What my ratings mean

I don't like tasting notes. Every person who tastes a whiskey will bring with them the experience that is their life. Every bit of experience will bring with it memories. Scent is closely related to memory and taste is closely related to smell. So everyone will taste or smell something different. It's all subjective. I say that Four Roses tastes like juicy fruit gum. You might very well think I'm crazy. We are probably both right. From the standpoint of our differing life experiences. 

I feel the same way about ratings. Some people use numbers. This makes it feel scientific because you've done math. Some people use stars, like the movies. How glamorous. I use various cartoon faces and hearts because I'm too silly for my own good. My point is any and all of these are correct. They all adequately represent how much or how little a reviewer like any given whiskey. But no matter how it is presented, it's still just a subjective opinion.

I've had conversations with folks on twitter about how certain reviewers always score things high. And that because of this, you can't trust their opinion. I don't agree with that. You don't have to agree with their opinion, but they are probably adequately describing how much they enjoyed a particular whiskey. Everyone is coming from different places.

Here's where I'm coming from: I really enjoy bourbon. Sometimes I enjoy it in a contemplative manner. I sit down and concentrate and really try to tease out all the little smells and tastes that are hidden inside the glass. And if it is interesting, most probably, I'll like it. And then I'll tell you I liked it. Sometimes I enjoy bourbon in my glass while playing cards or watching tv or conversing with friends. I'm not paying a lot of attention to it, but if it tastes good and it's acting as a social lubricant, I'll probably like it. And then I'll tell you I like it. (And put a little smiley face next to it). 

Sometimes I find one that doesn't do either of these things. I doesn't taste good, and it really isn't that interesting. I probably won't like it and I'll put a little frowny face next to it and say I don't like it. Because I buy all of the whiskey I review, odds are I'm not buying many I don't already think I'll like. So there will be few that ever show up here that have a frowny face. 

You'll find a meh now and then. These are ones that didn't taste bad, but I didn't care for them. I didn't like it, I didn't dislike it. It's just sort of in the middle there for me. 

Very occasionally I'll drop a heart on something. This means I love it. No ifs, ands, or buts. I'd take this whiskey over almost any other. 

So to recap:

 A heart means I love this whiskey. I'd have to pause and think (briefly) if forced to choose between it and my wife.

 A smiley face means I liked the whiskey or I found it interesting while tasting it or I enjoyed myself while drinking it. Or I enjoyed the company I drank it with. Or I was having fun. Most bourbons and ryes will be in this category because I like most bourbons and ryes I've tasted.

 A neutral face means meh. I didn't particularly like this whiskey, but I didn't hate it either. It wasn't for me. But you might like it.

 A frowny face means I really disliked this. I probably thought about dumping it out.

There. Simple. Certainly subjective. You are free to disagree with any of it. We all have different experiences. For example. I hate green beans. Some people love them. I used to love them while growing up. Then I worked in a green bean processing and canning facility. All I smelled day in and day out was green beans. My clothes. My hair. My car. 17 years later I still can't go near them. Doesn't mean they are bad, I just don't like them. My experience was different than yours. We like different things.

And that's kinda nice. It gives us something to talk about.

Review: Whiskey—A Global History by Kevin R. Kosar

Whiskey—A Global History by Kevin R. Kosar

This book starts out asking if the world really needs one more book on whiskey. Its very obvious answer is: yes, of course. And it's this one. 

Whiskey: A Global History by Kevin R. Kosar attempts to give a very short overview of the entire history of whiskey in 144 pages. For the most part it does a decent job of it. The author touches on the the history of distilled spirits as a whole and then each of the major whiskey producing regions individually. Toss in the obligatory forecast of the future and recipes at the end and you've got it. Succinct but packed with information.

So does the world really need another book on whiskey? Yes...and no. 

If you are a whiskey enthusiast, this is not the book for you. There are entire books dedicated to the topics covered by each chapter. In fact there are good books dedicated to the subtopics covered by each portion of each chapter. The enthusiast will find things that have been oversimplified to the point of almost being wrong. In short, the whiskey enthusiast will want to avoid this book.

