Buffalo Trace Store pick: Westport Whiskey & Wine

Back in September, I met up with a fellow blogger for his first trip to the Party Source. It's in the Kentucky part of the Cincinnati Metro area, and he'd just moved to Ohio. We'd never met in real life before, and I'm always up for a bit of whiskey shopping, so I was more than willing to make the drive from Louisville to Cincinnati.

And boy did I fill my cart. I didn't get anything too special, but everything I did get was unavailable here in Minnesota, so that made it special to me. I must have bought like eight to ten bottles of bourbon. I doubt I spent more than $12 on most of them. It was fun. A lot of chatting. A bunch of shopping. Good times had all around. 

So of course, after heading back to Louisville, we decided that since we were driving right past Westport Whiskey and Wine that, well, we'd probably better stop in. I mean we are right there. It'd be a shame to have to drive all the way back over here, wouldn't it? (Not going to mention we were visiting a friend later in the week that lives about 15 minutes from there...)

After we had convinced ourselves that this was, indeed, the best course of action we stopped in and took a look around. WW&W is not a huge mega-store. It's a nice sized store that has a decent selection and has had a private selection of one sort or another, every time I visit. I can't remember what we actually went in looking for, but I'm pretty sure we didn't find it. What I found instead was a liter bottle of a store pick Buffalo Trace. I hadn't picked up a Buffalo Trace for a while, so when they offered me a sample, I was pretty sure that I was going to buying it if it was at all good. And it was. It was very good. 

Or well as good as anything can be in a tiny disposable plastic shot glass. 

Buffalo Trace Private Selection, Westport Whiskey & Wine

Purchase Info: $37.99 for a one-liter bottle at Westport Whiskey and Wine, Louisville, KY.

Details: Barrel # 111, 45% ABV

Nose: Cinnamon sugar, crisp apples,and almonds.

Mouth: Fresh Green apple, almond, and baking spices rounded out by vanilla and oak.

Finish: Warm with lingering vanilla and apple. 

Thoughts: This is a tasty variation on the Buffalo Trace flavor profile. This is a good example of why I like store picks. 

If you've had standard Buffalo Trace, then the store pick is...

Fruitier on the nose with more prominent cinnamon. The mouth is softer with more fruit and spice, but with less pronounced almond notes. The finish is a little warmer. 

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Yellowstone Limited Edition 2016

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 Common Ground PR for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. 

So there I was, at the Lux Row Distillery announcement, trying to act like a real reporter instead of the clown at the back of the room for once. I don't usually cover events like this, but since I was going to be in town for it anyway, I thought it might be interesting to attend one so I could see how they work. 

As I stood there, taking notes, a couple joined us. The male half was wearing a Yellowstone shirt. He introduced himself as Paul Beam, and we chatted for a bit. Paul is half of the team of brothers that started the Limestone Branch Distillery. After a while, my friends from MB Roland wandered over along with Steve Beam, the other brother from Limestone Branch.

Over the course of the week, as I hung out with my friends from MB Roland, I got to chat with Steve Beam quite a bit. I learned a lot of things I can't share...which is really no problem since I tend to have an awful memory. In any case, I decided that I liked Steve Beam. He was a nice, though opinionated, guy who was fun to hang out with over a few bourbons. 

And so, when I got the press release that the Beam's and Luxco were releasing another of the black labeled limited edition Yellowstone bourbons for 2016, I wasted no time in accepting a sample to see what he and his brother had been up to.

The 2016 edition of Yellowstone Limited Edition features two bourbons, a 12-year-old and a 7-year-old, that were mingled and allowed reentered into new toasted wine barrels for additional aging. Now I want to be sure I am clear here (mostly because my wife misunderstood me the first time I read this to her as well). These are new, toasted barrels that were intended for wine...not barrels that once held wine. Big difference there. 

But there is still one question to be answered, was it any good?

Yellowstone Limited Edition 2016

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by Common Ground PR, but the suggested price is $99.99.

Details: 7 years old. 50.5% ABV. Finished in toasted barrels.

Nose: Fruit and mint lead with caramel, oak, and cardamom pods coming after.

Mouth: Peppery heat with the initial sip. Oak, caramel, cinnamon spice, anise, and mint follow.

Finish: Long with a nice warmth. Fruit and spices linger. 

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Thoughts: This is a very good bourbon. There is enough proof to make itself known, but not enough to overpower. The age gives nice oak and spice. The fruitiness is present, but not overly so. Very good bourbon. 

