Ezra Brooks Rye

February 28, 2017 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 Common Ground PR for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

About a month ago, an email landed in my inbox announcing the new Ezra Brooks Rye. I was curious, but then I saw the Distilled in Indiana prominently on the front label. I needed content, and I love MGP's 95% Rye whiskey, but I wasn't sure that reviewing yet another would be all that interesting. Ultimately, I decided to pull the trigger and see about getting a sample sent, mostly because I'm liking the moves that Luxco is making lately.

When I opened the box and saw that the product was only two years old, my expectations for this whiskey sank a bit. I know that rye performs better at a young age than bourbon does, but in the past, I have not been a fan of the ones I've had.

I decided to spend a couple of weeks with this before writing my review. As they were kind enough to send a full bottle, the least I could do was run it through its paces in a variety of situations and glasses.

From my first taste, I noticed something about this. It didn't really taste like your typical 95% MGP rye. There were certain family resemblances, to be sure. But it wasn't quite right, which got me to thinking.

A few of years ago, April-ish of 2013 to dial that in a bit, MGP Ingredients announced they were expanding the number of whiskey recipes that they would be producing and offering to their customers. Included in that announcement were the following:*

A Rye whiskey made from 51% rye and 49% barley malt
A Rye whiskey made from 51% rye, 45% corn and 4% barley malt

As production was scheduled to start later that April, the very first product off the still would be a few months shy of four years old now. Plenty old enough to blend a few different barrels together and end up with a product that had to be called two years old (remember you have to go by the youngest whiskey in the bottle).

Is Ezra Brooks Rye one of the new MGP rye recipes? I reached out to Luxco's PR Agency for comment, and they were unwilling to give exact mash bill info. They did say that there was a little corn in the recipe, though. And that leads me to believe that at least some of the juice is the second recipe above. Is it all that recipe? Is there a mingling of two or three rye mash bills? No idea. What I do know is that it's from Indiana and has rye and corn in it.

Oh, and that it tastes pretty good in spite of its age.

Ezra Brooks Rye

Purchase info: This sample was provided by Common Ground PR, but I've seen it listed online for less than $20 for a 750 mL.

Details: Two years old. 45% ABV.

Nose: Cinnamon red hots, soap, brown sugar, and a faint citrus note.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy. Honey, cinnamon red hots, clove, ginger, and lemon zest.

Finish: Medium length with lingering ginger and lemon zest.

Thoughts: This is young, but tastes pretty good in spite of that. I'm really enjoying the almost "ginger beer" quality of the ginger and lemon zest notes. I tried this in a couple of cocktails, and it got a bit lost. But on the other hand, I've enjoyed almost half the bottle neat to this point, so that says something I guess. If you see this somewhere, I'd recommend giving it a try.

UPDATE: This post contains an update to clarify who's PR Agency confirmed the use of corn in the mashbill.

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!

*Sources:
MGPingredients.com News Release. (Accessed 2/28/17)

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.

1792 High Rye and a Look at Whiskey Geeks

February 14, 2017 Eric Burke

Last week I asked a question that I thought was just going to be a bit of fun. The premise was that Whiskey Geeks complain. It's what we do. As a friend of mine once said while giving a bourbon talk, "we're a bitchy lot."

And it's true. We whiskey geeks are a passionate, opinionated people. If you ask a whiskey "expert" how you should take your bourbon, the answer will range from "drink it any damn way you want," to "no, here's the type of glass you should use and the setting you should be in." And that's just if the topic is ice. If you ask them about soda...Well, let's just say I almost had a bartender in Louisville start to tear up as he recounted a customer asking for a Pappy and Coke.

About the only topic that causes as much consternation is flippers. Geeks bitch about flippers. They bitch constantly and conspicuously. Partly it's because flippers contribute to a market where those who wants to drink a whiskey can no longer find it through legal channels or for anywhere near MSRP. Partly it's because a good portion of those people conspicuously bitching are just over-compensating for their own flipping.

So that's where things sat when I asked which people would rather see. I thought it would be a little fun, a few people would vote, and we'd get some laughs. What I didn't expect was to have to turn off comments on the post. I didn't expect every comment that came in to be an attack on those people participating. I saw "mouth-breathers." I saw "big-brother." I saw "Marxist." Eventually, I had enough and made one scolding comment and shut the rest off. The idea of whiskey geeks being whiskey geeks seemed to have touched a nerve.

One thing I never did was answer the question myself. And for me, the answer is easy. I'd much rather see someone truly enjoy a Pappy with Coke than see someone keep another from enjoying a bottle by flipping it. And it seems that most of you agreed with me. As of this writing, 73% of respondents voted the same way. 11% hated polls and thought that voting was stupid. Leaving only 17% of people who'd rather the price of a particular bottle get jacked through the roof than see it wasted with soda. For the record, there is no right answer...which is what makes it so much fun to argue about it.

