Bourbontucky on DirecTV

Do you have DirecTV? Can you get it? Do you have a friend who has it who would be willing to let you camp out on their couch for an hour and a half? You might want to look into it.

DirecTV recently produced a bourbon documentary and is currently showing it on the Audience channel (channel 239). I watched it this past weekend and it is well worth watching. 

The show is roughly divided into three parts.

Part one is all about the bourbon. The history, the distilleries. There are interviews with about every distiller you’d want to hear. It has Jimmy Russell, Fred Noe, Jim Rutledge, Harlen Wheatly, and Chris Morris. They talk to corn farmers, coopers and still makers. You see beautiful video of bourbon in glasses, production floors, aging warehouses, and corn falling through a grate. You learn about the yeast, the fermentation, the stills, bottling and some history. In depth looks at Woodford Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Four Roses and Makers Mark are interspersed with stories from Jimmy Russell, Fred Noe and Jim Rutledge. We learn why Four Roses will not put out a flavored bourbon and how Jimmy Russell used to keep an eye on Fred Noe while on the road. The highlight of this section was footage of the Heaven Hill fire. This is something you hear about every time you go to Kentucky, but which I’ve never seen footage of. Video of rivers of fire running downhill into buildings. Stories of cooperation and genuine love. Horrific and beautiful at the same time.

Part two is about other people in Kentucky who are making money off of bourbon. A Louisville bar owner tells you about Beam decanters. Specifically mentioning one that I happen to have. A chef in Louisville talks about how he collaborated with Jefferson’s to make a bourbon. Bourbon Barrel foods is mentioned. Wes Henderson from Angel’s Envy talks about finishing and blending. DISCUS and Bourbon Women help to transition to part three.

Part three is all about bars and retailers across the country. This is the part you can fast forward through. Every interview was about as follows: "We couldn’t give this stuff away ten years ago, now we charge way too much for you to try it. We like bourbon. Yay bourbon." It comes from retailers in DC, bars in LA and hipsters in Brooklyn. 

Part four is about the consumers…oh wait. Nope. This is the documentary's major failing. While everyone interviewed was a fan of bourbon, none were people who weren’t also advertising their business where they make money off of bourbon. It would have been nice to hear from fans of the product who have nothing invested but love. 

Overall, if you can, I’d recommend pouring a good bourbon and figuring out a way to watch this one. It looks like it is currently showing on DirecTV On-Demand or on Audience (Channel 239) on February 9.

Like the fire of 1,000 suns, it's a very hot Stagg Jr. Mmmmm...tasty, tasty suns.

I walked into the liquor store to get a bottle of wine for the pizza sauce I was making that night. 

“Hi Eric.” I heard from behind the counter. I looked over startled. I didn’t ever talk to anyone here, how did they know my name? 

When I looked over, I noticed that it was the former manager of one of the liquor stores I used to frequent all the time, but that I hadn’t been to since their bourbon selection sort of fell off. 

“Oh, hi!” I barely got out before heading down to the wine section. I knew I needed to get that before I got distracted by bourbon. This guy had a tendency to do that to me.

After getting up to the counter, we made small talk for a bit before he let me know “I have a bottle of Stagg Jr. in the office. It’s not going to hit the shelf, if you’re interested.” 

…blink…

Well, this was unexpected. Did I want it? Good question. I was having some well documented personal difficulties with Sazerac’s labeling. But this wasn’t an offending product. And I’d heard good things.

“How much?” I asked expecting a fairly outrageous price.

“About $48”

“Yes.” I answered, barely letting him finish.

This, kids, is why it pays to build relationships that span the course of several years with your local liquor store. 

And so a trip for a $9 bottle of wine turned into a $63 stop after taxes. Honestly, I don’t even know why my wife lets me go to stores by myself anymore. I do have a history of randomly walking out having spent 700-1000% of what my plan was. In any case, I plan to start frequenting this store a little more.

Stagg Jr.

