1792 Ridgemont Reserve Bourbon - Lots of Character, Good Value

Non-circular bottle harkening back to the medicine and whiskey bottles of yore that you see in museums? Check.

Pretentious name? Check?

"Hand-crafted", "small batch", "barrel select", "rich/long heritage" used in on bottle marketing twaddle? Check.

Distiller "stamp of approval" detailing the warehouse or cask spirit was aged in? Check.

Good whiskey? Check, check, check.

1792 Ridgemont Reserve definitely hits all the major points in the super premium bourbon marketing handbook, and adds a braided neck piece, for an extra touch of "authenticity". Fortunately, the whiskey inside the marketing pitch delivers the goods, and for a reasonable price.

And unlike the Hirsch Small Batch Reserve Bourbon, where the marketing is pretty much pure BS, there is some substance to 1792's claims to heritage.

1792 (this refers to the year of Kentucky's admission as the US' 15th state, not the founding of the distillery) is actually the product of the Barton Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky: mashed, distilled, aged and bottled there. This is apparently still the case, even though Barton is now part of the Sazerac spirits conglomerate. The distillery was founded before Prohibition, and brought back to life after that sad, stupid experiment ended. The unsurprisingly convoluted history of the distiller is detailed at the American Spirits site.

When this bourbon hits the shelves in 2002, was named was Ridgemont Reserve 1792 and it carried an age statement of 8 years old. A competitor's lawsuit forced the name change to the current form, and just last year they dropped the age statement from the bottle. The 1792 website continues to state that all of the bourbon that goes into the bottles is aged for at least 8 years in oak.

1792 is bottled at 93.7 proof (46.85% abv) which means it's watered down from cask strength some, but not as much as your average scotch or irish whiskey. It has a lovely reddish amber color. The bottle may look old-fashioned, but it fits my hand quite well when pouring.

According to the 1792 website, the mash is a high rye recipe, and the nose and the flavor bear that out. Straight, the spirit has a feisty sharp nose, with plenty of alcohol, and lots of spicy rye bite...but smoother than you might expect, thanks to those 8 years in that hot Kentucky warehouse.

Add just a little water to 1792, though, and it blooms. The nose gentles and you can now smell the oak from the barrel. The spicy rye bite remains, but now it flows into second act of sweet honey followed by slowly growing oak in the medium to long finish. It's a lovely sipping whiskey.

It's also still a reasonably priced one. In my home state it comes at under $30 for a 750ml bottle. Looking online, prices range from $25 to $33 a bottle. At $25, it's a fantastic value. At $33, it's still well worth buying.

Bushmills 10-Year-Old Single Malt - A Convivial Dram

The Bushmills 10-year-old Single Malt is a rarity in the Irish Whiskey section of your local liquor store: an all barley malt whiskey that's the product of a single distillery.

Most of your Bushmills, Tullamore Dew, Jamesons and other Irish whiskies are blends of whiskies from different grains: barley, wheat and so on). Even the Tullamore Dew Special Reserve I reviewed earlier is a blended whiskey.

Of course, one of the reasons distillers mix in the whiskies made from other grains is to cut the cost. And you can see that reflected in the price: a regular old bottle of blended Bushmills will set you back $20 or so, but this 10-year-old single malt will cost around double that.

If it occurs to you that this sounds suspiciously like how scotch is priced and marketed...you're right. Bushmills is stealing, extremely belatedly, the whole scotch premium marketing plan, lock, stock, and barrel. Personally, I think that's a good thing.

Now, don't let that get you thinking this isn't still very much a traditional Irish whiskey. It most certainly is.

Like most Irish whiskies, the Bushmills Single is triple distilled. This makes a for a lighter, sweeter, and less complex spirit than the average scotch, which is double distilled. Whether you think this is a good or bad thing is purely a matter of personal taste. For me, it depends on the day, the weather and my mood. Sometimes I crave something really complex, and sometimes I desire a lighter, simpler spirit to warm my tastebuds and my evening.

The label says the Bushmills 10 YRO Single Malt spent its decade of aging in bourbon and oloroso sherry casks. It doesn’t say how long the spirit spends in each type of barrel. Based on the flavor, I’m guessing it spends most of its time in the bourbon barrel, with a short stay at the end in the sherry barrel, and the Bushmills website seems to back up that assessment.

