Danfield's Private Reserve 10-year old Canadian Whisky

August 25, 2016 Eric Burke

I like hardware stores. My wife likes to pretend that I am a handy guy so I make roughly a couple visits per month to replace that one screw that I just stripped or a blade for a saw that I was too lazy to replace after the last project. When I’m there, I sometimes just wander around and look at things. I may go in for a bolt or a box of nails, but I’ll often see a tool or something on the plumbing or electrical shelf that I had no idea even existed. I try to squirrel these ideas away for future projects. Because when you own a home, there are always future projects.

I take the same approach to liquor stores. I may go in for beer, but that doesn’t stop me from taking a quick trip down the spirits aisles just to see what’s there. Sometimes, when it is something that I hadn’t seen at other stores, I squirrel that bit of info away for the future.

Which is how I found myself picking up Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-year old Canadian Whiskey. In this particular store, the Canadian whisky section sort of blends into the bourbon and rye section. As I would go there over the years, I noticed this whisky just sitting there. I’d had the older expression, it's my wife's favorite Canadian whisky. I brought multiple bottles of Danfield’s 21-year old whisky back from Canada the last time I’d visited and I also liked it quite a bit. But except on that store shelf, I had never seen a mention of the 10-year expression.

I can’t tell if this is a dusty or just something that not many stores in my area have bothered to stock. Knowing that the 21-year old isn’t available here, it could be either I suppose. Even doing a Google search mostly brings up mentions of the 21-year old variety. As far as I can tell, this is made at the Black Velvet distillery in Alberta, Canada.

Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-Year Old

Purchase info: $22.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Blue Max, Burnsville, MN

Details: 10 years old, 40% ABV

Nose: Delicate with predominantly sweet floral notes of brown sugar and apple blossoms.

Mouth: Sweet brown sugar back by floral and apple notes along with a little oak.

Finish: Medium length with lingering floral and brown sugar notes.

Thoughts: This could easily be called a one-note whisky (if you couldn’t count to two). It isn’t terribly complex, but what is there is going on full force. This whisky fills the mouth with sweet and floral flavors. Until now, my wife’s favorite Canadian whisky has been Danfield’s 21-year old. But she likes this 10-year expression even better. I also find it quite tasty, but would probably still grab my Wiser’s Legacy first. If you can find it near you, I’d recommend giving it a try.

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Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

August 11, 2016 Eric Burke

As many of you know, I am on record as not preferring Scotch Whisky. It isn’t that I have anything against Scotland or it’s people. It’s just that I haven’t found one of their whiskies that I’ve been particularly drawn to. I’ve tried to say that “I haven’t found one that I prefer to bourbon,” as opposed to I don’t like Scotch. But as I tried more and more of them, I was starting to think that maybe I really just didn’t like Scotch Whisky.

At least until I was the “Resident Expert” at a local reader’s whiskey tasting. (If you can’t hear the sarcasm dripping off that quoted part, I assure you it’s there*). I was paid some money to tell a group of the hosts friends how I taste whiskey, how that is different from when I drink whiskey and to help answer any questions they might have on the topic of whiskey. On top of the cash, I also got to try any of the whiskey that was on the table of the guests. There were some nice ones there in both bourbon, scotch and rye, but one that I was particularly drawn to try was a blended Scotch finished in Rye barrels. And I liked it.

It sounded familiar, so when I got home, I searched though my samples and realized that I had a sample of the same whisky on my shelf that a friend of mine had given me. Because I had been out drinking whisky for money all night (and my wife had driven me there and picked me up—safety first!) I poured that sample for my wife. She liked it too.

Strange. I liked it even though I didn't think I cared for Scotch Whisky. She has actually gone on record saying that she doesn’t Scotch and yet she liked it. Hmmmm…

Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

Purchase info: $25-ish at Marketplace Liquors, Menomonie, WI (I lost the receipt).

Details: 10 year old, age-stated, 46% ABV.

Nose: Toasted marshmallows, mint and hints of oak.

Mouth: Sweet with wintergreen, clove, slight caramel and a nice tingle on the tip of the tongue.