Purchase info: $47.99 for a 750 mL at Marketplace Liquors, Savage, MN

Details: 64.35% ABV

Nose: Lots of ethanol on this. Floral, red berries, mint, bubblegum, sourdough and a faint odor of old barn.

Mouth: Very hot and sweet. Caramel, mint, leather, tobacco, cayenne pepper. 

Finish: Warm, long and drying. Leather and black pepper. 

Thoughts: This is way too hot for me to enjoy neat. I don’t like my bourbon to cause pain. Let’s add some water to bring this down to about 100° proof.

Nose: Really tames the ethanol. Brown sugar is abundant, caramel and vanilla too. Floral notes are still there along with the bubble gum. There is now a bready note as well.

Mouth: The fire has been muted, though not extinguished. There is a nice tingle now. It’s still sweet with caramel but the lack of fire allows a fruity note to appear. Mint and cayenne are still there. Tobacco and leather have been replaced by a nice oak flavor.

Finish: nice and warm with lingering oak.

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Thoughts: Wow. Now that I can taste something other than fire, I really like this. It’s sweet and fruity but nicely balanced with spice and oak. If you can find it for less than 1.5 times the price of regular Buffalo Trace, pounce on it. It’s worth the slight premium to gain the ability to dilute it to your preferred strength.

W.L. Weller 12 year old

Looking for a good, easy-to-find bourbon that won’t cost you an arm and a leg? 

Oh, you are? Shit. Well this isn’t it. 

Once upon a time you could get a bottle of W.L. Weller 12 year old bourbon easily and for a decent price. Not in Minnesota, I’ve never seen it here. But in areas where it was distributed, it was just…there. Sitting on the shelf. Historically, running somewhere between $20 and $30. 

Anecdotally it seems this is no longer the case. Weller 12 has fallen victim to the frenzy over it’s higher-priced corporate cousin and is out of stock basically everywhere I look online. Looking on wine-searcher.com (which lists historical price averages going back to 2007), I see they are claiming the current average price to be $59. In fact, five of the seven listings they show are $89 or over.

I have some advice. Don’t pay this much for this bourbon. Settle down, take a breath and realize that while this is decent, it isn’t earth-shatteringly so. If you want a wheated bourbon, get a different Weller, a Larceny or even a Maker’s Mark. If you want a 12 year old bourbon go with Elijah Craig. If you are only looking at this because it is supposed to be like (that other bourbon that will not be named)?

Well, there’s no hope for you. You, I give permission to go pay $90+ because you’re going to do it anyway. Just remember if this is the only reason you want Weller 12, your reasoning is flawed. This is not that. It’s failed at that already. Didn’t make the cut. Tasted different enough to not be chosen.

So now that the rant is over, is the bourbon any good?

W.L. Weller 12 Year Old bourbon

Purchase info: $29.99 for a 750 mL at Dorignac’s Food Center, Metairie, LA

Details: 45% ABV, Aged 12 years

Nose: Cherry preserves, oak, clove, ginger, cotton candy

Mouth: Hot. Bubble gum, clove, black pepper, mint

Finish: Nice and warm with a decent length. Nutty, mint oak, baking spices.

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Thoughts: This is a decent bourbon. I don’t prefer wheated bourbons so I normally choose something else when this is on my shelf. But if you are a fan of wheaters and run across it and the price is somewhere in the ballpark of MSRP, it’s a good one to pick up. I normally do. And provided the price is right I’ll probably continue to do so.

Angel's Envy Head-to-Head-to-Head review

I used to have this impression of Angel’s Envy that it was a non-bourbon drinker’s bourbon. I’m not sure where that came from. Maybe it was the exquisitely designed bottle with angel wings on the back and on the bottom of the cork. Maybe it was the angel-winged ladies I saw working in an Angel’s Envy popup bar at BourbonFest. Maybe it was that the first time I had it, it was so light and sweet that it didn’t really taste like bourbon.

Of course, I’d tried it after a full plate of barbecue so…yeah.

