Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2015

October 15, 2015 Eric Burke

2015 Limited Release of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon

There is a strange phenomenon I’ve noticed when I discuss tasting notes with people. We will often use the most awful sounding descriptors to mean the most pleasant things. I’m reminded of a tasting that I and a few brand new friends of mine had in my hotel room while I was in Toronto last. The statement of “this reminds me of candle wax, terrific!” was heard. We were drinking some good single malt (yes, even for me such things pop up now and then). I thought it odd, but since I had less enthusiastically decided on band-aids to describe the same note I didn’t feel I should judge. Since that time, I’ve kept my eyes and ears open while on blogs and in discussions and again and again, this same thing happens.

I say that by way of introducing this year’s Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. I’ve read a lot of descriptions of Old Forester and Woodford Reserve that talk about a “plastic” note or an “artificial” note. They don’t tend to mean this in a good way. Others call it apples, pears, floral or fruity. These are obviously more complementary. It took me until last year to accurately describe what I was sensing. To me it seems like the smell of freshly painted latex paint. And thinking back to that Toronto hotel room, I mean it in a complementary way. Like a freshly painted room can smell fresh and clean, so does Old Forester to me.

In any case, think about this as you read the notes below. I really like this bourbon, but as you read the notes, you might not realize that.

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2015 release.

Purchase info: Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN. 750 mL bottle for $74.99.

Details: 50% ABV. 12 year age stated

Nose: Strong latex paint (or whatever you call the typical Brown Forman note) along with some vanilla, mixed berries, caramel and brown sugar.

Mouth: Syrupy mouthfeel. Caramel, brown sugar, baking spices.

Finish: Sweet with lingering heat, latex paint and fruitiness.

Thoughts: If you are an Old Forester fan, Birthday Bourbon seldom disappoints. Its got all the same notes as any Brown Forman bourbon. They are just stronger and more concentrated and it’s older so there is typically more oak. This release is no exception. It’s Old Forester, just more so. I would say that though I think I liked last year’s better, this is still a solid pick should you find it.

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Wild Turkey Rye 101 proof, pre- and post-hiatus comparison

October 13, 2015 Eric Burke

Pre-hiatus and post-hiatus Wild Turkey 101 proof rye whiskey

If you are a rye whiskey fan, you were probably pretty sad a couple years ago when it was announced that Wild Turkey Rye 101 was going on hiatus. Wild Turkey always maintained that it was actually a hiatus and not a discontinuation. They urged patience. Or maybe you’d like to take a look at the 81 proof rye or Russell’s Reserve Rye?

Why would you be sad that a fairly low priced rye whiskey was going away however briefly? Well that’s the biggest reason, it was very nicely priced. Add in that it was a tasty “everyday” rye and one of the few ryes on the market that wasn’t just MGP rye in another bottle and you have the full answer.

About a year after it went away, I was walking through one of my local liquor stores when I saw a single bottle of Wild Turkey 101 Rye sitting there. I was a bit surprised when I saw it sitting there. To say that it immediately went into my shopping basket is an understatement. I got it home and immediately put it into the closet. Fun bit of trivia: this was the first bottle of whiskey that I purchased to put away for a future story.

Now of course, Wild Turkey 101 Rye is back on the shelves. The price has crept up a little in the interval and the label has been updated, but it is back. Of course, I want to find out how it compares to the pre-hiatus juice. I really want to eliminate any preconceived notions, so let’s go double-blind on this one.

Wild Turkey Rye 101 proof, pre- and post-hiatus comparison

Purchase info: Pre-hiatus: MGM Liquor and Spirits, 750 mL bottle for $18.99. Post-hiatus: Ace Spirits, 1L bottle for $29.99.

Details: 50.5% ABV

Rye A

Nose: Mint/rosemary, caramel, baking spices and black tea

Mouth: Hot and sweet. Lots of mint with some cookie dough, black tea and baking spices.

