Limited Release Premixed Cocktail: Orange Label Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye, 100 proof

September 6, 2016 Eric Burke

Limited Release Orange Label, 100 proof Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye

It is my wife's birthday tonight. The one night per year where if I am going to be lazy about serving her a cocktail, I had better be serving something good. Something with a good whiskey presence. My wife knows her whiskey and I can't slip something subpar past her—not that I'd try mind you.

Luckily, I saw an email a few weeks ago from Ace Spirits that said they had this in stock. I ran up to Hopkins the next day and picked up a bottle. Immediately upon trying my first sip, I tweeted :

Picked up a bottle of limited edition 100 proof Low & Slow Rock n Rye @AceSpirits. Wow! Look for the orange label on this one. Very good!
— Eric Burke (@arok) August 26, 2016

Hochstadter's Slow & Low Rock and Rye, Limited Orange Label, 100 proof

Purchase info: $36.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: Made with 8 year old whiskey, 50% ABV.

Nose: Orange zest with floral notes backing it. You can tell there is whiskey in here.

Mouth: Warm in the mouth with orange zest, honey and light floral notes. Once again, you can tell there is whiskey in there though it isn't the main flavor component.

Finish: Lingering orange floral notes

Thoughts: Wow! This is amazing. The regular Slow & Low made me want to try making my own. This makes me realize that I don't need to, not while I have this bottle at least. The orange label is much less sweet than the black label and has much more whiskey presence. It holds up to ice well, but is tasty enough right out of the bottle as well.

If you find this and like orange with your whiskey, pick it up. I don't think you will be disappointed.

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!

Recommendation: The Bourbon Country Reader

July 5, 2016 Eric Burke

Way back when I was a young bourbon-lad, transitioning from a bourbon drinker to a bourbon geek, Chuck Cowdery's The Bourbon Country Reader was the first whiskey publication I subscribed to. Over the years, I subscribed to other whiskey publications, Whiskey Advocate, The Bourbon Review and others. But one-by-one I let those subscriptions lapse. Sometimes it was because I didn't find anything between the pages that I found valuable enough to pay for. Sometimes it was due to lack of time or interest on my part.

The one publication subscription I've never let lapse is The Bourbon Country Reader. The content is well-written, well-researched and isn't available anywhere else. Chuck knows bourbon and though he has his opinions, that's part of the draw. The subscription, being about the price of a cheap-ish bottle of bourbon, is inexpensive at $20 for six issues. These appear roughly 4-6 times per year but your subscription is issue based, not time based. They appear frequently enough that they become part of your routine and not something that you've forgotten that you subscribed to by the time the next issue arrives. And in what might seem a paradoxical statement I like that it is short. It is 4 pages long with three to four articles per issue. I can get through it in one sitting. There is no filler.

If you are reading bourbon blogs, you are probably reading Chuck Cowdery's blog. If you read bourbon books, you might have read his books: Bourbon, Straight and Bourbon, Strange among others. But if you read only one bourbon publication, it should be The Bourbon Country Reader. Go to Chuck's blog to subscribe.

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

June 30, 2016 Eric Burke

I’m four-fifths of the way through the week and before the night is over I will have booked twice the billable hours of a typical week. Needless to say, this has been a hellish week for me on the work front. I’m getting to work on lots of fun projects, but free-time is in short supply. So since blogging doesn’t pay the bills nearly as well as working does, I’ll need to keep this short was well.

I tend to like whiskey put out by Wild Turkey. This is no secret. I tend to like Rye whiskey. This is also no secret. So when I saw a rye whiskey on the shelf produced by Wild Turkey, that I hadn’t yet had, I felt the need to buy it on the spot. And buy it I did.

This is Russell’s Reserve Rye Single Barrel. It is a non-chill filtered rye whiskey bottled at 52% ABV. And it is delicious.

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Purchase Info: $59.99 for a 750ml bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Details: 52% ABV.

Nose: Tobacco, mint, Bazooka Joe bubble gum and oak

Mouth: Nice and spicy. Bubble gum, mint, baking spices, vanilla, black pepper and oak

Finish: Long and warm with lingering vanilla, baking spices and just the faintest hint of pickle.

