A Recap of my “30 Days of Bourbon” Experience.
The only way to figure out what you like is to try different things, and this was a great excuse to do just that. The past year or so I’ve been focusing more and more on American whiskey, partially due to posts from my fellow Bourbon Stewards on our Facebook group, and partially mixed with my desire to try (and visit) more local, craft distilleries. Focusing on Bourbons only for 30 days allowed me to try both smaller and well established distilleries from many states, most of which I had not tried before.
When it comes down to taste, different people not only like different things, but they will TASTE different things even when drinking the same whiskey. There is no wrong answer, it just comes down to what the person drinking likes. The tasting notes and opinions below are all mine, and while I hope they help you find something you like, our tastes may differ, so even if the notes below help you find something you want to avoid, that works for me as well. All tasting notes are available on my FB and Instagram feeds.
When I started drinking whiskey, I did not start out with Bourbon. Many years ago I tried a couple and they weren’t to my liking. One exception was Four Roses Small Batch. It was the rare whiskey I drank with ice. So when Four Roses came out with their newest recipe release, the first one in twelve years, I had to give it a try. Four Roses uses two different mashbills and five different yeast strains to make a variety of flavor profiles. Master Distiller Brent Elliott combines 6 of these recipes to create Four Roses Small Batch Select. Rich and thick with a lot of flavors going on, this is a great to sip over ice on hot day (which we seem to be getting more and more of here on the Coastside), preferably while cooking something low and slow on the barbecue.
A Few Surprises…
I admit it, I was scared. I tend to like my whiskey on the sweeter side, and without too much smoke. (Thus my preference for Highland and Speyside Scotch as opposed to Lowland or Islay Scotch.) In Bourbon, Rye is what gives a spicy kick. (Again, why I prefer wheated or low rye bourbons to high rye ones.) So when a friend gave me a sample of Smoke Wagon Bourbon, a blend of young and old high-rye bourbons and with “smoke” right in the name, I had some trepidation. The blending is the thing here; rye’s spiciness dissipates with age, allowing some of the sweeter notes to develop, so adding that older rye into the blend with the young stuff balances everything out. The different flavors just kept coming on this one, and they were all good. Another factor for all the flavor is the high alcohol content of 50% Alcohol by Volume, allowing all the alcohol soluble flavor compounds to stand out without being diluted.
Buffalo Trace is a great go to bourbon for many people, me included. This is one of those brands that has the aging and blending consistency down pat, guaranteeing the same quality in every bottle. That may not be what everybody wants, but many people do, and doing it time and time again is no easy feat. So when a complete stranger and I started talking about whiskey and he told me he had a lot of Single Barrel Buffalo Trace he had bought for his wedding, I was intrigued. The great surprise was that he gave me a bottle. I don’t have a bottle of the regular stuff for a side by side tasting, but it is on my to do list…
Knob Creek is another go to for the masses. The few times I’ve had it before it was pretty “meh” for me. So this time after trying it neat, I decided to see what a few drops of water would do. It made a WORLD of difference!
There is cheap, and there is inexpensive. Towards the end of the 30 days I was buying 50 cl bottles of whatever I could find to make it to the end. I picked up an Evan Williams for less than a dollar at Total Wine & More. A regular 750 ml bottle goes for around $15 most places. To be honest, I was not expecting much, but I told myself I had to soldier on to the end. What a shock when after the first sip I was impressed, and it got even better after a few more sips. I think part of the reason is the fact that is a “sour mash” whiskey. Think sourdough starter, but for hooch. It takes the flavors to another level with a jump-start.
Bottle Neck and Neck…
Two Bourbon’s really stood out. The first one, from early on in the challenge, is Tom’s Foolery. This one really hearkens back to the beginning of making whiskey. It is made in pot stills, on a farm, using locally grown grain. It is a perfect example for the question I frequently get, “does whiskey have a ‘terroir’?’ It most certainly does. (More on that in a later post…)
The second one that stood out was one I knew to save for the last day; Michter’s 10 Year Old Bourbon. Several years ago I tried Michter’s US American Whiskey for the first time. This is a bourbon mash recipe, but since it’s aged in USED bourbon barrels, it cannot be called a bourbon. Reusing the barrel brings out more of the vanilla and brown sugar flavors. As one friend commented, “It’s the chocolate chip cookie of whiskey.” That was my go to drink for quite a while until one day I decided to try the bourbon. (Both are available for under $40 at the Coastside Market in Moss Beach, a bit too conveniently around the corner from my house!) About three years ago I started putting myself on lists to be notified when the extremely small allocation of their 10 year old bourbon came out. With many locations getting maybe two cases, which makes a TOTAL of 6 bottles, it is hard to come by and I never got an email saying there was a bottle waiting for me. This year, following the company on Facebook, I had a rough idea of when it was coming, but still no notices in my inbox. The larger markets that got some sold out quickly. One day when talking to someone about Michter’s, and the fact that I was trying to get a bottle of the Ten Year, they mentioned that they thought they had seen it somewhere. While I wanted to go see that very minute, I was at work and wouldn’t be able to check for a couple of days. Well, I was FINALLY successful in procuring a bottle. I’m not sure I want to give up the location, but I’ll say this: it’s right around the corner from my house…
A Matter of Taste…
So these are all my opinions, and yours may differ. I’m good with that, and I’m happy to share a drink with you anytime and share our thoughts on the differences. During this 30 days, these were the bourbons I really liked, but there is something to be said for all the ones I tried. I enjoyed 29 of them, but I feel I would be remiss if I don’t mention the one that was really bad. There were several drams I tried that I did not know much if anything about, but I made a decision not to look them up until AFTER I had tried them. Enter one of the 50 cl bottles I bought, Hayes Parker Reserve. Now despite what most people believe, bourbon has no minimum time it has to be aged, although if is aged less than four years, it must have an age statement. So I didn’t think too much about the “Aged at least 6 months” statement on the side. This tasted nothing like a bourbon to me. It had SOME characteristics of a Lowland Scotch (which I’m not a fan of personally, but I have tried some and recognize what people like in it) but mostly it just tasted like bad whiskey. After trying it, I did some research. Turns out this is a whiskey made in a lab. Using something called the TerrePURE technique, the Terresentia Corporation in South Carolina uses chemicals instead of barrel aging to “mature” the whiskey. I’m not against shortcuts when they don’t affect the end results too much, but for me this one doesn’t work. Of course, for $1.49 feel free to pick up a small bottle and try it for yourself.
Have Fun Tasting! Stuart