In the intervening time since my first taste of the product, I’ve come to respect the company more than my first impressions would have hinted at. The Hendersons are active on forums and blogs and seem like stand-up guys. Never claiming to have made the whiskey just letting you know that they finished it in other barrels and blended it. On top of that I’ve had a few more glasses of the whisky and ended up with a different impression than that first one with the burned out palate.

Now you might ask why I would go back to try again when I was a bit turned off by it to begin with. I’d like to say that it was due to fairness and such. But to be honest, in an indirect way it was that oh-so-pretty bottle that brought it back into my life. My mother-in-law likes to buy me bourbon. But she doesn’t know anything about bourbon so she grabs the prettiest bottle she can find. Twice that has been Angel’s Envy. The first bottle she gave us wasn’t to my tastes. My wife liked it well enough that when I saw that a store just across the Wisconsin border from us had a private selection, I picked it up for her.

I liked that one. A lot. So when mom-in-law got us another bottle this year, I was kind of excited. Then I tasted it…suddenly less excited. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I looked and it turns out to be the exact same batch as the first one she got us. That got me to thinking. I needed to find another batch and see what’s up here. And that brings us to today. 

Angel’s Envy Head-to-Head-to-Head Review

These are listed in the order I was exposed to them.

Batch 7N

Purchase Info: A gift from my mother-in-law.

Details: 43.3% ABV. Batch 7N, bottle 2331. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels. 

Nose: Banana Bread, oak, caramel, faint nutmeg.

Mouth: Sweet. Oak, mint, cinnamon, green pea pods.

Finish: Gentle. Lingering bitterness, mint and more pea pods.

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Thoughts: Not a ton of flavor, delicate. I’m not a huge fan of this one. The pea pod thing just isn’t for me. If this were my only exposure to the brand my main thought would be vegetal and not good.

Batch C1

Purchase Info: $41.99 for a 750 mL from Chicone’s Liquor Mart, Hudson, WI

Details: 43.3% ABV. Batch C1 (Chicone’s Private Selection). Bottle 86. Blend Percentages 20% A, 50% B, 30% C. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels. 

Nose: Sweet apple, anise, cinnamon, oak

Mouth: Mint, cinnamon, baked apple, nutmeg.

Finish: Warm. Long. Lingering baking spices and bitterness.

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Thoughts: This is nice. It’s fruity warm and spicy. I’d buy a second bottle if I went back and they still had one.

Batch 8S

Purchase Info: $44.99 for a 750 mL at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 43.3% ABV. Batch 8S, bottle 1071. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Port Wine Barrels. 

Nose: Floral, caramel, red berries, clove, spearmint leaves.

Mouth: Nice tingle, peppery. Cloves, cayenne, whole grain bread, mint and a touch of caramel.

Finish: Mint, black pepper, cloves and more floral notes which transition to a lingering bitterness.

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Thoughts: Nice full flavor. Good balance between spice and mint with neither being dominant. Just a hint of sweetness. This is a good batch. I like it.

Comparison Thoughts: The store pick (C1) is my favorite of the bunch with Batch 8S coming in a close second. C1 has a fuller mouth feel and a baking spice focus. 8S continues on the spice train but has a bit more mint. 7N is kind of a train wreck. It tastes vegetal. Not a flavor I care for. 

Batch variation aside, I think I like Angel’s Envy more than other wine-finished whiskies. The port influence is subtler and better integrated into the bourbon than the others I’ve had. 

A new look for an old friend: Wild Turkey Rare Breed (112.8° proof)

Last September my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Russell, Master Distiller of Wild Turkey, while visiting the Wild Turkey visitor center. We wandered in and he was just sitting there chatting with a couple people. 

Now to say I’m a fan of his work would be an understatement and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to wander over after the other couple was done with him, congratulate him on 60 years and let him know how much we’ve enjoyed the fruits of that labor. It was a pleasant chat. Lasted about 15 minutes or so. Toward the end of our visit we bought a small bottle and asked if he would sign it for us.

That bottle was one of our favorite go to Wild Turkey products: Rare Breed. It’s one of my wife’s favorite bourbons. So much so that one year her Valentine’s Day present was a bottle of it. Which is a nice present since she’ll share and I enjoy it too.

