Luxco Announces Lux Row Distillery and Rebel Yell Single Barrel 10 Year Old

September 20, 2016 Eric Burke

The future site of the Lux Row Gift Shop

LUXCO LOGO/NAME ANNOUNCEMENT 9/15/16 AT LUXCO DISTILLERY SITE. An event during festival week in Bardstown, Kentucky usually attracts an eccentric grouping of attire. You will normally see everything from suits and ties, to collars and jeans, to t-shirts and shorts. This event was no exception. When I first got onto the shuttle for the ride to the distillery site, the first person I saw was in a shirt, tie, and slacks. I started to feel under-dressed in my polo and shorts until I noticed Mr. Stained T-shirt in the seat behind him. OK, I thought, this is going to be typical of the events held during the festival.

The table where I got the majority of my drinks.

After the shuttle took us up the lovely tree-lined drive to the site of the event, we got out and made our way to a tent that was obviously the event space. It was situated alongside a beautiful stone house. Brown fences lined a manicured lawn upon which wooden rocking chairs were placed.

Upon entering the tent, I made my way to the drinks station and got myself a….water. That’s right, this is an outdoor event. It’s hot and I am from a place where the weather comes in varieties that trend a bit toward the cooler side. Plus, I am “working” so for me, the fun comes later in the evening. While I was drinking water, my wife checked out the bar which was serving several cocktails (all were quite tasty, according to her).

The construction site of the future Lux Row D

Architectural rendering of the finished Lux Row Distillery.

After a bit of mingling, talking to the PR people/others there to cover the event/a few people in the Luxco distilling family, the announcements started.

First, the wait staff passed out unlabeled glasses of whiskey. The president and COO of Luxco, David Bratcher stepped up on the stage and gave a few thank yous to the group. He told us why, after looking at 50 sites in three states, they chose Bardstown for the distillery. He told us how when they saw the site, they knew they had the right one. He told us a little about Luxco. And finally he introduced Chairman and CEO Donn Lux to speak.

Mr. Lux took a few minutes to speak, build the tension, and then finally revealed the distillery name: Lux Row Distillery. Named for the lovely tree-lined drive to the distillery site as well as the family who owns the business, it seems like a good name. My money was on “Rebel Yell Distillery” or “Ezra Brooks Distillery,” but what do I know?

After that the announcements were over and we got to try the whiskey in the glasses we’d been handed previously. Turns out it was Rebel Yell 10-year Single Barrel. At this point most of the guests got down to festivities.

The reveal of the Lux Row logo. Looks nice.

10 Year Rebel Yell

My impressions, I didn't have enough to do a full review, nor was I in a good setting for that.

Nose: nice wood and not very sweet

Mouth: oak, brown sugar, baking spice, and a peppery heat

Finish: warm and long with lingering spices and fruit

Thoughts: This product will retail for a suggested price of $49.99. If this barrel is representative of the others, I’m ok with this. It’s good, I enjoyed my taste of it.

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Smooth Ambler Old Scout Single Barrel Bourbon

September 9, 2016 Eric Burke

Yesterday was my birthday. As birthdays that end in zero are usually considered markers of a sort in your life, I took the opportunity to do something that I don’t believe I’ve ever done before. I went out with a friend to celebrate my birthday.

I’m a typical Midwestern person with a good work ethic, I was married early in my adulthood, I had a kid early on and I went to college with all of this being in place. As such the opportunities for going out and celebrating another trip around the sun didn’t come up as often as they do for other people. I’d normally spend the evening with my wife, my kid or various other parts of my family.

Last night though, I did something fun. I went to a local bar that is basically a late 1980s-early 90s video game arcade with the addition of about 30 taps of craft beer. I played Punch-Out. I played Donkey Kong. I played Mortal Kombat. I played Pinball. I played Dig-Dug for goodness sake. And it was glorious. So many people. So much fun. It was a good birthday.

People make a big deal of age. Some people think that the number of times a person has travelled around the sun makes them somehow superior to those that haven’t. And some people are just the opposite, thinking that the number of trips someone has made somehow disqualifies them from being superior in any way. In either of these cases age is somehow being equated with quality.

Humans seem to be especially good at this. We often take complex situations and try to boil it down to just one variable. We do this with our weight, our health, how we think the world works and who we determine to be a good person. We also do it with whiskey. We’ve been conditioned to think that the number of years that a whiskey happened to be in a barrel somehow equates to the quality of the whiskey. As usual, this is only one part of a complex picture.