So that's a recap. But let's turn away from what other people do with a limited edition whiskey and turn our thoughts to what we'd all like to do with one. Drink it. Tonight it's Valentine's Day, so it is appropriate that we are celebrating with one that my wife loves.

1792 High Rye

Purchase Info: 49.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 47.15% ABV. According to the company's website. This uses "a much higher percentage of rye as the secondary grain than most bourbons do."

Nose: Butterscotch, custard, cinnamon, mint and a pleasant nuttiness.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with allspice, butterscotch and hints of mint and banana.

Finish: On the longer side of medium, with very little burn. Lingering mint and banana.

Thoughts: Like I said above, my wife loves this. She put a little heart as her rating in her tasting journal. Me? I like this a lot, but I'm not quite ready to give it a heart just yet. It's very close, though.

As I was finishing the tasting, thoughts of banana bread popped into my head. This is sweet with baking spices and hints of banana, so that isn't an outrageous comparison. And personally I love banana bread, so this is a compliment. I do know that some people react negatively to banana notes in their bourbon so be aware.

Like I said, for $50, I think this is a great whiskey and worth the price they are getting for it. I'd feel differently if they were asking $75 for it, though.

For the record, comments are off on this one too. Mostly because it's the same topic and I hate getting the emails that are full of spite and hatred. It's a bit of a gut-punch to an otherwise nice day. It's whiskey...it's not worth all the anger.

The best laid plans...Streaming TV and an Elijah Craig Private Selection

February 7, 2017 Eric Burke

So...as of today, I'm officially a cord cutter. Last night at 11:59 pm, my DirecTV service was canceled. Not a big deal. Football season is over, and most of the shows we are watching right now are on hiatus or available over the air for free. We talked about it last weekend. To us, it seemed the perfect time to figure out what we will want when we need it.

Between Netflix, Amazon, and DirecTV I paid somewhere between $180 and $200 for video content (depending on how much of the Prime subscription I allocate to video and if I count taxes and fees). I knew I wanted to drop that $180 per month down below $100 for sure and even below $50 if I could. So, the services we wanted to try identified, we called and canceled.

Whoa. It's like a weight lifting off of your shoulders. Until we realized that there was one thing that we didn't plan for. The streaming device. We have an older AppleTV and an XBox One. It seems that neither of these will support most of what we want to try. The older AppleTV supports Hulu only (though a new one does Playstation Vue and SlingTV, though not Amazon). The Xbox does Amazon, Hulu, and SlingTV, but not Playstation Vue (for fairly obvious reasons). The Roku does everything but Apple stuff and I live in an Apple universe normally...

Ugh, so it seems I'll have to buy something and that nothing does everything we want. In other words, we had a plan, but it didn't account for one very major part of the equation. And we jumped in without thinking it all the way through.

Which, of course, reminds me of the whiskey I'm drinking tonight. I first bought this a few weeks ago and planned to review it. I didn't plan for one very important thing, though. It's really dang good, so good that I realized about the time that the bottle was empty that I had never reviewed it. Luckily, unlike my technology and entertainment problems, this one was easily solved by just going back to the store and picking up a couple more bottles.

Elijah Craig Small Batch, Single Barrel Selection by Ace Spirits

Purchase Info: $19.98 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN.

Details: 9-year-old Single Barrel Selection. 47% ABV.

Nose: Caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg and oak.

Mouth: Cinnamon and nutmeg combine to provide a nice tingle on the tip and sides of the tongue. Brown sugar sweetness and oak follow.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering baking spices.

Thoughts: At nine years old, this single barrel pick provides a nice call back to what made the 12-year old a fan favorite before the age statement was dropped. It's not as hot, but is every bit as complex as the 12. I like this one quite a bit. If you see a store pick of this, think about giving it a try.

UPDATE: I initially mistyped the price, listing it as $19.99 instead of $19.98. Thanks to Dan who caught that.

Bulleit 10 Year Old & a Rant About Agglomerated Cork

January 10, 2017 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.

Do you know what I hate?

Agglomerated cork closures on whiskey bottles. Never heard of agglomerated cork? Neither had I until I looked up what the closures made of compressed cork granules were named. But now that I have a fancy name for them, I hate them even more.

What is agglomerated cork? Well, it's just what I listed above. It's a closure made out of real cork, except instead of being a solid piece of cork, it's created from the ground up bits that are left over from making a solid piece of cork. Think of it as the particle board of the cork world. It's a bunch of different pieces of cork glued back into a cork shape.