Finish: Warm and sweet with lingering wintergreen, clove and caramel.

Thoughts: I’d call this a whisky for Rye Whiskey drinkers that want their rye a little softer and more refined, but with less oak, than the typical aged American Straight Rye. It’s soft and gentle but with many of the flavors that one associates with rye. The typical mint has softened to wintergreen, but the clove and some caramel are still there. On the other hand, there is so much influence from the finishing barrels that I get none of the flavors that I typically associate with either blended or malt Scotch Whisky. Which to me is a good thing. But if you are a looking for that, this might be an issue.

So, I still can’t say if I can make a Grand Pronouncement about if I like Scotch Whiskey or not. But I have, at least, found one that I do like. And I like it quite a bit.

*Sarcasm not because I don’t appreciate being called an expert, but because I don’t feel like one. It feels like I still have way too much to learn.

Canadian Club 100% Rye: the U.S. Release Compared to the Canadian Release

August 9, 2016 Eric Burke

Canadian Club 100% Rye from the U.S. and from Canada

About a year and a half ago, I reviewed a bottle of whiskey that was only available in Canada. I thought it was a good, but not great whiskey and mentioned I probably wouldn’t make a trip to Canada (a six hour drive for me) specifically to pick up another bottle.

Almost exactly a year ago, I happened to cross the border into Canada while sightseeing in Northern Minnesota and decided to give that whiskey another shot. I bought a bottle at a Thunder Bay LCBO location. A bottle which sat in my closet until I had almost forgotten about it.

A couple of months ago Beam Suntory was kind enough to bring the whisky to the United States and I decided to run to Total Wine to pick up a bottle of the US release too. A bottle which spent two months in my closet until I made room for it on the Canadian Whisky Shelf.

Of course I’m talking about Canadian Club 100% Rye (or Chairman’s Select 100% Rye in Canada). I picked it up mostly because I was curious to see if there was any change to the product when it crossed the border and entered a new market.

To my palate, there was no change. When we did our tasting this weekend, I got the same notes from both bottles and both were pretty close to what I got the first time around. So if you loved this whisky in Canada, you should love it in the US. If you were like me and thought there were better options in both the rye and Canadian whisky categories…well…there still are.

I kinda like the Canadian version of the bottle shape a little better though. It takes up less room on the shelf.

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Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack

August 2, 2016 Eric Burke

I’m on vacation this week and am giving you a little bit of whiskey content while I’m off galavanting around the Rocky Mountains. Tonight I should be arriving in Estes Park to spend the rest of the week so if I don't get to approving your comments right away, my apologies.

I’d like to bring up a little pet peeve of mine. Jack Daniel’s. Not the company, they are what they are. For marketing reason Jack Daniel’s chooses not to call their product bourbon. That’s fine by me. They could be the best selling bourbon in the world should they choose, but they don’t they leave that to Jim Beam.

No, the people who bother me are those who make a big deal out of whether it is a bourbon or not. On one side you have folks who claim that it is bourbon in all but name since Jack follows all the same rules as bourbon, they just run it through a big pile of charcoal before they put it into the barrel. The claim is that there is nothing in the rules for bourbon that prohibit this. The other side likes to say that the very act of running it through the charcoal is enough to flavor the whiskey. Some of these, at times, include the folks pouring you a sample of Jack Daniel’s at your local liquor store. They claim the maple charcoal adds sweetness or smoothness or whatever.

Personally, I tend to lean toward the could be bourbon side as, to quote a former Kentucky Master Distiller, “ I never saw a filter add anything to anything.” But honestly, whatever. It’s really none of my concern. It seems to be working out for them so who am I to judge.

Due to the aforementioned pre-filtering, Jack Daniel’s is known for it’s smoothness. The charcoal essentially jump-starts the aging process by getting rid of some of the chemicals that the barrel would end up removing. Regular Jack is pretty gentle. A little too gentle for me. So it was only because I had never reviewed it and because it was on sale that I even picked up the bottle of Gentleman Jack that I am reviewing tonight.

