Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2017, Round 1, Jim Beam Double Oak vs Jim Beam Devil's Cut

March 28, 2017 Eric Burke

Round 1d of the 2017 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Division 2 Number 2 seed Jim Beam Devil's Cut versus Number 3 seed Jim Beam Double Oak.

I think this is an interesting match-up. Both of these bourbons are products of Beam-Suntory, produced at one of the two Jim Beam distilleries in either Clermont or Boston, Kentucky. Both of these products are non-age stated bourbons, meaning they are at least four years old. And both of these are attempts to add more oak than standard Jim Beam white. Devil's Cut does it by shaking the barrels with water to draw out some of the residual bourbon locked in the staves and using that to proof down the finished bourbon. Double Oak does it by putting the "fully-matured" white label bourbon into a second new, charred-oak barrel for a while.

These were tasted blind in the following order. My thoughts on each are from before the reveal.

Jim Beam Double Oak

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 1 Liter bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 43% ABV, no age statement.

Produced by: Jim Beam Distillery (Beam-Suntory)

Nose: Grain initially. After a bit, it settled down to mint, buttered popcorn, and brown sugar.

Mouth: Peppery heat, shortbread cookies, grain, and oak.

Finish: Short side of medium length with peppery heat and peanut.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: It's amazing how different a bourbon can be when you taste it side-by-side with something than it was when you tasted it alone. I'm getting much more grain on this than I remember getting on either of these when I previously reviewed them.

Jim Beam Devil's Cut

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 1 Liter bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 45% ABV, no age statement.

Produced by: Jim Beam Distillery (Beam-Suntory)

Nose: Alcohol, generic fruit gum, grain, and hints of mint.

Mouth: Vanilla sugar, oak, and baking spices.

Finish: Medium with some heat, lingering dark chocolate, and peanut notes.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Sweet with a richer flavor profile than the other one. The dark chocolate on the finish seals this one for me.

Who wins?

Two bottles from the same producer. Both different ways of trying to accomplish the same goals. Both closer than I remembered them from previous reviews. Am I starting to like Jim Beam? I guess we will find out next time when Jim Beam Devil's Cut and all the other round-one winners compete for the Fancy Shelf Title. Stay tuned!

Jim Beam Devil's Cut advances to the Second Round

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Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2017: Round 1: Jim Beam Bonded vs. Jim Beam Black

March 23, 2017 Eric Burke

Round 1c of the 2017 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Division 1 Number 2 seed Jim Beam Bonded versus Number 3 seed Jim Beam Black.

Both of these bourbons are products of Beam-Suntory, produced at one of the two Jim Beam distilleries in either Clermont or Boston, Kentucky. Both of these products are non-age stated bourbons, meaning they are at least four years old. It's probable that Beam Black is in the six- to eight-year-old range but as of 2015 is now officially NAS. Beam Bonded came out about the same time that Beam Black lost its age statement and is Bottled-in-Bond, meaning that it is the product of one distillery (DSP-KY-230 according to reports), one distilling season and is bottled at 100 proof.

These were tasted blind in the following order. My thoughts on each are from before the reveal.

Jim Beam Bonded

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 1 Liter bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 50% ABV, no age statement.

Produced by: Jim Beam Distillery (Beam-Suntory)

Nose: Sweet vanilla sugar, light fruit and oak.

Mouth: Cinnamon, Vanilla, oak, and peanut.

Finish: Warm and peppery with cocoa and peanut notes. On the longer side of medium.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Richer and sweeter than the other. This also has a thicker mouthfeel. There is almost a malty note going on.

Jim Beam Black

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 1 Liter bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 43% ABV, no age statement.

Produced by: Jim Beam Distillery (Beam-Suntory)

Nose: Peanut, oak and dried grass.

Mouth: Fruity and sweet with nutmeg, vanilla and black pepper.

Finish: Medium length with lingering vanilla, cocoa and light grain notes.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Light and sweet with baking spice. Trends grainier than the other.

Who wins?

Two bottles from the same producer. One at a lower proof, but probably older. One probably younger, but at a higher proof. Who wins? It was close, but higher proof leads to higher seeding for a reason and it bears out here. Jim Beam Bonded advances to the second round.

Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2017: Round 1: Wild Turkey 101 vs. Cabin Still

March 21, 2017 Eric Burke

Round 1b of the 2017 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Division 2 Number 1 seed Wild Turkey 101 versus Number 4 seed Cabin Still.