Thoughts: This is an extremely tasty rye. It’s spicy and has enough sweetness to balance that. It has a wonderful mouthfeel. It pairs fantastically with a well aged cheddar. I can find no faults with the whiskey and look forward to buying another bottle.

I can however find faults with the packaging. This is a single barrel whiskey. And a single barrel whiskey could allow the consumer the opportunity to learn a little something about the whiskey that they are buying. Is it older than the typical release? Was is aged in a specific place that seems to help create notes they like? What barrel did it come from in case they like it and want another of the same one? The packaging tells you none of that. It tells you how long Eddie and Jimmy have been working at the distillery, but not how long the whiskey was aged. It tells you it’s a single barrel, but not which barrel it came from. One bottle looks just like the next even though the whiskey inside might taste different. It’s a small thing, but for $60, the small things are sort of what you are paying for.

That said, I’ll buy another. It’s too tasty not to.

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

May 24, 2016 Eric Burke

It was with no little amount of sadness that I learned that Robert J Cooper had passed away. It’s not like I knew him or even knew who he was. Though I probably should have since he was the creator of such spirits brands as St. Germain, Lock Stock & Barrel Rye, and Hochstadter's Low & Slow Rock and Rye.

No I was sad for an entirely selfish reason. As I learned of his death, I also learned of his age, which happens to be the same as mine. 39 years old. That’s really young and any time you hear of someone your age dying, doesn’t matter how, you start to look at your own mortality. To question if you are where you want to be in life or if there is something else that you should be doing. To examine how you are going to get there.

In the past when I’ve done this evaluation whether it was from the death of a friend or a stranger, I’ve found my life wanting. I was in a soul-sucking job or working without passion. This time however, I’m happy to say that I find I’m in a good place. Business is good, I’m happy with the work I’m doing as a designer and I have people who are interested in what I have to say as a writer.

So here’s to Robert J. Cooper, a man I never even heard of, that has helped in some small way to remind me that life is pretty good.

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: Apple Valley Liquors, Apple Valley, MN $35.99 for a 750 mL

Details: 50% ABV. On bottle there is no age statement so assumed 4 years old. The website backs that up claiming it is “A complex blend of hand-selected straight rye whiskeys, aged 4-15 years and curated from distilleries across North America. Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Alberta.” The site also mentions that the whiskey is non-chill filtered.

Nose: Caramel, cloves and cedar.

Mouth: Soft in the mouth with cloves, cinnamon, mint and brown sugar.

Finish: Starts hot and slowly fades to sweet with just a hint of pickle and bubble gum.

Thoughts: I’m a big fan of the theory of this one. Take rye’s from all over, from many different distilleries in many different places and just blend them together to get something new. Very cool idea. It is also a very tasty whiskey and has become one of my favorite ryes in the two months I’ve had it in my house. Who knows what will happen to the brand now that the founder is gone, but for now, I’ll keep buying it as long as I can keep finding it.

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Whiskies, Revisited

May 10, 2016 Eric Burke

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye and Bourbon

It’s no surprise that I like to try new things. Like today, I tried both acupuncture and massage therapy for the first time. One of them seems to have worked to ease a pain in my neck. But in either case it was an interesting experience.

But we can’t just plow forward into the great unknown all the time. Sometimes we need to stop and take stock of where we’ve been. And since I’ve been exploring some of the Willett brands lately and I happen to have a bottle of both Willett Rye and Bourbon this seems like a nice time to look back at a couple bottles I haven’t evaluated in a while.

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Bourbon

Purchase Info: $118 for a 750 mL at Willett Distillery, Bardstown, KY

Details: 12 years old. Barrel# 1270. 59.2% ABV

Nose: Toffee, cocoa and oak.

Mouth: Hot and spicy but sweet as well. Starts similar to the nose with nice sweet notes of cocoa and toffee playing with a spicy note that is similar to ginger on a solid foundation of oak.

Finish: Sweet and spicy. Numbs the mouth. Very long.

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye

Purchase info: You know how when you are on vacation and having fun you don’t always think of keeping the paperwork? That happened this time. All I know is it was bought in September in Kentucky for some money.

