June 2010

Four Roses Yellow Label

/ / Bourbon, Review /

Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
40% ABV
Available in Asia, Europe, & USA
$20

What The Distillery Says:
A worldwide favorite, especially when creating mixed drinks with a sophisticated, contemporary flair. Hints of pear and apple compliment floral aromas and mix with a taste of honey and spice. Smooth and mellow with a unique, long and soft finish.

What Richard Says:
Nose: Vanilla caramel sweetness overlaying rich oak.
Palate: Less sweet on the palate but very mellow. There’s a slight kick at the end of the palate. Hints of orchard fruit and oak dominate the flavor profile.
Finish: Very smooth and short. A little spice is left at the tongue and middle warmth fills the stomach.
Comments: It’s not Buffalo Trace but it’s a solid inexpensive bourbon. Versatile enough to work well in cocktails but I could still drink it neat.
Rating: Average (or slightly above)

What Matt Says:
Nose: Honeysuckle, orange shellac, dry grain and cherry lollipops
Palate: Cherry caramels and toasted oak, round and full bodied without being oily
Finish: Very smooth with just a slight burn that hits the tip of the tongue like a love bite.  Leaves the tongue with a taste of cherry lollipops and an oaky fuzziness.
Comments: The palate of this reminds me of Cheerwine, a cherry flavored cola sold in the Deep South.  I’m glad they started selling Four Roses in the US again.  I have several friends who cut their teeth on this while growing up in Europe.  Yellow Label is a solid entry level bourbon that will give you a much better taste profile than say, Old Crow, Rebel Yell, or Jim Beam.  Richard and I agree that Buffalo Trace is a bit better.  Still, there are places where you can only get one or the other.  Either way, you’ll have any enjoyable and affordable dram.
Rating:  Average

Overall Rating:  Average
In the grand scheme of all bourbon, Yellow Label falls squarely in the “average” range.  If you just put it up against other whiskeys in this price range, it surely stands out.

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Do you have the stones for drinking whiskey?

/ / Richard's Blog

In case you may not know it…whiskey is popular. People like it. A lot of people like it. It’s even kind of hip and cool again…for the time being. As a very popular item it is subject to the inundation of gimmicks. I like gimmicks. I don’t personally buy into most of them but I find them amusing. I tend to have a cheeky sense of humor about things like that. Usually, I have my chuckle and then put them out of mind.

However, one thing that just keeps coming up like a bad penny are rocks. Whiskey on the rocks? Yes…literally. If you Google “whisky stones” you’ll get about 782,000 results. Throw in an “e” and it jumps to 989,000 (apparently us Yanks and the Irish think this is a somewhat better idea). What are they you ask? Little soapstone cubes that you can freeze and then throw in your whiskey. Not to sink the whiskey to the bottom of a lake but rather to keep it cold without watering it down. And it makes your drink look so appealing.

Mmmm…doesn’t that look good? I first saw these babies about a year or two ago. A friend of mine asked me about them. Just so you know, I’m kind of a whiskey guy. As such, most of my friends know me to be a whiskey guy and I’ve kind of become their go-to whiskey guy. (Except Matt, the SOB dares to have his own opinions about whiskey separate from mine. The nerve!) As their go-to, my friends send me all sorts of things whiskey related to opine on. When whiskey stones were first brought to my attention I found them kind of funny. I didn’t really take them too seriously but they keep coming up. Another friend of mine asked me about them last week because they were in a magazine that he reads.

I find the whiskey stone thing to be a little silly but some people think it’s a pretty good idea. I get what they are driving at. It’s the same kind of thing The Macallan has been talking about with their ice ball serve. But even that I find a little silly. Basically they are all saying that people want their whiskey cold instead of watered down. Why? The general answer I get when I ask people is that it’s a flavor thing. Really? You actually lose a lot more flavor characteristics chilling whiskey than you do adding a little water. Don’t believe me? Try it at home. Take your favor dram and pour three glasses. Drink one straight, drink one with no ice but chilled in the freezer, and drink the last with a splash or two of water.

If you like the cold because it mellows out flavor that you don’t like then you might want to get a different bottle of whiskey. If however, you just like your whiskey over ice then I’m all for it. I believe that you should drink it how you like. The question isn’t about that. It’s about paying $20 so you can throw rocks in your glass. I think that’s just silly but I guess that’s an easier sell than $20 bottles of special “whiskey water”.

Drink wisely my friends,

Richard

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Eagle Rare 10 Year Old

/ / Bourbon, Review / ,

Eagle Rare 10 Year Old Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
45% ABV
Widely available
$25 to $30

What The Distillery Says:
Eagle Rare 10 Year Old Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey has a sweet, oaky nose and full, complex body. Reminiscent of a fine port wine, this rare whiskey is best served neat, or over ice. Of Course, feel free to drink Eagle Rare in such classic cocktails as the Manhattan or Whiskey Sour.

