Outryder from Wyoming Whiskey (2020 edition)

I’d like to thank Verde Brand Communications for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Welcome to 2020, my friends. In order to ease into the review tonight, I was going to have an anecdote about how my beloved Golden Gopher football team won their bowl game and had an 11 win season for the first time since 1904. But as I was going back through the whiskey blogs I follow to see what I missed over the last week or two, I was reminded that the amazing Al Young of Four Roses passed away while I was away. And I would be remiss if I let this event pass without at least mentioning it.

Al Young was Four Roses to me. He was kind and caring. He joked with us every time we saw him. He was fun but had a wealth of history at his fingertips. And that made conversations with him very memorable. I always enjoyed listening to him talk and I will cherish the memories I have of spending time with him.

I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to create a lot of memories while running this site. One of the most precious may be the time I took my step-father on a private tour of Wyoming Whiskey. I’d been emailing back and forth with Sam Mead of Wyoming Whiskey and mentioned that my wife and I were bringing my parents out to Wyoming. He invited me to stop by and was gracious enough to allow the rest of the gang along.

My step-father is a whiskey drinker from way back. In fact, his constant supply of Jack Daniels was one of my earliest memories of whiskey. He was a bartender for most of his life. Shots and beers mostly. But on the days he wasn’t working, he’d often just sit at the bar and bullshit with the regulars and his coworkers. And as he sat there he’d always have an extra-large pour of Jack in a glass next to his beer.

So it was fun to take him on his first distillery tour (you can see the photos here). Even cooler that it was an up-close and personal version of the tour. Because of that happy memory, I was more than willing to accept a sample of this year’s release of Outryder when it was offered. To quote the press release:

Following the early trend in rye whiskeys circa 2010, Co-Founder David DeFazio put a pointed request in with Nally that he develop a rye. Nally expressed reluctance to follow orders, telling DeFazio that “No, I don’t want to make rye” and clearly communicated his distaste for the spirit. Over a few months, the founders strongly encouraged the Bourbon Hall of Famer to reconsider his position and Nally ultimately surrendered to the request —albeit defiantly. Two different whiskies were laid down in November and December of 2011 at the behest of DeFazio and his partner Brad Mead. Nally made nearly 100 barrels of “rye” and 200 barrels of bourbon made with rye.

A couple of years after these whiskies were made, Nally left Wyoming Whiskey to return home to spend more time with his family and pursue other projects. Fast forward to 2016 when it was time to bottle the nearly 5 year-old-barrels of bourbon and “rye”. Wyoming Whiskey’s Distiller, Sam Mead, called DeFazio to explain that the whiskey Nally produced was only 48% rye, which disqualified it from the rye whiskey category. The team was stunned and dumbfounded. How could it be?

DeFazio paid a phone call to Nally and said “I want you to know that the “rye” you made is spectacular … but why did you only use 48% rye in the mash bill?” Nally responded with an implied smirk, “Because I told you I didn’t want to make rye.”

This year’s version of Outryder is aged seven years and is still made from those initial batches. They plan to release an 8, a 9 and finally a 10-year-old version in the coming years. They anticipate the 10-year-old release in 2022 will finish that initial batch.

Outryder from Wyoming Whiskey (2020 edition)

Purchase info: This review sample was graciously provided by Verde Brand Communications. The suggested retail price is $75 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50mL): $5

Details: A blend of two straight American whiskeys. The first using a mash bill of 48% winter rye, 40% corn, and 12% malted barley and the second using a bourbon mash bill of 68% corn, 20% winter rye, and 12% malted barley. 50% ABV.

Nose: Mint, nutmeg, cedarwood, cinnamon, caramel

Mouth: Dry and warm with cinnamon, vanilla, mint, and cedar.

Finish: Medium length and heat. Very minty with notes of cinnamon oak, and pine.

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Thoughts: I like this one. Cedar, mint, and cinnamon dominate this one for me in all three phases of tasting. It's quite good, but I don't know that I would personally pay $75 for it. This clears my $40-$50 bar but not my $75 one. But we all know that I’m a cheapskate. So if your liquor store pours samples, try it. You might think the price is perfect.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

MB Roland Wheated Bourbon

Paul and Merry Beth of MB Roland are my friends. Because I might be biased, I have decided to disclose that bias so that you can decide how much to trust the review. In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, I am reviewing a bottle that they gave me as a gift. This was not intended by them as a review bottle, but I like it and wanted to share.

Hey Bourbon Folks,

This is going to be the last post of 2019 as I take a little time to spend with my family over the holidays. BourbonGuy.com will be back to its regularly scheduled twice per week posting as of January 2nd, 2020.

Holy Crap! 2020?!? I’m getting fucking old! In a little under two weeks, it will be the start of the sixth decade in which I have been alive. That’s nuts. But it makes sense that I feel the passage of time especially hard as this decade ends and another begins. I mean, my life has changed dramatically in the last ten years.

