New Cocktails: One Eyed Jack

One of my friends recently posted a picture of a mini-menu from the West Side Lounge in Boston. They're starting a weekly Twin Peaks evening and made a set of cocktails specifically for it. The one I decided to make myself is named after the brothel in the TV show - the drink certainly is dangerous.

One Eyed Jack
1.5 oz applejack
0.75 oz Chartreuse
0.75 oz rye whiskey
1 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is dominated by the Chartreuse, but remains fairly balanced, with the applejack's fruit and rye whiskey's grain making themselves known. The sip begins with moderate sweetness, with apples coming in early, followed by herbal notes from the Chartreuse and spice from the rye and bitters, then leaving with bittersweet apples.

Since all I had to begin with were the ingredients, I modeled the proportions on the Widow's Kiss, substituting rye whiskey for the Bénédictine. Since it was going to be a lot less sweet that way, I back off on the bitters to keep things in balance. It's surprisingly smooth and easy going for being a cocktail made entirely with high-proof spirits. It works out well since the two spirits compliment different aspects of the Chartreuse, combing together in a beautiful melange.

Classic Cocktails: De La Louisiane

I was pointed towards this fantastic twist on the classic Sazerac cocktail by Thomas Prieto. It originally comes from the Restaurant de la Louisiane, a famous French restaurant in early 20th-century New Orleans. The recipe was recorded by Stanley Clisby Arthur in his 1937 book New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em.

De La Louisiane
2 oz rye whiskey
0.75 oz sweet vermouth
0.75 oz Bénédictine
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
3 dashes (~0.5 tsp) pastis or absinthe

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is dominated by the anise notes of the Herbsaint and Peychaud's, herbaceousness from the Bénédictine, with hints of sweet wine and rye. The sip begins with honey and wine sweetness from the Bénédictine and sweet vermouth, becoming herbal rye mid-palate, then leaving with a shower of anise sparks.

This is a really interesting mash-up of the Sazerac and the Vieux Carré. It's less sweet than I would have guessed looking at the recipe - the ingredients balance each other rather well. I would highly recommend this if you enjoy rye whiskey cocktails.

Classic Cocktails: the Blinker

I snagged this drink from Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. The drink first appeared in Patrick Gavin Duffy's The Official Mixer's Manual in 1934. That suggests that it probably came out of Prohibition, when lots of drinks were developed to hide the taste of bad spirits. While I'm using finer ingredients than what would have been available at the local speakeasy, it still manages to hide an awful lot of whiskey.

Blinker
2 oz rye whiskey
1 oz grapefruit juice
2 barspoons raspberry syrup

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice for six seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The nose is full of grapefruit with hints of lemon oil from the garnish and there is a bit of rye and raspberry underneath. The sip begins with mildly sweet grapefruit, which grows towards mid-palate. The rye and raspberry rise alongside. The finish is all raspberry and rye grain.

This drink definitely fits the Prohibition mold. With that said, unless you want the whiskey to hide even more, I wouldn't try substituting bourbon into this cocktail - it probably won't be able to hold its own. If Rittenhouse can barely punch through, no bourbon short of George T. Stagg is going to make much of an impression. Either way, it's either an easy drinking cocktail (build it over ice and dilute it with a squirt of soda water for something a bit snappier in the summer) or a good way to ease someone into rye whiskey.

Whiskey Review: Rock Hill Farms Single Barrel Bourbon

Rock Hill Farms is one of the single barrel bourbons distilled at Buffalo Trace using their 'high rye' mash bill. I got a sample of this bourbon from Florin, one of my readers, as I'd been itching to try it since reading Josh's review. Rock Hill Farms is an actual location near BT, the home of Albert Blanton - the founder of the distillery.

While reading the comments on Josh's post I became aware of one of the confusing things about Buffalo Trace - they distill whiskey made from a number of different mash bills - a wheat recipe bourbon, a low rye (8%) bourbon, a high rye (15%) bourbon, and a rye whiskey (51%). However, despite a number of flagship products including Blanton's, Elmer T. Lee, and Rock Hill Farms coming from the high rye mash bill, the distillery's name never appears on those bottles.

It turns out this is because the brands associated with the high rye mash bill are actually the property of  a Japanese company owned by Takaro Shuzo, Age International, who previously owned a major stake in Buffalo Trace and also owns a number of other spirit companies (the Tomatin whisky distillery, for instance). This came about due to the distillery's rather turbulent history during the late 1980s and early 1990s - at that point the distillery was still known at Ancient Age and Age International bought in after a less than successful attempt by executives from the previous owner, Schenley, to run the distillery on their own. Subsequently, the Sazerac corporation, which had previously bought bourbon under contract from Heaven Hill, purchased a majority stake in the distillery in the late 1990s so that they would be able to distill their own bourbon and renamed the distillery Buffalo Trace. This ended up pushing AI into a minority shareholder position, creating quite a bit of friction between the two companies. However, BT still produces bourbon using the high rye mash bill under contract for AI, as well as distributing it in the US. AI does international distribution on its own - meaning that some versions of their bourbons are only available abroad. This also explains why none of the high rye whiskey produced at BT has made it into their top-of-the-line Antique Collection - BT doesn't actually own any of it.

From Buffalo Trace

Rock Hill Farms Single Barrel

Nose: red wine/brandy notes (acidic and grape-y), underlying dusty corn and rye grain, berries, dark chocolate, sandwich bread, rich caramel/toffee, a bit of vanilla. After adding a few drops of water, it becomes lighter and airier, the rye retreats but corn gains more ground, there's a touch of oak,  it seems sweet and dry at the same time, and there are stronger berries and vanilla.