Details: 7 years old. Barrel# 94. 57.8% ABV.

Nose: Mint, black pepper, oak and a slight fruitiness.

Mouth: Spicy, though not overly hot, with notes of mint, cloves and pickle juice.

Finish: Long and sweet. Numbs the mouth. Lingering warmth in the chest.

Thoughts: Both of these are great examples of why you want someone with a great palate choosing your single barrel whiskies. A 12 year old bourbon could easily be over-oaked. Not this one. It’s got a solid oak presence but is sweet and rich instead of woody and tannic. Same with the rye. A 7 year old MGP is often nothing special. This one however is rich and delicious.

It’s been a while since I evaluated a Willett Single Barrel instead of just enjoying them. My advice hasn’t changed though. Have a budget and stick to it. At the gift shop, have a budget and buy the oldest one inside of it. You won’t be disappointed at any level so don’t feel like you need to bust your budget to get the best. At a store, if you are lucky enough to have this in your local, have a budget and stick to it. If this is inside your budget, buy it. I’ve yet to find one of any age that wasn’t quite tasty.

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Rye

April 21, 2016 Eric Burke

It sometimes seems that, as people, we spend our whole life being too young.

For the first quarter century of your life it seems you are constantly being told you are too young. Too young to hang out with your older siblings, too young to stay up late, too young to drive, too young to vote, too young to drink, too young to have discounts on car insurance.

But then, all of a sudden you wake up one day to realize that other people are no longer telling you that you are too young. You still hear it, but now it’s coming out of your own mouth. I’m too young for this pain, I’m too young to be this sore, I’m too young to repeat myself this much, I’m too young for my kid to be old enough to do this, I’m too young to have pop stars from my youth die (RIP Prince).

A few years ago it was announced that Jack Daniel’s was going to start distilling rye whiskey. As a tease, they released bottles of unaged distillate, which was obviously too young. A few years passed and they put out the “rested” rye. Not fully aged, but getting older, getting closer to being old enough. Finally early this year, it was old enough to be released as an actual product and we got Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye. Unlike me, it is no longer too young.

Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye

Purchase Info: $64.99 for 750 mL bottle at Ace Sprits, Hopkins, MN

Details: Barrel #: 16-0838, Bottled on 2/2/16, Rick #: L-3. 47% ABV

Nose: There is a good hit of alcohol right off the bat, but after letting that settle for a bit I get rye notes of spearmint and grass, brown sugar, caramel and oak.

Mouth: Drying with lots of mint and spice

Finish: This has a nice long, warm finish with lingering rye spice notes

Thoughts: This is a delicious rye. As I write this, my bottle isn’t even half gone (though it's much more than half gone as I post this) and I’m already planning to grab another. Jack Daniel’s doesn’t get a lot of love from whiskey geeks but this could very possibly start to change that. Delicious.

Wiser's Legacy

January 29, 2016 Eric Burke

Early in my fanatical, must-try-everything phase of whisky exploration, I was offered the chance to blind taste a bunch of Canadian whiskies on Twitter along with author Davin De Kergommeaux and an international group of whisky fans and bloggers. As I was eager to try all the things, I jumped at the chance. Among other things, this experience taught me that there is some really good whisky coming out of Canada.

Today's whisky was not in that group. But one of it's sibling was. Though Wiser's Red Letter was only available in Canada, it showed me that I really needed to be paying more attention to the stuff that was crossing our northern border. I knew Red Letter was a special whisky, so I went in search of another whisky that was a little more readily available.

I found it in Wiser's Legacy. One sip and I was in love. Due to the nature of the try-all-the-whiskies phase I was in, I fooled around with a lot of different whiskies. I'd buy a bottle, we'd have some fun, but eventually something else would catch my eye and I'd move on. Not so with the Legacy. With Legacy, I knew I'd found a whisky to settle down with.

Until rumors started popping up that Legacy was being pulled back to a Canada-only release. The rumor went that what was in the States was all that was going to be there. I nearly cried. Instead I did the one thing that I normally never do. I bought up enough bottles that I would be assured a supply should the rumors be true. Now, a few years later, it seems that that rumor was just that. But, from that point on, I've always had at least one "buffer bottle" in the closet to go with my one open bottle. And once a bottle is emptied, I buy another so I have a supply as long as possible.