Gentleman Jack is crafted to be even gentler than regular Jack. It is still run through the charcoal filter before aging, but then it gets a second round through it after aging as well. What this does, is strip out a lot of the barrel flavors that they were patient enough to wait for the barrel to put into the whiskey. Most American whiskey is filtered after dumping. Some lightly, some very heavily. When used heavily, it’s often a way to try to remove some of the off-flavors from a whiskey that has become a bit over-aged. But what does it do to a whiskey, that presumably, was similar to the stuff they were putting into another bottle? Let’s find out.

Gentleman Jack

Purchase Info: G-Will Liquors, Andover, MN. Regular price: $21.99 for a 375mL bottle (on sale for $10.99).

Details: “Double Mellowed” 40% ABV

Nose: Grain forward with delicate spearmint, a light fruitiness and just the tiniest hints of oak.

Mouth: Thin and a tad peppery. Fake banana flavor, grain, mint and just a touch of oak.

Finish: Short with banana bread, mint and a rougher burn than I would have expected from something labeled “Double Mellowed.”

Thoughts: While I will admit to not being a fan of regular Jack Daniel’s, there have been a few of their higher-end products that I have really liked. This is not one of them. In fact, I don’t like this at all. I just can’t get past the fake “banana candy” flavor (though for the record, I don’t like banana candy either).

Getting Geeky With Union Horse Distilling Company, Part Two: The Reviews

July 28, 2016 Eric Burke

As I state in my Statement of Ethics, I seldom accept review samples. And that if I do, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I would like to thank FleishmanHillard for putting me into contact with the distillery and providing the bottles being discussed and reviewed this week.

Union Horse Reserve Bourbon and Union Horse Reunion Rye

On Tuesday I posted Part One of this post where the Patrick Garcia, Master Distiller of Union Horse Distilling Company and Damian Garcia, Director of Sales and Marketing for Union Horse Distilling Company were kind enough to get geeky with us by answering questions drawn from both myself and Patreon submissions.

Looking back on their answers, I really like how they are doing things so in tonight's post, let's see how much I like the whiskey.

Union Horse Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: This bottle was not purchased and was instead provided by FleishmanHillard, the PR firm representing Union Horse for review purposes.

Details: 100% Rye Mash (using enzymes to break down the starch instead of malt). 46.5% ABV. Two year age stated. Batch 1. Bottle 1177.

Nose: Toffee, mint, baked bread, and grain

Mouth: Bold and flavorful. Spicy, showing both cinnamon and clove as well as cayenne. Mint extract and grain flavors are present as well, though not as much as I'd expect from the nose.

Finish: Medium length with a nice spice. Lingering grain and mint flavors.

Thoughts: This is one where it had to grow on me. In my initial tasting, I felt it tasted a bit young. After spending almost a month with it, I've warmed up to it. This certainly is a unique whiskey and is outside the normal American Straight Rye flavor profile, which threw me at first. But I've come around. I've tried it neat, with some ice and in cocktails and have enjoyed it in all three. It still tastes a bit young, but not terribly so. I like this. It's a unique product that actually tastes pretty good too.

Union Horse Reserve Straight Bourbon

Purchase Info: This bottle was not purchased and was instead provided by FleishmanHillard, the PR firm representing Union Horse for review purposes.

Details: Corn and Rye Mash (using enzymes to break down the starch instead of malt). 46% ABV. Two year age stated. Batch 2. Bottle 1068.

Nose: Caramel and mint along with faint notes of bubble gum, soil and barrel char.

Mouth: Vanilla and butterscotch, along with cinnamon, cloves, campfire smoke and sweet malt.

Finish: Medium length with lingering mint, smoke and malty flavors.

Thoughts: I am not a fan of smoky whiskey. I can appreciate it, but seldom like it if it is too pronounced. In this case, the smoke flavors are just light enough that it doesn't bother me too much. My wife on the other hand likes this a lot and has been the primary consumer of the bottle above.