So you are wondering about price, aren't you? Well, I think in today's market, this is good enough to warrant the price being asked. Being a freelance designer and writer, I probably won't see it in my budget anytime soon, but if I had $100 extra and saw it sitting on the shelf, I'd certainly think about it. 

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Clyde May's Straight Bourbon

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.

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. 

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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.

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Coopers' Craft Bourbon

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. 

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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.

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Blade and Bow Bourbon

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. 

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.

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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.

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Willett-Distilled Bourbon: Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

Tomorrow I’m heading back to northern Wisconsin to shoot my youngest brother’s wedding. Yep, among my many skills is the skill of photography. But I don’t normally take photos of people. I shoot landscapes, animals, etc. Things that are outside and surrounded by all sorts of natural light. So this will be fun. 

If by fun you mean learning as you go, flying by the seat of my pants and hoping no one notices that I only kinda know what I’m doing. All while trying not to screw up the only memento that my brother and his new wife will have of their happy day. And also while trying to explain that no, you can’t do night time shots during the day. That no, rain isn’t the end of the world. And that yes, trying to take all your wedding pictures in the rain as it is getting dark is probably asking for them to not turn out as well as they would have if you’d have done it before the ceremony, before it rained, except that you were too superstitious to let him see you.…

Shit. 

I don’t normally do this, but this might be one of those times that the flask comes with. If there is any chance at all that I end up with a Bridezilla on my hands, I want to be prepared. Especially since I’m going to be … well … faking it and trying not to scream for most of the day.

So what will be in that flask? Well there is a good chance that it will be the recently released Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond, Willett-distilled bourbon. It's 100 proof to help fortify the will. And it's inexpensive enough that I won’t feel too bad taking a snort from the flask. Plus I have a couple bottles of it so I won’t miss it too much.

Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: $22 for a 750 mL bottle at the Willett Distillery Gift Shop

Details: 50% ABV. NAS (but bottled in bond so at least four years old). Distilled at DSP-KY-78 (Willett).

Nose: Grassy, caramel, mint, spiced gum drops and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with caramel and vanilla backed by allspice, black pepper, mint and a grassy note.

Finish: Sweet and of medium length. Lingering allspice, mint and dried grass.

 smile because I liked this one

Thoughts: Twenty. Two. Dollars. For. A. Craft. Distilled. Bourbon! And it’s good!

OK to be fair this is no world beater, but at $22 it doesn’t have to be. What it needs to be is solid, tasty and work well either neat or in a cocktail. This does that. It’s a nice addition to the ranks of tasty, inexpensive bottled-in-bond bourbons. If you visit Kentucky, make sure this is in your bag when you leave.

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1792 Full Proof

It wasn’t long before my trip to BourbonFest that I got a note from a friend of mine letting me know that he saw the 1792 Full Proof at a municipal liquor store near his house. Ordinarily, I might have passed on driving the 70 miles or so (round trip) just for the opportunity to spend money on bourbon. Especially since I would be driving about 1600 miles (round trip) in the coming weeks also for the opportunity to spend money on bourbon. But, I like 1792 and quite liked the last of their limited releases that I’d tried. Plus to be honest I was feeling more than a little bored on that late August morning. So I made the trip up there and decided to do a little shopping.

Though I tend to like 1792, it really was a previous 1792 limited release that I had picked up (the Port Finish release) that made me decide to make the trip up there to grab this one as well. I'd liked the Port Finish quite a bit and it showed me that the blenders for 1792 know what they are doing with these releases. And plus 1792 Full Proof sounds like it's just 1792 with less water. More proof is hardly ever a bad thing since at worst you can dilute to your favored proof level and get more pours out of a single bottle.

1792 Full Proof

Purchase info: $44.99 for a 750 mL at Top Valu Liquors, Columbia Heights, MN

Details: 62.5% ABV (My research on this one indicates that this was the proof that this was entered into the barrel, not the proof that it was removed from the barrel. So it was probably diluted to 125 proof).

Nose: Juicyfruit Gum, brown sugar and baking spices.

Mouth:  Whoooo…that’s a hot one without water. This is fruity with cloves, cayenne, caramel and oak.

Finish: Hot with medium length. Lingering fruit and oak.

I like this. So this is a smile.

Thoughts:  I’m really impressed by these 1792 limited releases. The price is right and both of the ones I’ve tried have been very tasty. Where the Port Finish was much sweeter than the regular 1792, this 1792 Full Proof is just the regular 1792 on steroids. It has the same wonderful dry and evaporative qualities as 1792. Just more so. It is a very lovely, though hot, whiskey neat. I tend to give it just a little ice to dilute it and help tame the heat. It’s very tasty so if you like 1792, grab this if you see it. If you don’t like 1792 however, I’d give this a pass. It’s that, just more so.