Taste: brief sucrose sweetness up front - which subtly rides underneath the subsequent flavors, then big black/chili pepper spice and grapes/berries mid-palate, ending with mildly bitter oak notes. After dilution there is a more integrated flavor profile - the sweetness extends further back and the pepper/berries/oak come in sooner, and the berry flavors become much bigger with spikier pepper notes.

Finish: berries, rye, lightly bitter oak, toffee/vanilla, coffe beans, pepper, corn

This is a very, very good bourbon. While I will once again state my annoyance that there's no info about the barrel that this whiskey came from on the bottles, the person picking it did an excellent job. The only stumbling point comes when you want to talk about value. Out here in the great state of Oregon, Rock Hill Farms is above $50. Even from cheaper sources it's above $40. That's single malt whisky territory where there's a lot of stiff competition. If you want a bourbon of this caliber I'd lean towards something like Wild Turkey Rare Breed, which has a similar flavor profile and is also a whole lot cheaper.

New Cocktails: And to All a Good Night...

This drink comes from Tim Stookey of the Presidio Social Club in San Francisco via the 2008 holiday cocktail guide from Imbibe. A bit of a puzzler on its face, it was much tastier than I thought it might be.

And to All a Good Night...
1.5 oz bourbon
0.75 oz reposado tequila
0.75 oz cherry Heering
2 dashes orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters

The nose is dominated by the cherry Heering, with flashes of agave. After the drink warms up, corn notes from the bourbon start to emerge. It begins sweetly, but that is quickly tamed by a combination of the bitters and tannins from the bourbon, with the tequila weaving through it. The finish is bittersweet chocolate.

This is a somewhat peculiar cocktail. The combination of bourbon and tequila is rather unique. I feel like the results are going to be dependent on which spirits you pick. The Elijah Craig 12 I used is a dominant force in the drink, pushing the tequila into the background. It doesn't help that higher proof tequilas are pretty thin on the ground, so all of the ones I own feel a bit outmatched in this situation.

Most of all, while I liked the drink, I don't think it's something I'd serve to anyone other than a booze nerd. It's not quite harmonious enough, at least with the ingredients I picked, to sit well with most people. Maybe with a wheated bourbon and a lighter tequila, it'd all fit together better. And either way, I'm not sure that there's anything particularly festive about it. Still, it piques my interest in seeing how well tequila works with other spirits, so at least it will make me investigate further.

Beginners Guide to Bourbon and Rye Whiskey

On the heels of my guide to scotch whisky, I thought I would turn to something a little bit closer to home. While rum may have launched the United States, bourbon and its cousin rye whiskey are the spirits now most closely associated with America.

American whiskey production grew out of the settlement of the Ohio River Valley. After independence, white settlers began to move west of the Appalachian Mountains, which had previously been restricted by the British government, eager to keep their colonists close to the coast where they could be more easily taxed. The farmers who grew crops in the extremely fertile region, including lots of corn, rye, and barley, found that it wasn't economically feasible to transport their grain east of the mountains where most of the demand for their products was to be found. However, if those grains were fermented and distilled, the resulting whiskey had a lot more value per pound, meaning that money could be made even after shipping it over the Appalachians. This fueled the almost insatiable appetite for liquor during the 19th century, when the average American drank about five gallons of absolute alcohol in a year (this translates to roughly one 750 mL bottle of 80-proof liquor in a week).

Column still at Wild Turkey via Alcademics

These early whiskeys would have been rather rough 'n ready, with thousands of small distilleries producing spirits from whatever grains were cheapest at the time. Most would have been using small copper pot stills and without the tools to precisely measure alcohol concentration, relying on experience and guesswork to judge when to make cuts. That meant significant amounts of unpleasant compounds from the heads and tails of a run would have made it into the hearts cut. Batch variation would have been significant - without purified yeasts to inoculate the wort and less rigorous decontamination of their equipment, wild yeasts and bacteria would often infect the mash, producing all sorts of peculiar compounds. Direct fired stills making for uneven heating of the wort, producing another set of potentially off compounds. Barrel aging would have been more often than not incidental, a product of shipment rather than planning. Which is all to say that these whiskeys would have been very different from the mellow and refined spirits we know and love today.

Now there are very tight regulations about how bourbon and rye whiskeys must be produced if the distillers want to label them as 'straight' bourbon or rye whiskey. First, bourbon must be made from a mash of between 51 and 80% corn, with the balance being made up with rye or wheat (the flavoring grain) and malted barley (the enzymes in malt convert starches from the other grains into fermentable sugars). Distillation must be to no more than 160-proof (80% alcohol) and the distillate must be diluted to no more than 125-proof (62.5% alcohol) for aging in new charred oak barrels. At that point it can be called bourbon whiskey. To gain the 'straight' moniker, the bourbon must be aged for at least two years. Bottling, whether straight bourbon or not, must be at least 80-proof (40% alcohol). American rye whiskey conforms to the same requirements, except that the mash must contain at least 51% rye, with the balance being made up with corn and malted barley.

The main axis for understanding bourbon and rye whiskey is the percentage of rye in the mash bill. Rye both adds spiciness to whiskey and covers up some of the inherent sweetness from the corn. Just outside the spectrum are wheated bourbons, which use wheat as a flavoring grain instead of rye. This makes for a much softer bourbon, without the chili pepper burn found in most rye recipe bourbons. The most well-known wheated bourbon is Maker's Mark, but I generally prefer Weller bourbons. At the beginning of the rye recipe bourbon spectrum, go for something like Buffalo Trace with 8% rye in its mash bill. Rye flavors will be present, but tend to give way to corn sweetness. In the mid range, Wild Turkey, Ezra Brooks, and Evan Williams bourbons are all made from a 13% rye mash bill and most of Jim Beam's whiskeys are made with a 15% rye mash bill. Here rye becomes a more significant presence, but is still in balance with the corn. Above this, we enter what is generally thought of as 'high rye' territory. Four Roses uses two different 'high rye' mash bills, one at 20% and another at a whopping 35% (the latter is the source for Bulleit bourbon). Jim Beam maintains a legacy 30% rye mash bill for their Old Grand Dad and Basil Hayden expressions. In those whiskeys, rye will be more more prominent, making the bourbon both more spicy and less sweet.