Finish: This is a hot finish. One that you just want to breathe in on. Allowing the cool minty air sooth your hot tongue. Lingering mint and sweetness.

Rye B

Nose: More muted than A with spearmint, caramel, dried grasses and green apple.

Mouth: Soft and velvety, mint, pickle juice and baking spices.

Finish: Short and sweet with cinnamon gum and mint.

Thoughts (Pre-reveal): These are certainly different from one another. Neither are bad. A is more tannic, but also hotter. My wife prefers this one. B has more of the mint/pickle rye flavors that I tend to like. It’s softer and doesn’t show it’s proof as much as A. I like B better. That said, neither of us would turn down a glass of either of these and no matter which is the current release, I’ll be happy to buy another bottle. Before I find out which is which, let me say that I’m glad that even though there was an evolution in flavors during the hiatus, there isn’t a step down in quality.

A happy face because we both like these.

Thoughts (Post-reveal): Well, my wife is certainly a happy girl. A, the one she liked better, was the current release whereas my preferred dram was B, the pre-hiatus release. I’m not sad, but after sitting on the bottle for almost two years,I will be sure to keep the rest of this bottle for myself and not share. Allowing her the same consideration for the rest of the current release. Thankfully my bottle is still mostly full. Of course once both are gone and replaced with another bottle of the current release we will both be happy.

Blood Oath, Pact No. 1

October 8, 2015 Eric Burke

Bourbon is big business. And even though it has a reputation as a cheaper option to scotch, it always has been. People throughout most of the history of this country have made a very good living distilling, aging, buying and selling this whiskey that we all love so much.

For a long time, bourbon was cheap. Nobody wanted it. Whiskies aged to extreme age often just got redistilled into something else, vodka or fuel. Bourbons of middling age, six to eight years old, regularly made it into products that were nominally around four years old. It was good if you were a bourbon drinker, but in honesty almost no one was. You could barely give the stuff away.

Not to worry though, those days are firmly in the past. These days everyone wants bourbon. The more expensive, the better. Some days it feels like taste doesn’t matter nearly as much as price. And like good businesses, producers have given the folks what they want. Sure, most of the old value labels have stuck around, but almost everyone has gotten into the Ultra-Premium game. Wild Turkey has it’s $150 Master’s Keep, Diageo has it’s Orphan Barrels, And now Luxco, makers of Everclear and bourbons such as Ezra Brooks and Rebel Yell has taken a turn at bat.

Even though Blood Oath felt like it was trying a bit too hard (it’s proof is blood temperature after all), I had some hopes that Blood Oath would be a decent bourbon. I’ve been a fan of a lot of the labels in Luxco’s Ezra Brooks line and even liked one of the new brand extensions for Rebel Yell. They obviously spent a decent amount on the new packaging. It is beautiful. They were trying something new by blending wheated and rye bourbons. All signs that a company is ready to make something special. Tossing a brand new bourbon out with a $100 price tag is a statement that they think people will want to buy it.

Blood Oath, Pact 1

Purchase info: $98.95, 750 mL bottle. Blue Max Liquors, Burnsville, MN.

Details: A blend of two rye bourbons and a wheated bourbon. 49.3% ABV.

Nose: This has a very sweet nose, leading with maple and clove. That is followed by wet, old wood and a slight fruitiness that balances things out nicely.

Mouth: This tastes almost nothing like it smells. Where the nose was sweet and a light, the mouth is heavy and on the dry side. The descriptor I immediately think of is “dusty.” It has the feeling of an old, closed attic where things have been stored for too long. It’s not a wet attic since there is no mildew, but rather old boxes and dust. After that I get maple, cocoa powder, a slight fruitiness (that isn’t nearly enough to balance the overpowering dust) and a good bit of heat.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. The maple and slight fruitiness are carried over from the palate and transition to more dusty cocoa.