This is a book for those who don't know much about whiskey and don't actually want to know a lot. If you subscribe to the theory that most people (feel they) are too busy to actually spend the time to learn anything, then this is the perfect book. It gives just the barest of information on each subject and never succumbs to the temptation to really delve deep on a topic. It doesn't even give in to the normal conceit of including tasting notes. The audience of this book is neither advanced enough nor would they probably care. I applaud that. Knowing your audience is hard. And this book knows its audience. So, for the busy person, or for someone who is just starting their whiskey journey, I highly recommend this.

This book was read in digital form on an iPad.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Last week I traveled to New Orleans to visit family friends. The wife and I took in some sights, attended a parade from the Krewe box and enjoyed a bit of local culture. All in all it was a good time. 

What does this have to do with bourbon? Umm...I walked down Bourbon Street one time? (Yeah and unsolicited advice: unless you are a frat boy who loves big, nasty beers sucked out of a straw or gentleman's clubs, I'd avoid it...)

Yeah, this doesn't have much to do with bourbon. It does have something to do with it's cousin Rye though. (Straight rye whiskey, not it's Canadian cousin of the same name.) You see the highlight of my trip wasn't the friends or the parades or the...ok yeah it was. But shortly after those came the Sazerac.

I have a Sazerac recipe, I've talked about it here before. The Sazerac is my favorite cocktail. And guess what? It was born in New Orleans. And while the Sazerac Coffee House where it seems to have been popularized, wasn't on the itinerary (mostly due to the fact that it doesn't seem to exist anymore) a similarly named place was. 

The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel is a beautiful place. A fancy, beautiful place. A fancy, beautiful, expensive place. Coincidentally enough they serve my favorite cocktail. And it tastes fantastic.

Speaking of Sazeracs, I'm off to make one for myself. Happy Mardi Gras!

A Sazerac in a Sazerac glass at the Sazerac Bar.

A Four Roses Head-to-Head-to-Head Tasting: Small Batch, Mariage Collection 2009 & Limited Edition Small Batch 2012

So I was reading my Google Reader subscriptions yesterday when I ran across a fairly alarming blog post on David Driscoll's K&L Spirits Blog. It seems that the Award-Winning Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2012 Release has been reported to be oxidizing quicker than expected. (And what that means kids is this: drink your whiskey. Having it sit open on the shelf too long doesn't necessarily prolong enjoyment. Sometimes it actually lessens it.)

Well, after reading that post, I sent my wife an email. "Honey," I said "we need to take a sip of that there whiskey tonight and see what's what." 

hmm...it seems that in my memories, I talk an old prospector...

She had an even better idea. She said that after we tasted a little bit of it, if it was still ok, maybe we should sit down and do that second head-to-head-to-head tasting that we were thinking of doing. I married a smart woman. The plan had been to compare our 2009 Mariage with the 2012 Limited Edition Small Batch. But as I was setting up the two glasses, I drew a third circle on the papers and poured the regular Small Batch as well. My thought was: this is the baseline standard. A control in the experiment as it were. Plus it's my favorite every day whiskey and I don't pass up a chance to have some.

All three whiskies poured and awaiting tasting

The set up was the same as before. It was a double blind tasting which means that I poured them into glasses on a sheet of paper labeled A, B and C and then I left the room. My wife then came into the room and moved each glass onto the numbered sheet that you see above. This way I knew which bourbon was which letter and she knew which letter was which number, but neither of us knew which bourbon corresponded to which number. Fairly simple way of removing label bias.

So what were the results? Did I find that all the releases were over rated and I loved the regular release Small Batch the best after all? First: all bourbons were tasted neat. After we had our initial notes, my wife added a tiny bit of water to her glasses. Also, all of these bourbon have been open for a while. The LESB was opened in September. I didn't notice much oxidation, if any, but it was still 2/3 full. The Mariage was opened at the end of July at the celebration of a very big milestone. Same thing here. Stayed relatively full and I didn't notice much difference. The regular release Small Batch was a gift from my daughter's boyfriend at Christmas and helped me through that.

