An Empty: Parker's Heritage Collection, Barrel Finished

So yes, I realize that this isn't an empty bottle in this photo. But, I guarantee you this, by the time I finish this blog post it will be sitting in two glasses, ready to be enjoyed by my wife and I. So I call it close enough. 

I bought this bottle on a whim. At the time I liked to dole out my monthly whiskey money over the course of a couple weeks. And over the course of a couple of bottles. But I thought to myself: "20 bourbons is a lot, I've got enough bottles on hand. I'm going to buy myself something nice"

Apparently I thought that way for approximately a month since I'm sitting somewhere north of 45 right now. But to be fair, a lot of them are "nice."

And this was the one I picked up. I distinctly remember buying this bottle because I remember the nod the clerk behind the counter gave me as he looked at the bottle. Was it admiration? Awe? Lust? Wonder...that anyone would pay $80 for a bourbon (yes, sometimes the stores I frequent are more of the beer-run variety). In any case, I took it to mean I had something special on my hands.

After bringing it home, I realized...it was ok. Not blow your socks off good, but fine. My wife didn't like it. She just gave me a look that said: "Really? $80? Gone just like that, huh?" Needless to say, as we revisited it, we've both changed our opinions of this one. This is one damn fine whiskey.

Color: This one is a deep reddish amber.

Nose: Carmel apples, cola and baking spice.

Taste: Initially sweet, think toffee or honey. There's more spice, this is a hot one.

Finish: I found that this had a sweet finish that faded to a mouth puckering dryness as time went on.

So, yes. I love this whiskey. I bought it on an excited whim and was initially disappointed. I don't know if I just wasn't feeling it that day. It was my first "finished bourbon' maybe my palette just wasn't ready for it. As I spent more time with it, I grew to love it more and more. And since my local stores are out of it, I will miss it. But there's always a new one to try so I won't miss it for too long.

Through My Eyes: The Kentucky Bourbon Festival 2012

Me (grinning like a happy fool) and Four Roses Master Distiller, Jim RutledgeIf you've been reading for the last month, you'll know that I spent a week in visiting Kentucky in early September. (And yet I've been able to get a month's worth of blog posts out of that one week, weird.) I've been writing about visiting the distilleries. Those are the sexy topics that might get blog traffic when people search, but honestly I didn't go to Kentucky primarily to visit distilleries. I chose that week for one particular reason. That was the week of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, KY.  

It was my second time in Bardstown. Last time I was there I stayed right in Bardstown. I like Bardstown, but I don't want to stay there overnight again. It's a small town, everything closes at 5 pm and if you are staying there you can go to one of a handful of bars or watch tv in your hotel room. Sadly I did both on my first trip there.

I'd never been to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival (KBF) before this. But, I kind of gathered from the reading I did ahead of time that things wouldn't be too far off from my first visit. At least not until the festival started. The grounds opened on Friday afternoon and I was going to be there starting Sunday. So I wasn't going to be staying in Bardstown. I stayed in Shepherdsville, KY, a town about a half hour toward Louisville from Bardstown. This was the best decision I made because it also meant I was only a half hour or so from downtown Louisville. And I found enough night life there to keep me from being bored on a Wednesday night. I was on vacation after all.

So the KBF itself was basically a small town festival with a few ticketed bourbon themed events. And honestly, I grew up in a small town. I love that about it. They took the typical beer garden and replaced it with a spirit garden. They took out the silly rides and replaced it with a bunch of bourbon or Kentucky themed t-shirt shops or local product booths. Love that. But other than that, if you picture a small town festival in a park you'll be really close. There are food trucks, there's a fenced off place to drink and exhibits. I spent an entire evening just sitting on a bench outside the Wild Turkey booth watching people go by. It was nice. 

But the ticketed events were where we had the most fun as first timers. I hear if you're a repeat visitor you have a few unofficial events that the same people go to and see the same people who they consider friends. I didn't have that so paid the money and I went to some of the ticketed events. I went to the All-Star Sampler, Let's Talk Bourbon, and the Bourbon Cocktail Mixology class. Most were fun and I'd go again, one in particular I would not. So let's dig into them a little.

The Kentucky Bourbon All-Star Sampler

Little groups of people chatting and eating and drinking at the Kentucky Bourbon All-Star Sampler™

This was such a fun event. It was held in what looked to be an industrial park on the north side of Bardstown. Inside a very large open building all the members of the KDA set up booths. From Jim Beam and Wild Turkey to little guys like Town Branch and my good friends MB Roland. They provide a nice spread of hors d'oeuvres. A bag to put things in and let you loose to talk to the distilleries. Or at least the employees of them. The micros mostly had the distillers on hand for you to talk to. Four Roses and Wild Turkey had Jim Rutledge and Jimmy Russell respectively. And then the best part—they all give out samples. Heaven Hill and Makers Mark gave out very nice glasses that now sit on my shelf. Woodford Reserve donated the money they were going to spend on glasses to charity. Others had disposable logo glasses or not as they wanted. 

