Blanton's Bourbon

November 7, 2017 Eric Burke

An interesting thing happened while I was doing a little bourbon shopping on my last trip to Kentucky. I bought a bottle of Blanton's. From a store. Off the shelf. For at (or near) the regular retail price.

It was a bit of luck actually. I was at the Party Source and noticed that there were some bottles on the shelf. I grabbed one and put it in my cart. My wife, who helps with reviews on this site but doesn't follow the business side of bourbon as closely, had never had Blanton's and I thought it might be nice for her to get the opportunity.

She objected, thinking we could get it at home. Objecting to her objection, I pointed at the shelf where I had picked up the bottle. It was now empty. We had only walked about halfway down the aisle, and already the inventory had been cleaned out. "Is it that hard to get at home too?" she asked. Upon my affirmative, she relented and decided that she did want to try it after all. Not that it would have mattered, I was going to buy it anyway. I'd had Blanton's previously but had never purchased a bottle due to putting off the purchase until it became hard to find. As such, I've never featured it on the site (aside from one store pick sample from a friend).

And really, that's too bad because Blanton's is important. Introduced in 1984, Blanton's helped to plant the seeds of today's bourbon renaissance. It was the first Single Barrel bourbon to be sold commercially, leading to many future Singel Barrel products at what would become Buffalo Trace and inspiring other super premium bourbon releases at other companies.

Blanton's Bourbon

Purchase info: $59.99 for a 750 mL bottle at the Party Source, Bellevue, KY.

Details: 46.5% ABV. Barrel 966, Warehouse H, Rick 16, Bottle 149. Dumped on July 20, 2017.

Nose: Cherry candy, cinnamon, and hints of bubblegum and mint.

Mouth: Dry and spicy with loads of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger notes.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Lingering notes of cherry oak and bubblegum.

Thoughts: This is a damn fine whiskey. Spicy and dry but somehow reminiscent of various candies. I really like it. But we knew that going in. The better question is what did my wife, who had never had Blanton's think of it. Well, she put a little heart in her whiskey journal and said: "I can understand why people clamor for this."

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Jack Daniel's Tennessee Straight Rye Whiskey

November 2, 2017 Eric Burke

Do you ever notice that those times that you miss a text message coming in are exactly those times that you want to answer the message right away?

I'd been keeping an eye out for the Jack Daniel's Rye since the press release announcing it came out on September 6th. It was just before we headed to Tennessee and Kentucky, so I thought there might be a better than average chance that I could grab a bottle before I could get it here at home. I was wrong. I never saw it.

But my wife and I decided to keep an eye out for it. I mean I absolutely loved the Jack Single Barrel rye, so I thought I might enjoy this version as well. So one day, I'm working, and despite the fact that I get my text messages on my Mac and the fact that I also had my phone right next to me, I missed the photo come that said: "did you want me to grab this?"

Of course, I did. And of course, by the time I realized the message was there and answered, my wife had left the store. And when I called her to see if by chance she had picked it up, she hadn't. And I was told in no uncertain terms that she was not turning around and going back for it. But being the wonderful person that she is, she offered to stop at another location of the same store that was on her way home. While she was there, she also picked up the bottle of Basil Hayden's Dark Rye that I reviewed on Tuesday.

So what is Jack Daniel's Rye? What makes it different than all the other ryes on the market? Well for starters, the mash bill is different than the two most prevalent styles. Most of the Kentucky rye clocks in barely qualifying as a rye with 51% of its mash bill being rye grain, a small amount of barley and the rest corn. Most of the rest of the rest of the rye is sourced from MGP in Indiana, and for the longest time, the only one they sold was 95% rye grain and 5% barley. Jack Daniel's Rye splits the difference with a mash bill that is 70 percent rye, 18 percent corn, and 12 percent malted barley.

The other major difference is the charcoal "mellowing" that the distillate goes through before being barreled. Just like standard Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, this goes through the Lincoln County Process.

So, how does it taste?

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $29.99 for a 750 mL at Lakeville Liquors, Lakeville, MN.

Details: 45% ABV.

Nose: Wintergreen, cherry candy, and delicate baking spice.

Mouth: Wintergreen, cinnamon red hots, banana, and baking spice.

Finish: Medium length with lingering wintergreen and baking spice notes.

Thoughts: I like this quite a bit. Sure, it's on the gentle side and the Jack Daniel's "banana note" rears its head. But all in all, this is a nice, affordable, change of pace from the Kentucky style "barely legal" 51% rye and the 95% MGP style rye that otherwise dominate the marketplace. And it is nice to have other options that we can afford out there. Plus it does ok in cocktails too.

