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Redemption High-Rye Bourbon Review
Producer: Redemption. Distiller: LDI. NAS.
Something new on a rainy Saturday: Redemption’s high-rye (36%) bourbon. Familiar LDI juice you can taste in the corn base, then a burst of spice from the rye.
Nothing special as a sipper, and I’d sooner spend my $30 on a dozen others, but I got great reviews on my Old Fashioneds. -BO
High West American Prairie Reserve Bourbon Review
Producer: High West. Distiller: LDI/Four Roses. 46% ABV.
High West’s American Prairie Reserve Bourbon is a mix of 6-year-old LDI juice and 10-year-old Four Roses. Surprisingly sweet entry with cinnamon and oak, then a drier finish. Curious oatmeal note after some time in the glass.
Solid but unspectacular, especially next to knockouts from High West like the Bourye family. High West donates 10% of post-tax profits to the American Prairie Reserve. Cheers! -BO
Noah’s Mill Bourbon Review
Producer: Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. Distiller: Unknown. 57.15% ABV. Age: NAS (estimated average of 15 years). Mashbill: undisclosed.
This one doesn’t mess around.
Noah’s Mill from Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (Willett, Michter’s, Johnny Drum, Black Maple Hill) is a high-powered, widely available small batch offering that formerly carried an age statement of 15 years old, but in the way of many things, has gone the no-age-statement route. The producer says it’s currently a mix of 4- to 20-year old bourbons, with a similarly wide range of mash bills in the mix, from wheaters to high-rye juice.
It shows. Massively complex with a fiery bite at first, then toffee, vanilla bean, cloves, woodbark. Loads of oak and a touch of bitterness on the finish. Takes water very well, and evolves in the glass in a fascinating way.
Easily available in most markets, a fair value even as an NAS, and for my money, a must-try. A whiskey seller friend tells me that he offers it to many folks looking for presents for their whiskey-drinking friends, and they turn it down because the bottle “doesn’t look special enough.” Don’t make their mistake. Your whiskey-drinking friends will thank you. – BO
Rock Hill Farms Single Barrel Bourbon Review
Distiller: Buffalo Trace. 50%. Mash bill 2 – like Blanton’s and ETL – meaning relatively high rye of 12-15%. NAS but estimated 8-10 years.
Wow. Went to my local planning to grab the Elmer T. Lee and somehow this called to me instead. So glad it did. Rock Hill Farms single barrel from Buffalo Trace. Think of it as Blanton’s Plus.
Corn sweetness, baking spice, rich, mouth-coating, and with a kick. A few drops of water and it comes alive even more. Blanton’s was one of the first bourbons for me, as for many others, that woke me up to what American whiskey was all about.
While I’ll never turn down a Blanton’s – and that little horse makes me happy all by itself – this is a step up in terms of depth and richness. Hats off, Buffalo Trace! – BO
Willett’s XCF Experimental Cask Finish Review
Producer: Willett. Distiller: MGP. 51.7% ABV.
Ran across this in the sports-barriest place you can imagine that could possibly be carrying something this interesting. Which is to say: I was surprised. And it was underpriced, given the $150+ retail cost of the bottle. And I’d noticed the bartender had a heavy hand. So I dove in.
Willett’s XCF Experimental Cask Finish is a 7-year-old MGP rye aged 90 days in Curacao casks (the bitter orange distillate that goes into Grand Marnier). Explosion of fiery orange off the bat. Rich, but with surprisingly little heat. The orange rind at the end of your old fashioned.
As it sat in the glass, the syrupy brandy notes grew stronger, though it retained enough range and rye spice to call to mind the Bulleit Rye, itself an MGP product with some dry orange notes.
Overall, it’s a curiosity I’m glad I tried, and would recommend for the adventurous — maybe as a cordial or digestif — but I won’t be hunting for a bottle at the price. Cheers, friends! – BO
Craigellachie 13 Single Malt Review
Distiller: Craigellachie. 46% ABV. Age: 13 years. Region: Speyside. Price: $50-60.
Been curious about this one: the relatively new-on-the-scene (as of 2015) Craigellachie 13. Long a staple of blends, only recently available (in the U.S. market at least) in single malt form.
Understated Speyside nose. Waxy, oily, viscous on the palate, but with a sense of clarity through it all. Dry honey, dry spice, rich malt. Hint of white smoke on the finish.
It’s not the kind of dram that knocks you out the way an A’Bunadh or Uigeadail does, but it’s a fine way to start an evening — and it lingers in your mind hours later the way a great melody does. And each time you revisit it, it offers more nuance.