From there exists a bit of a gap until you hit rye whiskeys. At 51% rye in the mash bill, Jim Beam (and their Old Overholt label) Rye and Sazerac 6 Year are just over the legal line. So while these are definitely rye whiskeys, with all the spicy herbal flavors that implies, they also retains a fair amount of corn sweetness, making them a good bridge between the two styles of whiskey. From there, it's a jump to whiskeys made with 65% rye in their mash bills - Rittenhouse, Wild Turkey, and Russell's Reserve. These are very spicy and much drier than bourbon. Finally, LDI/MGP uses a 95% rye mash bill for whiskey that is now released by a wide range of independent bottlers from Bulleit to Willett to Templeton to Redemption to George Dickel (if it's a new rye whiskey brand, then it's probably from LDI/MGP - they're the only distiller with spare rye capacity). To get above that, you'll have to turn to Canada - Alberta Distillers makes a 100% rye mash bill whisky. While usually blended into Canadian whiskies, it is also sold as Alberta Premium and now bottled by a number of American independent bottlers, ranging from Jefferson's to Masterson's and Whistle Pig.

The other axis to look at is age. Because bourbon and rye are aged in new charred oak barrels, they soak up flavor very quickly. This means that even a year or two can make a significant difference in flavors. It's best to keep the mash bill of the whiskeys you're comparing the same or similar to remove that variable from the equation. Many distillers offer whiskeys from the same mash bill at different ages, such as Buffalo Trace (~4-5 years old) and Eagle Rare (10 years old) or Wild Turkey (6-8 years old) and Russell's Reserve (10 years old) or Weller Special Reserve (~7 years old) and Weller 12 Year. Older whiskeys will tend to be more oaky and tannic, but also with more caramel and toffee flavors.

While this feels like a lot of information, hopefully it gives you a few places to start or expand your exploration of American whiskeys. Bourbon and rye are fantastic choices these days because there are still so many great whiskeys available for under $30, making it a very economical way to drink well.

Mixology Monday LXIX: Fortified Wine - Madeira

Another fortified wine entry for Mixology Monday, this time with madeira. This recipe was a lucky find on the Mixilator, the always entertaining random cocktail generator, which I tweaked a shift towards the sweeter end of things.

Madeira is largely unknown these days, despite being one of the favorite drinks of the Founding Fathers (it was drunk both at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). Like many fine drinks, it was slain by Prohibition and never regained its rightful place in American drinking habits. However, it's a fabulous choice of wine, both because of its flavor and because its production methods make it one of the sturdiest wines around (bottles produced in the late 18th century are often not only drinkable but astoundingly good). While not common in cocktails, it can be found in a number of pre-Prohibtion tipples.

The Defalcating Honeymoon
2 oz madeira
0.75 oz Angostura bitters
0.5 oz rye whiskey
0.25 oz orgeat
0.5 tsp Green Chartreuse

Combine all ingredients, shake with ice for six seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose requires the drink to warm before opening up completely with notes of madeira, rye whiskey, and savory spices. The sip begins with subdued grape and almond sweetness, then subdued bitterness, more savory spices and herbs, leading to darker wine notes, and leaving with a final herbaceous and nutty puff.

This is a bit of an odd duck, with a fortified wine base, a lot of bitters, and Chartreuse. Yet it all manages to come together nicely. The original version didn't have orgeat, which I think is necessary to keeping all of the ingredients in harmony. As with other cocktails made with significant quantities of Angostura bitters, it also develops a lovely foam. While it took a few tries to get right, I'm quite happy with how this drink turned out.

Looking forward to all of the other Mixology Monday entries to come.

Mixology Monday LXIX: Fortified Wines - Sherry

This month's Mixology Monday theme is fortified wine, so for my first post I decided to dip into the variety I know best - sherry. This nice little punch comes from Imbibe magazine.

Misa de Gallo is the mass celebrated near midnight on Christmas Eve in Spain and Portugal - a tradition going back to the second century. The name comes from the cock's crow that would herald the start of the day.

Misa de Gallo Punch
2 oz bourbon
0.75 oz sherry
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
0.125 oz allspice dram
1 dash Angostura bitters
2 oz soda water

Build over ice, saving soda water for last. Stir briefly to combine.

The nose is dominated by corn and barrel notes from the bourbon along with savory hints of sherry. The sip begins smoothly, along with bubbles. The proceeding flavors are rather dry, trending towards acidic, with bourbon, sherry, and spices from the allspice dram and bitters.

While this drink was designed with PX sherry, I decided to take it in a slightly different direction with a full dry oloroso. The drink becomes more of an aperitif/digestif, even with the healthy dose of bourbon, as the soda water keeps it relatively light and the dry/bitter finish gives it snap. I think this would be a great warm-weather punch. You can adjust the final flavors with different sherries. Oloroso for full dry, amontillado/East India Solera for medium-sweet, or PX for lots of sweetness.

Looking forward to all the other MxMo contributions!

Classic Cocktails: Improved Whiskey Cocktail #3

The last and final version (for a while) of the Improved Whiskey Cocktail from the series I've been posting.

