release would hit harder. We love Rempe’s response, which is to ignore the chatter and lean in even harder to his blends.
OUR GUARANTEE:
We always buy and source direct from the producer, so rest assured: your bottles will arrive in your hands with pristine provenance. Secure this terrific trilogy today!
*Offer NOT valid in-store. This offer is made pre-arrival, with wines estimated to be delivered to your preferred store in Fall 2026. All sale prices are the lowest available at Total Wine & More and ONLY valid through Concierge Sales. No further discounts or coupons may be applied. The price reflected on your order form is subject to change after the order is placed in the event of a change in tariffs or taxes that are imposed by the U.S. government, or in the case of currency fluctuations of 10% or greater. Offer only valid in AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, MA, MD, MN, MO, NJ, NM, SC, TX, & WI. This offer will expire on Monday, August 31, 2026.