Is there an appreciable difference between something that spent 10 years in a barrel and something that spent 11? Sometimes. Does that mean we should always buy the 11 over the 10? Probably not. We should look at all the factors and make sure that the added price (because there is almost always added price) is worth it. Is it a single barrel as opposed to a batched product? Does the company have a good track record putting out exceptional products? Is the price right? These are just a few of the questions that we should consider before deciding what to buy.

They are the same questions that led me to purchase an Old Scout 11 year old Single Barrel bourbon over the normal Old Scout 10 year old bourbon. Smooth Ambler has a track record of putting out good product. I trust that a Single Barrel with their name on it will be worth being sold on it’s own. It was only $5 more than the normal Old Scout. It also happened that this was another year older, which in light of many factors I considered, seemed like a good thing.

Old Scout Single Barrel Bourbon

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

Details: 11 years old. 51.7% ABV. Distilled in Indiana. Bottled in West Virginia

Nose: Floral and herbal up front with toffee and oak coming after.

Mouth: Hot and sweet with toffee, oak, cinnamon red hots and herbal notes.

Finish: Warm and long with lingering toffee, oak and herbal notes.

Thoughts: I have never been disappointed by a bottle from Smooth Ambler’s Old Scout. This single barrel continues that trend. This reminds me more of a 1960s era I.W. Harper that I’ve had than it does most things from today. Just fabulous!

I’ll be traveling next week to BourbonFest in Bardstown Kentucky so there won’t be any posts, but be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for updates.

Jim Beam Double Oak Bourbon

August 30, 2016 Eric Burke

As I state in my Statement of Ethics 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 Jim Beam for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

My empty bottle of Jim Beam Double Oak bourbon

There are times when more of the same is all that is called for. I’ll occasionally have myself a bratwurst for supper. And when that happens, someone inevitably asks me “what do you want with it?” My normal answer is “ another brat.” You see, I feel that there are some things in life that are good enough to just do again right away. A good bratwurst is one of them.

Apparently Jim Beam knows the feeling I’m talking about. This September they are going to be releasing a barrel-finished bourbon called Jim Beam Double Oak. A barrel-finished bourbon that is finished in a second new, charred oak barrel. Bourbon gets most of its flavor from the new, charred oak barrels it ages in and I like the fact that if Beam is going to barrel finish their bourbon that they do it with more of what makes bourbon taste so good in the first place.

So why is this different than just leaving it in the barrel longer? As we’ve discussed in the past, there are multiple things that happen when you put distillate into a barrel. The one that we are concerned with today is infusion. Let’s think of this like we were making tea. When you first dunk your tea bag into the cup of water, a lot of color is extracted right away. It takes a little while longer to get the optimum flavor, but if you leave it in there too long you will get some of the compounds that take longer to dissolve that do not taste quite as good. But say you want a tea with more “tea flavor.” You could leave your tea bag to steep longer or you could grab a fresh tea bag and do a second infusion.

That’s basically what Beam is doing here. They are putting four year old bourbon (that would otherwise be going to Jim Beam white label) and giving it a second boost of the quickly dissolved sweet oak flavors without needing to worry about it getting as bitterly tannic or “woody” as they might if they just left it in the barrel longer.

Jim Beam has put out expressions before that amp up the wood influence in both Jim Beam Black and Devil’s Cut. Each uses a different method to do this. Black is just left in the barrel longer and Devil’s Cut uses water during a special process to leach the bourbon that had been trapped in wood of the barrel. They then cut the bourbon with that woody bourbon water instead of plain non-woody water.

Because of this I wanted to see how this upcoming release would stack up next to their two previous tries. I bought a pint of Devil’s Cut and pulled one of the samples of Beam Black out of my sample library. What I found backed up what I had expected based on the process above. The Double Oak had a nicer mouthfeel and was sweeter than the Black. The black was drier. I found the Double Oak to have a spicier and more flavorful finish. I’m assuming due to the increased proof. The Devil’s Cut was very similar to the Double Oak in flavor but I found the Double Oak to have a nicer mouthfeel. Once again, I’m guessing that proof had something to do with the relative finishes since Devil’s Cut is a higher proof and had a spicier and longer finish.

Jim Beam Double Oak Twice Barreled

Purchase Info: PR Sample provided by Beam’s PR folks. They didn't supply a price point, but I see other sites claiming it’ll be in the mid to low $20s.

