Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016, Round 1: JW Dant Bottled in Bond vs. Blue State

March 22, 2016 Eric Burke

Round 1b of the 2016 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Number 1 seed, and winner from two year ago, JW Dant Bottled in Bond versus Number 4 seed Blue State.

JW Dant Bottled in Bond is a product of Heaven Hill Brands. It was initially chosen as a part of our initial competition where it eked out a split decision victory over Sazerac’s Old Charter (8 year old). Last year it was back to defend it’s crown and lost in the second round to corporate cousin Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. Unless it wins, this year is the last time it will compete since I’m cutting off previous year winners at two years so we aren’t overrun by them in the future.

Blue State was released by Heaven Hill in 2012 (along with identical product Red State) as a gimmick to play off that year’s Presidential elections. Even though it is once again a Presidential year, I’m guessing it is no longer an active brand since they’ve pulled down the website listed on the back of the bottle and didn’t even bother to redirect it anywhere. I found it along with it’s alternate hidden on the bottom shelf of a local retailer and decided to pick it up since I’d never bothered to originally.

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

Blue State

Purchase Info: $14.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 40% ABV, No age statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Strong oak presence, cola, black tea and fleeting hints of brown sugar.

Mouth: Cinnamon candies, mint sugar sweetness and some oak.

Finish: Cola, black tea and baking spices anchor a warm finish of decent length.

Thoughts: “I like this a lot. I’m excited to find out which it is.”

JW Dant

Purchase Info: $14.99 for a 1 L bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN*

Details: 50% ABV, No Age Statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Butterscotch, cinnamon candies and oak.

Mouth: Spicy. Butterscotch, vanilla and baking spices.

Finish: Oaky tannins transition to sweet, baking spices that hang around a while.

Thoughts: “This is a sweet one, but has enough oak to balance the sweetness and keep it from overpowering.”

Who wins?

This is a close one. Closer than any 1-4 matchup we’ve had to this point. I like the complex nose of Blue State better. I like the sweet and spicy nature of the mouth of the Dant. So it comes down to the finish and whether I like the yummy flavors of Blue State or the spicy heat of Dant better. Man this is a tough one. After stepping away for a little while and coming back to them we had to give the nod to the JW Dant. The heat was too good to pass by. That said, even though it was a "gimmick" bourbon, I ran back to Ace the next day and picked up two more bottles as this will make a great inexpensive “every-day” bourbon while supplies last.

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Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016, Round 1: Fighting Cock vs. Buckhorn

March 17, 2016 Eric Burke

Round 1a of the 2016 Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets features Number 1 seed, and last year’s winner Fighting Cock versus Number 4 seed Buckhorn.

Fighting Cock is a product of Heaven Hill Brands. It was initially chosen as a part of last year’s competition where it eked out a narrow victory over Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams Bottled in Bond. Of course when it competed last year, it had an age statement of 6 years old. This year, when it comes back to defend it’s crown against new competition, it is sporting no age statement. Can it become a two time winner even with that handicap?

Buckhorn is a Total Wine exclusive.* It is sold to them by the Clear Spring Distilling company, an assumed name that Sazerac uses to make house brands. It is 80 proof and carries no age statement so it is at least 4 years of age. I was leery about including it in the competition since you’ll need to be near a Total Wine to get one, but I’m going assume that if you substitute another NAS house brand made by Sazerac under the Clear Spring name, you might get fairly similar results.

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

Fighting Cock

Purchase Info: $14.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 51.5% ABV, No age statement

Produced by: Heaven Hill Brands

Nose: Bubble gum, mint, cooked cereal

Mouth: Hot and grainy. Hints of caramel and a touch of oak underneath.

Finish: Hot and grainy with a lingering dried corn bitterness

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: “If this is the fighting Cock, it took a huge dip when it went NAS last year.”

Buckhorn

Purchase Info: $12.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN*

Details: 40% ABV, No Age Statement

Produced by: Clear Spring Distilling Company (Sazerac)

Nose: Herbal. Brown sugar, mint and oak.