What Richard Says:
Nose: Straight from the bottle the nose seems a little more dominated by alcohol than I would expect at this strength. Water opens up a lot of ripe citrus and hints of chocolate.
Palate: The palate dances between pepper and mild oak. With water the palate mellows showing oranges and honeysuckle sweetness.
Finish: Very spicy on the finish. It doesn’t burn but it leaves you with heat and oak. With water it goes down like silk.
Comments: I wanted to like this bourbon more than I do. I think it’s very muscular bourbon and it stands out in the category as a whole, especially at a sub-$30 price point. That said, up against other single barrel bourbons in the 10 year range it seem s a little lacking.
Rating: Stands out

What Matt Says:
Nose: Orange shellac, bubblegum, juicy fruit fluoride treatment, corn syrup and oak resin.
Palate: A little hot (alcoholic) with notes of cinnamon, mint, toasted oak and burnt sugar.
Finish: Cinnamon and oak
Comments: This one is hotter than I remember.  Maybe I’m thinking of the older expression.  I like each elemental aspect but I want a little more roundness.  This is an angular dram that unfolds more like a steel trap than a flower in bloom.  Overall, I tend to agree with Richard’s assessment except I’m going to give it an average rating.
Rating:  Average

Overall Rating:  Average

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Tullibardine Interview

/ / Matt's Blog

Some time ago, I attended a special tasting of Tullibardine single malt whisky at The Brandy Library.  Since I was somewhat impressed by the uniqueness of Tullibardine and had a lot of questions, Adam Jacobs of Total Beverage Solution hooked me up with James Robertson, International Sales Manager for Tullibardine (who missed the tasting due to volcanic activity in Iceland).  What follows is the result of an interview with James Robertson conducted by email.

Matt: James, what is your official title?
James Robertson: International Sales Manager
M: How long have you been in this position?
JR: Just over 2 years, before that I worked in the wine trade for 15 years including 8 years with Taittinger and Louis Jadot.
M: I really enjoy the unique character of the ’93 vintage.  Is this what we can expect from Tullibardine in the future?
JR: At the end of last year we produced our first bottling of new Tullibardine (made from spirit after 2003) tasted blind against the 1993 at recent events in Canada and Europe customers have been amazed how similar the profile is for a single malt which is in effect 6 years old.
M: Are the same barley strains available now as when the distillery was mothballed?  If not, how do you plan on recapturing the unique profile built under previous ownership?
JR: The Barley used comes from as local a source as we can get, harvests permitting. The profile is certainly being retained but also we feel improved by following the same model as before but also in much better cask purchasing.
M: Is the plan to continue with the vintage model instead of an age statement or will that change once you start bottling the whiskies produced after 2003?
JR: The plan is at the moment to continue with the vintage statement although the new bottling mentioned earlier has no age statement but is called “Aged Oak Edition”. There may well be no age statement wood finishes to follow, so Tullibardine Port Finish for example.
M: When will we see whisky made completely under the new management hit the market?
JR: In most markets the Aged Oak has arrived but I am not sure when we will get it onto the US market, soon I hope!
M: When you opened up the warehouse doors in 2003, did you find anything that surprised you?  Will there be any weird one-off bottlings like we’ve seen with Bruichladdich?
JR: There were no real surprises although I think that most commentators would agree that we have been exceptionally lucky in the quality of the 1960 casks that we have bottled to date. All of them have been very fruity and not woody at all. Our oldest cask from 1952 will be bottled in the near future. We will not be increasing the range too much as we feel that we do not want to go down the route of “shelf pollution” as one retailer put it about distilleries releasing too many expressions but we have got some casks being finished off in Banyuls which is probably a first!
M: What can we expect from Tullibardine in the future?
JR: We aim to produce single malts that retain the elegant, delicate and fruity style of Tullibardine and also to maintain the policy of selling our single malts at a price across the range that means that at each level they do not just sit on the shelf.
M: Thank you so much for your time.  I know I’m looking forward to seeing more Tullabardine on the shelf.  I’m especially interested to see what Banyuls casks do to the spirit.  Hopefully, we’ll cross paths at a whisky festival in the near future.

There you have it folks.  If you’re looking for a slightly different single malt, go looking for Tullibardine.  It looks like it’s only going to get more interesting.

-Matt

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Parker’s Heritage Collection First Edition

/ / Bourbon, Review, The Collector's Cabinet /

Parker’s Heritage Collection Cask Strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 1996 vintage
64.8% ABV
Limited Release
$80 to $90

What The Distillery Says:
Parker’s Heritage Collection is a tribute to sixth generation Master Distiller, Parker Beam, for his 45+ years of service to the distilling industry. Hand-selected by Park himself, this first edition has been aging in oak barrels since 1996 and has been drawn from the barrel at cask strength proof. This distinctive style of American Whiskey offers a truly extraordinary bourbon experience. – Best enjoyed with a splash of water.

What Richard Says:
Nose: Wild berry sweetness and caramel come through more than I would expect at this proof. With water I get coconut oil and melon fruit rind with a subtle hint of citrus.
Palate: It opens up with water to a lighter floral bourbon with hints of ripe fruit and licorice.
Finish: Water is a must, at which point this goes down nice and long. It’s very mellow with traces of polished oak and citrus.
Comments: This is not Stagg and at this proof this bourbon really needs a sizeable does of water. There were three different bourbons bottled in this collection for the first release and all are indistinguishable from the packaging except for the different proofs. This one was generally considered the less of the three. I haven’t had the others but this does stand out. However, I would expect more at this price point.
Rating: Stands Out

What Matt Says:
Nose: At first there are the standard notes you would expect from a bourbon (vanilla, caramel, oak).  Just under the standard fare, there is a strong note of apple cider sediment.
Palate: Warming and oily with notes of charred oak, caramel, vanilla and cloves.
Finish: Oak, oak, and more oak.
Comments: Maybe it’s because this was my second dram of the night, but I did not require the amount of water Richard suggests.  I found this one to be much more enjoyable at full strength.  There is a warming velvet complexity that collapses quite a bit with water.  He is right about one thing.  George T. Stagg this is not.  I’ve tried a few of the Heritage Collection bottlings and this is not my favorite.  A little above average, but only a little.
Rating:  Stands Out

Overall Rating:  Stands Out

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