So with all that said, it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I noticed that there was a new batch out. I love trying new things and previous batches I loved, but when things change…well you never know. If you are looking, the new batch comes with a new label design and a new proof level. 56.4% ABV this time around as compared to 54.1% for the previous batch.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed (112.8° proof)

Purchase info: $33.99 for a 750 mL at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 56.4% ABV, Barrel Proof

Nose: Spearmint, Garden soil, faint lemon zest, cinnamon rolls, leather, vanilla/caramel and oak.

Mouth: Hot. Brown sugar, honey, leather, tobacco, black pepper and a mineral note.

Finish: Long and warm. Leather, brown sugar and that same mineral note. 

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Thoughts: Because Rare Breed was our favorite Wild Turkey expression, I was a little nervous about the batch change. I needn’t have worried. This is still a rich, complex bourbon that takes a cube or two of ice well and is still a favorite.

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A Happy 2015 Cocktail

It’s New Year’s Eve. The one night of the year when tradition says that you need to break out the cheap bubbly wine and raise a glass to the fact that you survived yet another turning of the world’s odometer. 

And before you get all: “Wait just a damn minute. I like bourbon. I want bourbon. There is very little I like more in this world than bourbon and dammit I’m going to ring in the New Year with bourbon.” Let me reassure you, I’m with you. But, no one but a killjoy would tell you that on New Year’s Eve, you can’t have both. 

In fact, I took it upon myself to come up with at least one way you might want to try to combine them into one glass. This specific recipe uses the Cranberry Apple Shrub I made from the Shrubs book I reviewed a couple weeks ago. But the idea can be adapted much wider.

A Happy 2015 Cocktail

2 oz Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon
1 oz Cranberry Apple Shrub
Aromatic bitters (use your favorite, a few dashes, I used 1821 bitters from Atlanta)

  • stir ingredients in a mixing glass with ice 
  • pour into a wine glass or wide mouth cocktail glass and top with 3 oz or so of sparkling white wine.

My basic idea here was to use a classic whiskey cocktail as a base and move forward from there. I love a Manhattan so that’s where I started. But I really liked the way that the shrub and bourbon played together. Topping it off with champagne made it a bit more delicate and a bit more fun. The fruit and vinegar flavors in the shrub were easier to pick out, but at the same time subdued enough that they weren't overpowering. 

Could you use vermouth? Orange bitters? Sure! In fact why stop there? Maybe you’re a rye whiskey fan? Maybe mix up a Sazerac and pour it into a absinthe-rinsed cocktail or wine glass and top with sparkling wine. My wife loved this one. I had a cold so I needed to trust her judgement. 

Maybe you are a Canadian whisky or Irish whiskey fan and like the occasional whisky and ginger-ale highball? Make up some ginger syrup, squeeze some lemon juice in there and mix with the whiskey or whisky of your choice. Top that with the bubbly society wants you to consume and enjoy.

The point is to have fun with it. And if you are into this sort of thing, all of these drinks feel just a little bit more sophisticated than that five dollar four-pack of mini bottles of “champagne” that you bought from the liquor store end cap (even though I bought the same stuff when shopping for these).

Sazerac, Just Remove the Damn Numbers—part 2: Old Charter 8 vs Old Charter 8 year old

Just a little over a year ago, I noticed that of the many bourbons on my shelf, very few were in the sub-$30 range. It wasn’t that I was feeling super-snobbish or extra-sophisticated, but rather that Fall Bourbon Release Season was just wrapping up. Premium, Rare and Super Rare bourbons were all anyone wanted to talk about and I was caught up in the excitement along with everyone else. 

It was at about this time that the idea for the Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets popped into my head. I was sick of talking about whiskies that most of us can’t get and thought it was about time to look to the other end of the spectrum. There is a lot of good bourbon in the sub-$20 range, but there is also a lot of crap. I took it upon myself to find those things I’d want on my shelf.

