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Bourbons: Why
I quit, and why I started again My father, before he figured that he could sneak vodka into his tea and "no one would notice" was a bourbon man. Some of my earliest memories of him and drinking was when we would go camping with other families and he and the other men would bring along log cabin-shaped bottles of E.G. Booze. Later he switched to a few of the commercially available continuous-batch brands that could be found for about $3.00 a fifth (remember fifths?). Other than the occasional jelly glass of beer that he would give me in the summer as we watched a football game, about the first liquor to pass my lips was Hiram Walker's Ten High bourbon. It had a nice, sweet taste and was very good when mixed with Pepsi (no, I am not a Coke man). And that sweetness is what finally made me run away from drinking bourbons. The high corn content in the mash (at least 51% corn by law and usually much higher in these mass market brands) leads to a sweetness in the finished product. Fine for young palettes, but I got "sophisticated" real fast and by the age of 20 was drinking Scotch whisky. It was not sweet and has a lot more character. In the ensuing 27 years I have been almost exclusively a Scotch drinker. But something wonderful is happening in the bourbon world.
The analogy I like to make is this: drinking straight rye whiskey is to drinking bourbon or a single malt (scotch) as drinking Coors Light is to drinking a full-bodied, dark microbrew. Pale and almost tasetless by comparison. Don't believe or really understand what I mean? Well, if you are willing to spend about $55.00 here is the tasting I recommend to see what the differences are. Go buy (and then taste in this order): 1) Bulliet Bourbon Unless your tastebuds are dead, or mine are miswired, you should find that the rye comes out driest and weakest in the flavor department, the J.D. comes in about what you'd expect, and the Knob Creek comes in with a better ballance and flavor while still maintaining lots of the general characteristics of the J.D. Also interesting to note is that a lot of these smaller bourbons are bottled at much higher proof than their mass-produced cousins. Some up in the 100 proof and above (even as high as 140 proof). They usually don't go well as straight sipping stuff... the trick is to find the balance between the bottled proof and what brings out the best taste. Many people I have spoken with tend to say to dilute (with pure, tasteless bottled water not tap water) so that the result is about 70-80 proof. That means, for the math-challenged, that if the whiskey is bottled at 140 proof you then add almost an equal amount of water to dilute it by half (half of 140 proof is 70 proof). For a 100 proof whiskey, you would add a bit over 1/2 as much water. Also to note, and of the most importance to me, is that these small batch bourbons have many of the characteristics of fine single-malt whiskys, namely in the wonderful way they blossom, or "open up," when you add just a few drops of water. Suddenly, new aromas such as hints of vanilla and caramels, even fine flowery or herbal notes come through. These were all held inside the spirit until the water allows them to escape turning many of these fine sipping whiskeys into an even finer experience. Abandon your Old Grandad. Wave bye-bye to Jim Beam. Run like Hell from Ten-High! Try one or more of these small-batch bourbons. And, if you are one of those vodka or gin drinkers, go there to read about a couple of vodkas and gins, and an amazing vermouth I have found to be amazing experiences. |
There
are a growing number of small batch distilleries, many bottling
only a few barrels at a time and a few doing bottlings from a
single barrel at a time. Names you might easily find include Knob
Creek, Bakers 107, Elija Craig, and Evan Williams. And there are
new names (or old names finally coming back after years of damage
caused by Prohibition) such as the wonderful "Frontier Whiskey"
produced by Tom Bulleit at Bulleit Distillery in Lawrenceburg,
Kentucky. We had the pleasure of meeting Tom at this year's 
The
men and women responsible for these small batch and single barell
liquors seem to be more interested in creating a better bourbon
than in raking in the big bucks. These tend to be less sweet —
they use almost the minimum-allowed corn and increase the rye
and in some cases the wheat. This produces a dryer tasting end
product with a hint of pepper (from the rye). And that is what
might drag me back to bourbons.
Speaking of rye and
rye whiskey, the main reason I don't drink straight rye whiskey
is that it lacks character. That which enhances the bourbon is
pale by itself. Just take most of the "Canadian" whisies
for example. Very heavy on the rye. Almost no taste. Almost always
served mixed (hidden?) with cola or other mixers.