Thoughts: After tasting this, it feels like Luxco was making a cash grab. Wow! Disappointing. The nose takes me one direction and the palate takes me directly in the opposite direction with few notes overlapping. As I stated above, I’m a fan of the various bourbons in the Ezra Brooks line because they are tasty and a good value. This has neither of those things going for it. I found it heavy, closed, dusty and flat. For the price I paid for it, I can’t recommend it. It was an interesting idea, but is way overpriced and honestly just not that good. Hoping that a little oxygen might help this, I tried it at various times along a two month period until now when my last few pours yielded the review samples. No real change.

In short, the bottle says that “this rare whiskey shall never again be made.” To my palate that’s a good thing. For the price I expected amazing. Instead, it’s one of the few bourbons I’ve regretted buying.

Old Forester 1897 - Bottled in Bond

October 6, 2015 Eric Burke

1897 was a momentous year in the history of bourbon. In March of that year, Congress under pressure from the famed Col. E. H. Taylor passed what would come to be known as the Bottled-In-Bond Act of 1897. If you want to learn more about it, Brian over at Sipp'n Corn has a great write-up of the act and it's significance. I suggest you read it. Go ahead, I'll wait. (Interested in reading the act itself? Click the button below to download a pdf.)

Download the Bottled-In-Bond Act of 1897

A few months ago, as part of their Whiskey Row series of Old Forester labels, Brown-Forman released a bottled in bond bourbon named Old Forester 1897 to honor the year that the regulation was passed. As I've a stated fondness for many Old Forester bourbons, I picked it up when I saw it at the liquor store.

Old Forester 1897, Bottled in Bond

Purchase info: $48.99, 750 mL. Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: As required if labeled Bottled in Bond: Distilled by Brown-Forman Distillers Company, Louisville, KY, DSP KY 354. Bottled by DSP KY 52. 50% ABV.

Nose: Cinnamon, cloves and allspice lead the way followed by brown sugar, apples and a nice floral note.

Mouth: The interesting thing here is that the notes are inverted from the nose. Caramel apples and floral notes lead the way and are followed by baking spices. There is a nice bit of heat to go with the spice.

Finish: Warm but a bit on the shorter side with floral notes fading to a pleasant bitterness.

Thoughts: I think this might be my favorite product released under the Old Forester name. Until the finish, there is little of the typical Brown-Forman "plastic/paint/chemical" flavors that people often complain about. And even then there are only hints of it that present as more floral than chemical.

It is the most expensive regular release in the Old Forester line. Is it worth it? For the price I paid, yes. I really like it. I like it much more than the 1870 and am willing to pay an extra $10 to get this over that. I found it much more complex than either the 86 proof or the Signature. So, yeah, I'm already planning to buy a second bottle.

Breaking my personal price ceiling: Wild Turkey Master's Keep, 17-year old bourbon

October 1, 2015 Eric Burke

Wild Turkey Master's Keep: an expensive, old and tasty bourbon.

I’ve got some momentous news. I’ve made the decision to increase my personal price ceiling for bourbon. For the last 5 years or so, it’s been sitting firm at $125 per bottle. At the time I set it, it was a safe price, only Van Winkle would have broken it and honestly, I’ve never been a fan of wheated bourbon. But I could see the trends happening even then. I instituted it as a self-imposed way to keep me in line.

To say that prices have been increasing over the past few years would be an understatement. Though super-premium bourbon starts at around $25, and good bourbon can still be had for less than that, newer expressions tend to skew a bit more…up-market from that price point. Forget super-premium bourbon, we now live in the world of Ultra-Premium. It is no longer unusual to see new expressions at an MSRP of around $100 right out of the gate. And while I am among the herd of people who bemoan this fact, it remains that people don’t even seem to blink an eye at this price anymore. In fact, in a weird bit of human psychology, they seem to just want it more.

Things have gotten so bad that even my value favorite, Wild Turkey has gotten in on the action. Their last two releases Diamond and Master’s Keep have shattered the $100 barrier. With the latest, Master’s Keep at a suggested price of $150 for a 750 mL bottle.

