My Wandering Eye: Chateau de Laubade Armagnac, 1976

November 15, 2016 Eric Burke

In case you’re new to the "My Wandering Eye..." series, let me recap. Bourbon prices are creeping up. So much so that even mediocre products have hit the range where they compete price-wise with other types of aged spirits. A $50 750 ml bottle of Cognac or Armagnac doesn’t sound outrageous next to a $50 Old Forester 1870 or a $50 375 mL of the Jim Beam Harvest collection. As a response to this, my eye has started wandering down other aisles of the liquor store. Sometimes I save money. Sometimes I spend the same amount. And other times...

I recently turned 40. Forty is a pretty big birthday. One of the milestones where you take stock of your life and make sure it is where you want it to be. I remember a couple quotes from a terminally ill Steve Jobs.

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"

and

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

After taking stock of my life, I realized that though my life is pretty good right now, there were a few things I wanted to accomplish yet. If my life ended today, I wouldn't be doing all of the things I want to do.

I recently lost one of my biggest clients. On my birthday, they were found guilty of fraud and are no longer allowed to do business in the state of Minnesota. It's kind of a big deal for my bottom line, but it has allowed me to take stock of where I'm at and realize that though I love being creative, design is only one facet of it. There is so much more that I want to do.

To that end, in addition to my design business, I'm starting a new business venture (details to come soon). I've taken on a freelance writing gig. Basically, I'm in the process of making my freelance design business just one of many ways I make money and express my creativity.

It's a scary and yet satisfying time. It's scary because I've been doing one thing professionally for the last decade and doing anything else is a little uncomfortable. It's scary because I am flexing different parts of my mental muscles so that I might do and create new things. And yet that last one is also the most satisfying part of it all. In the end, I may have to go back to design full time. I may have to pound the pavement and hustle up new clients. Who knows? The future has yet to be written, and I'm just going to do what I love so that I make sure that I am living my life doing what it is that I'd want to do should any particular day end up being my last. At forty, I figure that my story is only half written. It's time to start making sure the second half is the more satisfying one.

In the spirit of the milestone that a round number birthday is, I decided that I wanted to buy myself something special. Due to the previous examples of the "My Wandering Eye..." series, I knew that I was really starting to enjoy brandy. So when I saw an Armagnac on the shelf at one of my local liquor stores distilled the year I was born? Well, I had to get it.

Chateau de Laubade Armagnac, 1976

Purchase info: $159.99 for a 750 mL bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: Distilled in 1976, blended and bottled November 2015. Bas Armagnac.

Nose: Caramel and brown sugar, ripe fruit, herbal notes and rich leather.

Mouth: Caramel, brown sugar, mint, dried fruit, leather, and oak.

Finish: Sweet caramel coats your throat before making room for a very slight warmth and some lingering oak and herbal notes.

Thoughts: This is a fantastic drink. Worthy of celebrating a milestone. Sweet, fruity and a real treat for the bourbon lover.

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Clyde May's Straight Bourbon

November 10, 2016 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Clyde May's for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

What are we reviewing tonight?

A Kentucky bourbon, named for a moonshiner whose claim to fame is making an "Alabama-style" whiskey, which is then bottled by a Florida company.

Ok. Seems fair enough. Quick question, though. What's an "Alabama-Style" whiskey?

According to the literature the producer sent to me, it's aged whiskey that had dried apples in the barrel along with the spirit, essentially an apple flavored whiskey.

Does that mean we are reviewing a flavored whiskey?

Nope. We're reviewing a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey that happened to be produced by the same company, under the same brand.

Why?

Why what? Why did they use the same brand or why are we reviewing it?

Second one.

Well, they were nice enough to send me a bottle. I was intrigued by the fact that it was non-chill filtered even though it was under 100 proof. And I liked that they didn't claim they distilled it. They followed the law and named the state of distillation on the label. All good things.

Ok. Is it any good?

Yes. See below.

non-chill filtered distilled in Kentucky bottled in Florida

Clyde May's Straight Bourbon

Purchase Info: Bottle provided by the producer for review purposes. Suggested retail price is $39.99.

Details: 46% ABV. Non-Chill Filtered. NAS though the provided literature claims 5 years.