Bourbon 1:

Nose: Initially all I get is vanilla extract. But I take my time with it, figuring that it probably had a little something more to give. After a while I get an unidentified fruity odor. To me this always smells like JuicyFruit gum (my favorite gum when I was a child: five sticks, just a quarter). I get that a lot with Four Roses, so finding it here wasn't a giant surprise. With a little water it seemed to transform into an almost earthy honey smell. Reminded me of the buckwheat honey I had for a while.

Mouth: This dries the mouth, but doesn't burn. Strange. Big caramel. It has a sweet, floral taste, but not delicate. If I didn't know better, I'd think Four Roses had swapped a straight rye whiskey with a high percentage corn into my glass.

Finish: Almost no burn here. Finish brings that JuicyFruit flavor back again

Overall: Wow. This might very well be the best Four Roses, I've ever had. My wife normally puts a small piece of ice in every bourbon. She asked me to remind her that this one she wants neat from now on.  

Bourbon 2:

Nose: I'll admit, I was confused by this one. So confused that I went out to the spice cupboard and started smelling things to see what it was that it reminded me of. I settled on a mix of allspice and oregano with a little molasses thrown in. After a little water it get's mintier. (And after I move back up the line from three before tasting: wow! Big hit of alcohol. Guessing this is one of the higher proof releases).

Mouth: My first thought: "ooh, that's a Four Roses..." and I just closed my eyes and enjoyed that first sip. After I opened them again and took another sip, I got spice, and some of that JuicyFruit flavor. Sweet. Spicy. Fruity. Yum.

Finish: Short burn on this one. Sweet and spicy fading into a sharpness. It leaves a tingle on the tongue for a little while. My wife: "the finish makes me want more"

Overall: This one was confusing. It was very rich and full flavored, but I had a hard time picking out what those flavors were beyond their basic "Four-Roses-ness" Once my wife added a little ice, to replicate how she would normally drink a bourbon, this was her favorite of the three.

Bourbon 3:

Nose: After the other two, this is like a sweet floral perfume. It's very delicate. After a little water, not much different.

Mouth: This has a surprising sharpness along the sides of the tongue. More alcohol flavor than I expected. But after revisiting it a little later. It's much more sweet.

Finish: Short burn with a lingering sweetness.

Overall: While this was our least favorite of the three, it is still a very good bourbon. I could drink the heck out of this one at a bar with friends, watching tv or with a good book. It's a great everyday bourbon.

So which was which? Well, the rankings my wife gave them were as follows. Neat: 1, 2, 3. With a tiny piece of ice: 2, 1, 3. I'd rank them similarly even though I only had mine neat. It's a toss up between 1 and 2 for me. Both amazing, but different enough that I'd stand there for a moment trying to decide and then choose one at random. Number three was good, but not great. So that said, it isn't too surprising that Bourbon 3 was the regular release Small Batch. Number 1 is the 2012 Limited Edition Small Batch and Bourbon 2 is the Mariage Collection 2009 Release.

2012 LE SB

2009 Mariage

Small Batch

Last time I did this, I told you "If I could only buy one going forward..." Well, it seems that is probably going to be the case in this instance. I had a hard time picking up a second bottle of the 2012. It is in the bunker. I'm working my way through my second (and last) bottle of 2009. It looks like I'll be out of luck regarding that one too. But that's ok. There will be more wonderful bourbons to taste and I've had the good fortune to pick up two of each of the rare ones. That said, if I had the opportunity to buy the last bottle of any of these and could only pick one. It would be hard. My 15th Wedding Anniversary was celebrated at the 2012 LESB Release Party. The 2009 bottle was cracked open to celebrate my wife showing no further evidence of cancer after her chemo. Both have a bit of nostalgia there. But ultimately, and after a lot of soul searching, I'd choose the 2012. I stand by my initial reaction that it might be the best Four Roses I've ever had.