Mouth: it basically follows the nose. Herbal, brown sugar, mint and delicate oak notes.

Finish: Middling finish with a bit of heat but not much length. Lingering herbal notes.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts: “Nothing offensive on this one, I’d take a glass if offered.”

Who wins?

The finish on Fighting Cock is better heat wise but falls way short on flavor. I’m not a fan of really grain forward finishes. In the mouth it’s the same. Fighting Cock is hot but Buckhorn is more flavorful in the ways I like my whiskey. If Buckhorn had some of Fighting Cock’s heat, this contest would be a no brainer. As it is, I’m leaning Buckhorn but could understand why others with different tastes would go the other way. But I’m the judge so it looks like we’ve just had the first upset in the history of the Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets because 4 seed Buckhorn just knocked off last year’s champ.

Well a non-age stated version of last year's champ. Apparently after removing the age from the product, Heaven Hill was hoping that the high proof would cover the degradation of the aged flavors. They were wrong. Last year I advised not to add water to it as it minimized the oak and the heat and left you with just grain flavors. Now you can get that without adding water. It's too bad. This used to be a hidden gem as little as a year ago.

*Not so exclusive. By a quirk of Minnesota law, liquor stores are prohibited from carrying exclusive products. This means many local stores buy the exclusives and then undercut Total Wine’s price. Which is nice since these products tend to have the highest markup at Total Wine. Everyone wins…well except the massive megaretailer. As an example, I bought this one at Ace Spirits.

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

March 10, 2016 Eric Burke

Johnny Drum. Not actually Kentucky's finest bourbon.

My wife and I were sitting in a bar in Louisville. We’d been there once before, earlier in the week. On that earlier visit, we’d been made to feel so welcome and appreciated that we’d decided to stop back in on our last day in town to give the place a little more business.

Behind the bar was the same welcoming person we’d met earlier in the week. We chatted with him for quite a while. He was a fairly young man, not from Louisville originally, but loving living so close to the center of all things bourbon. While we chatted, he decided to perfect his bourbon sour recipe. There were very few people in the place, it being mid-afternoon, so as he tried different variations he would pour a little in a glass for us to taste in order to get another set of opinions. We obligingly told him which ones we liked, which we didn’t and why.

That was my first experience with Johnny Drum. The bartender chose it because he didn’t care for it and was looking for something else to do with it that he could recommend. Because he was so emphatic about not liking it, I didn’t question him on it. Knowing there were plenty of bourbons out there, I decided to take the advice and pass it by.

Recently I was doing my yearly late-winter tour of liquor stores looking for inexpensive bourbon when I happened to notice a small green-labeled bottle of Johnny Drum. It was only 80 proof but I decided that, since it less than $20, the time had come to see if that bartender was correct in his judgement of the product or not.

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

Purchase Info: $15.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Blue Max, Burnsville, MN

Details: 40% ABV

Nose: Tart Apples, caramel and oak

Mouth: Sweet and gentle with just a slight tingle. Caramel/vanilla, wet rock and a good hit of oak.

Finish: Short and gentle as befits its proof with lingering sweetness and oak.

Thoughts: Contrary to what I was told, this is not terrible. That doesn’t mean it is particularly good, but I’m now more than willing to pick up a bottle of it’s higher proof sibling.

Dusty Thursday: Canadian Club, 100 proof "Export Strength"

February 25, 2016 Eric Burke

A bottle of Canadian Club 100 proof. When I bought it, had a thick layer of dust on it.

Back in July of 2014 I reviewed a bottle of Canadian Club. It was fine, a bit delicate. I rated it a meh, having this to say about it:

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with this whisky. And, if you love delicate flavors, I can see this being a nice inexpensive bottle to keep on hand. I prefer my whisky to be a bit more in-your-face and not so eager to please so, although I wouldn’t turn down a glass if offered, I doubt I’ll be buying this one again.”