Nose: Mint, Juicyfruit gum, oak

Mouth: Sweet and minty with a nice bit of oak tannins along the sides and back of the tongue.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Lingering oak tannins and baking spices.

Thoughts: This is a decent bourbon. It reminds me a bit of something from the Ezra Brooks line, which sort of makes me wonder if it didn't start life as a Heaven Hill product. As such, you may be uncomfortable spending $40 on a bottle. But I like it. And as it's competitive with many other sourced bourbons, I can see myself spending the money on it every once in a while.

Coopers' Craft Bourbon

November 8, 2016 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Green Olive Media for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that this past weekend I bought a barrel. It's for a series of projects that I'm currently working on behind the scenes. The thought of purchasing a barrel is one that I think a lot of whiskey fans at least consider at one point or another. For me, it's because I want to use the wood. As such, after I got it home, I immediately took it apart.

Taking the barrel apart gave me an appreciation for the people that put the things together. The barrel heads are pretty heavy. The staves are pretty heavy. And you need to balance things, so the whole mess doesn't fall over. Holding the pieces in my hands was much more informative to the process than watching the demonstrations at a cooperage. It's really pretty cool.

It was one of those weird coincidences that life sometimes throws at you when I noticed that this week's first post was about a bourbon that is dedicated to those people that make barrels for a living. Coopers' Craft is a bourbon released by Brown-Forman. As they are the only Kentucky Bourbon maker that also owns it's own cooperage, it is fitting that they exploit that for marketing purposes. But don't think that this is just Old Forester in a different bottle. According to news reports when the product was released, this has a slightly different mash bill than Old Forester. More corn, less rye.

Does that make for a better bourbon than Old Forester, though? Let's find out.

Coopers' Craft Bourbon

Purchase info: This review sample was supplied by Green Olive Media. Suggested retail price is $29 for a 750 mL. (I did purchase two 50 mL bottles at the Party Source in Bellevue, KY for $0.99 each.)

Details: 41.1% ABV

Nose: Wintergreen candies, honey, vanilla pudding and oak.

Mouth: Vanilla Pudding, baked apple, baking spices and oak.

Finish: Short finish with vanilla, grapefruit peel, baked apple and oak.

Thoughts: This is an ok bourbon when taken neat. It's nothing to write home about, honestly. It's good for playing cards or chatting with friends, but nothing for deep contemplation. Think something on the level of Evan Williams black, except with more oak and less grain. So fine, but not great neat. But here's the thing, this really shines in an Old Fashioned. I made mine with Angostura Bitters and the smoky simple syrup made from the Smoked Sugar from BourbonBarrel Foods. The wintergreen from the nose really shows up in the mouth as well. It's sweet but interesting.

I'd say this is a very nice mixer that'll work neat in a pinch.

Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

November 3, 2016 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank simoneink for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

Every time I post a review of a cask-finished bourbon there is one reaction I can be sure to get from at least a portion of the audience:

"Ugh, flavored whiskey."

And they have a point, to an extent. Bourbon is put into a second barrel to pick up some of the flavors of that cask. When the cask previously held another spirit (or wine or beer), those are the flavors you are trying to get. Is this bad? Not in my estimation, but then I tend to like cask-finished bourbons and ryes. I even like the occasional infused bourbon. I get that not everyone does but to each their own. I'm not here to judge what a person likes. I'm only here to judge a bourbon.

In this case, the bourbon in question is Belle Meade Bourbon finished in used Madeira barrels. It is a limited edition release from the folks at Nelson's Green Briar Distillery in Nashville, Tennessee. Belle Meade Bourbon is the brand name that they use for the sourced bourbon that they sell while they work on making their distilled-in-house whiskeys. Sku tells us they source from MGP in Indiana.

At this point, I'm sure you know what bourbon is. (If not, shoot me an email. I'll personally bring you up to speed.) You might be asking yourself what Madeira is, though. I know I was. The only thing I knew about it was that it is a type of wine and it was a favorite of George Washington and other Founding Fathers. And since it is the finish that is the difference in this one, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a minute to discover just what Madeira is.