Master’s Keep is a 17-year old bourbon. Bottled near barrel proof it is 86.8° proof. And I can hear you now questioning that last statement. As we discussed in June, a barrel of bourbon can either gain or lose proof depending on it’s aging environment. According to Wild Turkey, this 17 year old bourbon had an interesting aging history. The bottle says it started life in a wooden warehouse. At some point in it’s life, they ran out of room and rented some space from another distillery who happened to use stone warehouses. Once space opened up, the decision was made to bring the barrels home to the wood and metal Wild Turkey warehouses again. The theory is that the time in the stone warehouse allowed the bourbon in to rest in the barrel with less interaction with the wood and lowered the proof from an entry proof of 107° to a dumping proof of 89°. In any case it produced a bourbon that, while old, doesn’t taste over-oaked.

And though this has next to nothing to do with the bourbon inside, as a designer I did geek out a little on the packaging. The box is a nice matte black with foil, embossing and hidden magnetic closures. The painted bottle is simple and elegant with an embossed flying turkey. The closure is cork, with a heavy wood and copper top. It really is beautiful and will be on a display shelf long after it is empty.

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep

Purchase info: $169.99, 750 mL bottle. Wild Turkey Distillery Gift Shop. (I saw it for sale in Minnesota today for $154.)

Details: 17 years old. 43.4% ABV. Batch 1, bottle #46237.

Nose: Floral and fruity. Cherry blossoms, brown sugar, vanilla, baking spices, mint, oak and hint black tea.

Mouth: Nice mouthfeel with just enough heat, though more than I expected from sub 90 proof. Lots of rich flavors: leather, dark chocolate and cherry. More brown sugar and baking spices. Herbal mint.

Finish: Nice warm finish that lingers for a while. More herbal mint and brown sugar.

Thoughts: This is a very expensive bourbon, well over both my old and new price ceiling, purchased because my wife is a Wild Turkey fan-girl and really wanted to get it signed by Jimmy Russell who happened to be sitting in the visitor’s center. It is also a very old bourbon with a legitimately unique aging history. And it tastes fantastic. If you have the money, this is highly recommended. At this price, I won’t be buying a second bottle but I don’t regret breaking my price ceiling to buy the one I have.

Oh and in case you were curious, my new personal price ceiling is just the old one adjusted for inflation: $135.

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2015 Release

September 22, 2015 Eric Burke

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2015 signed by both Master Distiller Brent Elliot and Master Distiller Emeritus Jim Rutledge.

Every year, the bottle that I most want to find is the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch. Like all limited edition releases, this used to be no problem to find. I was still buying the 2009 Mariage in 2011. In fact, I kinda wished that this particular release would become a little more popular because we weren’t getting the intervening years on the shelf due to 2009 not selling.

Oh did I ever get my wish.

But the universe, like it often does in these situations, overcorrected. Now, the only way I can be assured of getting a bottle of this is to be at the distillery early on release day. Luckily for me, release day seems to line up with BourbonFest these days. Which means I get to pretend that the festival is the real reason I go to Kentucky in September instead of a single bottle of whiskey.

But this year is even more special. Jim Rutledge, Master Distiller of Four Roses has just retired taking the title Master Distiller Emeritus. This is his last Limited Small Batch. This was one I knew that I would have to try.

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2015

Purchase info: $120 for 750mL. Four Roses Distillery Gift Shop, Lawrenceburg, KY.

Details: 54.3% ABV. A mix of 16 year old OBSK, 15 year old OESK, 14 year old OESK and 11 year old OBSV. Bottle number 8722 of 12672.

Nose: This is one of those bourbons that I could nose all night. There is a big hit of oak right off the bat, followed by brown sugar, apples, cherries and baking spices. Beautiful!

