Head-to-Head-to-Head Review of Bourbon from the Barton 1792 Distillery

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I am a cheap bastard. I listen to my music on Spotify (the free account) instead of buying it. I take a sandwich for lunch everyday. I don't go to the movies every month, or even every six. I drove my last car until I was spending almost as much on repairs as I would on a car payment. I drink bourbon and I like bourbon that is under $20 per liter. 

That doesn't mean I won't spend more on a good bottle. I spent $100 on one just a couple weeks ago. I'll spend money if it is deserved. I go to movies that will benefit from the big screen and big sound. When I bought a car, I bought one with all the electronics you could ask for. I buy those few albums that I know I'll be listening to in a few years. I try to buy my dinner hot and pre-made once every couple of weeks, even if it is just delivery. 

If you wanted, you could probably call me "frugal," but I tend to be a bit more plain spoken than that. And besides, cheap doesn't offend me. Cheap means something is worth more than it costs. I love cheap. Cheap is your rough-around-the-edges uncle. Frugal is that quiet chap in your office who seems just a bit stuck up. Cheap is fun. Frugal you are afraid of offending. You don't worry about cheap. Cheap can take care of itself. 

And that is why I picked two of the bourbons I did for tonight's tasting. If you were being nice, you could call them inexpensive. Or a good value. But let's not start mincing words now. These are two cheap bourbons. Even the most expensive of the two is under $25 for a 1.75 L at the Party Source. But, that said, I made a special point of searching these out the last time I was in Kentucky. Everything I read, said that they are a well kept secret in the Bluegrass State and that they are much better than the price tag suggests.

So last time I was there, I picked up a liter of 86 proof Very Old Barton and a 200 mL of the 100 proof version for comparison. Tonight, because it is made at the same distillery and because I prefer a three way double blind, I threw in a pour of my Liquor Barn Selected1792 Ridgemont Reserve as well (second series #5 according to the label). 

Each of these pours was really hot on the nose initially. Just overpowering with alcohol. So in an unusual move, I let them sit for five minutes before coming back to them.

Whiskey A

Nose: First thing I'm hit with is dried corn sitting in a silo. After a while it shows some floral and sweet scents. After a couple sips I could swear someone is baking sweet cornbread in the glass.

Mouth: This disappoints. It's all harsh alcohol on the tongue tip and stays hot as you swallow. It does sweeten some as it moves back in the mouth though.

Finish: warm and peppery. This one definately leaves a tingle that lasts for a while.

Thoughts: This one is so hot that I'd drink it with a couple ice cubes or some water, but even then it wouldn't be my first choice. It's not bad, but not great. It's just meh.

Whiskey B

Nose: Strange as it sounds, the first thing I'm struck with is chocolate milk. But then moving into the smell of silage. Finally landing on sweet brown sugar. 

Mouth: Sweet at the tip of the tongue, but becomes a bit peppery as it moves back in the mouth. Adding a bit of water mutes the pepper and allows some of the wood to show itself.

Finish: This leaves you with all the stereotypical bourbon flavors. Caramel vanilla and oak. It's nice.

Thoughts: This is certainly more interesting to me than A was. Whiskey A was all about the heat. This is a bit more nuanced. That said, it's still just sort of...there. It'll do in a pinch, but also wouldn't be my first choice.

Whiskey C

Nose: This starts just a bit sour. But that fades. You are left with wood and brown sugar.

Mouth: This is very gentle on entry. Sweet with a mild pepper. It's almost cooling after the other two.

Finish: Very quick finish. There is a lot of vanilla along with a hint of dryness.

Thoughts: This is easy drinking to the point of being boring. And that's why I like it. I'd reach for this while playing cards or having an animated conversation with a close friend. Something where I don't want to think about my whiskey, I just want to drink it and enjoy what's going on around me.

So which is which? Well, I was sort of surprised to find out that I had ranked them in inverse order to their price. I liked the 86 proof Very Old Barton the most (C),  the 1792 the least (A) and the 100 proof Very Old Barton landed in the middle (B).

Keep in mind that this is not the regular release of 1792 so your milage may vary. This one may very well have been chosen for it's heat. I have tasted it side by side with the regular release and I didn't notice much of a difference, but you never know.

#DavinTT Week 2

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So. Sunday was week two of the #DavinTT on twitter. Did you make it? Did you go buy the book, read up and ask a question? Did you at least follow along? I hope you did, I had a blast.

