Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2013 Release 125th Anniversary Bourbon 51.6% ABV $85 Website What the Distillery Says: With the ongoing celebration of our 125th Anniversary this year, our Master Distiller describes this release as “what could be the best Bourbon we’ve ever put in a bottle.” This year’s Barrel Strength Limited Edition Small Batch, created from 3 of our 10 distinct Bourbon recipes, welcomes you to the party with generous creamy vanilla, light oak and cherry cordial aromas. Bright splashes of raspberry and apricot greet the palate, giving way to subtle tones of nutmeg and cocoa. Then mellow flavors of cherry and vanilla bean define the long, luxurious finish in such a way to make you wish you could toast our 125th every year for the next 125 or more. Cheers.
Tasting Notes Nose: Creamy vanilla, light oak and cherry cordial aromas. Palate: Raspberry and apricot with subtle tones of nutmeg and coca Finish: Cherry and vanilla bean.
Recipe OBSV -18 years OBSK – 13 years OESK – 13 years
What Richard Says: Nose: Stewed cherries, sharp vanilla, and a stiff woody backbone. Palate: Cocoa powder, vanilla cream, stone fruits, musty old leather furniture, baking spices, and berries. Finish: Luden’s cough drops and a dry oak finish of medium length. Comments: This is another great release from Four Roses but it’s fickle with water. A splash or two opens the taste to more of the fruitier/berry notes and calms the finish but it makes the nose a little astringent. Truly a great and delicious bourbon but the water thing leaves me perplexed. Rating: Must Buy
Rhetoric Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Aged 20 Years 45% ABV $90 Website What the Bottler Says: The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Company was started to share barrels of rare and delicious whiskey, hidden away and nearly forgotten in the back of rickhouses and distilleries.
Stories of these lost whiskeys have become the stuff of legend. Our goal is to bottle these rare, small offerings for the world to try.
Every Orphan Barrel is hand bottled in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to ensure that these rare whiskeys are treated with the care they deserve – because some of them will only be available once. And once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
Ten steps ahead in a dance of discourse, Rhetoric candy-coats and compels with equal amounts of art. Proper, eloquent, and poetic, this Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey speaks a language to which you could listen for hours.
Each sip starts with a smoky, leathery nose that translates into vanilla oak, toasted rye, and dried fruits, and concludes with a long, full finish of cherry blossom and bitter chocolate.
An ever-changing specimen, Rhetoric is an experiment in how barrel maturation imparts a lasting impression year after year. Each new year results in an older and wiser limited release from remaining maturing stock. A conversation piece if there ever was one.
What Richard Says: Nose: More oak on the nose than the Barterhouse with notes of vanilla, orange marmalade, wood sap, and cherry blossoms. Palate: Dry yet creamy at the same time. It’s very weird. Leathery with heavy handed oak, a little honey, and pepper spice. Finish: Heavy oak and a dry tannic finish. This one wears it’s age on the finish hanging out there for everyone to see. Comments: I don’t like this one nearly as much as the Barterhouse. It seems a few years past its prime which is sad because the gimmick with Rhetoric is that they are holding back some of the same stock and releasing it in coming years as a progressively older version. Rating: Stands Out
Barterhouse Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey Aged 20 Years 45.1% ABV $80 Website What the Bottler Says: The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Company was started to share barrels of rare and delicious whiskey, hidden away and nearly forgotten in the back of rickhouses and distilleries.
Stories of these lost whiskeys have become the stuff of legend. Our goal is to bottle these rare, small offerings for the world to try.
Every Orphan Barrel is hand bottled in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to ensure that these rare whiskeys are treated with the care they deserve – because some of them will only be available once. And once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
Twenty years in American Oak will make your average spirit a bit mellow. Take all the fight out. Well this here is no ordinary spirit, and twenty years is long enough to pick up a trick or two. For one barrel in particular, it was long enough to develop the gift of a silver tongue. The old rickhouse hands had it written off as a rumor. A character so smooth, it could clean out the card sharps and take the shirt off a travelling salesman’s back.
But the rumors were true. And when the chips are in, a smooth operator can be mighty persuasive indeed. One sip of Barterhouse Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and you just might find yourself forgiving Robert Johnson for trading his soul to the very devil himself.
Tasting notes include warm biscuits and buttercream, with spice and brown sugar in the finish.
What Richard Says: Nose: Let it settle in the glass and nose comes across all warm vanilla cream and caramel. Agitate it a bit and the wood and cinnamon pop to the front. Palate: A nice creaminess to the mouth for a sub 100 proofer. Burnt vanilla beans, cinnamon Red Hots, a little orange zest, and peach pie. Finish: The finish is heavy on the wood but after 20 years in a new charred oak barrel you would expect that. Even still, Barterhouse wears the wood and age well. The wood on the finish is guiding hand out of the bourbon not a wallop with the oak stick. Comments: Troll the internet for “Barterhouse” and it won’t take too long before you start reading the bad press. A lot of it is around the story of the “lost” barrels or a general disdain for the British company’s folksy bottling and naming. Regardless the reason, many people are not liking this. I’m not one of them. I find the packaging and story silly. Really silly considering it comes from the international drinks behemoth Diageo. But damn it, the bourbon is good. It’s not the least bit over oaked given it’s age and it’s a damn fine drink. Plus, finding a sub $100 20 year old bourbon now is almost impossible. Rating: Must Buy
Did you know that there is a legal distillery making craft spirits right outside of Atlanta in Kennesaw? Yeah, I didn’t either. It seems like every other day new distilleries are popping up and is a giant undertaking. That said this one is about 15 minutes from my house so I really should’ve been a little more on top of it. Luckily for me, I have friends that are just as obsessed with all things whiskey as I am. A fellow Georgia Bourbon Society member put the word out on the Lazy Guy Distillery a couple of months ago and another member was industrious enough to organize a little tour for us.
