You know. I’ve been doing bracket type competitions for a long time. This is the eighth contest in seven years. You wouldn’t have thought that it would take a comment on the last post to make me realize that I could do all these rounds at once and have a completely blind competition. But it did. I started these as a way to try cheap bourbons that I hadn’t had before so I really didn’t have any preconceived notions about any of them. As I’ve included more and more bourbons that I’d had before, I guess it never dawned on me to change the way I run these.
Until now. Starting with the competitors in this post, this is not just a blind matchup of two known bourbons but is instead a completely blind competition. So what changes got made? Well, the main one was instituting another layer of blindness to the competition.
I poured 200mL of each contestant into a sample bottle. I labeled each sample bottle with a 10 digit random code. (10 digits so it was just a garbage thing that my brain wouldn’t try to remember on the off chance I saw the bottle)
I made a bracket that just had codes on it for my wife (she doesn’t pay attention to the brackets as we do this, she just tastes what is put in front of her). This way she knew which codes go against each other, but not what those codes represent.
She then takes that bracket and chooses any of the contests that are available and pours us each a 1-ounce sample of each contestant. She places those samples on our tasting pads and leaves the room after recording in a notebook what code was placed on which letter.
The tasting pads have four circles on them, labeled 1, 2, A, and B respectively. After she leaves the room, I choose whether to move number 1 to letter A or letter B (and then the other goes to remaining circle) and make a note of which bourbon I moved to which circle.
She then reenters and if all has gone as planned neither of us knows what is in our glass beyond narrowing it down to one of the 10 remaining bourbons in the contest.
Then over the course of Friday night through Monday night, we tasted the rest of the competition and … well, let’s just say we were amazed at some of the results when we had zero preconceived notions.
Now let’s get to it.
Wild Turkey 101 vs. Four Roses Single Barrel
Whiskey 1 (Wild Turkey)
Nose: Mint, Big Red cinnamon gum, vanilla, caramel, almond
Mouth: Warm and spicy. Notes of mint, dried grains, and oak
Finish: On the longer side of medium and warm. Dusty grains and vanilla
Whiskey 2 (Four Roses)
Nose: Nutmeg, cinnamon, raisin, and a slight antiseptic note.
Mouth: Spicy with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, leather, mint and dried fruit
Finish: Medium length and sweet. Notes of dark chocolate, ripe fruit, brown sugar, and baking spice
Pre-Reveal Thoughts:
If we had chosen based just on the nose, # 1 would have been a clear winner. As a whole though, #2 is much more complex and enjoyable. I'd take a glass of either though. # 2 wins.
Reveal: So there goes the King of the Bottom-Shelf Brackets. Its first crack at the more expensive competition and DOWN GOES TURKEY! Four Roses Single Barrel advances.
Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond vs. JW Dant Bottled in Bond
Whiskey 1 (McKenna)
Nose: Cinnamon, mint, lots of oak
Mouth: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, oak
Finish: Medium with lasting warmth. Dusty oak, ripe red fruits, and baking spice.
Whiskey 2 (Dant)
Nose: Caramel corn, cinnamon
Mouth: Butterscotch, cinnamon, dried grains, vanilla, caramel
Finish: Medium and warm. Lingering Butterscotch and dried grains.
Pre-Reveal Thoughts:
Not to knock #2, but #1 is just so much better. #2 is just sweet and heat. Nice in a glass when watching tv or to sip before bed. But #1 is much more complex and interesting. #1 wins.
Reveal: Well, I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond is more than twice the age and over twice the price. It should have won. And it did Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond advances.
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