Wild Turkey 101 is a product of Grupo Campari. It is produced by the father-son team of Jimmy and Eddie Russell at the Wild Turkey distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY. The product has no age statement but is rumored to be from 6-8 years old. Since this is the highest proof bourbon in this year’s competition, it gets the second number one seed.

Cabin Still is a product of Heaven Hill Brands. It is a three-year-old, 80 proof straight bourbon. It has an old and venerable name, having once been the product of the Stitzel-Weller distillery. These days, Heaven Hill barely acknowledges the brand. It isn't even on their website.

These were tasted blind in the following order. My thoughts on each are from before the reveal.

Wild Turkey 101

Purchase Info: $29.99 for a 1.75 L bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 50.5% ABV, no age statement.

Produced by: Wild Turkey Distillery (Campari)

Nose: Fruity sweetness, cinnamon red hots, and tobacco.

Mouth: Peppery and warm with brown sugar, baking spices, and bubblegum.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering bubblegum and chocolate covered coconut.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: Heat, sweet and richness. This is a good one.

Cabin Still

Purchase Info: $10.99 for a 1-liter bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 40% ABV, 36 month age statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Buttered popcorn, grain, and honey.

Mouth: Sweet and velvety with buttered popcorn, faint baking spices and the tiniest hint of soap.

Finish: Short and sweet with more buttered popcorn.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: If this were on its own, I wouldn't mind it. Compared to something else, though, it feels a bit one-note.

Who wins?

Two brands, each with a long and storied history. One that is still a flagship brand, and another that isn't even acknowledged on its current owner's website. One has Matthew McConaughey as its spokesperson, and the other doesn't advertise. It should come as no surprise that the winner here is Wild Turkey 101. It will face the winner of the matchup of Jim Beam Devil's Cut and Jim Beam Double Oak in Round 2.

Bracket result: Wild Turkey wins this round.

Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2017: Round 1: Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond vs. Kentucky Tavern

March 16, 2017 Eric Burke

Round 1a of the 2017 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Number 1 overall seed Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond versus Number 4 seed Kentucky Tavern.

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond is a product of, wait for it, Heaven Hill Brands. Since this is the only age-stated bourbon in this year’s competition, this six-year-old product gets the top seed. This brand is virtually a Kentucky-only product. I have heard rumors of it being sold in other markets, but they are few and far between. Being a bottled-in-bond product, this is 100 proof.

Kentucky Tavern is a product of the Sazerac company. It is a three-year-old, 80 proof straight bourbon. From what I gather, this is produced at the 1792 Barton Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky even though the label says that it is produced by Glenmore (another dba that Sazerac uses).

These were tasted blind in the following order. My thoughts on each are from before the reveal.

Kentucky Tavern

Purchase Info: $17.99 for a 1.75 L bottle at Chicone’s Liquor Mart, Hudson, WI

Details: 40% ABV, 36 month age statement.

Produced by: Glenmore Distillery (Sazerac)

Nose: Delicate with dried grass, light cinnamon, and faint vanilla.

Mouth: Light and effervescent. Sweet grains, cinnamon, and light citrus.

Finish: Short. Muted and grainy with some cinnamon.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is an ok bourbon. Not anything a connoisseur would want but might be a nice introductory bourbon for the novice due to a lack of strong or off-putting flavors and lack of burn.

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond

Purchase Info: $10.99 for a 750 mL bottle at The Party Source, Bellevue, KY

Details: 50% ABV, 6 year age statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Brown sugar, vanilla, cherry, and tobacco.

Mouth: Warm and peppery with leather, cherry, chocolate and oak.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering leather and oak.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: This is a bourbon-lover’s bourbon. Very tasty and complex enough to drink neat.

Who wins?

This was an unfair matchup to begin with. These bourbons are not even targeted at the same market. That said they both meet all the qualifications that I set for “bottom-shelf” back when I started this annual competition. So, as you might have guessed, the seeding worked. Number 1 seed overall, Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond is the winner and advances to round two where it will compete against the winner of the matchup between Beam Bonded and Beam Black.

The winner of this round is Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond.

Calumet Farms Bourbon

March 7, 2017 Eric Burke

Every so often, a bourbon comes along about which I have almost nothing to say. Calumet Farms is one of those bourbons.