In the glass, the Bushmills 10 YRO has nice golden color. Neat, I smell oak, with hints of sherry, and the bite of alcohol. Despite already being watered down to 80 proof (40% abc). prior to bottling, adding a splash of water gentles the aroma significantly, bringing up the sherry notes, exposing some honey ones, and dulling the astringent alcohol smell.

Sipped neat, it starts sweet, with some sherry notes and then some oak and alcohol bite. With a splash of water, and a little really does go a long way with this, the transitions smooth out quite nicely. As with the aroma, the sherry notes really pick up, more honey notes come through, and even a hint of chocolate, and the alcohol bite drops down to a pleasant warmth. For me, the mouthfeel also improves - somehow the little bit of extra water made it feel richer and thicker on my tongue. But it retains the classic Irish whiskey characteristics: lightish on the tongue, with a refined sweetness.

With that vital splash of water, this is probably my favorite Irish Whiskey right now. It has more character than, say, Tullamore Dew, but it still sips extremely smoothly. It makes an excellent reading or conversational companion, or balm for a series of brutal defeats at the Rummikub table, especially on warm summer nights.

In the realm of Irish Single Malts, I think this edges The Tyrconnell on flavor, though the Tyrconnell wins on price, though by how much varies from retailer to retailer. The Bushmills 10 YRO Single Malt definitely a solid buy, especially if your tastes run to the lighter side of the scotch world, or if you prefer the lighter flavors of other Irish whiskies to scotch.

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel Bourbon - A Fitting Memoriam

 

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel Bourbon is one of the amazing variety of bourbons that flow from the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. I've previously reviewed a different bourbon from this distillery: Old Weller Antique Reserve, which is just about my top value bourbon.

The whiskey is named after Buffalo Trace's former master distiller, who recently passed away. Lee was credited with reviving bourbon drinking in the US by creating the premium bourbon category with Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon in 1984. I haven't reviewed Blanton's yet, but it's one of my top 4 bourbons ever, and has a permanent place on my bar.

Despite being from the same distillery, these are distinctly different offerings. First off, there's the grain bill. While both are, by law, required to be at least 51% corn, the grain bill for Elmer T includes rye, whereas Old Weller replaces that with wheat. As a result, you'd expect the Elmer T be spicier, and the Weller to be sweeter.

Elmer T is also bottled at 90 proof (45% abv) , which means it's watered down to sipping strength, while Old Weller is essential cask strength at 107 proof (53.5% abv). I drink both with some water added, which mean I likely end up making them pretty close to equal strength in my glass.

However, they are similar in the incredibly reasonable prices they go for on store shelves. Elmer T. Lee runs around $25 a bottle in the US, which makes it an easy choice for a regular dram.

Which is good, because the flavor will keep you reaching for the bottle. This is an amazingly well-balanced bourbon. It starts off sweet, then there's some fire, and then the spice of the rye and oak comes in and then it all fades away to honey. This is a medium-bodied dram that smells of vanilla and honey and oak, and the rich amber color looks lovely in the glass. It sips nicely, cleanly, with a medium long, sweet finish.

One quick not about the bottle. You can't tell from the photo, but the bottle has a distinctive feel in the hand. The unlabeled sides are hollowed in, providing a perfect hand grip. It's a small touch, but a well thought out one.

I'd say it's a fitting tribute to a bourbon pioneer. And now that my bottle is empty, I'll be hunting for a replacement - this deserves to be a permanent fixture on my bar.

As to where this fits on my bourbon continuum, I'm provisionally putting it above Old Weller Antique Reserve and just a hair below the my personal top quartet of bourbons. I reserve the right to reevaluate and possibly promote it once I procure another bottle for further tasting.

In terms of absolute value, I'd score this equal to the Old Weller Antique Reserve. As a gift idea for a whiskey enthusiast, this a definite step above the Old Weller: the cork stopper (as opposed the Old Weller's plastic cap) makes a better impression, and the link to the master distiller and fact that it's a single barrel whiskey push it a couple of notches higher up the gift chain.

 

 

 

Zaya - Rum Good Enough to Drink Straight

 



 

Curveball - this week we're venturing into a place I rarely go: the world of rum.

As a younger man, I drank a fair amount of rum in a small variety of mixed drinks. As I aged and started drinking my spirits straight, or with a little water, rum became something I kept  on the bar for my friends who didn't like whiskey. It was a lonely bottle of either Ronrico or Bacardi, light, and lasted a long time, since it only got consumed by visitors.

