Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016: The Brackets

March 15, 2016 Eric Burke

Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016 bracket

Its that time of year again. The time of year when in the spirit of the season, America pretends to enjoy college basketball. The time when intraoffice gambling on the backs of unpaid athletes is not only condoned, but practically expected. The time when paper or online brackets are filled, mostly with guesses because what normal person really knows what the hell a Gonzaga is anyway.

I’m not immune to the lure. But instead of trying to figure out whether a Holy Cross can beat a Southern University, I’d rather spend my time figuring out if I like Evan Williams 1783 or Wild Turkey 81 proof better. Because honestly I really don’t like basketball. Plus I work out of my home so I have no coworkers with whom to pretend that I care whether an FGCU wins or not.

Because I am a frugal person, this annual competition started out as a way to find new inexpensive bourbons with which to drown my sorrows as I waited for winter to end. But with both winters and inexpensive bourbons that I haven’t tried are becoming increasingly rare, I actually was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to find enough bourbons to qualify this year.

But there is good news frugal fans of bourbon! Minnesota is smack dab in the middle of the Total Wine effect. Items that didn’t qualify in years past are now priced within reach due to the increased price competition and items that were intended to be store exclusives are now being stocked on store shelves across the Metro. Prices are dropping and selection is rising. And this makes this year’s brackets a little more interesting than normal.

As it has been a year since we did this last, let’s go over the guidelines for selection:

I'm defining Bottom-Shelf as under $20 per liter or $15 per 750 mL bottle.
It must be Straight Bourbon
It must be available in Minnesota
I am hoping to try new things so when possible, I looked for things I hadn’t reviewed before.

After the bottles were purchased here are the guidelines I used to seed them.

Previous Winners. JW Dant Bottled in Bond won two years ago and Fighting Cock won last year year so they get an automatic #1 seed.
Stated (or assumed age). Straight bourbon has to be at least two years old. But unless it is under four years old you don’t have to put an age on it. So if someone does it’s either a good thing or a bad thing. I like to reward good things and punish bad things.
Proof. Higher proof often equals better flavor. Not always, but it can be a good rule of thumb.
Minimize corporate cousins. I figured I could introduce a little more difference into each initial pairing if they didn’t come off the same still, or at the very least wasn’t sold by the same company. Since four of these are from Heaven Hill and two are originally from Sazerac, it's a guideline, not a hard rule, and is overridden by the above guidelines.

So who are the contestants? Well, as mentioned above, Fighting Cock and JW Dant are our return winners so they get the number one seeds in each division. There were no age stated bottles this year so that one has been set aside, though I did knock Very Old Barton down a notch for their misleading “6.” So the next two highest proof bottles are Evan Williams 1783 and Very Old Barton 6 are both 86 proof and they become the number 2 seeds. After that the newly renamed Wild Turkey bourbon is 81 proof so it becomes our first 3 seed. The last three were dropped in what I thought might be an order to provide the most interesting match ups with Jim Beam White becoming the last 3 three seed going against Barton while Buckhorn (a Total Wine “exclusive” from Buffalo Trace) and Heaven Hill’s Blue State picking up the slack as 4 seeds.

Due to the Total Wine effect, this was an interesting year. Stay tuned.

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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.

My Wandering Eye: Korbel 12, a Twelve-Year Old California Brandy

March 8, 2016 Eric Burke

Quite a while ago, a friend of mine gave me an unmarked sample and asked my wife and I to try it and report back. Assuming it was a whiskey sample, we went ahead and tried it, found we really liked it and told him so. When we asked him what kind of whiskey it was, he got a smirk on his face and told us that it wasn’t whiskey, it was brandy. In fact, it was an expression from a brandy producer that I had been vocally dismissive of.

My father, like most of his fellow residents of Wisconsin, loves Korbel brandy. At one point it seems, fully one third of the bottles of Korbel produced ended up in the state (only a case or so of those going to my father’s place). And being the whiskey snob I was, I couldn’t understand why one would drink brandy when they had the opportunity to drink whiskey. Especially the regular expression that was usual in my father’s house.

So when my friend told me the mystery sample was a 12 year old expression from Korbel, I was pretty shocked. I mean, I had no idea that such a thing was produced. Which goes to show the value of a blind tasting. All my preconceived notions of what is good and what isn’t fell away and only the liquid was left. And my, what a liquid it was.

When we started discussing the My Wandering Eye… series, my friend mentioned that the store he got it from still had a few bottles. Needless to say, I ran up the next day and bought one.

In case you’re new to the series, let me recap. Bourbon prices are creeping up. So much so that even average products have hit the range where they compete price-wise with other types of aged spirits. A $50 750 ml bottle of Cognac or Armagnac doesn’t sound outrageous next to a $50 Old Forester 1870 or a $50 375 mL of the Jim Beam Harvest collection. As a response to this, my eye has started wandering down other aisles of the liquor store.