It’s quickly becoming one of my favorite Speysides, and I can’t wait to try their 23-year-old. Sláinte, friends! – BO
Walking Stick Single Barrel Bourbon Review
Distiller: Buffalo Trace. 45% ABV. NAS.
The mystery single barrel from Buffalo Trace! Little-known and little-discussed, apart from the fine folks at Breaking Bourbon. Apparently Barton 1792 juice. Young but flavorful — meaty, somehow — and crazily reminiscent of something I can’t place. (Tried this at the ancestral Oakstave estate, so I couldn’t do side-by-sides to pin it down.)
Pleasing corn-dominated nose and palate but fairly dry. Begging for a bit more density/higher proof. Not bad at all. Curious to revisit it. Cheers, friends! – BO
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Review (Batch 6)
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. 70.1% ABV. Price: $45 (if you can find it!) Mashbill: 75% corn, 13% rye, 12% barley.
Dumb luck that I ever scored this little monster. Crossed paths with Josh of The Whiskey Jug in K&L Wines Hollywood at the very moment the 3 bottles they’d just gotten in were carried out to the shelf.
This one’s from batch 6 — at 140.2 proof, I believe the highest they’ve ever released. Takes water well, to put it mildly. But try it with the least possible to start, then watch the flavors unfold as you go.
Baked ham. Tannery leather. Charred tobacco. Amazing. Cut slightly, it tastes like a cross between the Old Forrester Birthday Bourbon and a grilled filet mignon. Planning to make this bottle last a long time. Cheers, friends! – BO
Sazerac Rye Review
Distiller: Buffalo Trace for the Sazerac Co. 45% ABV. NAS. Mashbill: about 51% rye, with 39% corn and 10% barley.
For under $40, Sazerac Rye — a/k/a “Baby Saz” (by contrast with the 18-year release) — is my flat-out favorite in the category.
It’s like the Blanton’s of rye: you can find bolder, bigger, wilder, and older, but this is one I’m always happy to come back to. Low rye in the mashbill, interestingly, contributes to the balance.
Or the William Faulkner of rye: full of sweet damp wood, rich Southern soil, surprising spice, and an assertiveness that runs right up to the edge of self-importance, then settles in genuine depth.
Similes aside — nose: fresh cedar, coriander, rye grain, toasted tobacco. Faintly sweet. Taste: follows the nose, with perfect balance, dry spice, corn sweetness, and a medium finish.
You can use it in a knockout Sazerac cocktail or Old Fashioned, but it’s always a sipper for me. Cheers, friends! -BO
Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey Review
Producer: Chatman Imports/Michter’s. Distiller: Unknown. 43% ABV. Mashbill: undisclosed (sub-50% corn, sub-50% rye).
Michter’s is a brand of NY-based Chatham Imports, which bought the rights to old storied name several years ago. The original Michter’s distillery in Pennsylvania, which produced the legendary A.H. Hirsch bourbon that Chuck Cowdery devoted an entire book to, closed in 1990. The “new Michter’s” straddles the distiller/non-distiller producer line, distributing a line of sourced whiskey and various limited releases while opening their own distilleries — in Kentucky, interestingly, rather than Pennsylvania.
The debates around the new Michter’s provide a kind of Rorshach test for this overheated industry moment. Some praise the new Michter’s for quality and seriousness. Others are furious over Chatham’s fast and loose treatment of the original Michter’s legacy (and poor Photoshop work). Regardless, the new brand has achieved excellent national distribution in a short time, and shows no signs of slowing down.
While we’re deciding where we land on the controversy, let’s have a drink. First thing to know about the Michter’s Sour Mash Whiskey: sour mash isn’t a style, but a distilling method used by nearly all modern makers of whiskey. The “old Michter’s” made a whiskey it called Original Sour Mash, with a mashbill was 50% corn, 38% rye and 12% malted barley. (Being below 51% corn, it couldn’t be called bourbon, and being below 51%, it couldn’t be called rye.) The mashbill on the “new Michter’s” Sour Mash, though undisclosed, is likely close to the original.
The current Sour Mash has some of the flavor of a straight bourbon-rye mix like High West’s fine Bourye, but with a character all its own. I was in a pine forest nosing it. What else? Anise. Coriander. Love the fresh wood notes without the raw underaged “craft distillery” harshness. Vibrant rye, but with corn sweetness rounding off the edges. Low ABV at 43% without seeming underpowered, though I’d love to try a higher-powered version.
Michter’s is one of the few high-profile NDPs to have stayed mum about where their juice is coming from, though their move toward distilling themselves will gradually change the equation — as with other NDPs, like High West and Smooth Ambler, who are distilling but haven’t yet released their own juice. In any event, I suspect we’ll be hearing much more from them in the years to come. – BO
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