One of the finalists in the competition was Old Charter 8 year. Due to it’s age it was seeded number one in it’s division and ended up coming in second overall. It was just after the competition concluded that I was informed by a reader that the age statement had been removed. It was now just “Old Charter 8.”

To say I was pissed was an understatement. I almost vowed to not buy anymore Sazerac products, but that would have been rash and hard to maintain. I did decide that I wasn’t going to be fooled anymore and that if at all possible I was going to make a more informed decision about which NAS products I was going to spend my money on. 

To that end, I explored Very Old Barton 6 year and “6” a few weeks ago in Sazerac, Just Remove the Damn Numbers (part 1). I was pleasantly surprised when I preferred the NAS version. Though the naming still made me upset.

And since we had mistakenly purchased a handle of Old Charter “8” in Louisiana thinking it was the 8 year and had then found a bottle of the 8 year this fall in Kentucky, it was decided that we needed to do another comparison. See if I should still be upset at the change.

Old Charter 8 (NAS)

Purchase info: Less than $25 for a 1.75 Liter at the Wal-Mart in Hammond, LA (my wife picked it up and didn’t save the receipt).

Details: NAS, 40% ABV

Nose: Green pea pods and JuicyFruit gum. There’s a cotton candy sweetness if you can push past the overwhelming pea pods.

Mouth: Uncomplicated. Sweet with cinnamon and cayenne spices. Feels a bit thin in the mouth.

Finish: Bitter and vegetal, though with a warmth that lasts a surprisingly long length of time. 

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Thoughts: This is definitely definitely definitely of those you don’t want to drink out of a nosing glass. Concentrating those pea pod odors doesn’t make you want to take the sip. It’s better out of a rocks glass, but even then, I’m not a fan. Water doesn’t help, just accenting the undesirable parts and muting the admittedly nice spice and warmth. 

Old Charter 8 year old

Purchase info: ~$18 for a 750 mL at Keystone Liquors, Bardstown, KY

Details: Aged 8 years, 40% ABV

Nose: dried corn, ripe fruit, caramel and hints of dried wood.

Mouth: Classic bourbon notes of caramel/vanilla along with some baking spices and a hint of cayenne.

Finish: Tannic bitterness and oak linger

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Thoughts: I liked this one. It’s not an outstanding bourbon, but for the price it works well enough.

Unlike it’s corporate cousin Very Old Barton, for Old Charter 8 the NAS release was strikingly inferior to the age-stated product. That pea pod on the nose just made me not want to drink it. If it were a higher proof, I could see it working ok in a cocktail, but as it stands, it just sort of gets pushed around by the other ingredients. 

Here’s the verdict. Don’t buy the NAS version. If you happen across the 8 year for a reasonable price? Sure, feel free. Just remember, neither of these are good enough to go hunting for. So don’t go crazy.

A familiar redhead: Maker's Mark

You’re on the road. Traveling. Maybe for work, maybe for pleasure. You’re staying in a hotel. Or maybe visiting a local tavern at the end of a long day. 

Looking behind the bar you see a very thin selection. There are a couple of taps that contain Bud Light and some Miller product. But all you really want is a good bourbon. Jim, Jack and a few others are there. But not much else. What do you do? 

I’d say in a case like that you look for a familiar redhead. One that, even though it may not be the wildest one out there, has never let you down. I’d look for the nearly ubiquitous Maker’s Mark.

Maker’s Mark

Purchase info: I got this handle as a gift from my daughter but it would run about $40-$50 here in the Twin cities.

Details: 45% ABV

Nose: Honeydew Melon, Peaches. Maple Syrup on French Toast and hints of baking spices.

Mouth: Soft mouthfeel. Melon, dusty oak, caramel/vanilla

Finish: The finish sneaks up on you. Seems soft at first but then settles in your chest for a little while. Notes of melon and a lingering bitterness.

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Thoughts: There are people out there who overlook things because they are accessible and popular with the non-geek. In this case, that’s a mistake. This is a great whiskey. It’s soft and fruity. Tasty as hell and you can get it at even the most dive of dive bars. If you can’t trust that the tap lines are clean, get a Maker’s.