I loved this event. It was so much fun. My wife got her photo taken with Jimmy Russell. I got my photo taken with Jim Rutledge. My buddy from MB Roland got interviewed by BourbonBlog. Heck, I got interviewed by BourbonBlog (though another lady threw me by hijacking the interview and I was drinking...sigh). There was a good sized group of people in attendance, but because it was a big space and there were a limited number of tickets sold, it felt intimate. I would totally go back, but if you go to this, remember there are 6 big guys and around that number small guys, and they all give samples...arrange a driver. Please.

Let's Talk Bourbon

This was held in a tent in the parking lot. But was so fun I had forgotten that until I saw the photos.

Oh my god! If you love bourbon, have a car and only can choose one event—make it this one. This is a very nice breakfast. Then there is a seminar on bourbon making by Four Roses Master Distiller Jim Rutledge. I've read a lot about making whiskey and I still learned so much. I was in the front row, taking notes and loving every minute of it. After (and during) the talk, Jim took questions from the audience. Everything from simple questions from novices to more in depth questions from those who had more knowledge. And all of them were answered in the same honest and earnest way. None were deemed too simple. 

After breakfast, the seminar and the questions, there was a tour. It was a bit rushed because of the sheer number of groups they were trying to get through, but still fun. After that (or during if you didn't take a tour) was a social gathering with cocktails and samples. We met new friends and found others in person for the first time. It really was so much fun. I can't say enough. But I run the risk of rambling because even though it was the best event, it was also the simplest. 

Bourbon Cocktail Mixology

The samples and nibbles for provided at the cocktail mixology class. They're arranged pretty.This was the class I was most excited about before I left my house. It's described as a way to learn why certain ingredients bring out the flavors of bourbon. I didn't learn any of that. I learned that Joy Perrine was very entertaining. I tasted about a dozen cocktails. All well made, some to my tastes, some not so much. I got a free autographed copy of her book. Which was nice. But it was not what was described to me. It's an expensive ticket. 

I would have been really happy with this if it were half the price and the description were worded a bit more accurately. But as it stands, I wouldn't go back. I'd drop the $15 on the book on Amazon and skip the event.

Joy Perrine and the cocktails she made during the Bourbon Cocktail Mixology™ class.

So what were the highlights that you can only see during the KBF? The exhibits were cool. The people watching were cool. The ticketed events were mostly cool. The Angel's Envy pop-up bar was cool. I actually enjoyed the BBQ from one of the food trucks. (I went back twice.) I enjoyed the crowds. I enjoyed the live music. I enjoyed meeting with friends, old and new.

What were the misses? I couldn't find the spirit garden (it was hidden behind the food trucks in a baseball field). I had the most fun in Louisville, not Bardstown. I enjoyed the distilleries much more than the festival itself. While I enjoyed the barrel rolling and the cooper demonstration, I didn't understand one and had the same demonstration while at a free tour at the cooperage for the other. Lodging in Bardstown is expensive, but that's to be expected.

Overall the positives outweigh the negatives. I might not go back next year, but I will certainly go back in years after that. I had so much fun. If you haven't gone, I recommend it. If you have, you already have your own ideas, but I still recommend it.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Barton 1792 distillery tour

Enjoying a 86 proof Very Old Barton while I write this. It just seemed appropriate.

Storage tank on top of the buildings at 1792

It was Wednesday. We were up early. We had to be on the road to get to Bardstown by 9 am in order to get on the first tour of the day at Barton. We had a lot planned today and needed to get this tour out of the way early. 

That's how I thought of it. "Get it out of the way." Well, before I went on it I thought of it that way. 

Barton was a hold over from my first trip to Kentucky. They started offering tours one week after I had left that last time. Made me sick because I ended up driving past it two or more times on that trip and each time I was disappointed. To say it was on the list was an understatement. It was the first thing to get put on the list this time around. Not that I was expecting a lot. I mean, I didn't really drink anything that was made there. It was curiosity, really, nothing more. 

We walked into the gift shop just a little before 9 am. We get on the first tour and we browse around the shop a little bit. I've got my eye on a couple things I plan to check out a bit later when an older gentleman in a logo'd polo and khaki shorts—Don—walks out and asks who's on the tour. Robin and I said we were and expected that the other two people in the shop would as well, but they didn't. 