Last year at our annual Solstice Party, though, a friend whose opinion on many things, including booze, I greatly respect, insisted I try a dram of this Zaya Grand Reserva dark rum he had brought.

With a little trepidation, I did. What a surprise.

It smelled of vanilla and caramel. It had a slightly heavy, but pleasant mouthfeel when taken neat.

And, oh my, the flavor. Sweet, so very sweet, with rich vanilla, caramel and chocolate notes. You can taste some alcohol, but there's almost no alcohol burn, which is simply stunning for an 80 proof (40% abv) spirit. It has a nice medium length finish, with maybe just a hint of oak towards the end.

Zaya Grand Reserva is a blended rum, made from a blend of different rums that have been aged in oak barrels for at least 12 years. It's also supposed to be quintuple distilled.

For those who have forgotten, rum is made from sugar cane. And while all drinking alcohol is produced by yeast eating sugar, the source of sugar the yeast consumes greatly affects the flavor of the alcohol created.

You could make mixed drinks with this, I guess, but stay away from mixing it with cola. Your tongue will go into a diabetic coma.

I recommend at least trying this as I take it: neat, at room temperature. It will have you seeing rum in a whole new light.

You can find this around the country, and even in North Carolina, for $30 - $35 a bottle, which is a decent price for an excellent 12-year-old spirit.

And, yes, my friend was kind enough to leave the bottle with me...

 

Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select - Superb Bourbon

 

If you like bourbon, you owe it to yourself to give this one a try. It's both an excellent whiskey and and good value.

In fact, I'll cut to the chase. This is part of my top-flight bourbon quartet: 4 bourbons that stand above the rest . If you wish to give a bottle of bourbon as a gift to an aficionado, or want to stock your bar with a single top shelf bourbon, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select is a can't miss choice.

Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select comes in old-fashion looking, flat-sided, almost rectangular bottles. The 375 ml bottle, as result, hits quite nicely in backpack pockets, jacket pockets, or even in the deep snap pockets of some cargo pants. The 750 ml bottle contrasts nicely with all the round bottles on my bar. The 1.75 L, on the other hand, looks a bit ridiculous.

The bottles carry no age statement, but do carry a bottle number and a batch number. Each batch consists of a number of different barrels blended together to achieve the Distiller's Select taste. If you're really, really, really, obsessively into taste consistency, you could try tracking down only bottles from the same batch. Given that the of the blending of the barrels will effectively smooth over the barrel-to-barrel differences, I doubt it's worth the effort.

The whiskey inside is a deep amber. It's 90.4 proof, which means it's been lowered from cask strength. The aroma is sweet and spicy, and the flavor, straight, is refreshing blend of the same. It sips smoothly straight, the alcohol fire tempered by the sweet and spicy down to a pleasant heat. It's got a nice medium body - not too thin on the tongue, not too heavy. The finish is pleasant, but not overly long.

Add a splash of water, (really, it only takes a little) and the aroma loses a little spice and gains more sweet and caramel notes. Likewise, more caramel and vanilla come out in the flavor, along with stronger hints of pepper. The oakiness recedes somewhat in the initial tasting, only to assert itself a little more strongly in the finish. The heat also turns down a notch to nicely warm.

This truly a smooth sipping whiskey. It's triple distilled, which is much more common for Irish whisky than bourbon, using scottish stills, another rarity in the bourbon industry. The extra bit of spice comes from the increased propoportion of rye in the grain bill (72% corn, 10% malt, and 18% rye, according to the Woodford Reserve website).

A 750 ml of this retails for about $30 - $35. Since the flavor matches well against other bourbons and scotches that sell for $40-$60 a bottle, I consider this to be a solid value.

It has a permanent home on my bar - as soon a bottle is finished, it's replaced.

For comparison, I like Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select more than the Old Weller Antique and Willett bourbon's I have already reviewed. It's just a bit smoother, a bit more complex flavor wise, a bit more polished, a bit more everything good to me.

Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon (Single Barrel) - Keeping the Bottle's Promise

[caption id="attachment_38" align="aligncenter" width="546"] Such a cool bottle.[/caption]

First things first - that is a damn cool looking bottle. It's shaped like a pot still, which makes it self-referential as well as striking.