Korbel 12 Year Old California Brandy

Purchase info: ~$40 for a 750mL bottle, Top Valu Liquor, Columbia Heights, MN.

Details: 12 years old, 40% ABV

Nose: Fruity and floral. Apples, brown sugar and oak. It reminds me of a richer and fuller Woodford Reserve nose.

Mouth: Lively tingle on the tongue and floral. Brown sugar, figs, allspice and oak.

Finish: Warm and of medium length with lingering sweet figs.

Thoughts: Let’s just put it this way. This was the first non-whiskey to get a home on my American Whiskey shelf. That is the shelf I go to the most and this deserved a place where I would reach for it often. It is rich, sweet and hits all the same notes I look for in a bourbon.

Even at only 80 proof, it has enough heat and flavor to impress while drinking neat. Something most whiskeys can’t do these days. I’d say that at right around $40, it is as good or better than many bourbons of comparable price. This is what I was hoping for when I started this series.

It's the 119th anniversary of the Bottled in Bond Act.

March 3, 2016 Eric Burke

Today is the 119th anniversary of the passage of the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897. This is a pretty important act. And not just in the world of whiskey. It was one of the first consumer protection and food safety laws. And because you needed to follow pretty strict rules to be label as bottled in bond (the product of one distillation season, aged in a federally bonded warehouse for at least four years, bottled at 100 proof and you need to list the DSP of the distiller and, if different, the bottler) many people began to identify it with a mark of quality.

The push to get the act passed gets credited to Colonel E. H. Taylor. He of the distillery formerly known as old Taylor and the distillery now known as Buffalo Trace fame. He gets touted as an all-around good guy by bourbon lovers, but recently a fellow blogger brought to light a few of his less admirable qualities.

As important as the act is, when I wanted to read it, I had a hard time tracking it down. Because it is 119 years old, it has been buried in the mists of time. I've posted a pdf of a scan of the act in the past, but today I am offering the poster above, including the full text of the act, as a print resolution pdf download to my patrons. The file is sized at 24" x 36" and is suitable to print at your local print shop. Someday I may find a place to sell it, but for now this is a patron exclusive.*

Not a patron yet? Well that is easy enough to fix. Go to patreon.com/arok to pledge $1 or more per month to support bourbonguy.com. Once a patron you will get access to patron-only content such as videos, designs, contests and more. So sign up today!

*Did you support the site via one-time donation? Just send me an email if you want the pdf and I will send you a link to download it.

The Worst American Whiskies I've Had

March 1, 2016 Eric Burke

A Great Big Frowny face because I dislike all of these.

I’ve said it before. I don’t review a lot of bourbon that I don’t like. You might think I am too Minnesotan and don't want to say anything mean or that maybe I don’t have a discerning palate. You might think that I’ve been bought off or that I’m hoping to get free whiskey. You might think a lot of things, but unless you are a long time reader, you’d probably be wrong.

You see, there is a very simple explanation for why I don’t review a lot of bourbons I dislike. I buy almost all of the whiskey I review and I really don’t want to spend money on things I’ll dislike. I’m experienced enough at buying American Whiskey that I kind of know what I like and what I don’t. Of course, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a stinker or two slip through. And just because I didn’t buy it doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried it.

So in the name of helping you to avoid the stinkers, and because I do get asked this on occasion, tonight I’m presenting you with my list of the 5 worst American Whiskies I’ve had. To qualify, I had to have had it and I have to have wished I hadn’t.

My 5 Worst American Whiskies

(as decided by me and in alphabetical order.)

Hayes Parker Reserve: Terre Pure bourbon aged at least six months. I made the mistake of picking up two minis of this. I think my wife’s comments sum it up perfectly: “You can’t make me put more in my mouth.”

Masterson’s Straight Wheat and Straight Barley Whiskey: These are technically a set of Canadian whiskies, but since they are sold by a US company I’m going to include them here. When these were released, I made a comment about buying them and these are so bad that I had someone in another country volunteer to send me a sample of each so that I didn’t waste my money on them. To this day, I consider that lady to be a very good friend. I tried my samples in nosing glasses in a nice hotel room while feeling very relaxed. A good set up for being forgiving to a whiskey. It didn’t help. I struggled through half a sample of each before dumping them out and finding something tastier to get the flavor out of my mouth.

Rebel Yell: I bought this bourbon as part of the Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets the first year I did them. It lost in the first round to Old Crow Reserve. At the time, I said I didn’t know what I would do with the bottle because I wasn’t going to drink it. I’ve tried blending it, I tried cooking with it. Nothing worked. Eventually I did find a use for it. It became “Prop Bourbon.” When I need to take a photo for a review, but already finished the bottle, I pour my prop bourbon into the empty bottle for the photo. Afterward I dump it back into the Rebel Yell bottle and stick it back in the closet.