This means another "private" tour. I love those.

As we walk out of the gift shop, Don asks if we'd been on any other distillery tours. We admitted that we'd been on about 4 already that week and seven on our previous trip and that we'd been to Independent Stave as well. At this point, he jokingly asks if we'd like to switch roles because we've obviously done this more times than him. I admit it, I thought about it. Briefly. As we walk across the parking lot and over to the first stop Don fills us in on the history of the plant, the company, and a little about what it's like to live so close to the distillery. It turns out he lives just up the hill. 

Black painted Barton aging warehouse

The aging warehouse isn't much to look at on the outside. Like, Maker's it is black with red trim. It looks nice, such as it is. It looks better than it would if it were white and covered in fungus. And Don admits that was the reasoning behind painting it. I wonder what that does for the whiskey aging inside since it'll draw a lot more heat that way.

One of many very beautiful and dramatic photos we got inside the Barton aging warehouse.

On the inside it's different. It doesn't look that much different than other rick houses. Thick wooden beams. Barrels filled with wonderful whiskey. A smell that makes you want to stay there forever. But they all have that. No the difference is subtle. It's in the lighting. It's more dramatic. Certainly more photogenic. We took some that make me want to weep they are so pretty. We wander in there for a little while, learning about things like the elevator shaft and a strange device called a mule (a device which it seems no one working there will either confirm nor deny the existence of to him). 

After the warehouse we walk over to the still house. This is one damn big still. Don explains a little about it, but what he is better at is telling stories. Don reminds me of my grandfather in some ways. Except that after one of my grandfather's stories, I was never poured a whiskey. 

One big damn still

Don's stories about the still being done, we head over to the bottling area. They weren't bottling bourbon that morning, but we get to wander around with him as he talks about various things that are happening on the line and of course more stories he is reminded of as we walk by things. Stories like one about a former tour patron explaining that he and his friends used to drink Ten High and still would occasionally say "Ten High: for when it doesn't matter." A statement which Don quietly said he very much agreed with as it's not very good.

The view from the gift shop door.

Then it was back to the gift shop for a tasting. We tried Very Old Barton 86 proof and 1792 Ridgemont Reserve. As a nice gesture to those who like such things, they also had them available chilled in case you were the type who liked it that way. I wasn't but I appreciated the gesture. Oddly in a head to head, I liked the Very Old Barton better. If it were available in MN, I'd save myself a bunch of money with that realization. As it stands though, that knowledge does me no good.

I loved this tour. I was amazed at the photogenic-ness of the warehouse, the size of the still. But I will fully admit that it might just be that I loved the tour guide. Don was awesome. I would do this again in a heart beat.

I can't forget the world's largest whiskey barrel. Can I? Near a visitor picnic area, the only one I saw at a distillery.

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Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Heaven Hill Behind the Scenes tour

I'm having a little Evan Williams 1783 while I write this. Thought it was fitting to have a Heaven Hill product I'd never had before while writing about my visit to their facility.

This is my second tale of a visit to Heaven Hill. I was not impressed by the first visit, tour ticket mishaps and what-not. You can go back and read that one if you want, it's well written but not very flattering.

This tale begins well before I went to Kentucky. If you went back and read about my previous trip to Heaven Hill, you'll know that I was pretty upset. I almost didn't go back other than to get my passport stamped. A few months ago (4-6 or so?, might have been) I visited the Heaven Hill website to check on something or another. Seeing if a brand was theirs or something. I was rooting around the site, as you do, when I saw a link to the Bourbon Heritage Center site. On a whim I clicked the link so I could relive that sweet little worm of a memory of my disappointment. You know so I could really remember how much I didn't like it.

The site had been redone. It was actually really nice looking. Stupid good looking site. I clicked on the view our tours link, and then on the Book a Tour link. Everything was really slick. I was impressed. So much so, that before I knew it I was inputting my credit card info into the slick little form and buying tickets for the Behind the Scenes tour for both my wife and I. 

Stupid good looking and slick form...

Ok fast-forward to the day of the tour. I'm a bit nervous, as you might expect. But there was no need. I walked in, the lady behind the little desk greeted us warmly, asked what we were there for, checked us in and gave us our little stickers. We were in. 

Fred, our tour guide got the two of us set up in the movie theater. (Yes, it was just the two of us, I know, right? how awesome!) I described the movie in the last post, it hadn't changed. I was right though, with a better outlook it, I did like it. After the movie we walked out, got into a van, and drove across the parking lot. 