Improved Whiskey Cocktail #3
2 oz bourbon
1 tsp blackberry liqueur
0.5 tsp Swedish punch
2 dash Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a rocks glass.

The nose is redolent of overcooked berries, rye spice, and smoke. The sip opens with moderate sweetness, split between corn and stewed fruit. The flavors slowly progress towards bitterness, with smoke, tea and oak tannins, and Angostura's classic notes.

It's hard to pick favorites, this one may take the cake. The interplay of bourbon, blackberry, and tea smoke is just transcendent. Some of this may have to do with using a bottle of blackberry liqueur that's been open for almost three years, resulting in enough oxidation to turn the brighter fruit flavors into something richer and almost cooked. Whatever, this one was magic. Highly recommended if you have the ingredients on hand.

Classic Cocktails: Improved Whiskey Cocktail #2

Next up in a short series of posts of variations on the Improved Whiskey Cocktail, one that I decided to take in a rather different direction.

Improved Whiskey Cocktail #2
2 oz bourbon
1 tsp St. Germain
0.5 tsp Yellow Chartreuse
1 dash Fee's grapefruit bitters
1 dash Peychaud's bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a rocks glass. Squeeze a large piece of grapefruit peel on the drink and then add it as garnish.

The nose has a solid bourbon base, which is accent by floral and herbal notes from the liqueurs and bitters along with a healthy dose of grapefruit oil. The liqueurs give the drink an excellent mouth feel. The sip begins with moderate sweetness, which transitions through a burst of coffee, grapefruit and herbal bittersweetness, to pleasant bitterness with a different set of herbal notes (more from the Peychauds than the Chartreuse).

This was a much lighter version than the other two I've tried. I really like how much even small amounts of liqueurs could drag the bourbon in a new direction. It helps that Knob Creek is kind of middle-of-the-road in terms of rye spiciness, so it can be complemented in either direction.

Classic Cocktails: Improved Whiskey Cocktail #1

After posting about David Wondrich's Imbibe! a little while ago, my interest in the Improved Whiskey Cocktail was piqued. There has been an explosion of liqueurs on the market in recent years, which gives all sorts of options instead of the maraschino/absinthe combination of the original. Here's the first one I cooked up.

Improved Whiskey Cocktail Variation #1
2 oz 100-proof bourbon
1 tsp allspice dram
0.5 tsp Campari
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a rocks glass. Squeeze a piece of orange peel over the drink and add it as garnish.

The nose has a lot of dry orange notes from the Campari and orange bitters and peel, along with some corn sweetness from the bourbon and hints of allspice. The sip begins smoothly, with orange and caramel, which slowly becomes bitter and spicy. First the Campari comes out, then the almost smoky notes of allspice, which then become bitter coffee.

I also tried this with Luxardo Bitter instead of Campari, but that version was actually too smooth. The Campari version needs to warm up a bit before it becomes fully integrated, but eventually everything finds its respective groove. I really like how the Campari and allspice play off of each other, augmented by the bitters. A very tasty drink and hopefully indicative of more good things to come.

Book Review: Imbibe!

Last week I posted a review of David Wondrich's book on the history of punch. Imbibe! moves ahead a bit in history, covering the evolution of its successor, the cocktail, in America and the world. The focal point of the book is "Professor" Jerry Thomas, one of the first celebrity bartenders and writer of the first bartender's guide in history. Thomas traversed and tended bar in the furthest reaches of the growing American nation, but ultimately reached his greatest fame in New York City.

The book then moves into the history of cocktails. The second chapter is devoted to techniques for their preparation, ranging from the late Colonial period (using a hot poker plunged into a mug of something to make it hiss and steam) to just before Prohibition (when the classic martini glass came into vogue). There is also quite a lot of discussion about ingredients, many of which were lost or fell out of favor around the beginning of the 20th century. While a number were just starting to filter back into existence when the book was published in 2007, we have a much more expanded repertoire now, with high proof cognacs, Old Tom and Hollands (genever) gins, and real absinthe available in the States, if not always readily. The subsequent chapters are devoted to the evolution of drinks from their beginnings in punch and the many categories of drinks that used to be distinct but have since been subsumed under the heading of 'cocktail'. The book also includes some small chapters on recipes for 19th century bitters and investigates the origins of the martini.

Along with Wondrich's book on punch, Imbibe! is a fantastic read for those wanting to learn more about the history of drinking. The research is thorough and the writing is engaging. The drinks aren't half bad either.

Improved Whiskey Cocktail
2 oz whiskey
1 tsp simple or gum syrup
0.5 tsp maraschino liqueur
0.125 tsp absinthe or pastis
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for fifteen seconds, then strain into a rocks glass and squeeze a piece of lemon peel over the drink to express the oils.

The nose is full of rye grain, though mellowed into sweetness, which is supplemented by a bit of the maraschino's funk. The sip begins smoothly and sweetly, but quickly transitions into strong rye, Ango bitters, and herbaceous notes from the pastis.

Though a little bit fiddly to construct (unless you have dashers for all of the liqueurs), this is a very tasty drink and a worthwhile improvement over the basic Old Fashioned or Whiskey Cocktail.

New Cocktails: The McCarthy Project

After my review of the whiskey, I decided that I wanted to try to make a cocktail with it. There aren't too many cocktails that use peated whisky, as it tends to dominate as an ingredient, but there are a few. I used the Laphroaig Project as a template, but tweaked it a bit to account for the fact that McCarthy's Single malt isn't as strong or smokey as Laphroaig Quarter Cask.