This might have been the most fun I've had at a tasting with just my wife. We knew going in that we were going to really like all of these. If asked independently we'd both say that Four Roses is our favorite bourbon producer and we knew that for us, the bar started at Very Good before we sat down to analyze them. Then it just became a matter of analyzing and exploring. It was a lot of fun.

I emptied my favorite cooking bourbon: Knob Creek Single Barrel

Tonight I'm talking about my favorite cooking bourbon. Some people might think that's an insult. That it means it is a bourbon so bad that all it is good for is hiding amongst other flavors. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I want to enjoy what I eat I had better use quality ingredients.

My go-to cooking bourbon will have to meet certain factors and the most important one of them will be that I like how it tastes.

The second factor is proof. When I bake, I pull out some water and substitute a little bourbon. You might have noticed that bourbon is much more expensive than water. Hence I want to use as little as possible while still giving me the flavor I want. As you probably know, higher proof bourbons tend to have less water added. As a result, there is also a tendency toward more flavor.

Cost and availablilty are the final factors. My go-to cooking bourbon won't be a Four Roses Limited Edition no matter how high the proof or how tasty the bourbon. 

So that makes Knob Creek Single Barrel probably the perfect cooking bourbon. It is 120 proof. It's tasty. It's readily available and it won't break the bank. That isn't to say that I haven't given it the once over in the Glencairn Glass though. Here are my findings:

Nose: Earthy, lots of oak. There is some sweet underneath. Honestly, I'm finding that this smells just like the warehouse on the tour at the American Stillhouse. 

Mouth: This is a sweet one! Tasted neat, I find this to be mostly caramel and heat.

Finsh: Sharp and spicy with a cool mintiness. It leaves a tingle on the tongue that lasts forever.

Overall: I like this bourbon, but not for drinking. I really don't like to drink super high proof bourbons. They fry my taste buds way too quick. And if I'm going to water it down anyway, I might as well go with the 100 proof Knob Creek and save myself some money. But as my go-to cooking bourbon, I love it. I've used this in my Bourbon Banana Bread and my Bourbon Doughnuts with great results.

So this is a tasty bourbon that is interesting in the glass. But for me, the really high proof makes it a meh for drinking. But that same proof makes it a love for cooking. Average that out and you get a like. And I really do like this. I just had to find a way to let it's flavor shine while holding back the proof. And for me that's in food.

45th Parallel to release New Richmond Rye

I recently received word that local craft distiller, 45th Parallel Spirits, would soon be coming out with a new rye whiskey. They are planning to release New Richmond Rye to the public at the distillery Sunday, February 10, from noon to 5 pm.

I reached out to Co-founder Paul Werni to answer a few questions regarding the upcoming release.

So tell me, why did you decide do a rye whiskey? 
Historically it is a true American whiskey dating to colonial times, there are comparatively few rye options on the shelves, and a good rye whiskey is enjoyable to drink.

What's the age of the whiskey?
The first release is 2 1/2 years.  We will stagger the release to allow for 3 and 4 year aging.

What is the proof it will be bottled at?
92 proof

What is the approximate price?
$40 to $45 pre-tax.  $45 tax included at our distillery

Will this be available any where other than the distillery?
This spring it will be available in Northwestern WI and the Minneapolis Metro.

How many bottles do you anticipate the first batch will yield? When are you anticipating the next batch to be ready?
600 initially then 300 bottles per month until 2014 when the monthly number will double.

Catch all question here: Is there anything special that might interest a whiskey enthusiast to try your take on rye whiskey? 
It is not 100% rye. Some corn is included.
All grain comes from local farms within minutes of our building.
Aged in traditional 53 gallon barrels. No small barrels.
All mashing, distilling, aging, and bottling takes place at our distillery.  
This is a Straight Rye Whiskey.