When the decade began, I had never traveled east of my home state. I’d been to a majority of the states west of the Mississippi, but my home state of Wisconsin (and a tiny bit of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) were my only forays east of it. I’ve now traveled to every part of the country except the Northeast. And I’ve been international a couple of times. I even decided to move away from Minnesota at one point and spent a lot of time exploring new locations to live, both digitally and in person. But then my daughter had a pregnancy scare, and we decided that it might be best to stick nearby for any future grand-kids that might happen to pop out.

As 2010 arrived, I was happily employed in Corporate Marketing. And I honestly couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life. These days, I run three separate businesses of my own, and the majority of my money no longer comes from the only employable skill I had in 2010.

I fell in love with spirits in general and bourbon in particular shortly after the turn of the last decade. For most of the first half to two thirds of the decade, I wanted to start a craft distillery and set about learning everything I could about distilling. Instead of that, I now have this site and all of you who share my bourbon journey with me. Not only that, but I also get paid to write the occasional article for other publications and to host a tasting now and then, which is not a bad gig if you can get it.

During the last decade, my wife got sick with cancer and beat it. I’ve lost many friends and family members due to age, sickness, and time; but I gained a lot of new ones as well. Many of my new friends live in Kentucky, which is nice because I have fallen in love with Louisville. I’ve gone at least once a year for most of the last ten years.

This list is only scratching the surface of the changes that my life has gone through during the last decade, and even though I decided on a different life direction than starting a distillery, some of the friends who I’ve met over the last ten years do, in fact, own distilleries. And in fact, the bottle I am reviewing tonight was a gift from one of them. It is a wheated bourbon from my friends at MB Roland. They gave my wife and I this bottle as an anniversary present back in September. Obviously, I sat on it for a while before enjoying it.

MB Roland Wheated Bourbon

Purchase info: This was received as an anniversary gift from my friends at MB Roland. I image the price is somewhere in the mid $50 to $60 range.

Price per Drink (50 ml): No idea for the reason stated above.

Details: Batch 7. 55% ABV. Mash bill of 74% white corn, 6% malted barley, 20% red winter wheat. Barrel had a #4 char. Aged stated as “at least two years.”

Nose: Dried corn, mint, cinnamon, cloves, baked apples.

Mouth: Spicy cinnamon candies, caramel, chocolate.

Finish: Warm and long with lingering caramel, cinnamon and chocolate notes.

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Thoughts: I really like this one. I've been very impressed with both the wheated bourbon and the wheat whiskey that MB Roland has made. I guess I like their wheat. Both of them have had very nice chocolate notes that I wouldn't have expected to find in a whiskey that is age-stated at about two years old. That said, there are still some young notes in here, but once again the proof helps to push them aside.

As stated above , before I got distracted by the end of the decade, BourbonGuy.com is going to take the holidays off to spend time with family. Regular posts will return January 2nd, 2020. (2020!?!)

Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

Larceny Barrel Proof

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! TheExpanseisback!TheExpanseisback! Ahem. I mean… The Expanse is back and I couldn’t be more excited!

Now you might be wondering just what the Expanse is and why I am so excited. Well it is possibly the best science-fiction tv show. Period. Possibly ever. And I am a sci-fi nut from way back. So much so that my seventh-grade English teacher felt the need to tell my mother during parent-teacher conferences that I should be encouraged to branch out from the genre. You know because it wasn't “serious” enough for someone that was as smart as I was.

I still think that’s a pretty weird way to give a parent a compliment.

Now the books that the TV show is based on are phenomenal. Some of my favorites ever. And yet, I can see why maybe people wouldn’t have heard of it. The Expanse had the misfortune of starting on SyFy, which is not exactly known for high-quality programming these days. Luckily, for some reason, the network decided to pour enough money into this show to make the show look really good. And then they canceled it after three seasons because it was too expensive. Luckily Rich Uncle Pennybags…err…Bezos of Amazon fame liked it as well and decided to save it and bring it over to Amazon Prime.

I don’t have a lot of nice things to say about Amazon, but I am thankful for this.

And even though I have about 10 shows that I am currently bingeing, I am totally starting over to rewatch the Expanse from the beginning. Some people say that too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing. Whether it is amazing tv shows, college football Bowl games, or good food. But one thing that almost no one says is a bad thing is more proof on your whiskey.

Knowing that, Heaven Hill has recently decided to put out a barrel proof version of their flagship wheated bourbon, Larceny. I’ve been a fan of Larceny since it was first released way back in 2012. In fact, Larceny is one of two wheated bourbons that I’ve consistently had on my shelf over the years. So when I heard that Heaven Hill was releasing a barrel-proof version, I was super excited. I was even more excited when a generously large sample landed on my doorstep.