Details: 43% ABV

Nose: Just like the inside of a Beam warehouse: dusty oak. I also get green apples and wet rock.

Mouth: Nice thick mouthfeel. Spicy with nice heat. Earthy honey, cinnamon, oak and touches of brown sugar.

Finish: Of a decent length with lingering oak and cinnamon red hot candies.

Thoughts: I seldom find a Jim Beam branded product that I can honestly say I like. I love Knob Creek, but when it gets into a lower age and proof range it normally doesn’t line up with my palate. I fully expected the same here. So it was with some surprise that I found myself reaching for this over some of the other choices on my shelf. In fact, you’ll notice the bottle above is empty. It still tastes like a Jim Beam bourbon, but this one is working for me.

My wife really liked it and though I liked it a bit less than her I found it quite enjoyable as well and will have no problem picking up a bottle of this when it hits store shelves. If you are a Jim Beam fan, this is an easy recommendation but even if you aren’t see if you can’t find a bar that has it, give it a try and see what you think.

Danfield's Private Reserve 10-year old Canadian Whisky

August 25, 2016 Eric Burke

I like hardware stores. My wife likes to pretend that I am a handy guy so I make roughly a couple visits per month to replace that one screw that I just stripped or a blade for a saw that I was too lazy to replace after the last project. When I’m there, I sometimes just wander around and look at things. I may go in for a bolt or a box of nails, but I’ll often see a tool or something on the plumbing or electrical shelf that I had no idea even existed. I try to squirrel these ideas away for future projects. Because when you own a home, there are always future projects.

I take the same approach to liquor stores. I may go in for beer, but that doesn’t stop me from taking a quick trip down the spirits aisles just to see what’s there. Sometimes, when it is something that I hadn’t seen at other stores, I squirrel that bit of info away for the future.

Which is how I found myself picking up Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-year old Canadian Whiskey. In this particular store, the Canadian whisky section sort of blends into the bourbon and rye section. As I would go there over the years, I noticed this whisky just sitting there. I’d had the older expression, it's my wife's favorite Canadian whisky. I brought multiple bottles of Danfield’s 21-year old whisky back from Canada the last time I’d visited and I also liked it quite a bit. But except on that store shelf, I had never seen a mention of the 10-year expression.

I can’t tell if this is a dusty or just something that not many stores in my area have bothered to stock. Knowing that the 21-year old isn’t available here, it could be either I suppose. Even doing a Google search mostly brings up mentions of the 21-year old variety. As far as I can tell, this is made at the Black Velvet distillery in Alberta, Canada.

Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-Year Old

Purchase info: $22.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Blue Max, Burnsville, MN

Details: 10 years old, 40% ABV

Nose: Delicate with predominantly sweet floral notes of brown sugar and apple blossoms.

Mouth: Sweet brown sugar back by floral and apple notes along with a little oak.

Finish: Medium length with lingering floral and brown sugar notes.

Thoughts: This could easily be called a one-note whisky (if you couldn’t count to two). It isn’t terribly complex, but what is there is going on full force. This whisky fills the mouth with sweet and floral flavors. Until now, my wife’s favorite Canadian whisky has been Danfield’s 21-year old. But she likes this 10-year expression even better. I also find it quite tasty, but would probably still grab my Wiser’s Legacy first. If you can find it near you, I’d recommend giving it a try.

Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

August 11, 2016 Eric Burke

As many of you know, I am on record as not preferring Scotch Whisky. It isn’t that I have anything against Scotland or it’s people. It’s just that I haven’t found one of their whiskies that I’ve been particularly drawn to. I’ve tried to say that “I haven’t found one that I prefer to bourbon,” as opposed to I don’t like Scotch. But as I tried more and more of them, I was starting to think that maybe I really just didn’t like Scotch Whisky.

At least until I was the “Resident Expert” at a local reader’s whiskey tasting. (If you can’t hear the sarcasm dripping off that quoted part, I assure you it’s there*). I was paid some money to tell a group of the hosts friends how I taste whiskey, how that is different from when I drink whiskey and to help answer any questions they might have on the topic of whiskey. On top of the cash, I also got to try any of the whiskey that was on the table of the guests. There were some nice ones there in both bourbon, scotch and rye, but one that I was particularly drawn to try was a blended Scotch finished in Rye barrels. And I liked it.