Observations on old liquor marketing and a 1979 Ezra Brooks

July 21, 2016 Eric Burke

I’m a big fan of old liquor bottles. We’ve talked about this. I tend to go to antique stores, estate sales and bottle shows to look at and occasionally buy old bottles. Most of these are empty and I almost always get the comment: “too bad this isn’t full, huh?” But sometimes they are full. And when they are, I like to check the contents and the seal. If it’s bourbon, it hasn’t been opened and isn’t very expensive, I’ll bring it home with me.

When I search through old bottles, I also see a lot of decanters. Collectable decanters were a way for a struggling bourbon industry to try to stay afloat while tastes changed. And it must have worked because we have bourbon today, and there are a lot of old decanters for sale out there.

At some point in the mid-Twentieth Century, whiskey making changed. In the United States, the uncertainty of war coupled with changing fashions led whiskey makers to lobby for an increase in the bonding period of aging whiskey. In other words, they wanted to be able to sit on their aging stocks a bit longer before needing to pay taxes on it. It was granted and whiskey making and marketing started to focus on longer aging times. Larger age statements begins to appear and age became associated with quality. Around the same time proofs started dropping as well. Where 100 (and 101) proof were once fairly standard 86 proof was becoming more and more common.

With an increasing focus on age and decreasing proofs, it isn’t terribly surprising that the largest number on many of the old decanters you find is the age. What is surprising is that the age is stated in months not years. Unlike many of today’s whiskeys who use months for their age statements, it isn’t because the whiskey is young though. 100 months is the most common age I’ve seen on Jim Beam decanters (though I’ve also seen 155 on a few occasions). And I’ve seen numerous 101 month Ezra Brooks decanters.

I can think of a couple of reasons why 100 months might have been used. Much like the producers who put out three year old whiskey today and label it 36 months, 100 just sounds bigger than 8. The other reason I can think of is that 100 and 101 months bear a striking resemblance to the 100 and 101 proof that consumers had been used to seeing before proofs started dropping. Kind of an early version of the Very Old Barton “6” that Sazerac uses today. I don’t know if the actual answer is one, the other, or both. In any case, 35 years later, it is fun to ponder.

Ezra Brooks - Bengal Tiger, 1979

Purchase info: $15 at a bottle and advertising show

Details: From the Ezra Brooks Wildlife Collector Series. 101 months old (8.417 years). 80 proof.

Nose: Green apples, baking spices and a faint earthiness to go along with some oak. After some time it transitions to a strong butterscotch bomb.

Mouth: Not as sweet as I was expecting. Baking spices, brown sugar, oak and earthiness.

Finish: On the longer side of medium. Sweet with lingering baking spices and green apple.

With Water: The mouth gets a bit livelier and the green apple comes through more. The nose gets spicier with a touch of anise. Water kills the finish.

Thoughts: As Ezra Brooks has always been a sourced whiskey, it was really interesting to see what was being sourced in 1979. With it’s apple and spice notes, it reminds me a bit of a Brown-Forman bourbon. (Though I doubt that it is since Ezra Brooks debuted by impersonating their biggest brand and were sued by them). Based on this bottle, it is the equivalent of an ok $30-45 bottle today. But that said, I don’t know that I’d seek out another bottle of it. It’s pretty good, but not the best I’ve ever had.

A word on lead: There is a forum thread on straightbourbon.com that details the story of a man getting the whiskey from one of his decanters tested for lead and finding very high levels of it. I do not have the equipment to test this myself. I did however allow the bourbon from this decanter to evaporate and then drip the contents of a lead paint tester into the residue (saving a drop or two for the conformation strip) and there was no "red for lead." I won’t say this bourbon doesn’t contain lead or that any of the bourbon from old decanters you find will or will not contain lead. But this test satisfied my curiosity enough to allow me to do the small tasting I did for this post.

For more information on lead poisoning visit: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002473.htm

Crown Royal Black

July 19, 2016 Eric Burke

Every so often, I'll be in a liquor store and I'll feel the need to buy something...else. I'm buying bourbon and maybe beer. But then something will catch my eye that I just have to have. One time it was a miniature bottle of Phillips Gin-Ka, a gin-vodka blend that I have no intention of drinking, but whose packaging was too hilariously cute to pass up. Once it was brandy in a bag that was on clearance because...brandy in a bag. (Come to think of it, those might have been the same time...). Hell, one time it was even be a bottle of "individually barreled" bourbon (see the previous post).