Did I tell you Fred was old? Well, he is. And he's a retired school teacher. Which means that he was completely full of the ol' knowledge.

So we got out of the van at the barrel filling building. This was an impressive process. There was one person working the filling machines in there, one unloading the truck holding the empty barrels, one loading the full one into another truck and some quality assurance people behind the scenes. That's it. Everything was controlled by hydraulic activators. Everything. It was like a mad genius who hated computers put this thing together. It was awesome!

Barrel filling by mad-genius machine

After the barrel filling room we went to the warehouse. This was part of our previous tour. It was still good. I loved it. The smell of a bourbon aging warehouse is unbelievable. Old wood, evaporating bourbon, dust and sunshine. I could have stood there all day just smelling.

This barrel was filled on Dec 7, 2010 (number of letter in alphabet=number of month in year, A=January, B=February, etc)But I didn't. Out we went and piled back into the van. Next stop was the barrel extraction room. Now I have to call it this, other places will call it the dump house or something similar, in fact Heaven Hill did too. But there was no dumping. Instead another mad genius hydraulic system bought full barrels to be vacu-sucked empty. I'm sure there is a very good reason for the vacu-sucking. I didn't ask. They didn't say.

Vacu-suck extraction of bourbon

Next stop was the bottling line. Compared to Four Roses, this was massive. Like, that took up a corner and this took up somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-4 giant rooms. It was huge. They had a bunch of lines. Almost all of them were down or filling something other than bourbon, but by this time, we didn't care. This was an amazing tour. Totally worth the $25.

But it wasn't done. Oh no. A van ride back to the Heritage Center and we walked into the large barrel shaped tasting room. Fred was on his game. He knew we were bourbon drinkers, and didn't bother with the entire how to taste presentation we got last time. No we just got down to business. He offered us about 5-6 different bourbons to choose from. My wife chose the 20 year and 21 year Elijah Craig. I took the new Larceny and the Elijah Craig 12 year (but a higher proof one than I can get at home). Needless to say, we each also tasted each others. I wasn't going to let that kind of old bourbon go by without at least a sip.

And then it was done. We each got a souvenir pin, a signed certificate, and an invitation to the gift shop. All of which I appreciated greatly.

So, yes, I loved this tour. My attitude has flipped 180 degrees. I will now recommend the Behind the Scenes tour to anyone who will ask. Or in this case, to an entire internet who didn't ask. It was great. Fred was awesome. I'd say he's tied with Terry at Four Roses and maybe one other for best tour guide we had. I loved hanging out with him and chatting. What was going on around us was just gravy. Very tasty and informative gravy.

Kentucky Bourbon Trail: Four Roses Warehouse tour

It was around 10 am when we rolled into the Four Roses Cox's Creek Warehouse and Bottling facility. You stop at the guard house which is shaped like a large barrel. The guard comes out, you sign your name to the visitor register, they open the gate, and invite you to drive down to the gift shop. 

It's a nice drive. It's at the back of the property so you get to drive past a good number of their single story warehouses. By the time we got back to the stone house which houses the gift shop (we'd stopped/slowed down to take photos) our tour guide was outside waiting for us. Looking at my wife, he smiled "You must be Robin," he said. (I think he knew her name because we had scheduled a tour way back when they still required that.) We introduced ourselves. His name was Terry. We chatted a bit as Terry walked us over to the van that was going to drive us around the property. We got inside and he drove us to the first stop.

As we exited the van at the dumping and bottling building, he warned us that there are cattle roaming the property and to be sure we watched where we stepped since they often leave evidence of their visit. Reminded me of the pastures I snuck into as a child so I had no problem with that. 

Empty barrels waiting to be shipped off to Canada

When we got into the building, Terry gave us a brief run-down on the equipment that we were walking past. It was the barrel filling stations. As we walked across the room to the barrel dumping station (yes, they were in the same room) he explained how the tanker trucks bring in the new make and where things are unloaded. All I could think was that all that tasty bourbon goes through that one room twice. And I was standing in it! 

When we got to the dumping station Terry gave us a quick explanation of how they take out the bung, put in the breather and dump it in the trough in the floor. And then he did something amazing. He asked us if we wanted to try some from the barrel in front of us! Even though it was maybe 10:15 am, of course we said yes. He tipped the barrel and poured us each a quick sample and told us this was destined to become part of a batch of Four Roses Small Batch. I probably don't have to tell you, but I will anyway. Even though it was in a little plastic cup, that might have been the tastiest bourbon I'd ever had. The experience of tasting my favorite bourbon straight from the barrel? I'd have been happy if the tour had ended there.