Much like Heaven Hill’s other barrel-proof offering, Elijah Craig, Larceny Barrel Proof will be released in batches throughout the year. It will feature the same naming scheme with a letter denoting which release it is, a number indicating which month is was released and the year. So this release, A120, means it is the first release of the year in January of 2020. And yes, you will have to wait until January to get your hands on this. And at a suggested retail price of about $50 or so, I’d keep an eye out for it.

Larceny Barrel Proof

Purchase info: This was graciously provided by Heaven Hill for review purposes. Suggested retail price is $49.99.

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: Batch number: A 120. 61.6% ABV

Nose: Brown Sugar, cinnamon, clove, oak

Mouth: Mint, ripe berries, tobacco, honey

Finish: Long and hot. Mint and honey notes initially which are replaced by a long-lasting cinnamon candy note.

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Thoughts: This is delicious! It is a warm one though, luckily it takes water or ice very well. Compared to Larceny, this is similar on the nose. Obviously this is hotter than the standard Larceny but has a lot of the same notes on the mouth. Basically, it is just richer and the flavors are more concentrated. As you would expect.

Much like the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, this is one I will pick up every time I see it on the shelf.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.

Jack Daniel's Sinatra Select (Travel Retail Gift Pack 2019)

I’d like to thank the folks at Jack Daniel’s PR for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

Holy shit am I feeling my age lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not OLD. But I am solidly into middle age. The gut that started to show up a few years ago is getting harder and harder to keep in check. Yearly physicals now come with the phrase: “well, you are getting older” somewhere in them. And to top it off, I had to converse with my optometrist about bifocals. Bifocals! And the worst part is, I think she may have been right.

So yeah, I feel old this week. Luckily for me, I got a little something to cheer me up. Though because of the fasting/no alcohol requirements of preparing for bloodwork this week, I didn’t get a chance to try it until last night. Yeah. Paying close attention to your bloodwork is a cool part of getting older too. Of course, it is just going to get worse, soon there will be routine colonoscopies too. And those are no fun at all.

But for now, the worrying about bloodwork and unpleasant camera intrusions are done for the year. Now is the time to turn to more pleasant thoughts. Things like the upcoming holidays, delicious food and drink, and the previously mentioned package that was dropped off last week.

You’ve probably seen Sinatra Select sitting on a high shelf or behind glass at your local liquor store. It was introduced in 2012 in order to celebrate Frank Sinatra’s famous love of Jack Daniel’s. According to the initial press release, a portion of the whiskey is aged in grooved barrels to allow more contact with the wood and greater extraction of the wood flavors. That portion is then blended with the standard Jack Daniel’s before being bottled at 90° proof.

On December 12th, Frank Sinatra would have celebrated his 104th birthday. (And I thought I felt old.) To commemorate this, for a limited time, Jack Daniel’s is doing something a little special with their Sinatra Select product. Recently Tina Sinatra, Frank’s daughter, found an old flask that her dad used to carry his Jack around in. It was engraved with the phrase “Ole Jack,” a reference to his nickname of Ole Blue Eyes, I’m guessing.

For a limited time, Jack Daniel’s is offering a special Commemorative Flask Set when you purchase Sinatra Select at travel retail. They will also have the flask set available at the distillery bottle shop. Jack Daniel’s sent me a bottle of Sinatra Select as well as the flask set and let me tell you, this is a lovely set. So lovely that my wife immediately stole it from me. The set comes in a leather case and contains the flask shown above and four metal jiggers. My mother-in-law tells me that her father had one very similar to it while he was alive.

Of course, if you are not going to make it down to Lynchburg, Tennessee and you have no plans to travel internationally, you still have a chance to get your hands on one of these sets. Quoting the press release now:

From November 29 through December 11, friends of Jack will also have a chance to win a commemorative “OLE JACK” flask. Visitors to the Jack Daniel’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages can submit to win one of the collector’s items, with seven winners to be announced on Frank’s birthday, December 12.

Jack Daniel's Sinatra select

Purchase info: This product was graciously provided by Jack Daniel’s PR for review purposes. Suggested retail price for Sinatra Select with the flask set is $179.99.

Price per Drink (50 ml): $9.00

Details: 45% ABV

Nose: Almond, cinnamon candy, delicate mint,

Mouth: Nice spice, almond, mint and a touch of banana.

Finish: Medium length and heat. Lingering banana bread notes.

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Thoughts: This is a delicious whiskey. Initially minty and cool in the mouth, as it moves back the spice and the viscosity increase until upon swallowing it feels almost syrupy. If you are a Jack Daniel's fan you owe it to yourself to try a pour of this somehow. And if a loved one (who you really like) is a Jack fan, this would be a great gift.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, and more.