I'd like to thank Paul for taking the time to answer my questions. 45th Parallel Spirits, LLC is located at: 1570 Madison Avenue, New Richmond, WI 54017. They produce 45th Parallel Vodka, Midwest Vodka, Midwest Gin, Border Bourbon and other distilled spirits. If you'd like to learn more about their bourbon, I did a post about the launch party and a review of it here. They make good stuff. For what it's worth, their vodka is the vodka I keep in the house. I hope to pick up a bottle of the rye and I'll review it here when I do.

A Head-to-Head-to-Head Tasting: Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year, Larceny, & Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond

Has it finally happened? Has my nose unclogged? Have my senses of smell and taste returned to me? Am I ever going to stop asking questions and get on with this?

Yes. To all of them. My wife and I have finally come close enough to kicking the cold/flu that felled us in the late December/Early January that we can breathe again. We can laugh without coughing again. And most importantly, our tastebuds and our sniffers work again.

Last year, round about September, I hit on the idea that to really know the minute differences of different bourbons, I needed to compare them to one another. Have them side by side. Smell one, smell the other, smell my hand*, and start over again. So while I was in Kentucky, the land of bourbon, I decided to start picking up a few things with an eye toward head to head tastings. Some of them were planned. Some of the stuff I lucked into. I was checking out when I'd notice a small bottle of something. Maybe it was a different proof than what already had. Maybe it was a mini of another release of something I had at home. I collected things all autumn long, buying bourbon in at least 6 different states along the way. It was fun. 

But by the time I was about to get started on the tasting fun. BLAM! Laid out by tiny little viruses. So unfair. And now we're back to the present. About to dig into a trio of wheaters from Heaven Hill. so how did I decide on these? Well, a little bit of luck and a tiny bit of planning. I've had the Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year Old since a visit to Des Moines, Iowa this summer. I picked it up because it was something I knew I couldn't get here in Minnesota. Or at least I had never seen it. The Larceny was released right about the time I was going to Kentucky. I got a $10 rebate on the bottle and it was also on sale for roughly $22. Buying that was a no brainer. At that point it seemed I had a pretty nice head to head going. It wasn't a planned one, but hey, I'm not one to sneer at dumb luck. One problem, those two wheaters were both MSRP'd like premium bourbons. One of the things I had read about Old Fitzgerald was that it was a good value bourbon. So with the head to head in mind, I went ahead and picked up a bottle of Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond for ~$18 for a liter. And just like that it became a head-to-head-to-head. Three times the fun!

Here's how the wife and I did the tastings. With her out of the room, I poured each into identical Glencairn glasses. One set for me, one set for my wife. I had them on a piece of paper and in front of each I wrote a number 1-3. Then I left the room. My wife came in and moved each glass onto another prepared sheet that was labeled A, B, C. So I knew which bourbons were 1, 2 and 3 and she knew which letter corresponded to which number and neither of us knew which bourbon was in which place in front of us. A perfect double blind tasting.

So what did we think? Well, we both agreed that there were a lot more similarities between the bourbons than there were differences. In the glass all three were the same color. Though in the bottle the VSOF was a bit darker. None of these were overly complicated bourbons. All of them were sweet with a hint of spice in the mouth. So knowing that, let's dig in.

Bourbon A:

Nose: Sweet with a hint of something smoky. Once I was hit with something  sharp, almost acidic, but it was gone as soon as it appeared and never came back. I found the same thing at another time in my wife's but it was still gone so fast I couldn't place it.

Mouth: Sweet, but not overly sweet. Brown sugar with a little spice. This one was a bit thin when compared to the other two. 

Finish: Short and sweet. Not hot. Dried the mouth.

Overall: This one confused me. I smelled things that I couldn't catch before they were gone and couldn't pick out anything beyond a very gently spicy brown sugar sweetness. This is a bourbon that I could drink the heck out of though. I like it and I'd enjoy having it at my side while watching a movie or talking with friends. This was probably our favorite of the three.

Bourbon B:

Nose: Tangy and sweet play a game of cat and mouse with each other while nosing this one. One time it's a hard maple bomb, the next it's tangy, then they swap back again.

Mouth: This is a sweet one. Not as sweet as the nose, but there is a slight maple or brown sugar there amongst the alcohol. I found this one to be a bit on the thick side. Not oily, but syrupy. I guess that goes with the maple in there.