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A Visit to Glenn's Creek Distillery

If you read the last post, You've already seen what the outside of this small distillery looks like. Located in the old bottling and shipping building of the former Old Crow Distillery, Glenn's Creek Distillery is surrounded by history. Outside is the place to be inspired by what came before, but inside is the time to focus on what is yet to come.

Glenn's Creek Distillery is much smaller than the former occupant of the property. In this one shot you can see almost the entire production area. Off to the right is the aging area. Beyond that (in the Lowes wrapping) is the yeast growing and storage area. Grain storage is beyond that. On the right right of the photo you see fermenters with a cooker peaking up behind them. All the way to the back are their four stills. The only thing you don't see is the bottling area. Which is behind us.

Here it is. Four bottles at a time. And their initials underneath.

The aging portion of the distillery was interesting. On these racks are barrels of two kinds of Bourbon, Rye, and Rum. Two distilled on site and two sourced from MGP in Indiana, but aged on site. The racks themselves are made from reclaimed wood from the Old Crow warehouses outside. If they get big enough there is hope to use one of those to put their own barrels in one day.

They are small-time and hands on. In this case the agitation on the cooker comes from a person holding a drill with a long paddle on the end. The man stirring was our tour guide for the day. Dane is the Lead Distiller at Glenn's Creek.

This is Tiny Tim, the 12 gallon experimental still. It was the first still they had made and they survived using it as the only one for a while. Now it is kept around to run experimental batches.

This is Double D. Named so because it has two doublers, not for any other reason you might think of. It is a 34 gallon still.

This still is Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is where the rum is distilled. It is a 600 gallon still. They currently run it at 450 gallons but this gives them some room to expand as needed. 

This is Dr. Crow. Named for the man who lent his name to the former occupants of the property, Dr. Crow is where the whiskey is made. The still was originally set up to be heated by a steam boiler, but that portion was too expensive to buy so they converted it to direct heat with the use of the burners from some heaters found around the old distillery.

And this is the current Glenn's Creek Distillery product line-up. From left to right, the Ryskey Rye and the Stave + Barrel bourbon are purchased from MGP and delivered in the barrel to be aged on site. Skipping one, Prohibition Kentucky Rum is the rum distilled in Rumsfeld and aged in barrels that formerly held bourbon.

OCD #5 is an interesting one. It is a bourbon fermented using yeast that was recovered from the sealed Old Crow fermenter number 5 (a photo of it is shown in the Old Crow post). The story goes that since the fermenters were mostly sealed, one day they had the idea to see if there was anything living in there. Yeast can survive a long time in spore form, but 20-30 years is a bit past it's best by date. Most of the fermenters didn't do anything and the mash was spoiled. All but fermenter #5. That one was happily fermenting away when they checked on it. So they pulled it out in buckets, grew it up some and used it to create OCD #5. Did they really catch a yeast that had been previously used by Old Crow? No idea, it may have just been a wild yeast that they caught. Either way, no one else has it and it is a pretty interesting story.

Before I left, I had the chance to take a taste of each of these. As we weren't tasting in the ideal conditions, these aren't real tasting notes, only impressions.

Ryskey Rye Whiskey

Details: 59% ABV. 95% Rye whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product.

Thoughts: Spicy with a nice finish.

Prohibition Kentucky Rum

Details: 58.5% ABV. Distilled on site. Made from fermented molasses. 

Thoughts: Hot, molasses, maple syrup, rock candy. Has a rum funk to it. It was quite tasty in a Rum-mosa cocktail (Rum, OJ and cinnamon sticks).

OCD #5

Details: 53.8% ABV. Fermented using yeast caught on site. Aged in full-size barrels with added staves. Staves were smoked.

Thoughts: Slight smoke, herbal. Some corn flake notes. There is a cinnamon note at the tip of the tongue and a slight rum funk. He asked how old we thought this was, we knew it was young, so we guessed 2-3 years. It turns out that it was only six months old. Pretty tasty for that.

Stave + Barrel

Details: 59.4% ABV. Bourbon whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product. Six months old.

Thoughts: This is a high-rye recipe MGP bourbon. It's tasty, though young. The added staves make it taste older than the six months it is.

UPDATE: Since I initially wrote this I've noticed that Glenn's Creek Distillery have started a GoFundMe project to help fund the restoration of the Old Crow distillery ruins. If you have the means, think about helping save a piece of history.

BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts Etsy store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. Thanks!