But occasionally when this happens, it is something perfectly normal that catches my eye. Something so normal and so ubiquitous that I just never bothered to try it before. Something like Crown Royal Black. I saw this sitting in a bucket near the register at a local liquor store and bought it on a whim. It's been sitting on the shelf for a couple months now, as I keep turning to other products that are new and exciting. But since I finally noticed it on the shelf, let's get down to it.

Crown Royal Black is available almost everywhere. And although I've had some very good products with the Crown Royal name on them, I've also had some real snoozers. The Black version is their run at bourbon drinkers. On their website, they claim it has deeper oak notes on the nose and bourbon notes on the finish. It is bottled at a higher proof then the original release.

Crown Royal Black

Purchase Info: I really have no idea what store it was at, but it was probably a buck or two for each 50 mL bottle.

Details: Canadian Whiskey, 45% ABV

Nose: Brown sugar, cedar, baking spices.

Mouth: Peppery without being too hot. Black pepper, dried fruit, brown sugar, baking spices and oak.

Finish: Medium length. Cinnamon spice candy which transitions into mint.

Thoughts: If anything can be said to "taste Canadian" it would be this. But unlike your stereotypical Canadian whiskey, this has enough spice to keep you interested and enough sweetness to make you want another sip. And it's fine. Nothing special, but I like it. If your choices are between this and the regular Crown, this is an upgrade. Other than that though, this would probably almost never be my first choice of pour. I mean, don't get me wrong, if someone was nice enough to pour me a glass, I'd be happy enough to drink it. I just doubt that I'll be picking up a full bottle anytime soon.

Black Eagle Bourbon

July 14, 2016 Eric Burke

You’re sitting in a meeting. You’ve run out of things to say. Everyone is looking at you. You know you have to say something, but you’re not sure what. It’s awkward. You just sit there looking around. Thinking to yourself that eventually maybe someone else will say something.

The silence get longer. It gets more awkward. You’re starting to fidget now. People around you are looking out the window, trying not to stare as you just sit there.

Finally you squeak: “Individually barreled?”

This is how I picture the label meeting going for Total Wine’s Black Eagle Bourbon. I mean when you describe your bourbon as “Old-style, individual barreled bourbon whiskey, distilled from only the finest ingredients for a genuine full-bourbon character” you know someone somewhere was wracking their brain trying to come up with something nice to say on the spot.

I find this label to be hilarious. So much so that I had to buy this bottle immediately. I mean, no matter the size of the barrel, it is going to be an individual. And what the hell is full-bourbon character?

I guess we’ll find out.

Black Eagle Bourbon Whiskey

Purchase Info: $11.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.

Details: 40% ABV. 3 years old.

Nose: Lightly fruity with delicate floral and mint notes

Mouth: Grain forward with light notes of baking spice and mint.

Finish: Short and grain forward.

Thoughts: When I saw this I expected something pretty bad. I mean the marketing people literally couldn’t say anything nice about it. When even marketing people can’t find a superlative that feels right to describe something you know that there’s nothing to say about a product. And though there isn’t much going on here, what is going on isn’t bad. It’s just sort of meh. To be honest this reminds me a lot of Old Crow. An ok well bourbon should you need one, but otherwise something to avoid.

I’ll probably use the rest of mine in the Cherry Bounce recipe from Michael Dietsch’s cocktail book Whiskey that I reviewed a while back. After three months soaking up cherry juice, it probably won’t matter what I used to begin with.

Blog

Danfield’s Private Reserve 10-Year Old

Johnnie Walker Select Casks - Rye Cask Finish

Gentleman Jack

Union Horse Reunion Straight Rye Whiskey

Union Horse Reserve Straight Bourbon

Ezra Brooks - Bengal Tiger, 1979

Crown Royal Black

Black Eagle Bourbon Whiskey