I’ve reviewed a few more Canadian Club whiskies since then. None were bad. They tended to range from “I really like this” to “meh.” So it was with more than a small bit of excitement when a friend of mine gifted me a bottle of Canadian Club 100 proof as a belated Christmas gift. It sounded like the perfect answer to my main complaint about the base release. Excellent!

But there was bad news. This bottle was one of the few that were left. My friend told me he thought that it had been discontinued. It isn’t on either the Canadian or US website for Canadian Club as a product or on Davin’s site. And I couldn’t find any other info on the expression in any of the other sources I normally check. So, I’m forced to believe him. Either that or it is released in such limited quantities as to be next to impossible to find anyway.

Canadian Club 100 proof Export Strength

Purchase info: 14.99 for a 750 mL bottle, Top Valu Liquor, Columbia Heights, MN

Details: 50% ABV, 6 years old.

Nose: Strong solvent odors off the bat, followed by floral cherries, wet stone and delicate oak.

Mouth: Bright and tingly in the mouth. Sweet and floral with strong vanilla and mineral notes.

Finish: Nice heat with lingering brown sugar and mineral notes.

Thoughts: Oh man! Do I like this better than the base release! It has the same delicate flavors but adds a little heat to the mix. I opened the bottle my friend gave me the night I received it and I’ll admit, the next day I went up to the store and bought another one…and then yesterday I went back and bought one more. I left one on the shelf for the next guy though. It seemed only fair. Though the next time I’m up there, I’ll be stopping in to see if it’s still on the shelf and if it is…that bottle is mine. Because I’m very sad to have discovered this after it seems to have gone away.

Forty Creek: Three Grain Harmony 2015

February 18, 2016 Eric Burke

If it hasn’t been made perfectly clear in the past, I like trying new whiskies. So when my friend (and patron) Rick in Canada offered to pick me up a bottle of Forty Creek’s annual limited release when he got his, I jumped at the chance. We had a little fun with it and did a bottle swap. I got him a US only release and he got me this.

I love friends. And Whiskey Friends make the best friends.

Forty Creek: Three Grain Harmony 2015

Purchase Info: I got this in a bottle swap, but it looks like the LCBO listed it for roughly $70 Canadian. Of course, it is long gone.

Details: Bottle number: 3764, 43% ABV

Nose: Toffee and dried fruits followed by notes of faintly smoky oak.

Mouth: This has a wonderfully soft mouthfeel that balances a sneaky spiciness. Butterscotch, dried fruits, baking spices and hints of vanilla.

Finish: Medium length finish with lingering dried fruit and a gentle heat.

Thoughts: This is a fine example of a product produced by a Master of the blender’s art. It is an amazingly well put together whisky. And while ordinarily the pronounced dried fruit note would turn me off, in this case it was tasty enough that it worked. I enjoyed this quite a bit and those who normally enjoy dried fruit notes should enjoy it even more.

Thanks Rick!

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel

February 16, 2016 Eric Burke

In the last couple years, liquor mega-store, Total Wine has come into the Twin Cities market. They offer ok selections and decent prices to a market that has been fairly well dominated by either small chains or municipal liquor stores.

The chains and munis fought hard to keep Total Wine out and when they lost that battle ended up pulling out of some markets. It’s sad to see people forced out of business when a bigger competitor enters the market, but in this case I found it hard to feel too sorry for those local chains as they previously tended to do the same thing to independent stores when they entered a city.

And while the local chains with the limited sections and higher prices were facing the competition with mixed results, the independents are tending to take a different route. As I travel around the Twin Cities looking for interesting places to spend my liquor budget, I’m noticing that the answer that many stores (both the independents and some of the chain franchises) have come up with is to offer more selection. In the case of one of the small independents in my town, that meant having more facings and differentiating themselves with barrel picks. Right now they offer private selections from Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek and Russel’s Reserve.

I'd had their Russel’s Reserve Single Barrel. It was quite good. So a few weeks ago, I picked up a bottle of their selection of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel.