Madeira is a Portuguese fortified wine (a wine, like sherry or port, where the wine has had spirits added to it) produced on the Madeira Islands which lie off the coast of Morroco. Initially, the islands' winemakers added grape spirits to the barrel to help it survive the sea voyage to the intended destination. During the trip, the wine would be subject to subtropical heat which would give the wine a different flavor. And although it's no longer necessary to fortify the wine to allow it to survive a sea voyage, Madeira producers still add spirits to the wine. They even intentionally heat it to maintain the flavor profile that their predecessors accidentally developed centuries ago. (Here is a more in-depth link to learn more about Madeira.)

Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

Purchase Info: This review sample was supplied by simoneink. Suggested retail price is $74.99.

Details: 45.2% ABV. Bourbon finished in a Malmsey Madeira cask.

Nose: Sweet and delicately fruity with dried fruits, brown sugar, and oak.

Mouth: Fruity and peppery in the mouth. Plums, black cherries, baking spices, maple, and cocoa.

Finish: Warm and of decent length. The whiskey and the wine notes both hang around a while.

Thoughts: On my first sip of this, I was struck by a distinct brandy flavor at the front of my mouth. As it moved back, the whiskey showed itself. It was kind of like a spirit mullet. After a few more sips, this experience settled down, and I was able to start to pick out individual notes.

Overall this is a nice spirit. I found it to be quite tasty. If it sold for $45-$50, it would be an easy one to recommend. As it stands, I doubt I would personally spend $75 on this one. But price/value is subjective so if you are looking for something tasty and different, and if $75 is easy for you to come by, then give this a shot. I will say that it was good enough that I would consider spending the $35 they ask for the regular release the next time I'm visiting a place where it is sold.

Not Whiskey, But Tangential: A Selection From BourbonBarrel Foods.

November 1, 2016 Eric Burke

I’ve lived most of my life in Minnesconsin. It’s my name for a region that encompasses a good sized portion of both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Having lived on both sides of the imaginary line that runs down the center of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers, I know from experience that the culture of both is essentially the same. They both celebrate deer hunting in the Fall and fishing pretty much any time of year. They both call a casserole a “hotdish.” They both have a weird fondness for Jello with other foodstuffs inserted into it. And farming, both dairy and corn, is a major industry. I guess the major point of difference is whether the football teams you root for wear green and yellow and red and white or purple and yellow and maroon and gold.

Historically, in both places, the food has been bland and tended to be either white or transparent. I don’t think it was until I started to travel to St. Paul as a teenager that I realized that food should have spices. The fanciest we got was to sprinkle a little garlic salt on the venison when Mom wasn’t looking.

I think this might be why I like to cook so much. I love flavor. I love to see how various ingredients play and meld and sometimes create something new. It’s the reason I love bourbon too. It is seldom that you will describe a bourbon's flavor as delicate.

It was with all this in mind that, while at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I stopped by the Bourbon Barrel Foods booth. I like bourbon, good things tend to come from barrels, and I like foods. I was curious to see what sort of concoctions came from a combination of the three.

Initially, I grabbed a container of Bourbon Smoked Pepper and the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Smoked Chef’s Spice Blend. Both were wonderfully rich and smokey. I use the black pepper to season eggs for breakfast, and I love the Chef’s Spice Blend on every meat I cook on the grill. Hamburgers, chicken, steak, you name it, it works on all of them. It even tastes good on potatoes. Really some killer stuff.

I liked that Bourbon Smoked Chef’s Spice Blend so much that I soon used it up. Luckily they also sell on their website. So I popped another container of the spice blend in my cart and went looking at the rest of the items they offered.

Woodford Reserve Bourbon Smoked Lemon Pepper
This uses the Bourbon Smoked Pepper, lemon peel, onion, garlic and various other spices. It’s tasty enough. I tried it on chicken and fish, but I suppose it would work on anything you might want lemon pepper flavored.

Bourbon Smoked Sugar
Beautifully smoky on the nose and mouth. Once I purchased this, I had a hard time deciding how I was going to use this. I wouldn’t want that kind of smoke flavor on my morning oatmeal. And though it might taste good in a cookie, I didn’t buy it in a package big enough to use that way. Eventually, I came up with the perfect use for it, though. Simple syrup for an Old Fashioned. It adds just a hint of smoke and complexity to the drink.