Also interesting is that this a single-barrel whiskey, not to be confused with cask-strength whiskey. A whiskey can be one or both.

In this case, it's single-barrel, but not cask strength. It's been watered down a little to 94 proof (whiskey tends to come out of the barrel around 110 proof or higher, unless it's been aged a couple of decades or more). Mine is bottle 80 of 259 from barrel 80, for what that's worth.

"Single Barrel" denotes a bottle whose contents come from a single barrel. This is distinct from the normal practice of marrying the contents of many, many barrels together to smooth out the barrel-by-barrel variations that occur during the aging process and create a distinctive, but repeatable, flavor for the expression.

So, while the master distiller does his best to choose the representative barrels for single barrel bottling, it's reasonable to expect more variation between bottles from different barrels than you would  between bottles from different mixed barrel bottlings. So, if you find a bottle of single barrel whiskey that you dearly love, you might want to keep an eye out for other bottles from that same barrel.

Willett Pot Still Reserve carries no age statement. However, information online seems to indicate that it's aged between 8-10 years in oak barrels.

However neat the concept and striking the container, though, booze earns its place on my bar by its taste, and taste alone. So, do the contents live up to the promise of the bottle?

Yes, yes they do.

WIllett Pot Still Reserve is a lovely deep amber. Neat, the nose is sweet, with some oak spiciness. On the tongue, it is medium bodied, smooth. The flavor starts with a rich sweetness of honey and vanilla that fades into a pleasantly long spicy finish.

Add a little water, not much at all, and the caramel and vanilla become discernible in the nose. The initial sweetness subsides some what, but more caramel comes through. The finish loses some length, but the spicy notes multiply, making for a pleasantly more complex dance of flavors on your tongue.

A quick check online shows prices running between $35-$40 a bottle, which makes this a solid value. The fact that the bottle is a conversation piece is just icing on the cake, as it were.

This now has a home on my bar - when the bottle is finished, I will find a way to replace it. That said, I'm still figuring out where this fits vis-a-vis my big 4: Blantons, Woodford Reserve, Elijah Craig 18, and Black Maple Hill. I think it's just below them - which still makes it an excellent dram. More testing, I think, is required.

Learn more about the Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (Willett Distillery).

Old Pulteney 12 - A Lovely Dram

This week's dram is Old Pulteney 12. This is a single malt scotch aged  for 12 years in ex-bourbon barrels.

This is the youngest expression from the Pulteney Distillery in Wick, Scotland. They also offer 17-, 21-, 30-, and 40-year-old whiskies.

The Pulteney Distillery is the Scottish main's northernmost distillery. Wick is a coastal town, and the whisky features flavors and aromas that evoke the sea.

This has long been one of my favorite single malts, because of its lovely, complex flavor and reasonable price (between $30-$40, depending on locale) for a 12-year-old scotch. Old Pulteney 12 is bottled at 86 proof, which is in the standard range for most scotches.

Taken neat, the color is a golden amber. My nose detects a hint of sea air, and some honey. On the tongue, I taste honey, more hints of the sea, a small bit of fire and peat and maybe a few bourbon notes. It's mouthfeel is medium  - not too heavy, not too light. It seems to finish quick and clean, but there's pleasant subtle lingering aftertaste. The alcohol burn is quite muted.

Old Pulteney 12 drinks quite nicely neat, in part because it's already been watered down some from cask strength, as are the vast majority of whiskies on the market. However, just because a whisky is bottled at less than cask strength doesn't mean that a little water in the glass won't potentially have a great effect on the aroma and flavor.

Add a splash of water, and things change quite a bit. The nose intensifies, and if I close my eyes and sniff, I can picture myself on a rock jetty with salt spray in the air.

The honey flavors recede just a little, and out comes more of the briny sea flavors,  as well as some of spiciness of the oaken bourbon casks. The finish lengthens as well.

One of the things that I happen to love about the coast is the smell of salt and seaweed in the air. The flavors and aromas of Old Pulteney can transport me to a bracing day on the edge of the sea, waves rhythmically breaking on the sea wall, salt in the air carried by a stiff breeze...as opposed to the southern Islay malts, which evoke stormy seas with raging waves and howling winds.

This is a single malt that I try to keep on my bar. I don't always succeed, due to Old Pulteney no longer being sold in home state of North Carolina.