Calumet Farms Bourbon is a product of Western Spirits, an NDP that also produces Lexington Bourbon and Bird Dog Whiskey. They've recently signed a production contract with Bardstown Bourbon company to distill future product, but they currently source from who-knows-where.

It has a pretty bottle, though...so maybe that's enough to warrant the $50 asking price.

Calumet Farms Bourbon

Purchase Info: $4.99 for a 50 mL bottle at Westport Whiskey and Wine, Louisville, KY.

Details: 43% ABV. NAS, and not labeled straight.

Nose: A bag of Old-Fashioned Candy mix ("Grandma Candy" as it's called around my house). By that I mean a ton of sweetness, a mixture of fruits such as citrus or berry, and spices like clove, cinnamon, and anise.

Mouth: Peppery and sweet with a faint vegetal/grain note underneath.

Finish: Medium length with lingering sweet and spicy notes.

Thoughts: Solid meh on this one. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't particularly like it either. It has an odd nose and a fairly plain palate. There is heat and sweet, but I didn't find it especially inviting. This one mostly gets knocked for the price. If it were around $15 for a 750 mL bottle, I'd be much more generous with it. But for $38 to $55 (locally), this is hard to recommend.

Jim Beam Choice, an unintentional dusty find.

February 23, 2017 Eric Burke

Jim Beam Choice, Green Label 5 year old bourbon.

It has been quite the day. I had to meet with my tax accountant today. My tax bill is...well...let's just say that it is much more than I had hoped but less than I had feared. Sadly it's closer to the fear than the hope. Anyway, it's a day where I feel like drinking whiskey. And based on the current set of my financial situation, it had better be something fairly inexpensive.

As you might have guessed based on the last month, I've been slowly gathering materials for a series of If You've Had... posts. One of the ones I thought might be fun was Jim Beam. Not the entire line, but the ones that most people can afford. White , Black, Double Oak, Bonded, Devil's Cut, Green, etc.

Wait? Green? What the heck is Jim Beam Green? Well, these day's it is nothing. It is no longer sold. But back in the days when Jim Beam thought that age statements were a good thing, it was the middle of the road offering between NAS white label and 8-year-old Black label. Named Jim Beam Choice officially, the green labeled version came in at a stated five years old. These days, according to the Beam PR rep I talked to, you might find it on a shelf, but it is no longer a product Beam sells. This is just me guessing, but when the eight-year went NAS, I'm guessing that the taste distinction between the Black and Green got a little hard to decipher with the result being that Choice joined the ranks of discontinued brands.

When I bought the bottle in September, I had no idea it was a dusty. But there you go. I guess you just got to keep your eyes open. You never know what you'll run across. For instance, I saw a Jim Beam Rye Yellow label on a shelf today if anyone is in the market for an 80 proof rye from Beam.

Jim Beam Choice, 5-year-old green label

Purchase Info: $13.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN (September 2016)

Details: 5 year age stated. 40% ABV.

Nose: Mint, apple, allspice, and honey.

Mouth: Thin mouthfeel and delicately flavored. Sweet granulated white sugar, allspice along with a light chamomile and peanut.

Finish: Medium, but gentle with lingering chamomile and allspice notes.

Thoughts: This bottom-shelf dweller ranks a good step above its white-labeled brother. Whether it is better or worse than Jim Beam Black is a matter of how much you like that "Jim Beam" waxy pencil/peanut flavor that both black and white have in abundance. This has a lesser "Beam" presence than I remember from either of them. It feels mostly like a Beam version of Evan Williams Black, just not quite as good. Not a bad whiskey, but not one the world is likely to miss.

If You've Had...Heaven Hill Edition

February 21, 2017 Eric Burke

I like learning things. I'm sure you do too, otherwise, why would you waste your time learning about bourbon? One of the best ways to really learn the differences between bourbons is to compare them head-to-head. That's the theory behind the If You've Had... series.

In case you missed it last time, the setup is like this: "If you've had Whiskey A then Whiskey B is..." hotter, spicier, sweeter, more floral, etc. Each section is written as compared to one of the whiskeys. So if you've had that one, but not the others, then that section will be of the most use to you. Remember there are no value judgments here. You get to decide based on what you know of Whiskey A if Whiskey B sounds like something you'd want to try.