Bourbon Smoked Garlic Salt
I can see the salt crystals. I can see the dried garlic. I can certainly smell the garlic, but I don’t get any overt smoke on this one. That said it is still one of the better garlic salts I’ve used. Unfortunately, I use only a bare minimum of salt in my cooking, and I use garlic salt even less. Good thing I only sprung for the .75 ounce container. I have a feeling this one will stick around for a while.

These folks are creating some excellent stuff. I’m enjoying almost all of them and will certainly be looking for more. Thankfully it looks like some of their products are available in Minnesota. Apparently, I’m not the only Minnesconsin resident that has woken up to the fact that it is ok to have flavorful food.

A Photo Tour of the Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller

October 27, 2016 Eric Burke

In light of recent allegations made by the daughter of Tom Bulleit of his homophobia and mental and physical abuse toward her, I have made the decision that BourbonGuy.com can no longer endorse products bearing the Bulleit name. An update has been added to reflect this change in policy.

I'm not going to say bad things...I'm not going to say bad things...I'm not going to say bad things...arghhh!

Ahem. Oh, hi.

I love history. I love bourbon. And on those occasions where the two intersect, I normally get very happy.

Normally.

There are times and places where people have decided to make money off of the historical presence a place has. I have no problem with that. Then there are times where people know what history is in a place and choose to ignore it. It makes me sad, but I can't find my way toward being upset with them. But when you co-opt someone else's history, make up a bunch more and then toss in a heaping helping of deception? Then I get upset.

I'm not going to go into the details (because Diageo is a big company with probably more lawyers on staff than people I know). Well, except to say that after I heard the tour guide say that the black fungus that grows on all distilleries was just "active alcohol" that had settled on the trees and buildings and that you couldn't take photos near the still or in the rickhouse because it was against the law...well, I decided to watch the time between truths. At one point I made it almost a half hour between accurate statements. And while they didn't explicitly say that all of Bulleit on shelves was distilled with one pot still (that you couldn't photograph), they did strongly infer that it was the case.

But, as a person who loves history and knew which things were right and which were wrong, I still enjoyed being there, wandering around and seeing all the buildings. And so, here are photos from the parts I enjoyed. I'd say read Sally Van Winkle Campbell's book, visit the gift shop and then decide if you can put up with all the BS you'll hear on the tour. If you can, take a tour. If you can't then just enjoy being there.

Hey look! Actual old history...with a curiously named newer building in front of it. This is the view from outside the gift shop.

The campus as viewed from the first stop on the tour. the gray building is where "their still" is. The warehouse behind it is the one you get to step into. You can see almost the entire tour from here.

If you've heard of Stitzel-Weller and the Old Fitzgerald Distillery, you've heard of this sign.

Inside the gray building. You can't take photos of the still room, but just outside of that are pieces of the old distilling setup. It's like a small museum where almost everything they tell you has been made up on the spot by tour guides.

I read in "But Always Fine Bourbon" about how all of those windows were open every morning and closed every evening by hand.

You could take a photo from outside the doorway. For your safety and because it's "against the law" to take one from four inches farther in. Sure it is. I'm sure it has nothing to do with whose name might be on the barrels that you can't see from th… — You could take a photo from outside the doorway. For your safety and because it's "against the law" to take one from four inches farther in. Sure it is. I'm sure it has nothing to do with whose name might be on the barrels that you can't see from the doorway...anyone else notice that it looks like these have been sanded on the ends?

The tour to this point. The building on the right is the gift shop. Tour started there. The black buildings in back are more warehouses. That was the first stop where we "learned" what the black fungus...err..."active alcohol?" was. The brick and gr… — The tour to this point. The building on the right is the gift shop. Tour started there. The black buildings in back are more warehouses. That was the first stop where we "learned" what the black fungus...err..."active alcohol?" was. The brick and gray building to the left is where "their still" is.

The cooperage. I wonder how many hours it took a set designer to decide just where to put that barrel. It would have been an "ah HA" moment to behold when the inspiration came to lay it on its side.

The tour ended in the same building it started in. This time you got to walk in through Pappy's...I mean Tom Bulleit's...office. Then the tour guide makes fun of him, says how much she loves him and we do a tasting. It's fine.