It sounded familiar, so when I got home, I searched though my samples and realized that I had a sample of the same whisky on my shelf that a friend of mine had given me. Because I had been out drinking whisky for money all night (and my wife had driven me there and picked me up—safety first!) I poured that sample for my wife. She liked it too.

Strange. I liked it even though I didn't think I cared for Scotch Whisky. She has actually gone on record saying that she doesn’t Scotch and yet she liked it. Hmmmm…

Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

Purchase info: $25-ish at Marketplace Liquors, Menomonie, WI (I lost the receipt).

Details: 10 year old, age-stated, 46% ABV.

Nose: Toasted marshmallows, mint and hints of oak.

Mouth: Sweet with wintergreen, clove, slight caramel and a nice tingle on the tip of the tongue.

Finish: Warm and sweet with lingering wintergreen, clove and caramel.

Thoughts: I’d call this a whisky for Rye Whiskey drinkers that want their rye a little softer and more refined, but with less oak, than the typical aged American Straight Rye. It’s soft and gentle but with many of the flavors that one associates with rye. The typical mint has softened to wintergreen, but the clove and some caramel are still there. On the other hand, there is so much influence from the finishing barrels that I get none of the flavors that I typically associate with either blended or malt Scotch Whisky. Which to me is a good thing. But if you are a looking for that, this might be an issue.

So, I still can’t say if I can make a Grand Pronouncement about if I like Scotch Whiskey or not. But I have, at least, found one that I do like. And I like it quite a bit.

*Sarcasm not because I don’t appreciate being called an expert, but because I don’t feel like one. It feels like I still have way too much to learn.

Canadian Club 100% Rye: the U.S. Release Compared to the Canadian Release

August 9, 2016 Eric Burke

Canadian Club 100% Rye from the U.S. and from Canada

About a year and a half ago, I reviewed a bottle of whiskey that was only available in Canada. I thought it was a good, but not great whiskey and mentioned I probably wouldn’t make a trip to Canada (a six hour drive for me) specifically to pick up another bottle.

Almost exactly a year ago, I happened to cross the border into Canada while sightseeing in Northern Minnesota and decided to give that whiskey another shot. I bought a bottle at a Thunder Bay LCBO location. A bottle which sat in my closet until I had almost forgotten about it.

A couple of months ago Beam Suntory was kind enough to bring the whisky to the United States and I decided to run to Total Wine to pick up a bottle of the US release too. A bottle which spent two months in my closet until I made room for it on the Canadian Whisky Shelf.

Of course I’m talking about Canadian Club 100% Rye (or Chairman’s Select 100% Rye in Canada). I picked it up mostly because I was curious to see if there was any change to the product when it crossed the border and entered a new market.

To my palate, there was no change. When we did our tasting this weekend, I got the same notes from both bottles and both were pretty close to what I got the first time around. So if you loved this whisky in Canada, you should love it in the US. If you were like me and thought there were better options in both the rye and Canadian whisky categories…well…there still are.

I kinda like the Canadian version of the bottle shape a little better though. It takes up less room on the shelf.

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Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack

August 2, 2016 Eric Burke

I’m on vacation this week and am giving you a little bit of whiskey content while I’m off galavanting around the Rocky Mountains. Tonight I should be arriving in Estes Park to spend the rest of the week so if I don't get to approving your comments right away, my apologies.

I’d like to bring up a little pet peeve of mine. Jack Daniel’s. Not the company, they are what they are. For marketing reason Jack Daniel’s chooses not to call their product bourbon. That’s fine by me. They could be the best selling bourbon in the world should they choose, but they don’t they leave that to Jim Beam.

No, the people who bother me are those who make a big deal out of whether it is a bourbon or not. On one side you have folks who claim that it is bourbon in all but name since Jack follows all the same rules as bourbon, they just run it through a big pile of charcoal before they put it into the barrel. The claim is that there is nothing in the rules for bourbon that prohibit this. The other side likes to say that the very act of running it through the charcoal is enough to flavor the whiskey. Some of these, at times, include the folks pouring you a sample of Jack Daniel’s at your local liquor store. They claim the maple charcoal adds sweetness or smoothness or whatever.

Personally, I tend to lean toward the could be bourbon side as, to quote a former Kentucky Master Distiller, “ I never saw a filter add anything to anything.” But honestly, whatever. It’s really none of my concern. It seems to be working out for them so who am I to judge.