Basil Hayden's Dark Rye

October 31, 2017 Eric Burke

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This is my favorite holiday of the year. I love the spooky theme of all the decorations. I love jack-o-lanterns. I love seeing the little kids in their costumes. And, I love the candy.

Way back in college, I used to love the parties and the costumes too. But these days, I'm more grown up. I sit at home, hand out candy to the few kids brave enough to head around the neighborhood and watch a spooky movie.

You wouldn't think I would be as happy for Halloween to get here as I am. Ignoring the calendar, before Halloween, it's Autumn. And even though I hate winter, I love Autumn. I love the crisp mornings with the hint of a warm afternoon. I love the fact that, on occasion, I can still get away with shorts and a t-shirt while doing lawn work. The idea that even if you get snow, it probably won't last. But after Halloween, it's winter. November in Minnesota means you are more likely to need a snow shovel than you are shorts.

But in spite of all of that. In spite of the fact that it'll feel more like winter tomorrow than it does today, I still love Halloween. It feels good to indulge my inner child for one night and eat pizza, candy and drink some beer.

All of which has nothing to do with tonight's whiskey, Basil Hayden's Dark Rye. Basil Hayden's Dark Rye is the latest in the line of Basil Hayden brand extensions. It is a blend of Straight Rye whiskey from Kentucky, Canadian Rye whisky from Alberta Distillers, and Port. If this tickles a memory for you, that is because Beam already has a similar product on the market in Alberta Rye Dark Batch. That is a blend of Canadian Rye, Bourbon and Sherry. So similar, but not exactly the same. I didn't care for the Dark Batch, let's see how Dark Rye fares.

Basil Hayden's Dark Rye

Purchase info: $44.99 for a 750 mL at Lakeville Liquors, Lakeville, MN

Details: 40% ABV. A blend of Kentucky straight rye, Alberta Distillers Canadian Rye, and Port.

Nose: Strong caramel notes lead off. Baking Spice, citrus, and ripe red fruits follow.

Mouth: Caramel, lots of baking spice, and ripe red fruits.

Finish: Short, but sweet with jammy wine notes dominating.

Thoughts: I'm going to do something I almost never do. This is getting two ratings from me.

Neat: I was ok with it up until the finish. I don't care for most fortified wines outside of a cocktail and the finish being very wine forward was a problem for me. That said, there is nothing wrong with this if you like that sort of thing. So this gets a dislike from me when tasted neat.

Cocktails: Night and day difference. Because of the fortified wine notes, we first used it in a Manhattan. My wife thought it was ok, but I thought it was a little too sweet. Then I tried swapping the Vermouth in the Manhattan for Amaro (Ramazzotti is my house amaro), and it was really quite good. It accentuated the baking spice notes which was quite tasty. So tasty that I've used most of the rest of the bottle in various cocktails. I've personally favored the ones that feature bitter notes to play off of the sweet fortified wine finish. So it gets a like from me for use in cocktails because this has been a go-to for as long as it has been here.

MB Roland Straight Rye Whiskey

October 26, 2017 Eric Burke

Disclaimer: Paul and Merry Beth of MB Roland are my friends. And in my statement of ethics I promised to disclose when I am reviewing one of my friend’s products and to only review them when it was truly something I really liked. This is one of those times.

At this point, I have been married almost half of my life. And by almost, I mean within a few months or so of half my life. The great thing about hitting a milestone anniversary is that people give you things. In this case, my friends at MB Roland gave me a bottle of their new Straight Rye Whiskey.

This batch of rye is MB Roland's first straight Rye Whiskey. And when I got it, it was damn near fresh from the barrel. One of the cool things about these guys is that they sell all their whiskey at barrel proof so this Rye was dumped and bottled on one day and in my hands the next. That's pretty cool.

This bottle wasn't given to me as a review sample, but since I am always on the lookout for content that I didn't need to buy, I warned them that I might be reviewing it. But, friends or not, I give these things honest reviews. So let's get down to it.

MB Roland Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: This was an anniversary gift from friends. I have no idea what it would cost. I got one of 90 bottles though from this batch if that helps.

Details: Batch 1. Bottle 74 of 90. 54.7% ABV. Mashbill: 68% Rye, 27% White Corn, 5% Malt. Aged in a New Charred oak barrel with a #4 char.

Nose: Anise, clove, brown sugar, unroasted peanuts, mint, and green apple.