The McCarthy Project
0.75 oz Green Chartreuse
0.75 oz McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt
0.5 oz Luxardo Maraschino
0.25 oz Yellow Chartruese
0.75 oz lemon juice
2 dashes Fee's West Indian Orange Bitters

Combine all ingredient, shake with ice for six seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is balanced between sweet grassy notes from the Chartreuses and smoke from the whiskey. The sip opens a bit thin, but proceeds to expand with herbal notes from the Chartreuse, a burst of smoke, then funky cherry notes from the Maraschino. The finish is sweet and sour, with a bit of smoke.

I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Admittedly, as Camper English noted about the Laphroaig Project, "If you have all of these ingredients at home you are a huuuuge cocktail geek."

I resemble that comment.

Whiskey Review: Wild Turkey 101

Wild Turkey 101 is the best known and probably best loved whiskey in their core range. I've reviewed their Rare Breed and Russell's Reserve bourbons before and wanted to see what their more humble sibling was like.

The distillery was founded in 1869 by the Ripy brothers and passed through a number of hands until it was bought form Pernod Ricard by Campari in 2009. The image of the brand has been improving since the mid-1990s, as higher end releases such as Kentucky Spirit, Rare Breed, and Russell's Reserve have been added to the basic 81- and 101-proof bourbons and ryes.

Wild Turkey 101

Nose: ripe berries and vanilla ride over a grainy core of hot breakfast cereal along with a hint of mustiness or dustiness. After adding a few drops of water, the nose becomes a bit less sharp, with the balance shifting towards the grain

Taste: begins slowly with a bit of corn sweetness, sweet berries build from mid-palate where they are joined by growing chili pepper heat, and a bit of baking spices and oak. After dilution the palate becomes sweeter throughout and just a bit flatter, with some emerging yeastiness and cacao

Finish: lingering burn, savory chili pepper heat, residual berries and oak. After adding water, the cacao carries through into the finish, giving it just a ting of bitterness

There isn't necessarily a lot going on here, but what it does it does magnificently. Especially coming from a mini, which sometimes have quality issues, I really enjoyed this bourbon. The raspberry/chili pepper combo was excellent and while I felt like it lost just a bit of oomph after adding water, the extra notes of cacao more than made up for it. Overall, I would highly recommend this whiskey, especially if you want something a little bit lower on the price scale.

Does Glassware Really Make a Difference?

It's a debate as old as whisk(e)y connoisseurship: does the glass you're drinking out of actually make a difference in how the spirit tastes? There's a fairly solid consensus that the standard rocks glass/tumbler doesn't help much if you want to get details. The volatile compounds that make up the smells become too diffuse and it's hard to pick up specific attributes. However, there is currently a wide array of specialized glassware on the market right now which all purports to provide a better and more nuanced experience. I've managed to pick up a few things here and there and became curious to find out whether or not there were actually significant differences between them.

My procedure was fairly simple: each glass was filled with 0.5 oz of spirit, covered for a few minutes, then sampled. I tried this with two different spirits that I have previously reviewed - Eagle Rare bourbon and Glenfiddich Distiller's Edition. I sampled each spirit in its own session, trying to keep reasonably consistency each time. However, this is far from a true scientific sampling as it was impossible to do so blind and I'm sure I have some biases. However, it was still an interesting and enlightening experience.

Arran Gift Set Glass

Eagle Rare

Nose: caramel riding over mild, sweet, fresh oak, hints of berries

Taste: lightly sweet/sour up front, clarifies into creamy caramel, oak, pepper, and a hint of fruit near the finish

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: slightly dry and musty, light fruity/malt sweetness, fairly prominent alcohol, light oak, hint of chocolate and vanilla, creamy, briny, peat

Taste: very strong malt/sherry/chocolate sweetness, mild bitter/pepper at the back, slightly briny

This glass comes from the Arran 10 YO Gift Set, which I picked up earlier this year. The shape is very similar to the Glencairn tulip, which gives a significant amount of surface area for volatile compounds to evaporate, which are then concentrated by the narrower neck of the glass. It's become my standard tasting glass, especially for minis, because its ideal fill point is ~0.75 oz, which lets me get two solid tastings out of a mini.

Goodwill Angular Glass

Eagle Rare

Nose: vague caramel, little oak, more alcohol, a hint of rye grain, honey, chocolate

Taste: flatter, a little drier, more rye

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: balanced malt/fruity sherry, greenish/sour malt, a bit of chocolate

Taste: balanced malt sugar/fruity sweetness, bittersweet chocolate at the back, medium pepper

This is one of two tasting glasses I found at Goodwill a few months ago. Sadly I can't find much information about it, but it was only a dollar, so I figured I'd see how it went. Sadly I found that it didn't work particularly well, though that might not be the case with other spirits.




Goodwill Rounded Glass

Eagle Rare

Nose: pineapple, caramel, oak, subtle rye grain, bread

Taste: fairly sweet up front, then some sour oak and big pepper, mint in the finish

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: sour malt, very subdued sherry fruitiness, floral, oaky chocolate

Taste: sweetness is sherry-driven up front, great oloroso flavors, sour malt comes in mid-palate, creamy chocolate

This was another Goodwill find. Like the first, its ideal fill point is 0.5 oz. I found that this one worked better, giving a full, clear nose and palate from a rather small pour. While I'm rarely interested in such small pours, it may come in handy if I ever order dram samples from Master of Malt, which are only 30 mL. This glass would let me split them in two without feeling like I was getting an incomplete experience each time.