It's a comforting thing knowing that no matter what happens, you will always have at least one more bottle of that one you wanted to settle down with.

Wiser's Legacy

Purchase info: I've bought so many, but one bottle I still have a receipt for says: $42.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Surdyk's, Minneapolis, MN.

Details: 45% ABV.

Nose: Bubble gum, spearmint, hints of baking spice.

Mouth: Nice spicy rye tingle, mint, delicate oak and baking spices with more bubble gum underneath.

Finish: rye spice, mint, bubble gum and a gentle heat that lingers.

Thoughts: This has been my favorite Canadian whisky for quite some time and no matter how many I buy, it continues to maintain that top spot. It is delicate with just the right amount of heat. Sweet, but also spicy. Amazingly well-balanced with well integrated flavors. I always have at least one bottle of this in reserve (though normally two).

Four Roses Single Barrel, Gift Shop - September 2015 Brent Elliott selection

January 5, 2016 Eric Burke

Four Roses Single Barrel-Gift Shop Selection

Change is hard sometimes. That’s an understatement, right? For examples see the uproar after any change on any social network. Change is so hard for people to take that even rumors of change can cause news articles to be written. (Real headline from Fortune on New Years Eve 2015: Facebook Might Change It’s Newsfeed.)

Change is especially hard when it involves something you really like. Years ago, I ran the art department of a magazine. When I took over, I wanted to clean up the look of the book a little. In my research, I remember reading a lot of angry letters in other magazines that took them to task for the smallest of changes. I’m thankful that this was basically pre-internet being useful for much or I’d have probably been too scared to make my changes. Because, believe it or not, people don’t like it when you mess with their stuff.

And I really do mean their stuff. People get invested in their favorite brands and products. And the bourbon-world is no exception. The popular outcry that forced Maker’s Mark to reverse an unpopular business decision a few years ago is proof of how much people love their chosen bourbon.

Last summer well-loved bourbon brand Four Roses announced a change of a different sort. Beloved Master Distiller Jim Rutledge was retiring. And while there was honest congratulations for him on a well-deserved retirement, there was also an underlying nervousness. Would the bourbon change? Would the quality decrease? Would they put out a flavored bourbon now?

And while it will take some time to find the answers to the first couple of nervous questions, newly minted Master Distiller Brent Elliott got a round of applause when he announced to a September crowd that the answer to that last question was a resounding no.

But wait, I guess there actually is a way to get a hint of the hands, or at least the palate, that now puts its stamp on Four Roses. And that is to grab a gift shop single barrel selection chosen by him. Which is what I did last September when I visited. Along with the a bottle of one of Mr. Rutledge’s last selections (which I will be sitting on for a bit), I grabbed one of the first two selections by Mr. Elliott for the gift shop. I figure it should be a fair assessment of what he thought was good.

Four Roses Gift Shop Selection

Purchase Info: Roughly $76 after tax for a 750mL at the Four Roses Gift Shop

Details: OBSF, 11 years 4 months old, Chosen by Master Distiller Brent Elliott, Bottled September 2015, 51.2% ABV, Warehouse GW, Barrel 81-1F

Nose: Sweet fruitiness, cinnamon, mint, brown sugar. After some time in the glass rich oaky notes of tobacco and leather are revealed.

Mouth: The mouth leads with a spicy cool tingle before resolving into oak, cloves, eucalyptus, honey and pears.

Finish: The finish is long with a warmth that settles in the chest and a minty coolness in the mouth. Pears and eucalyptus linger.

Thoughts: If I had any fears that the quality of the barrel selections would drop off at the gift shop once Mr Rutledge wasn’t doing the choosing, those fears are laid to rest. While this is certainly different than any of the other picks I’ve gotten there in the past, it is just as tasty. Love this one.

Blog

Hochstadter's Slow & Low Rock and Rye, Limited Orange Label, 100 proof

Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Bourbon

Willett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye

Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Rye

Wiser's Legacy

Four Roses Gift Shop Selection