Mouth: Brown sugar, mint, and baking spices such as clove and cinnamon.

Finish: Warm and long with lingering notes of mint, anise, and cinnamon. The finish is where the distinctive flavor of the MB Roland white corn note appears.

Thoughts: This is not nearly as hot as you would expect from a roughly 110 proof whiskey to be. It is extremely drinkable neat. So much so that it shocked my wife when I told her what the proof was as we did our tasting. I'm digging this neat, but I also like it in cocktails. I've tried it in a Sazerac, a Manhattan, a variant on a Boulevardier, and a Whiskey Sour. It did well in the Manhattan, the Sazerac and the Boulevardier riff. It wasn't great in the Whiskey Sour though, so if making cocktails with this, I would recommend sticking with cocktails that will play off the anise note in there. Overall, if you have liked other MB Roland whiskeys, you will like this as well.

Early Times Bottled-in-Bond

October 24, 2017 Eric Burke

I am a recovering comic book nerd. I'm not so into the comics themselves these days. Not for any real reason, I just fell out of love with them somewhere during the last 25 years. But I do love the overabundance of comic-inspired entertainment options we have available these days. It reminds me of when I was a teenager when my favorite place was my local comic shop.

I give every superhero movie and tv show a shot. Some I like and some I don't, but I haven't personally reached oversaturation yet. But because there is so much entertainment to be had, I sometimes need to hold off on watching a particular show or movie. Take the one I finished last night, Netflix and Marvel's Iron Fist.

Iron Fist has been out for six months or more now. I started watching it last week. I was a little hesitant to do so since it was almost universally panned by people whose opinion I trust. Like I said, last night I finished it. And I loved it!

It just goes to show that just because you have a notion that you won't like something, it doesn't nessecarily follow that you are correct. You should at least give it a shot if it is something in your wheelhouse.

Kind of like how I was initially a little hesitant to purchase the Early Times Bottled in Bond. I'd had the previous Early Times bourbon release, Early Times 354. And...I didn't like it. But because I'm a firm believer in trying things for myself instead of passing judgment based on my intuition, I bought the Bonded version the first time I saw it. And guess what? I liked it.

Now I just hope that history repeats itself and Justice League is good despite the fact that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was complete crap...

Early Times Bottled-in-Bond

Purchase Info: $21.99 for a one-liter bottle at the Party Source, Bellevue, KY.

Details: 50% ABV. Distilled and bottled at DSP-KY-354 and DSP-KY-414 (I'm assuming distilled at the first and bottled at the second...).

Nose: Coconut, brown sugar and a hint of wintergreen.

Mouth: Brown Sugar, wintergreen, and baking spice.

Finish: Gentle and short with lingering notes of brown sugar and wintergreen.

Thoughts: This is a solid value bourbon. If I had to compare it to something, I'd say that it is of a similar quality to the various Heaven Hill bonded bourbons, though obviously with a different flavor profile. I really like this. I hope that it sticks around as it is nice to have more good bonded options on the market.

Evan Williams Master Blend

October 19, 2017 Eric Burke

I like blending bourbons. I've mentioned that ad nauseam here on the blog. I think that blending what you have on hand to make "new" bourbons is fun and lends variety to the bourbon shelf that isn't always there otherwise.

Blending is an art celebrated by whiskey producers in other countries. Master Blender is an important title, and media outlets interview those that hold it.

Here is the States? Not so much. We assume that a blend means it contains vodka (mostly because American Blended Whiskey is allowed to be blended with vodka) and so, with a few notable exceptions, we rarely talk about blending.

So when I was walking through the liquor store and saw a $50 bourbon, from a large manufacturer, with "blend" in the name...well I had to take a look. It turns out that it was a bourbon that was intended to be an exclusive of the Evan Williams Experience. Due to a quirk in Kentucky law, liquor stores are allowed to order them as well, and this one had.

So what was it? Well, it is a blend of various Evan Williams expressions: Black label, Bottled-in-Bond, 1783, Single Barrel, and 23-year-old. That last one possibly to justify the price, because it is a little pricey. I paid $54 for a bottle that is made up of things that normally cost right around $20. Good thing it was a souvenir. Some people overpay for T-Shirts while on vacation, I overpay for whiskey.

Evan Williams Master Blend

Purchase info: $53.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Westport Whiskey and Wine.

Details: 45% ABV. A blend of 5 Evan Williams products.

Nose: Floral with vanilla, caramel, nutmeg, dried grain, some oak and a hint of soap.