Vinoteque Snifter

Eagle Rare

Nose: grassier, green fruits, fresher, less caramel and oak, hints of sweet rye grain, bready

Taste: very sweet, sugary all the way through, still fresh, big pepper fades quickly, a hint of bitter oak, very subdued caramel

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: malty/floral, light but rich sherry, chocolate, subtle pepper

Taste: intense sugar/malt/fruit/sherry sweetness carries through, floral mid-palate, chocolate big pepper near the finish

This was the first proper tasting glass I ever bought and has been used in a number of my reviews. The ideal fill point is ~1 oz, which makes it a bit bigger than any of the previous glasses. The tulip shape is even more exaggerated than the Arran glass and it seems to do a very good job. I find it to be a good all-around tasting glass as it's big enough for some more extended dramming, but small enough that smaller pours aren't swallowed.

Copita

Eagle Rare

Nose: caramel-focused, a lot of alcohol, a hint of rye

Taste: sugary sweetness throughout, some musty oak and rye, a hint of chocolate

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: malty, a hint of sherry, leafy vegetables, slightly musty/dusty

Taste: brighter, more intense sweetness + lighter sherry, bitter chocolate/wood/oak and pepper near the back

This was another Goodwill find. While it's a classic design and works well for sherry, it doesn't seem to be ideal for whisk(e)y, especially in terms of the nose. Some of that may just be that it needs a heavier pour to work well, but I'm rarely drinking that much at once.



Glencairn

Eagle Rare

Nose: alcohol is prominent, light but balanced caramel, oak, and rye grain

Taste: caramel sweetness, light grain, oak, pepper, sweet/dusty near the back

Glenfiddich DE

Nose: hints of sherry and vegetal peat, very light sweetness, chocolate raisins, underlying malt

Taste: sharp acidic sweetness/sherry up front, malt, pepper, and peat further back, some chocolate

The glencairn glass is the standard for whisky tasting. It's ideal fill point is ~1.5 oz, which makes it significantly bigger than any other glass tested than the copita. It doesn't seem to work as well with small pours, so I'll stick to using it when I want a healthier dram.


While I won't draw too many firm conclusions, I'm willing to say that I think glassware does make a difference. I'd need to retest them in a random order to see if the trends are consistent, because my tastebuds may have been getting fatigued after half a dozen pours (however small they may have been).  The biggest thing I'm willing to say is that if you want to do very close examinations of taste and smell, it's worthwhile to get different sizes of tulip-shaped glasses. You want to be able to pour to the widest part of the glass for maximum surface area (especially when nosing) and its likely there will be times when you want to drink more or less at a time.

Classic Cocktails: the Artist's Special

This drink comes to me from the Savoy Cocktail Book via the Cocktail Database and Erik Ellestad's Savoy Stomp project. According to the Harry Craddock, the book's author, the recipe was developed in Paris.

This is the genuine ‘Ink of Inspiration’ imbibed at the Bal Bullier Paris. The recipe is from the Artists Club, Rue Pigalle, Paris.

Artist's Special
1 oz bourbon
1 oz sherry
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.25 oz grenadine

The nose is redolent of amontillado sherry, with savory hints. The sherry is bolstered by the wood of the bourbon, while hints of raspberry peek around. The sip begins without a lot of sweetness. A bit of acidity from the lemon comes in, but is quickly superseded by the sherry and bourbon. The finish goes out with sharp fruitiness from the raspberry syrup.

While a little bit thinner than I expected given the fairly high proportion of booze, this is a very nice cocktail with good evolution. All of the ingredients make themselves present at various points, weaving in and out. I was fairly surprised by how much the bourbon hides itself, especially as I used Bulleit, which tends to be pretty assertive.

Like Erik, I took a few liberties with this recipe. Since it's what I had in the fridge, I went with TJ's amontillado sherry, which is just off-dry. Since I don't have any grenadine or red current syrup, I made the drink with homemade raspberry syrup, which I think fits quite well. Overall it's a very pleasant drink that would do very well year round.

New Cocktails: Heart of the Palm

I'm striving to run down my liquor cabinet this weekend. A lot of what's getting low is bourbon, so I decided to make an Old Fashioned. Just to change things up a bit, I went for more of a tropical-style drink, with a number of different syrups accenting the whiskey.

Heart of the Palm
1.5 oz bourbon
0.5 tsp dark falernum
0.5 tsp palm sugar syrup
1 tsp B.G. Reynold's passionfruit syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients, stir with ice for 15 seconds, and strain into an old fashioned glass.

The nose is relatively sweet, with the bourbon's caramel notes accented by the palm sugar and passionfruit syrups. Some spice notes (cinnamon especially) from the bourbon mingle with the falernum and bitters. The sip is initially sweet, but restrained. A hint of tropical fruit and sourness comes in just behind, which segues into spice and wood notes from the bourbon, falernum and bitters, which carry through to the finish with lingering fruit.

While this is something of a complicated beast for nominally being an Old Fashioned, I think there's a lot that can be done by taking that basic form and accenting it with the tools of tiki drinks. High rye bourbons like Bulleit have a lot of spice that play well with ingredients like cinnamon, falernum, and ginger syrups. So you can get some nice tropical flavors while still producing a strong, punchy drink.

The NAS Dilemma: Blessing, Curse, or Simple Reality? Part I

One of the growing trends in both the scotch whisky and American whiskey industries is the proliferation of 'no age statement' spirits. In some cases, these are new expressions, in other cases spirits that were previously age dated have dropped their claims. Change is almost always contentious, especially from long-time consumers who want to keep buying the same whisk(e)y that they always have. So is this good, bad, or something that we're simply going to have to live with?