Due to the aforementioned pre-filtering, Jack Daniel’s is known for it’s smoothness. The charcoal essentially jump-starts the aging process by getting rid of some of the chemicals that the barrel would end up removing. Regular Jack is pretty gentle. A little too gentle for me. So it was only because I had never reviewed it and because it was on sale that I even picked up the bottle of Gentleman Jack that I am reviewing tonight.

Gentleman Jack is crafted to be even gentler than regular Jack. It is still run through the charcoal filter before aging, but then it gets a second round through it after aging as well. What this does, is strip out a lot of the barrel flavors that they were patient enough to wait for the barrel to put into the whiskey. Most American whiskey is filtered after dumping. Some lightly, some very heavily. When used heavily, it’s often a way to try to remove some of the off-flavors from a whiskey that has become a bit over-aged. But what does it do to a whiskey, that presumably, was similar to the stuff they were putting into another bottle? Let’s find out.

Gentleman Jack

Purchase Info: G-Will Liquors, Andover, MN. Regular price: $21.99 for a 375mL bottle (on sale for $10.99).

Details: “Double Mellowed” 40% ABV

Nose: Grain forward with delicate spearmint, a light fruitiness and just the tiniest hints of oak.

Mouth: Thin and a tad peppery. Fake banana flavor, grain, mint and just a touch of oak.

Finish: Short with banana bread, mint and a rougher burn than I would have expected from something labeled “Double Mellowed.”

Thoughts: While I will admit to not being a fan of regular Jack Daniel’s, there have been a few of their higher-end products that I have really liked. This is not one of them. In fact, I don’t like this at all. I just can’t get past the fake “banana candy” flavor (though for the record, I don’t like banana candy either).

Getting Geeky With Union Horse Distilling Company, Part Two: The Reviews

July 28, 2016 Eric Burke

As I state in my Statement of Ethics, I seldom accept review samples. And that if I do, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I would like to thank FleishmanHillard for putting me into contact with the distillery and providing the bottles being discussed and reviewed this week.

Union Horse Reserve Bourbon and Union Horse Reunion Rye

On Tuesday I posted Part One of this post where the Patrick Garcia, Master Distiller of Union Horse Distilling Company and Damian Garcia, Director of Sales and Marketing for Union Horse Distilling Company were kind enough to get geeky with us by answering questions drawn from both myself and Patreon submissions.

Looking back on their answers, I really like how they are doing things so in tonight's post, let's see how much I like the whiskey.

Union Horse Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: This bottle was not purchased and was instead provided by FleishmanHillard, the PR firm representing Union Horse for review purposes.

Details: 100% Rye Mash (using enzymes to break down the starch instead of malt). 46.5% ABV. Two year age stated. Batch 1. Bottle 1177.

Nose: Toffee, mint, baked bread, and grain

Mouth: Bold and flavorful. Spicy, showing both cinnamon and clove as well as cayenne. Mint extract and grain flavors are present as well, though not as much as I'd expect from the nose.

Finish: Medium length with a nice spice. Lingering grain and mint flavors.

Thoughts: This is one where it had to grow on me. In my initial tasting, I felt it tasted a bit young. After spending almost a month with it, I've warmed up to it. This certainly is a unique whiskey and is outside the normal American Straight Rye flavor profile, which threw me at first. But I've come around. I've tried it neat, with some ice and in cocktails and have enjoyed it in all three. It still tastes a bit young, but not terribly so. I like this. It's a unique product that actually tastes pretty good too.

Union Horse Reserve Straight Bourbon

Purchase Info: This bottle was not purchased and was instead provided by FleishmanHillard, the PR firm representing Union Horse for review purposes.

Details: Corn and Rye Mash (using enzymes to break down the starch instead of malt). 46% ABV. Two year age stated. Batch 2. Bottle 1068.

Nose: Caramel and mint along with faint notes of bubble gum, soil and barrel char.

Mouth: Vanilla and butterscotch, along with cinnamon, cloves, campfire smoke and sweet malt.

Finish: Medium length with lingering mint, smoke and malty flavors.

Thoughts: I am not a fan of smoky whiskey. I can appreciate it, but seldom like it if it is too pronounced. In this case, the smoke flavors are just light enough that it doesn't bother me too much. My wife on the other hand likes this a lot and has been the primary consumer of the bottle above.

Blog

10 Year Rebel Yell

Old Scout Single Barrel Bourbon

Jim Beam Double Oak Twice Barreled

Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-Year Old

Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

Gentleman Jack

Union Horse Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Union Horse Reserve Straight Bourbon