As with last week we spent the first half hour or so asking questions of Davin de Kergommeaux. He did his best to answer them all. And even though I read the book (parts of it twice) I still learned something. The beauty of this type of group discussion is that the information that is in the book inspires different thoughts in each of us. And so some people ask questions that I hadn't even thought to ask and I might ask questions that others hadn't thought of. It's kind of like tasting whisky in that manner since we are all informed as much by our own experiences as by the info that was presented to us.

After about a half hour or so our hostess, Johanne McInnis of the blog: The Perfect Whisky Match called those of us lucky enough to have been included in the samples down to the business of discovering what the little bottle I've shown above held. 

Mystery Whisky 2

Color: I don't often comment on color, but this one was really pretty. A bit more red in it than the various Amber tones I'm used to.

Nose: At first all I got was sweetness and rubber. Almost like a Sharpie marker, but not quite. After a little longer I discovered a bit of a sulfur smell in there. And then after those settled down a bit there was a bit of maple. We had a discussion online as to if it were a vanilla or a maple, but to me it went more maple-ish. 

If you're a bourbon person like me, these scents are going to sound really odd. But as strange as they sound, they do not come across as unpleasant, just different. It was a very interesting nose. 

Mouth: This one starts very sweet. But then it takes a left turn into a definite sourness followed by molasses. It was odd. Had an off flavor that I didn't find pleasant. 

Finish: Bitter tannins and spice fading into lingering molasses. 

Overall: This is not a bad whiskey. I don't  think something went wrong or it was not well done. It isn't terrible. But it isn't to my tastes. For me, it's just meh. 

So what is it? This week we tasted Alberta Premium Dark Horse. This is a very different whisky than last week. I'm noticing that there are many facets to Canadian whisky. I find that very exciting and can't wait for next week.

If you missed Sunday's tasting, search for the the twitter hashtag #DavinTT to get caught up. And please make sure you follow along each Sunday at 2 pm Central time between now and May 26th using that same hashtag to live vicariously though us as we expand our knowledge and palates.

Review: Henry McKenna Single Barrel Bottled in Bond

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I bought this a while back. Probably about a year or so ago, maybe a bit longer. I'll be honest. I bought it for the bottle. It's looks a bit like it was designed as a school project. And I loved it for it. Visible hot glue, a copper neck tag that looks hand wrapped and a hand written ID tag with the barrel number and barreling date.  It just adds to the craftiness of it all. And it would have sat there just looking all crafty-cool if I hadn't taken the behind the scenes tour at the Heaven Hill distillery last September and learned a little nugget of info that sparked my curiosity. 

We were being given one hell of a cool tour and our guide was telling us a little about aging. He told us that, obviously, Heaven Hill ages their barrels all over the place. Now there are some of these barrels that end up on the sunny side of a hill (I think he mentioned this facility was up by Louisville, but that was 6 months or so ago, I might be misremembering that part). Now according to the guide, these barrels age to be a bit harsher than those barrels that are destined to become the flagship Evan Williams. But that, in a odd quirk of fate, because there are fewer of these barrels you will actually pay more for a bottle of Henry McKenna than you would for the "better" Evan Williams. 

How much of that is true? Probably some of it, but it's a good story so I'll let any embellishment slide. I'm a firm believer in not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. But it did spark my interest. I wanted to see if this Bottled in Bond version followed those same themes. And now that I've emptied it, this is my last chance to share my findings.

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Nose: At first this is all caramel and heat. Damn near fried my nose. After letting it sit for a bit, it settles into brown sugar and cherry with just the tiniest hint of smoke

Mouth: FIRE! This is a hot one! It's just a big bucket of burn. Adding a little water calms it down a bit, allowing it to show it's sweet side.

Finish: What do you know? There's a hot finish too. After the heat fades it brings back a bit of the cherry and some bitterness that dries the mouth.

Thoughts: I like this more for the story and the bottle that it's in, than for what's inside it. Everything about this one is hot. Might be nice on a cold winter's night, but it's (finally) showing signs of spring here and it's not to my tastes right now. A small piece of ice does help to tame it though. For the time and place I'm in right now, I'm going with meh. But if you like hot bourbons that can bring the burn, this one might be just for you.

UPDATE: Do you not agree with this review? Well, guess what after four and a half years, I didn't either and I decided to revisit it. Check out the current review here. 

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Double Blind Review: 3 Unrelated Ryes

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I recently realized I had about one pour left of two different rye whiskies. I needed the shelf space so I poured them into small bottles and stuck them onto one of my shelves. They sat there for a while. 