Now, from my research, there seem to be some really good reasons to use particle cork. It apparently keeps air out a little better than solid cork. And, lo and behold, it is also much cheaper than solid natural cork. Both of these are excellent things. One keeps the whiskey in the bottle in better shape, for a longer time-frame, and the other helps keep the price down.

So why do I hate them so much? Easy. Every broken cork I've ever had to fish out of a bottle of whiskey has been particle cork. For my money, if you have to use a low-cost option, go with a screw cap. I know. I know. It doesn't have the same aesthetics. (And as such it won't help you justify the higher cost you've put on that pretty bottle.) So if a screw cap is out of the question, maybe a synthetic cork? I've had them break as well, but normally it is the glued-on top separating from the closure, not the closure itself breaking in half.

In any case, particle cork is my least favorite closure. And yes, I am geeky enough to have both a favorite and a least favorite closure. But fortunately, as I look at my shelf, I see particle cork is the least well represented, used by only Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, Wild Turkey Rye, a rum, and the three open bottles of various Bulleit expressions on my shelf. Which brings me to the bottle that set off this entire learning experience.

Bulleit 10-year-old Bourbon

Purchase Info: $42.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.

Details: 45.6% ABV. Aged ten years.

Nose: Floral with cotton candy, caramel, and baking spices.

Mouth: The mouth follows the nose. Floral, caramel, baking spices, cocoa nibs, and oak.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering floral notes.

Thoughts: This is a tasty, though drier, version of Bulleit. It is very floral and tends toward bitter (in a cocoa nib sort of way). This reminds me of some of the blends I came up with while doing my Four Roses blending experiment a while back, which isn't terribly surprising since there is probably a still good proportion of Four Roses juice in here.

Is this worth twice as much as the regular release of Bulleit. That depends on how you feel about dry and bitter versus sweet bourbons. But personal preference aside, I have to say that in an era of increasing prices and disappearing age statements, it is nice to see a ten-year-old bourbon for under $50.

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.

Well hey there, bourbon-lover. I just wrote a great big thing about cork yet; I have nothing made from cork for sale over at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Is this some sort of mistake? Did my marketing team miss the boat? No. It just goes to show that I am not driven by advertising. Even when I'm advertising for myself. And that I have no marketing team. Anyway, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com you can head on over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and buy something. It's a great way to make sure I can pay all my bills.

Willett Pot Still Reserve

December 15, 2016 Eric Burke

I'm still periodically working my way through the line-up of Willett bourbons. This time it is the one with their name right on the very distinctive bottle. Willett Pot Still Reserve.

You've seen it. It's the one that looks like the squat pot still with a long straight neck. It is a very distinctive bottle. And one that drew my eye as a bourbon novice. I first had this in the Old Talbot Tavern in Bardstown, Kentucky. It was my first time in Kentucky, and I was enjoying my first bourbon flight. As it was a build-your-own flight, I was excited to choose the one in the fancy bottle.

Aaaand...I didn't like it.

Or at least I didn't like it as much as I expected to. And like so many of the non-Family Estate line, I gave up on it. I liked it enough to give it as a gift to those people who would be impressed by an ok bourbon in a pretty bottle, but I didn't buy any more for myself. And that kinda drove my wife crazy since she wanted to try it.

When I decided to explore the Willett line, I decided early on that I was going to wait on this one. I really didn't want to plunk down the cash for a pretty bottle when I could be giving their other brands a chance instead.

But, here's the thing...this is not a bad whiskey. I initially made a judgment on it early on in my bourbon journey. A night that featured it tried as part of a heavily poured five bourbon flight. Not fair at all.

So let's see how it stands up on its own in an appropriate setting.

Willett Pot Still Reserve

Purchase info: $37.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 47% ABV. Batch 16C13.

Nose: Nutty and minty with brown sugar and a note that reminds me of a sweetened fruit-flavored breakfast cereal, think Trix or Fruit Loops.

Mouth: Mint, black pepper, brown sugar and malty cereal notes.

Finish: Fairly short with malty cereal and black pepper.

Thoughts: Well, here it is. I like this bourbon. I really do. I'm happy to have a pour of it if my wife brings me a glass of it on her turn to grab us a drink. But, to be honest, I still don't consider this a good value. At almost $40 a bottle, I want something more than what this presents. There are a lot of other bottles at the price point that I would purchase first. So it ends up where it started with me. It's good enough that I will still buy it for people who are more impressed with an ok whiskey in a beautiful bottle than a fantastic whiskey in a plain one, but I will drop my money on a different bourbon for myself.

This is recommended for people who enjoy bourbons with a more grain and cereal forward flavor profile. People who, I will admit, are normally not me.