2019 update:

As stated above I have made the editorial decision that I can no longer endorse or recommend products from the Bulleit family of labels. This is an extension of the policy in my Statement of Ethics where I do not allow homophobic comments. In this case I’d rather not continue to help enrich a man alleged to have physically abused his own daughter over her sexuality. The review has been left intact for transparency’s sake.

Blade and Bow Bourbon

October 25, 2016 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Taylor Strategy for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

A Glass of Whiskey. They didn't send a bottle to photograph, so this is what they get. ;)

The first time I tried Blade and Bow, I was at the 2015 Kentucky Bourbon Festival All-Star Sampler. I tried it mostly to satisfy my curiosity. In hindsight, it was a pretty poor place to try it. I'd had one or two other bourbons, I'd had some delightful food, and I was probably giving it less attention than I normally would to a bourbon I had never tried before.

I had a taste of it again this year when I visited the Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller. It was after the tour, and it was going head-to-head with Bulleit Barrel Strength. Also not a fair comparison since the proof of a barrel strength bourbon will obliterate a 90-ish proof every time.

I didn't walk away with a great impression of the Blade and Bow from my two previous experiences with it, and so it was with no small amount of interest that I accepted an offer from a Diageo PR rep for a sample of the Blade and Bow. I was very curious to see what I would think of this bourbon when it wasn't trying to live up to unfair competition or circumstances.

You know something a little more "real-life." Because seriously, I try not to have a lot of different bourbons in one night and I especially tend to be mindful of the barrel-proof ones.

Blade and Bow

Purchase Info: This was a review sample provided by Taylor Strategy.

Details: 45.5% ABV

Nose: Caramel, peanut, green oak and a hint of mint

Mouth: Peppery on the mouth with honey, peanut, nutmeg, clove and oak.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Lingering bubblegum, peanut, and mint.

Thoughts: Even today, on my first sip, I wasn't impressed by this one. But, as I got lower in my glass, my opinion changed. It grew on me. I was regretting the tiny sample bottle they sent as I would have loved to have just one more splash.

I like this bourbon and if it were half the price, I would probably want to buy it as part of the regular rotation. At around $50 per bottle though? This is going to be a change of pace bourbon for me, at best. It's tasty enough, it's just not a bourbon I'd regularly be willing to drop half a Benjamin on.

But Always Fine Bourbon: Pappy Van Winkle and the Story of Old Fitzgerald by Sally Van Winkle Campbell

October 20, 2016 Eric Burke

Last night, I finished a book that had been on my wish list for years. Literally years. For some reason I never got around to buying it even though I had heard very good things about it. But when we were introduced to the author at the Kentucky BourbonFest and saw that she was selling her books, we figured that it was just about time to finally pick it up.

This is not a history of bourbon. This is a history of one family and their bourbon. A pretty famous bourbon family at that. This is the story of Pappy Van Winkle and his brand, Old Fitzgerald. And it is written by someone with pretty good access to the family and their archives, because she is family. As the granddaughter of the famous Julian P. “Pappy” Van Winkle (and daughter to J.P. Van Winkle Jr., and sister to Julian Van Winkle III who produces Pappy the drink) Sally Van Winkle Campbell is probably uniquely qualified to write this story.

And what a story it is! Written in a very conversational style, this book starts in 1893 as Pappy is first starting work at W. L. Weller. It then steps back and tells you about the Wellers, the Stitzels and the some of the other major characters in the story before heading back to Pappy and stories of his time with the company. The book details his rise through the company, the struggles of Prohibition and the way he ran his company afterward.

The book regales you with story after story. Each entertaining enough that if you aren’t careful, you’ll do as I did and find yourself still awake long after you should be sleeping. The book ends well after Pappy and his company were both gone, touching on the creation of the bourbon named for the man before taking it’s leave of you.

This is a great book for any bourbon lover or anyone who just wants a glimpse into a bit of the history and the life of a very colorful man. Go buy it, you won’t regret it.

Blog

Chateau de Laubade Armagnac, 1976

Clyde May's Straight Bourbon

Coopers' Craft Bourbon

Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

2019 update:

Blade and Bow