Age dates present a certain amount of difficulty for distillers. First and foremost it means that they have to sit on stocks of whisk(e)y until they pass a certain point before they can be blended together to make their final products. Whiskeys/whiskies must be labeled with the youngest spirit going into the bottle. Even if, say, a bottle contained 99% 30 year old spirit and 1% 5 year old, the label would have to say that it was a 5 year old spirit.

In a sense this is a bind of the distillers' own making. For decades, marketing departments have created a perception among consumers that older spirits are inherently better and should command exponentially increasing prices with age. Old spirits were made to embody luxury and sophistication, while younger expressions were often thought to be downright plebeian.

Whether this is actually true is extremely complicated. Spirits extract flavors from barrels and oxidize at varying rates depending on a host of factors including temperature shifts (as the liquid heats up, its volume increases, pushing it into the pores of the wood), location in the warehouse, the quality and type of wood that the barrels are made from, and any other number of things that are difficult to quantify (though Buffalo Trace is striving mightily to nail some of them down via their Single Oak Project). So when new make spirit is dumped into two nearly identical barrels that are stored side by side in the same warehouse, it's entirely possible that years down the road they will taste very different from each other. This is why single cask/barrel releases are often so fascinating, as we get to see the variation that is normally swallowed by the skill of the master blender in creating a consistent flavor profile from a wide variety of casks or barrels.

So while most distillers have used the system of age dating to their advantage, many are now presented with a dilemma: demand for scotch and bourbon is increasing strongly right now, but few predicted this rise ten or twenty years ago when the stocks that are now ready to be bottled were originally laid down. So many are struggling to keep up with demand. But there is a potential out - dropping the age statements. Without that constraint, it's theoretically possible to use younger stocks that have the flavor profile the blenders are looking for to create something the same or at least very similar to their previous age dated expressions.

This is the tack that that Macallan is currently taking with their whiskies in the UK. The company recently announced that all of their whiskies younger than 18 years old would become NAS and from here on out be graded by color. Reactions have been, to say the least, mixed. As some have pointed out, Macallan has been selling NAS whiskies for years now, but they haven't always been flying off shelves. It is kind of galling to hear a major distiller intimate that there is any correlation between quality and color, though Macallan has stated that their whiskies will not be artificially colored with E150 caramel color. Older whiskies can actually be quite pale, while newer whiskies can absorb quite a lot of color quickly, especially from first-fill casks. So as far as I can tell, this is mostly a gimmick and just replaces the old constraint of age with a new one, which means that the blenders now have to find barrels with the appropriate color, not just the appropriate smells and flavors, to make their whiskies.

Macallan's new NAS "1824 Series" via Master of Malt

And we get to the ultimate question: are customers willing to pay the same, or sometimes more, money for younger whisk(e)y in the bottle, even if it tastes the same? There is a certain logic behind paying more money for older spirits. Evaporation means that a barrel can lose anywhere between twenty and seventy percent of the spirit it started with over the course of a decade. Warehousing isn't free. Aging whisk(e)y means that capital is tied up for a very long time. Older whisk(e)y can become over-oaked, making it nearly useless for anything but bucking up younger whiskies.

The announced prices for Macallan's new whiskies mirror the old age-dated expressions, with the entry level single malt coming in around $55 (same as the old 12 year) and rising from there. On the one hand, it doesn't feel quite right to be paying the same amount of money for younger whisky. However, it might take more work from the blenders to sample a larger range of casks to pull the NAS whiskies together. But ultimately we don't know and it's harder for a regular customer to judge what an NAS whisk(e)y should be worth.

Ultimately that may not matter. As David Driscoll of K&L Wines has noted, a lot of customers really just don't care. They're buying an NAS whisk(e)y because a friend suggested it, they heard good things about it, the brand has been talked up, or any other number of reasons. Some, like Black Maple Hill bourbon, have been flying off shelves despite the lack of age statements on their labels. And many will argue quite rightly that how the whisky tastes is more important than anything else. But for distillers, it is still a risk. They can do all the market research ever, but no change is guaranteed to succeed. Only time will tell whether Macallan's almost wholesale switch will come off well or if consumers will drift to other brands that continue to use age statements.

What are your feelings about the trend so far?

Whiskey Review: Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye 2011 Release

Thomas H. Handy rye is named after the barman and owner of the Sazerac coffee house who reformulated the original cognac-based Sazerac cocktail into one made with rye whiskey. This whiskey is one of the five elements of the much-lauded annual Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. However, it differs significantly from the others in being a relatively young, six year-old spirit, while the most wear much more age, especially the 17 year old Eagle Rare bourbon and 18 year old Sazerac rye. In essence, what TH rye offers is the absolute best young rye whiskey to be found in the Buffalo Trace rickhouses, bottled at barrel proof and without chill filtration. It's as close as you can get to drinking straight out of the cask. For better or worse, it hasn't garnered nearly the same attention as its older siblings, often sitting on shelves months after the others have been whisked away by ravenous whiskey connoisseurs and specialist bars. Which is just fine by me, as it has a charm all of its own, distinct from its more oak-heavy brethren.

I first encountered Thomas Handy rye last year when I decided to treat myself to some fine whiskeys as a late birthday present. I had rye on the brain from enjoying Rittenhouse and Sazerac 6 Year, so the BTAC ryes were my first stop. I was still very new to sipping neat spirits and that was my first encounter with truly spectacular whiskey. I left the bar determined to get my hands on some more. While I wasn't able to secure any Sazerac 18 from last year's release, I was able to get ahold of a couple of bottles of TH rye.

Thomas Handy Rye 2011 (64.3%)

Nose: strong fruity notes, rich vanilla and caramel/toffee/maple syrup, corn sweetness, oatmeal, whole wheat sandwich bread, oak tannins, cinnamon, dry cocoa powder, alcohol is definitely present. After adding a few drops of water, the nose becomes softer with less fruit, while gaining a hint of baked apples and additional baking spices, primarily cloves, and some fresh cut wood or sawdust.