A long while.  

I like rye. But unless it is amazing, I normally put it into a cocktail. A sazerac or a manhattan made with a decent rye whiskey is one of the best things that a person can imbibe. I'd had both of those in cocktails and neat. I mostly preferred them in a cocktail. But I like rye. And these two had only one pour left. If I was going to review them, I was going to have to not put them into a cocktail. I was going to have to put them into a glass all by themselves and think about them. 

Cocktails are good. They do not tend to lend themselves to the contemplative tasting. But that's part of their charm. They taste good. And that's their purpose. A bad whiskey can be interesting, a bad cocktail needs to be dumped out. 

So here is a double blind tasting of those two ryes that I normally used in cocktails and another that I felt belonged since I like three way tastings way better than two... 

So there. 

I started in the usual double blind fashion of pouring and then letting my wife mix them up. I knew which whiskey equaled which number, she knew which number equaled which letter and neither of us knew what was in any of the glasses.

Rye A:

Nose: Honey, slightly soapy. Hints of grass follow.

Mouth: Sweet up front, mint and grass follows

Finish: This is a hot one. There's a tingle through the entire mouth. It fades into a bitter citrus pith in the throat.

Overall: I like this, but I'm not sure this is something I would drink alone. It hits all the notes I want a rye to hit, but it isn't one that I'd go to neat on a regular basis. 

Rye B: 

Nose: Sweet. Butterscotch with a hint of baking spice

Mouth: Soft is the best word I can use. This is a sweet one. 

Finish: Minty cool plus heat. This is the Icy-Hot of finishes. But it fades pretty quick. 

Overall: I loved the mouthfeel of this one. There was an elegant softness that I wasn't expecting. I know that two of these are 100 proof or over and one is 80. So I'm guessing this  is one of those. I don't care. I think I'm in love.

Rye C:

Nose: Fresh mown hay, then a hint of banana and mint.

Mouth: Thin. There isn't a lot of flavor here. Sweet and spice with a hint of bitter, but you gotta search for it.  

Finish: Finish is where this brings its game. It fades from the sweet into a bitter spice. There isn't a lot of heat, but this leaves a tingle.  

Overall: Standing on it's own, this is a meh. I wouldn't put it into a glass, but if I was at a bar I wouldn't turn it down depending on what else was back there. It's really just ok.  

So what was what? You can see which three were being reviewed in the image above. So I'm just going to spill it. A was Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond. B was Wild Turkey 101 proof. C was Old Overholt. I was a little surprised at how much I liked the Wild Turkey, because none of these are very expensive. If you can find Wild Turkey Rye 101, it's pretty reasonable. Rittenhouse is under $25 and Old Overholt was bought for like $11 or so. Not really surprised that they ended up where they did. 

My wife checked my work tonight. She thought I was mostly right, but when she tasted the Rittenhouse she proclaimed: "ooh. I don't like this." Since she doesn't actually like rye neat, I wouldn't take that too hard if I were them.

Well, now I'm off to pour what's left together and make the world's most strangely concocted manhattan.  Well, as far as the whiskey is concerned. The manhattan will follow my standard recipe. 

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.

Another empty: Corner Creek Reserve

What's this? Two posts in a single week? That...well...that just doesn't happen. Does it? Well it should. And this week it does. Do you remember how earlier this week I was baking a ham? While making the ham I just so happened to empty a bottle that had been sitting on my shelf for a long time.

It was Corner Creek Reserve, or as I heard it described in a liquor store once: the "one that comes in a wine bottle." When I bought this, it was on sale. I was a bit leary (it is in a wine bottle after all), but it's hard to pass up buy one get one free bourbon. I think I paid $26 for the pair.

...time passes while Eric stares at the screen...

So here's the thing, I am finding it extremly hard to write about this BOGO bourbon because it is extremely unremarkable. It doesn't come in a pretty bottle. It's not bad, but it's certainly not good. It's just...ok. I've had it as both the first, the last and the only drink of the night. The only time I wasn't disappointed was when there was nothing to compare it to. 

So I cooked with it. But only when it was melding with other flavors, never when it was the featured flavor.

I last tasted this over a year ago. (Taste, not drink. I've had it quite often over the course of the last year or so.) But I wrote the following tasting notes over a year ago and they are weird. I'd have redone them, but I kept forgetting I had it...and when I did remember, I really didn't want to drink it. In fact, the BOGO bourbon was normally the threat I used on my wife when we couldn't decide or she said "I don't care."