Woodford Reserve Personal Selection

December 13, 2016 Eric Burke

So. It's official. I'm 40 now.

I mean, if you are counting from the time I was born, I was 40 a few months ago. But age is just a number, right? It's all about how you feel. And now I feel 40.

Last week, I went to the eye doctor for the first time in about 15 years.

...I know. I know. But yeah...

Anyway, I still have great vision, the lady tells me. Things are great, it's going to be great. There is only one little thing that I might need. It's optional, but it will help. You guessed it, glasses. Well, part time. For computer use, not for all the time.

When I was a much younger boy than I am now, I always wanted glasses. I understood that they were a pain in the ass, well I understood that people said they were a pain in the ass. But I liked that they were something that you could change about yourself. Get a new set of frames, and you looked completely different. It seemed like something that would be fun.

Yeah, I was an idiot. But I was young, and you do and think a lot of stupid things when you are young. Now that I have these things on my face, I just feel old. Not like I'm about to keel over, but like I'm an adult who needs to be responsible. It's just one more thing to keep track of. I actually wandered around the house today wondering where I had put them...only to find them right next to where I had been sitting.

I do find it funny, though. People always say that your body starts to go to hell at 40. I guess this is the first step. This year it's something minor like computer glasses. Next year I'll probably break a hip or something.

It's all downhill from here folks. What the hell, let's have a drink.

Woodford Reserve Personal Selection, Liquor Barn Series 10-1

Purchase Info: I seem to have lost this receipt, but I bought it at a Liquor Barn in Louisville, KY. (Fitting that I just spent over six paragraphs telling you I was feeling old, huh?)

Details: 45.2% ABV. Personal Selection from Liquor Barn. Series 10-1.

Nose: Green apple, wintergreen, brown sugar, and oak.

Mouth: Peppery heat, apple wintergreen, baking spices, and oak.

Finish: Spicy and of medium length. Lingering black pepper, cinnamon gum, and wintergreen.

Thoughts: I like this one a lot. It's spicier than I would have guessed it would be from its proof and provenance. The typical "Brown-Forman" note is downplayed to the point where I might not have guessed this was Woodford if I'd been given it blind. The folks at Liquor Barn did a nice job picking this one. Makes me wish I could find a store doing Personal Selections of Woodford around here in Minnesota.

I've told you about my Etsy store over at BourbonGuyGifts.com, right? It's only the internet's newest source for tasting journals and bourbon-inspired home decor made by hand, by me! You can also find things like vintage whiskey bottles as I trim my collection down.

Colonial Spirits: a Toast to Our Drunken History

December 6, 2016 Eric Burke

I bought the book Colonial Spirits knowing nothing about it, or it's author. I saw the title and thought it sounded like a fun read. Until I did a little internet searching, I did not know who Steven Grasse was. I did not know that he used to run an ad agency. I did not know that he is the creative force behind Root, Snap and other delightful sounding drinks that I haven't ever had before. But, I am a history buff, and I am a fan of drinks. These topics often intersect in Colonial American history. So it sounded like a good bet that I would like this one.

But there is a problem. The book takes the idea of "Drunken History" a little too seriously. I like the history. I like the recipes (even if it did say to shake a Sazerac). But the book is loud, brash and feels a bit too likely to scream "'Murica!" at me. It reads a lot like a drunk man is telling you stories in the oh-so-confident way that only a slightly inebriated person can manage.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. But, we've all been around drunk people. They can be fun, but then without warning, they can be quite emotional. They can be brash and loud until they become quiet and morose. Sometimes they pick fights and wonder why people are picking on them. In other words, drunk people can be really fun until they are not. My problem with this book is that it was written in the voice of the fun drunk person and I kept waiting for it to turn into the emotional, mean one. I get that this is more about me than the book.

The book is worth a read, and the cocktails are worth a try. My favorite (and the one pictured in the photo above) was one called the New Amsterdam. It's a take on a Manhattan with Cherry Bounce instead of whiskey and both dry and sweet vermouth to go along with orange bitters. It's sweet but quite delicious.

Hey, have I told you about BourbonGuyGifts.com? It is one of the ways you can support the blog and still get something back. I hand-craft items from barrel bungs, barrel staves and more to make coat racks, candle holders, tasting journals, drink coasters and more. Check it out, won't you?

Blog

Ezra Brooks Rye

Heaven Hill 6-Year-Old, Green Label

1792 High Rye

Elijah Craig Small Batch, Single Barrel Selection by Ace Spirits

Do you know what I hate?

Bulleit 10-year-old Bourbon

2019 update:

Willett Pot Still Reserve

Woodford Reserve Personal Selection, Liquor Barn Series 10-1