Up tonight is the family of Heaven Hill-branded bourbons. Heaven Hill Black is a three-year-old bourbon bottled at 80 proof, Heaven Hill Green is a six-year-old bourbon bottled at 90 proof, and Heaven Hill White is a six-year-old Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon bottled at 100 proof. So without further ado, I present the fifth installment of the If You’ve Had… series.

If you've had Heaven Hill Black, then...

Heaven Hill Green is: similar on the nose, but with less grain influence. It shows less grain in the mouth but has more heat, mint, baking and pepper spices, and oak. The finish is longer, warmer, and shows more oak.

Heaven Hill White is: much sweeter on the nose, showing much more maple and caramel and less grain. The mouth is much spicier, showing both baking and pepper spices. It also presents more fruit and oak. The finish is longer, warmer, and sweeter with more baking spice and wintergreen.

If you've had Heaven Hill Green, then...

Heaven Hill Black is: similar on the nose, but showing more grain and much less oak influence. The mouth shows much younger: less oak, more grain, with a certain new-make quality about it. The finish is smoother and softer with more lingering grain and cotton candy.

Heaven Hill White is: sweeter on the nose, showing more caramel. The mouth is similar, though sweeter showing bubble gum that the green doesn't have. The finish is warmer and shows more spice.

If you've had Heaven Hill White, then...

Heaven Hill Black is: similar on the nose, but showing more grain influence. The mouth shows more grain bitterness. The finish is smoother, softer and more gentle.

Heaven Hill Green is: slightly less sweet on the nose. It is slightly softer on the mouth and slightly less sweet. The finish is sweeter but less spicy.

Heaven Hill 6 year old, Green Label

February 16, 2017 Eric Burke

It was about two and a half years ago that I first became aware of the Heaven Hill brand of bourbons as they stand today.

Well, that's not exactly accurate. On my very first trip to Kentucky, I had a miniature bottle of Heaven Hill Bonded (White Label) that came with the glass I purchased at their gift shop. I thought it was good, but I didn't have much to compare it to yet. Oh, and I used to occasionally buy the Gold Label Bonded when it was still available locally. But after that went away, I pretty much stopped thinking about the Heaven Hill brand.

Until about two and a half years ago, that is. I was putting together the beginnings of the idea that would blossom into the "If You've Had..." series of posts when I happened upon Heaven Hill Bonded (White Label). I was planning to do a post comparing all of Heaven Hill's bonded bourbons and picked it up. Somewhere between the time I bought it and the time I decided to review it, Fred Minnick had decided to give the green label version some good publicity.

And that brings me to my last trip to Kentucky. If you followed me on Instagram about that time, you might have seen a cart filled with a combination of White Label and Green Label bottles. Filled because I loved the white label for the price. But since Fred recommended the Green, I grabbed a few of those too.

But now I'm down to my last bottle. I've been saving it to do another installment of "If You've Had..." this time on just the three Heaven Hill Branded Bourbons (look for that next week) and I realized I'd never reviewed this formally. So now...this.

Heaven Hill 6-Year-Old, Green Label

Purchase Info: $9.49 for a 750 mL bottle at the Party Source, Bellevue, KY (September 2016).

Details: 6 years old. 45% ABV

Nose: Leather notes combine with mint, brown sugar and hints of ripe fruit.

Mouth: Sweet with a peppery heat. Brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and mint.

Finish: Long and lingering. Sweet, but after a moment bitter dark chocolate notes appear.

Thoughts: This is a very tasty bourbon. There's enough heat and complexity to keep you interested, but not so much it'll distract you from other things that might need your attention (like writing this post, for instance). It's good enough to drink neat in a pinch but is sufficiently inexpensive that you can use it in a cocktail without hesitation. This is a very versatile bourbon that is easy to recommend for the price. Think of it as the slightly lower proof Heaven Hill version of Wild Turkey 101. About the same age with all that brings to the table.

Blog

Jim Beam Double Oak

Jim Beam Devil's Cut

Who wins?

Jim Beam Bonded

Jim Beam Black

Who wins?

Wild Turkey 101

Cabin Still

Who wins?

Kentucky Tavern

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond

Who wins?

Calumet Farms Bourbon

Jim Beam Choice, 5-year-old green label

If you've had Heaven Hill Black, then...

If you've had Heaven Hill Green, then...

If you've had Heaven Hill White, then...

Heaven Hill 6-Year-Old, Green Label