Mouth: First impressions: warm, sweet, spicy and comforting. Like a warm blanket for your mouth. Leather, allspice, clove, brown sugar and cherry.

Finish: Long and warming. More leather and cherry.

Thoughts: Oh. My. God! I hesitate to say this for fear of fanning the fervor, but this might be my favorite Limited Small Batch yet. This is Mr. Rutledge’s last outing on this and he has outdone himself. Standing ovation on this one. Amazing!

Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Finished in Vermouth Barrels

September 10, 2015 Eric Burke

The label of Dad's Hat Rye finished in Vermouth Barrels

I, by nature, am a bit of a hermit. I like my desk. I like my office chair. I like sitting in my office. Which is a good thing since I now work from home and spend a lot of time in that spot. Luckily for my ever expanding waistline, my wife is pretty good at getting me to leave my office.

But every once in a while she needs to travel for work. When that happens, I get to indulge my tendency to be alone in my office for every waking moment. Knowing that I can work for 12-15 hours at a time if I don’t have anything to distract me, she feels a little guilty leaving me alone for multiple days. To make it up to me, a bottle of whiskey will often find it’s way into her luggage on the way home. Which is how I ended up with a bottle of Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Finished in Vermouth Barrels.

Since this one is not available here in Minnesota, I’d love to spin you a yarn about how I went searching for this whiskey all over the country and finally, finally found it tucked away in the corner of an old mom and pop liquor store in the backwoods of a sparsely populated state. I’d love to do that, but it isn’t true. My wife walked into the Party Source back in June and bought it. That’s all there is to the story.

But why did I ask her to pick up this particular bottle of whiskey to bring home? Well, I seemed to remember that people I think highly of said nice things about it when it was released. I love Manhattans so the idea of vermouth and rye whiskey was appealing. And even if it wasn’t good, I figured it might well be interesting. Plus I felt like it would be a good one to share. I know a guy locally who has a thing for young rye.

But here’s the thing, when I got the bottle i noticed it was 9 months old. All of a sudden I went from excited to try it to wondering what I would be doing with the rest of the bottle. I mean, I find Willet’s two year old rye to be too young. Immediately upon opening it, I poured some to share.

A little later I got a tweet back from him. “Dad's Hat Vermouth Finished Rye? Not my favorite thing.” Not having tried it myself yet I asked if it tasted like a 9 month old whiskey. His answer?

“It tasted young but not that young. And I thought it had a hint of vermouth from a 10 yr old bottle lost in the back of a cabinet”

Now I was actually more intrigued than scared.

Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Finished in Vermouth Barrels

Purchase Info: $41.99, 750 mL. The Party Source, Bellevue, KY.

Details: 47% ABV. Aged 6 months. Finished for an additional 3 months in Vya sweet vermouth barrels.

Nose: This is an odd nose. Very grain forward (as to be expected from a nine month old whiskey). Under that is black tea, caramel and hints of cardamom and celery seed.

Mouth: Showing it’s youth it has the raw spiciness of a very young rye along with a lot of grassy mint. Hints of the vermouth barrel finish play along the sides of my tongue.

Finish: Warm but fairly short. The vinous vermouth flavor really shows here. Hints of cinnamon and cardamom reappear.

Thoughts: Not being a fan of really young ryes, this is not quite to my palate. That said, it feels like it was a nicely crafted rye before the barrel finishing and I hope they have some stuck away in big barrels for the future. (I see they have a two year old distillery only release.) As it stands, I probably can’t recommend it unless you are a big fan of really young ryes and even then would suggest trying it in a bar before dropping $40 on a bottle.

A distillery visit and review: Wyoming Whiskey

September 8, 2015 Eric Burke

I really wasn’t sure what to expect as the van I was driving crested the hill that gave me my first view of Kirby, Wyoming. I had read it was a small town. But even for a guy who spent a good portion of his childhood in a town with no population listed on the sign, Kirby was small. Off in the distance we saw one tall building. “A grain elevator?” I asked my wife.