Nose: Butterscotch, black pepper and wheat bread, after I while I could swear I was picking up some banana and maybe cedar wood.

Taste: butterscotch and corn sweetness with cinamon spice. I've written down choclate milk, but I'm guessing that meant a sweet lactic flavor in the back of my throat, not actual chocolate milk.

Finish: This had a thick, oily finish. Sweet and a little spicy.

I will fully admit that this is just my opinion, but this one did nothing for me. It wasn't good or bad. It was interesting, but in the way old people mean when they are too polite to say that they don't understand the weird kid in front of them. For me, this is just a meh. To be honest, I'm kinda glad it's gone. One less thing to take up shelf space.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Maker's Mark Distillery tour

After visiting Independent Stave we stopped off at Maker's Mark since it was on the way back to Bardstown and we wanted to get our passport stamped. We weren't planning on taking a tour, since we'd already been on the tour last April. But when a cheerful person asks me if I want a tour when I walk up, I automatically say yes. Much of the tour was the same, so we mostly just took the opportunity to take a lot of pictures. 

Entrance Sign at Maker's Mark

The Maker's Mark campus is beautiful

Almost all of the building on campus are black with red shutters

Even the more industrial looking items and buildings follow the branded look of the campus.

The inside of the buildings are showpieces too. This is a mash cooker and too highly polished copper tanks.

Fermentation tanks with the logo on the wall behind them.

I found this bottle labeling machine fascinating.

These bottles have just been dipped and are going into a chamber to set the wax.

The new tasting rooms are a major improvement. And they are also beautiful with very nice artwork.

We tasted unaged, regular Maker's Mark, "Over Matured" Maker's Mark and Maker's 46

After the tasting, you can visit the gift shop and have the opportunity to buy a souvenir bottle and dip it yourself. Robin took that opportunity.

This is probably my least favorite distillery tour. It is very pretty, very highly polished, but I felt that it was much more about style than it was about substance. We visited an aging warehouse, but it was empty. We had a tasting of a product (the "Over Matured) that the tour guide claimed was only made so that they could make sure that the stuff they've been making is good. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm not sure if there was a mistake somewhere or if they're doing extra market research. Either one would make more sense.

If you don't know anything about bourbon or never developed a taste for it, this is the one I would recommend because it will make you want to drink Maker's which will make you curious about other bourbons and bring you into the fold. But for me, this tour only rates a meh.

MB Roland X-Barrel Experimental Series: Black Dog Bourbon

Since I owe my love of whiskey to these guys, I thought it only appropriate that my first review is of one of their products. One of the things I like about Paul (@MBRDISTILLERY on twitter) is that he is honest. He's not going to give you some bullshit story about how wonderful an experimental product is. In fact when he poured me a tasting of this at the distillery's tasting room. He warned me it wasn't his favorite. But he got a look on his face as he tried it with us that said he was maybe rethinking that statement. And then he told me that a little time oxidizing in an open bottle had done it some good. This is why I've put off reviewing this (yes, I have plenty of notes even if I haven't shared them with anyone yet). I tried it right away and it wasn't very good. I've left it on the shelf only taking a little here and there to see if it has improved. It's been 6 months or so and I'd say it's as ready to drink as it will be. 

So here's how Paul explained this product to me. He lives in tobacco country so he took some of the corn he was going to turn into distillate and put it in a tobacco barn to fire it along with the tobacco. (He sold the resulting new make as Black Dog Corn Whiskey.) And, boy, the smoke comes along to the party. If you drink it neat, it's a bit like licking an ashtray on the finish. That's why I don't drink it neat. I like to use a splash of it in an Old Fashioned.

Alright so I'd experienced this Black Dog as new make, I'd found a use for it and I'd liked it in that one use. So, when I got the opportunity to try an aged version, I was stoked. Not because I particularly liked the non-aged version, but because it was new and completely interesting. And it is interesting. But only for folks who are really interested in something different.

Nose: a smokey honey BBQ sauce

Taste: Chipotle, even more bbq sauce. The sweet and zesty kind, not the vinegar kind

Finish: Wood smoked honey with just a hint of sea air. I have a feeling I'll be burping this one up later.

Notes: This product is all about smoke. Not very balanced, just sweet and smokey. I'd like to try this with a burger to see how it holds up. I have a feeling it would complement it very well.

Rating: I like this just because it is so different, but for general audiences:

 meh.