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel

Purchase Info: $57.99 for a 750 mL bottle. Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 45.2% ABV. Sadly Woodford doesn’t add any barrel information to the label.

Nose: Sweet green apple, baking spices, spearmint and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and nicely spicy. Caramel, clove and allspice dominate with a touch of fruitiness showing up a bit later.

Finish: The oak shows up on the finish with lingering char and tannins. Paired with that is a nice sweet fruitiness that lasts even longer.

Thoughts: I liked this enough that after tasting it, I immediately went back and bought another bottle. If they still have some in a few weeks, I will probably grab a third.

If you like Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and see one of these on a store shelf, I recommend giving it a shot.

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Double Double Oaked

February 11, 2016 Eric Burke

Double Double Oaked. What does that mean? Well, with Woodford Reserve Double Oaked the mature Woodford is put into a second new barrel for six months to a year. This second barrel has been heavily toasted and very lightly charred. In the case of the Distillery Series Double Double Oaked that year in the second barrel has been lengthened to two years. So it was double oaked for double the time.

And since Woodford experiments tend to be hit or miss, I guess the only real question is: is it any good?

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Double Double Oaked

Purchase info: $50 for a 375mL bottle at the Woodford Reserve Distillery Gift Shop, Versailles, KY

Details: Summer 2015 release, 45.2% ABV

Nose: Brown sugar, caramel, cloves and a hit of latex paint.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy. Butterscotch and baking spices with a hint of fruit and bubble gum.

Finish: Warm and tingly. It starts sweet and transitions to a dry spiciness with a lingering not of “Brown Forman latex paint.”

Thoughts: This is quite tasty. It has good spice and is sweeter than I would have initially expected. This tastes like a Brown Forman bourbon though so if you are not a fan of Old Forester or Woodford Reserve, this is one you might want to pass on. If however you are like me and really tend to like their stuff, then this is a tasty treat and you should grab it if you have the opportunity. Especially if you are a fan of the Double Oaked.

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Sweet Mash Redux

February 9, 2016 Eric Burke

Sour mash fermenting is the process of adding a little bit of the leftovers from a previous batch of fermented and distilled mash (called variously: backset, stillage, slop, all that mash that wasn't alcohol, etc) to your current fermentation run. It’s done to adjust the pH so that the little yeasties have a slightly more ideal environment for eating, growing, procreating and excreting precious, precious alcohol.

But what happens at the beginning of the cycle when there isn’t any leftover sour mash left? Well then you’d do a non-soured, or sweet, mash batch (or you'd just adjust the pH in some other manner). By not adjusting the pH you adjust how both enzymes work during cooking and how yeast does its gobbling, procreating and alcohol production during fermentation. Either of which could very possibly lead to different flavors being produced in the end product.

A few years ago, Woodford Reserve released a Sweet Mash bourbon under their Master’s Collection label. They must have thought enough of the effort that they decided to try it out again and released Sweet Mash Redux as one of their first releases in the gift shop only Distillery Series.

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Sweet Mash Redux

Purchase Info: $50 for a 375 mL bottle at Woodford Reserve Gift Shop, Versailles KY.

Details: 45.2% ABV. Uses a non-soured mash. Summer 2015 release.

Nose: Corn flakes, warehouse dust and the usual Woodford/Old Forester latex paint note.

Mouth: Strong perfumed grain presence with spearmint, citrus, raisins and a hint of baking spices.

Finish: Baking spices, raisins, citrus and a nice tingle that hangs around a while.

Thoughts: I’m not a huge fan of this one. It is fairly similar to regular Woodford, but with a much stronger perfumed grain and raisin presence that I am finding more than a bit off-putting. The difference is interesting and if you are more interested in being interested by a bourbon than in keeping your $50 for something tasty, feel free to grab it. But otherwise I have a hard time recommending this one on taste alone.

Blog

Blue State

JW Dant

Who wins?

Fighting Cock

Buckhorn

Who wins?

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

Canadian Club 100 proof Export Strength

Forty Creek: Three Grain Harmony 2015

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Double Double Oaked