Kirby, Wyoming is a village with a population just south of 100 people. It’s four block by five block area split in half by the railroad line that runs through the center of town. The roads are gravel. The houses are few. The nearest population center with over 50,000 people is Casper, WY, two and a half hours to the southeast. This is not the type of place that you would expect would be the home of a product that sits on store shelves in roughly half the country.

When I pulled into the parking lot in front of that one tall building (a distillery it turns out, not a grain elevator), I asked Samuel Mead, distiller at Wyoming Whiskey, why Kirby? The answer was simple: his family had a ranch there. It seems that that ranch was what allowed Wyoming Whiskey to go about setting up the distillery, distill product and allow it to age until it was ready to be sold.

Ask any small distiller what the one thing they wish they had more of and the answer is probably going to be operating capital. A distillery is a huge investment, even after you’ve bought the equipment and gotten it up and running. Aged product takes time. Time where you are not making any money. Having another source of income allowed them to hire Steve Nally, formerly of Maker’s Mark, to come help them get running and as Mead says, “teach us how to make whiskey.”

Launched in late 2012, Wyoming whiskey met with mixed reviews. Some folks gave it very high marks while others were not so happy with their bottle. When asked about the apparent discrepancy between batches, Mead was honest and told me that their quality control "may not have been the best early on." In an effort to combat this, they have recently hired a well regarded blender to help them out. With recent batches (batch 28 and on) having come under her supervision.

Wyoming Whiskey, Batch 29. Purchased in Casper, WY at the Liquor Shed

As I was going to be through on a Sunday when the distillery was closed, I set up a tour with Distiller Samuel Mead. Photos follow.

Wyoming Whiskey, Kirby Wyoming. This is the tallest building in Kirby by a long shot.

There is a good reason why this is the tallest building in Kirby. They need it. This is a tall still.

The still is made by Vendome. It was made back when you could contact them and be reasonably sure of not being on an 18 month waiting list.

The back of the still features the cattle brand of the Mead family. I didn't think to ask what the TT stood for.

The still safe also features the brand. But I just put this picture in because I thought it was pretty.

If you look closely at the grain hoppers that feed into the cookers you'll notice that this is a wheated bourbon.

This empty barrel is waiting to be filled.

Though the info is written on by hand, true to the cattle ranching roots, the barrel's logo is branded on.

When we entered an aging warehouse, I noticed this guy. Barrel number 1.

The last stop on the tour was the bottling line. Empty today as it was a Sunday. While there we got the opportunity to taste the tasty upcoming Cask-Strength Single Barrel release.

Wyoming Whiskey

Purchase Info: $34.99, 750 mL. The Liquor Shed, Casper, WY.

Details: 44% ABV. Batch 29. Bottled on July 31, 2015.

Nose: Caramel, custard and cola with just the barest hints of spice and oak underneath.

Mouth: A nice, but not overpowering, tingle. Sweet cola, vanilla and caramel. Herbal rosemary and mint. A nice biscuity flavor overall.

Finish: Gently warming and of ok length. Lingering herbal and cola flavors.

Thoughts: This is certainly not your typical bourbon. And maybe that is why I am liking it so much. In a category that normally differs by degrees of sameness, this is a truly unique product. Wyoming Whisky may have had a rocky start, but if this is any indication of the direction they are headed under their new blender, they are now on the right track.

Because it is quite unique, I'd recommend trying one at a bar should you see it on the shelf. I like it a lot, but your milage may vary.

Want to know if Wyoming Whiskey is available in your state? Lucky for us they had this handy map in the stillhouse.

Blog

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2015 release.

Wild Turkey Rye 101 proof, pre- and post-hiatus comparison

Rye A

Rye B

Blood Oath, Pact 1

Old Forester 1897, Bottled in Bond

Wild Turkey Master’s Keep

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, 2015

Dad’s Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey Finished in Vermouth Barrels

Wyoming Whiskey