It’s best to plan in advance if you want to visit Lazy Guy. It’s damn near a one man operation and that one man, Mark Allen can’t be making spirit if he’s got people randomly knocking on the front door. Also, he has a day job in consulting too. He will schedule tours for small groups and periodically he has open house events. We at met the distillery before the August Georgia Bourbon Society meeting in a torrential downpour. This is an extremely small operation and I drove past it twice before getting to the right place.
The distillery is two buildings near historic downtown Kennesaw dating back to the 1800’s. The front is an old house that serves as the office, tasting bar, and gift shop. Out back is an old barn right above the railroad tracks that serves as the distillery and aging warehouse. The tour comprises a walk out back for a very detailed walkthrough of the operations and a tasting of the four products Mark is bottling right now. You go into the barn and front and center you see the still, column, condenser and mash tun.
Off to the right are the fermenting tubs, off to the left is the bottling line, and around the left corner in a little nook is the “warehouse” where the aging spirit is held.
When I say small, this is small. However, right now it is a one man operation. Mark is quick to tell you about his efficiency yields and how all of this is set up to allow him to produce spirit by himself. Right now his only help in product production are volunteers helping with the bottling.
Mark is a very enthusiast and knowledgeable distiller and he is more than happy to keep the tour at the newbie level or dive into all the geek detail you could want. He is a very technical and practical distiller. He’s more the mad chemist out back in the shed than the romantic idea of distillers that some hold on to. Mark’s background is information technology and consulting. Distilling is new to him and he is self taught through voracious reading, visits to other distilleries, and good old trial and error. He’s very forthcoming with how he does what he does and why he’s made the decisions he made that led up to now. As examples of this he uses enzyme, not malted barley to kick start fermentation and how his “fermenting tubs” are giant plastic container that allow him to (relatively) easily monitor and adjust temperature and maintain sanitation.
It may not be as romantic of a notion as those 50 year old wooden fermentation tubs and germinated malted barley for fermentation but it gets the job done in a way he likes and can manage. I have to respect that.
Currently, Lazy Guy has four products on the market that you would probably call white whiskey or white dog with plans for a straight bourbon (aged 2 years) in 2015. Here’s a rundown of each one:
Threesome Whiskey The mashbill is 60% corn, 30% wheat, and 20% unmalted barley and it is bottled at 40% ABV. The distillate for this product is essentially bourbon distillate. It’s aged very briefly in used barrels. Lazy Guy uses used barrels for everything except the new bourbon they plan for next year. The reason is that Mark can’t get anymore barrels. You’ve heard of the dreaded bourbon shortage, which doesn’t actually exist to the extent you may think? Well the real concern is a true barrel shortage. There just isn’t enough production to keep up with demand so small guys like Mark can’t even get on the list. The barrels he does use were toasted rather than charred. Mark’s reasoning is that it gives more of a smoky and floral note rather than the typical coconut and vanilla. It was nice for a white whiskey. Better than most for sure.
Cold Heart Whiskey This is essentially a high proof version of the Threesome coming in at 60% ABV with the same distillate but it spends a little less time in the wood. It’s a similar profile to Threesome but it drinks surprisingly well at the higher proof.
Kennesaw Lightning This is Lazy Guy’s corn whiskey. The mash is 80% corn and 20% barley and clocks in at 50% ABV. It is a solid vodka replacement for sure. Maybe in a bloody mary?
The General Don’t let this one confuse you with the recent Compass Box release. The two could not be farther apart. This is also a corn whiskey, although a four grain corn whiskey. The mash is 80% corn, 6% rye, 7% wheat, and 7% barley. It clocks in at an impressive 75.5% ABV. This was something Mark was playing around with when a distributor stopped by and had a taste from the still. It went over so well it became a new product, although reduced to 75.5% from the 90% it was tasted at. It also drinks surprisingly well at high proof.
I’ve got to say that I was impressed with what Mark Allen is doing over at Lazy Guy Distillery. He has a passion for it but he’s not deluded by his passion. He realizes that the whiskey geek isn’t his target market. He has a great business head on his shoulders. He knows his product, market, and distribution and works smartly within those bounds. I’m not rushing out to buy a bottle because it’s not my type of thing but I respect what he’s doing and wish him the best.
You can visit the distillery at 2950 Moon Station Road, Kennesaw, Georgia. Make sure to call (770) 485-0081 or email media@lazyguydistillery.com first.