Taste: lots of corn sweetness up front with strong vanilla notes, evaporates on the tongue into big maple syrup, volcanic pepper, oak, rich berries/wine, leaving with prickles of spice, dark chocolate and a drying alcoholic heat. After adding some water, the initial sweetness becomes a little more subdued, but it carries through the palate more strongly, and while the overall is less effervescent and the fruit somewhat disappears, baking spices, especially clove, also come out strongly at the back of the mouth along with fresher wood.

Finish: sweetness and vanilla, still drying with a lingering burn

Surprisingly, this actually feels much more like a bourbon than a rye to me. Admittedly, the Sazerac mash bill is only 51% rye, which means there is still plenty of corn in the recipe. But without more distinctive rye elements like mint, it reads much more like a high rye bourbon.

Ultimately what you're getting is everything good about the basic Sazerac 6 Year turned up to 11. The entire experience is big and bold, yet it still manages to be engaging rather than overwhelming. While barrel proof whiskeys can sometimes be unduly harsh and require water to properly tame them, this can be comfortably drunk (in small sips) without any discomfort. While TH rye doesn't have the same cachet as the other members of the BTAC, I think it stands on its own quite well and is quite worth the money Buffalo Trace charges for it. You get a superb whiskey in the prime of its life, perfectly poised between fiery youth and gentler age.

In the interest of science, I also tried TH rye watered down to 45% and 50% ABV, in much the same fashion as my experiment with Macallan Cask Strength.

45% Dilution

Nose: noticeably lighter, rye grain most prominent, hot multigrain breakfast cereal, vanilla, slightly musty, a hint of fruit

Taste: seems very young, lots of sweet grain, very smooth, oak only shows up near the back along with some bittersweet chocolate and a drying sensation

Finish: vanilla, grain, a touch of oak, somewhat bitter

50% Dilution

Nose: still grainy, but less so, multigrain cereal, orange peel, vanilla, creamier, a little soapy

Taste: about halfway between the 45% and full strength - still grainy, but creamier - especially mid-palate, more alcohol attack at the back of the mouth, slightly woody - but not tannic, a bit of stewed fruit, a little chocolate, more body than 45%

Finish: fruit, grain, residual heat/black pepper

What I find most interesting about these dilutions is how much more youthful the whiskey seems at lower strength. It's all about the grain and the wood seems to be fighting a losing battle to instill some maturity. This is in marked contrast to the full strength whiskey, which seems mature beyond its years.

I think this just goes to show that barrels have to be picked for bottling with their final strength in mind. Some will shine straight out of the barrel, with undiluted character. Others will take more water to reveal their best face. And just because it's good at one strength doesn't mean that more or less water will make it better. Once again, I tip my hat to the master blenders who have the skill to recognize how whiskeys can be refashioned into a harmonious whole.

Whiskey Review: Maker's Mark Bourbon

The history of Maker's Mark goes back to 1954 when the distillery was founded by William Samuels Sr. with the first bottle coming out of the plant in 1959. While the brand remained under family ownership until the early 1980s, it then passed through a number of hands before settling under its current owners, Beam Inc (via the now split Fortune Brands).

There are two main things about Maker's Mark bourbon that stand out - that it was the first brand to sell itself with the 'small batch' moniker (definitions vary, but MM has stated that they aim for batches of ~20 barrels) and that they are one of the few bourbons made with wheat as the flavoring grain rather than rye. The whisky (they use the spelling more traditionally used by scotch and Canadian whiskies) is bottled at a very respectable 90-proof with their trademark red wax seal.

Maker's Mark

Nose: mellow corn, sweet vanilla, some toffee/caramel, woody cinnamon, a hint of fruit. After adding a couple of drops of water, the whisky acquires a slightly artificial cast, with bubblegum sweetness and deeper vanilla notes, along with a tiny puff of wheat and raspberries, while the corn still peeks through and more oak emerges.

Taste: opens with mild sweetness and slightly thin flavors of corn, which carry through the palate, mild oak appears part way through, followed by a blossom of vanilla and dry cacao with a small prickle of pepper near the back. After dilution, the opening sweetness becomes somewhat cough syrup flavored, while the other flavors become somewhat flatter, with more bitter oak coming out at the back and continuing on into the finish.

Finish: corn, mild oak, very little burn, slightly bitter and peppery. After adding water, the cough syrup/bubblegum flavors come back in the finish.

While I don't find it to be a terribly compelling bourbon at this point, I do have to acknowledge a small debt to Maker's Mark. Back when I was an undergraduate, my college would regularly have a week or so during winter break when students and faculty could teach classes on just about any subject they liked. One student decided that he wanted to do a bourbon tasting. Out of curiosity, I decided to attend. Unfortunately I had almost zero experience with neat spirits at that point and most of the whiskeys just tasted like burning. The one exception was Maker's Mark, which was noticeably smooth and palatable, even after almost half a dozen, often barrel-strength, bourbons. It nurtured a small flame that I might actually like whiskey, though it took many more years before that dream was realized.

So ultimately, even though I think I'll be sticking with Weller Antique for my wheated bourbon needs, Maker's Mark has its place. Their bourbon is almost the definition of smooth, gliding across the tongue with barely a bump. Just don't add any water if you want the best of what Maker's has to offer.

If you're trying to introduce someone to bourbon who tends to prefer smoother whiskeys, this isn't a bad place to start. But once they've dipped their toes in, there are all sorts of more interesting bourbons to choose from.