Mouth: Good Spice with nutmeg, vanilla/caramel, dried grain, and oak.

Finish: Nice length with a gentle warmth. Lingering baking spices.

Thoughts: I like this. It is a nice blend that captures the essences of its constituent parts. The grain is there from the younger varieties of Evan Williams, but some of the oak is there as well.

So is it worth the price? Not a chance. Evan Williams Master Blend is an interesting souvenir bottle, but nothing more.

David Nicholson Reserve Bourbon

October 17, 2017 Eric Burke

Sometimes you buy something just because you normally can't. That happened more than once during my last trip to the Party Source in northern Kentucky. In this case, it resulted in me bringing home a bottle of David Nicholson Reserve.

For most of its life, the David Nicholson brand was owned by the Van Winkle family (you've probably heard of them, so I'll quit there). Today the David Nicholson line of bourbons is owned by Luxco and has only limited distribution. According to their website, it is mostly sold in Missouri and Illinois (though I bought mine in Kentucky).

And that brings me back to why it ended up in my shopping cart (yes, I need a cart when I shop for bourbon in Kentucky). Simply put, I'd never had it, I can't get it, and so I wanted it. Plus I'd heard good things about it.

Did the bourbon live up to the kind words I'd read though?

David Nicholson Reserve

Purchase Info: $31.99 for 750 mL bottle at the Party Source, Bellevue, KY.

Details: 50% ABV. Non-age stated.

Nose: Vanilla, dusty, dried grain, and mint plants with soil.

Mouth: Leads off with a nice spice. Mint and more grain follow.

Finish: Medium length with lingering mint and grain.

Thoughts: Taken in a vacuum this is a tasty enough whiskey and is probably worth the $30 or so that you'd pay for it. It reminds me a lot of Evan Williams Bonded, which makes sense since there is a good chance that they came from the same place. Which, of course, means that it is hard to compare this in a vacuum. Evan Williams Bonded is under $20 per liter, which is less than half what this sells for (if you compare price per milliliter). But that said, $30 is still not a terrible price for a decent, if fairly grain forward, bourbon.

Old Forester Statesman

October 12, 2017 Eric Burke

Last night I finally got to see the movie Kingsman: the Golden Circle. It was a minor miracle that it happened. My wife hates almost everything about the movie-going experience. She doesn't like spending the money on a ticket or food. She doesn't like all the other people around. She doesn't want to go during the weekend because it is too crowded and she doesn't want to go during the week because she doesn't want to leave the house after working all day. In fact, just about the only thing she does like is the fact that our local movie theater now has a bar and you can carry the drinks into the showing with you.

I, on the other hand, love going to the movies. So much so that I occasionally go by myself. But I don't go to just any movie. I'm married to an accountant, so if I'm going to spend the money, it has to be a spectacle. It has to be big and loud, with amazing special effects. Most of all it needs to be fun. You will almost never find me watching a depressing drama outside of my house.

The original Kingsman movie was one of the most fun films we'd seen in a while. It was fun, action-packed, and most importantly didn't take itself too seriously. It was fun, and better yet, funny. So when we heard that the sequel had bourbon as a backdrop? Well, that just made it easier for me to convince her to come along.

I won't give any spoilers, but there is a brand of bourbon called Statesman that is featured rather heavily in the movie. It is Old Forester in all but name. (Shoutout to WhiskyCast for an excellent interview with the folks from Old Forester about that.) In fact, as you go through the film, sharp eyed bottle history buffs will find more than one antique Old Forester bottle as set dressing. Is it any good? Yeah, I thought it was just as fun as the first one.

Oh, you meant the bourbon? Well, let's find out!

Old Forester Statesman

Purchase Info: $51.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Party Mart, Louisville, KY.

Details: 47.5% ABV. Non-age stated.

Nose: Caramel, cinnamon, ginger ale, bubble gum.

Mouth: Spicy with ginger and cinnamon spice, sweet vanilla, mint and a touch of astringent oak.

Finish: Medium length with warm spices.

Thoughts: This is another tasty Old Forester product. If you like Old Forester, give this a shot. I like it. I'm not thrilled with the price though. I'm not sure if I would pay $50+ for it again, maybe if I saw it on sale.

Blog

Blanton's Bourbon

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Straight Rye Whiskey

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Basil Hayden's Dark Rye

MB Roland Rye Whiskey

Early Times Bottled-in-Bond

Evan Williams Master Blend

David Nicholson Reserve

Old Forester Statesman