Town Branch Bourbon: I have never purchased this bourbon, but I’ve given this a shot on numerous occasions. I keep thinking that it must just be me. But no matter how many times I come back to it, I just don’t like it. It’s a very pretty bottle, but what’s inside I find repugnant.

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Double Malt Selection: This release was two different Malt Whiskies that needed to be purchased separately. I had them at a friend’s house in Louisville. We were both extremely excited to try them and well…he dumped his out. I tried to be polite and finish mine, but was convinced to do the same. This might be the worst thing Woodford has ever released under their name.

Dis-Honorable Mentions

These were also very bad whiskies, but for one reason or another I decided to drop them out of the main category. Either they weren’t quite as bad as the ones above or they are no longer available or available in such limited quantities that they won’t be much help to anyone.

11Wells Rye: This is a small craft distiller here in the Twin Cities. I tasted this at a local retailer along with a group of friends after an event. I also tasted it again at Whiskey on Ice, a local whiskey festival. It’s…not good. Hopefully after some time it will get better but I’ll need to be convinced of that when it happens.

Fleischmann’s Straight Rye: Only available as a plastic handle in Kentucky and Northern Wisconsin, this is not a whiskey to seek out. In fact, it’s not available even in those two places as a “straight” whiskey anymore, that part of the label having been changed. When I bought it, it was less than $12 for a 1.75 L bottle and it was over priced.

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Sonoma-Cutrer Pinot Noir Finish: This is bad. If the Double Malt is the worst thing that Woodford ever put their name on, this is the second worst. I’ve had people tell me I’m crazy, but I found this to be terrible.

Yellow Rose Bourbon: I had this at a tasting event that was held at a local chain a couple years ago. My notes at the time mentioned musty, wet corn flakes. And unfortunately, the $70 price tag on a bottle won’t let me give them another chance. There is very little chance you’ll be seeing this on the site as a full-blown review.

So there you have it. Your list will probably be very different. We all taste things differently and we all like different things, but for me these are the worst American whiskies I’ve ever had. What about you though? What’s the worst you’ve had? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: So, after fourteen hundred and some odd days after I first made my opinion known on Rebel Yell, I finally got around to trying it again. Here are my updated thoughts: Rebel Yell: Revisited.

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.

My Wandering Eye: Berneroy XO Calvados

February 23, 2016 Eric Burke

Bourbon prices are creeping up. So much so that even average products have hit the range where they compete price-wise with other types of aged spirits. A $50 750 ml bottle of Cognac or Armagnac doesn’t sound outrageous next to a $50 Old Forester 1870 or a $50 375 mL of the Jim Beam Harvest collection. So my eye has started wandering. I’ve done an Aquavit and a rum so far and now I’m about to take a walk down the brandy aisle.

For the last three years, I’ve been making a batch of hard cider each fall. I go to the orchard, buy the varieties I want and proceed to cut, chop and crush my way into 6-7 gallons of fresh apple juice. It’s good fun. I even built the cider press. It takes a few months to ferment, clarify, bottle and age but by the next spring I have enough cider to last me through the following winter.

So it isn’t entirely shocking that the first time my eye wandered in the brandy aisle it landed on an apple brandy. In this case, specifically a Calvados apple brandy. Calvados is an apple brandy made in various subsections of Normandy region of France. As you might have guessed there are plenty of laws governing what can and can not be called Calvados, but I’ll let you google those for yourself. Because the price was right, that wandering eye of mine settled on the XO version of Berneroy Calvados. This should mean it is at least 6 years old.

Berneroy XO Calvados

Purchase info: $15.99 for a 375 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN. (This was listed as a Spirits Direct selection at Total Wine, which they want you to think means that it is cheaper because it is an exclusive.*)

Details: 40% ABV

Nose: Dried fruit and caramel.

Mouth: Thick, supple mouthfeel. Dried apple, brown sugar, clove and more than a hint of spirit flavor. Water enhances the sweetness and reduces the spirit presence.

Finish: Dried apples, clove and a little bitterness linger along with a hint of a burn.

Thoughts: Glassware seems to make a difference on this one. My initial tasting was done neat in a glencairn and rated it a solid meh. Nothing wrong with it, but not for me. As I wrote this, I revisited it in a small brandy snifter that I picked up at Jim Beam, of all places. After trying it again and trying it with just a few drops of water, I’m upgrading it to a like. For me, the spirit flavor was accentuating the wrong portions of the dried fruit forward parts of the drink while in the glencairn. In the snifter and after adding a little water, I found that I was actually enjoying the dried apple notes. It also makes a better Old Fashioned than many of the bourbons I’ve had. I used brown sugar and aromatic bitters.

*Not always cheaper. 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.

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!

Blog

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

Korbel 12 Year Old California Brandy

My 5 Worst American Whiskies

Dis-Honorable Mentions

Canadian Club 100 proof Export Strength

Berneroy XO Calvados

Forty Creek: Three Grain Harmony 2015