Finish: Finish was the best part of this one. There is that tang in the back of the throat that the nose promised, sweet spice on the sides of the tongue, and a hint of smokiness all around.  

Overall: My wife found this to be the harshest one out of the three we tasted. Said she only tasted alcohol. I agree it was the harshest one, but not overwhelmingly so. I like this one as well. Though good, this was probably our least favorite of the three. 

Bourbon C:

Nose: Right away I was hit with sweet baked apples. After a bit I got a lot of brown sugar sweetness.

Mouth: Sweetness at first on this one getting spicier as it moves back. I get a lot of corn in this one as well. 

Finish: I found this to have the most burn in the finish out of the three. Really drying the back of the throat.

Overall: This is a good bourbon. It won't blow you away analyzing it, though I found those backed apples on the nose to be interesting. But I drink a whiskey more often than I taste it and this is another one I'd enjoy drinking over conversation with friends or along side a movie or good book.

So which was which? Bourbon A was the Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12 Year Old. No Surprise here, my wife loves older Heaven hill bourbons. Bourbon B was Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond, which explains the harshness comment by my wife. And Bourbon C was Larceny.

I like all of these in their own way. Like I said, our favorite was the Very Special Old Fitzgerald, but I wouldn't turn down any of them. And in fact, before I did the tasting, I enjoyed each and every one on numerous occasions. The BiB was great in cocktails or on it's own. The VSOF made a wicked good manhattan. And Larceny is just plain tasty.

If I could only buy one moving forward, I'd pick the BiB because it is so much cheaper and almost as good. My wife, the accountant, though disagrees with me and would choose the Larceny. She like the VSOF the best, but initially had a hard time finding differences between them. So since it is a little cheaper, she'd go that route. If you're buying though? Give either of us the VSOF.

*By the way, that hand smelling thing isn't a joke, it seems to reset the ol' sniffer for some reason.

An End of 2012 Updating of the Stash

As I was cataloging my whiskey collection...

That's not weird right? I've found that I tend to catalog things in the stage where I have more than I can keep track of just by looking, but not so many that I'd need a database to keep track of it. I used to catalog my library of music...too big now. I used to catalog my library of books...too big now. So now because I feel a deep seated need to keep track of things and unlike books or music, stuff actually leaves this collection, whiskey is the perfect outlet. Anyway as I was saying:

I was cataloging my whiskey collection and noticed that I hadn't updated my stash in a while. Things have been added that I hadn't noted and others have left. This can't stand. However will random strangers know what types of whiskey I might be drinking at any given moment if I don't keep this list up to date?

Because there are random strangers who wonder this, aren't there? Say yes! Say YES!

ahem...excuse me

Since the last time I updated this, I've lost a few friends. Most have been mentioned here. 

Wild Turkey Rare Breed, this one will be coming back. It's one of our favorites.
Parker's Heritage Collection, Barrel Finished, I want this one to come back, but doubt it will due to limited availability.
Corner Creek Reserve, this one was taking up space. I'm kinda glad it's gone. 

But don't be too sad, I've also gained a few friends as well.

Col. E. H. Taylor Rye was a gift from my wife and is sitting in the bunker waiting for shelf space.
Four Roses Small Batch was a gift from my daughter's boyfriend (trying to get on my good side)
1792 Ridgemont Reserve was bought to compare to the Liquor Barn Private Selection. Bunkered.
Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond was bought to compare to both the 12 year Very Special Old Fitz. and the Larceny.
MB Roland White Dog was a gift from two very good friends
Old Grand Dad 114 proof was bought because it is extremely tasty. Bunkered.
Breckenridge Bourbon and Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey are both in the bunker waiting for shelf space after a recent trip to Colorado. 

So there you have it. I'm up to about 47 bottles with one duplicate. As you can see some of these are very similar. If you are perceptive you might pick up on some plans for 2013 in the list. At least as soon as I kick this cold and can taste things again...