Barrel with breather in it ready to be dumped. I tasted out of this barrel

But it didn't. We looked at the filtering system and then walked through a door and into the shipping area. We saw another filtering system for the yellow label and then entered the bottling area. 

I was shocked at just how small the bottling area was. We got to walk up to the line in various areas. Close enough to touch things, though that might have gotten us hurt and probably escorted off the premises. But in any case close enough to see exactly how everything worked. We said hi to a couple of the people putting the labels on and the guy running the capping machine. There were maybe 8 people in there. 

Bottle filling machine filling Yellow Label

After taking a bunch of photos, we went back the van and rode to one of the warehouses. Terry explained a lot to us while in there. Things like: Four Roses ages in single story warehouses to minimize temperature variations between the barrels at the top and bottom of the building. 

After the warehouses, the tour was over and it was back to the gift shop for a brief tasting and some shopping. I bought a signed bottle of a 17 year old Single Barrel (OSBV) and the new-to-the-shelves-that-morning 2012 Limited Small Batch. 

I loved this tour. I had a lot of good tour guides, but Terry might have been the best. Top two at least. He was awesome! The tour was also probably my favorite. But, if you are going to do it, make sure you go do the distillery tour first. This is the second chapter. 

No Evidence of Cancer

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Some of you may already know that my wife has been undergoing chemotherapy due to ovarian cancer. Needless to say this has had our household a little more tense than normal. Chemo is over. She's had her first post-chemo CT scan and the results are back. She shows no evidence of cancer! 

If you picture me doing a bit of a happy dance right now, you'd be fairly accurate. 

When she was first diagnosed, I purchased a bottle of her favorite bourbon to put away so that we could crack it open at "a milestone of her choosing." Seems like this is it. I couldn't be happier to show off what I'm drinking tonight. It is the 2009 Four Roses Small Batch Mariage. I loved it before, I have a feeling it will taste even better tonight.

I love that girl.

New Stash Addition and Review: Bulleit Rye

Can I tell you a little something about this week? This week, I moved my daughter into her first place that wasn't a dorm room. She's decided not to go back to college and wants to start her own life. Which, I can respect. I did something similar after my first year of college. Took me three years, but I finally went back. And I ended up on path I would have never even thought of if I had stayed in school and not taken the break. 

So, I'm moving her out of our house. She's about half packed. (Hopefully she'll be back for the other half soon.) I'm carrying her boxes along with her boyfriend who is just the tiniest bit closer to my age than hers. Just past the halfway point, in fact. And, of course, fatherly disapproval is in full effect. So we're moving things, I'm trying to be nice (and mostly succeeding) when he asks me if I'd seen the last MadMen. I love that show, so the question gets me talking. We have a little chat, nothing worth hugging it out over, but things are going good. When we get home, I tell my wife to let our kid know that the ban on her boyfriend coming over has been lifted. Not because I'm all of a sudden going to be friends with this "old man" (28) dating my daughter (20), but because I felt I needed to revisit my feelings regarding him. To keep the kid happy. And maybe to keep her visiting more often.

Which brings me to the new addition to my stash. Bulleit Rye is another thing I felt like I needed to revisit to see where my feelings currently were at. Unlike the kid's boyfriend, my initial feelings for this whiskey were very positive. But not unlike the kid's boyfriend, my first impressions were made at a time when I didn't know a lot about what I was judging. I'd just started my whiskey journey when I first tried Bulleit Bourbon. The Rye came out very shortly after that and I tried it as soon as I could get my hands on a bottle. I fell in love. It was the first rye, I'd had and I loved it. The flavors were so different from all the bourbons I'd been drinking. It was exciting and strange. I tasted more than just vanilla or carmel. There was something else. Something that overpowered all of that. And it excited me.

Fast forward a bit. I've tried other ryes now. I like them all, but most seem like they could almost be bourbons. My guess is a few percentage points the right way on either corn or rye on the mashbill and a lot of them would be bourbons. They are sweet and just not as exciting as that first rye was. So a revisit was in order. And let me tell you, my memory wasn't fooling me. I still love this rye. 

Nose: Clean, almost antiseptic. Cherry and pipe tobacco.

Taste: Initially just more cherry and tobacco, but after citrus, mint and some cinnamon candies come out to play after a bit.

Finish: This sticks with you a while. The flavor is there for long after the warmth fades.

Rating: For the price of this whiskey, there is no reason for it to not always be on your shelf. It works great in cocktails and I love to drink it neat. Inexpensive, tasty and versatile.  Love this one.

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Hello from the Future! I just wanted to let you know that I have revisited this review. Come see how I liked Bulleit Rye in 2018!