Is Jack Daniels a Bourbon?

YES

Bourbon versus Single Malt. What's the difference ?

 Whisky is a catagory of spirit. It's a very popular drink.But also a historical spirit, which, roughly said has developed in 4 countries. Ireland, USA, Canada and Scotland. Each of these countries have developed their own style of whisky and their own traditions of distilling and producing whisky. Today whisky is made in a majority of the countries of the planet earth. Together with the 4 mentioned countries above, Japan is also a major producer of whisky.

 Whisky is shortly spoken a spirit distilled from beer. Or more precise. It has to be made from grains. Grains is a specific type of plant. Barley, wheat, corn, rice, rye. oats. Google it if you want to know more.

 Any country or region that produces a popular high quality product will eventually protect it. This happens for a couple of reasons. A region usually wants to make sure there is some sort of elevated standards of it's product. You also want to make sure noone else copies your product and label it as your product. This is why champagne has to be made in Champagne, cognac in Cognac, and this is why we can't label the feta cheese we produce in Denmark as "feta" but use "salad cheese".
 This is also why Champagne has to made in a certain way. It's all the same with cognac, bourbon and scotch single malt. These are regulated and protected products. You can't make it everywhere, and if you make it you have to make it a certain way. There is a desire to make sure that champagne tastes like champagne and bourbon tastes like bourbon

 In this blog post I will look at the difference between bourbon and single malt whisky, and more precise, the difference between single malt whisky from Scotland and bourbon from Kentucky

Both are a subcatagory of whisky. Both are regulated by local authrities. Bourbon is an american spirit. You can't make bourbon outside USA. Actually you can, but you can't label it bourbon. It's a protected label.
 Inside USA there is regulated subcatagories of Bourbon. Straight Bourbon, Kentucky Bourbon, Tennessee Whisky just to mention three

Malt whisky is made in many countries. But for it to be labeled "scotch", it has to be made in Scotland

For those interested, here are the main regulations for bourbon and scotch whisky

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2009/2890/pdfs/uksi_20092890_en.pdf

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2008-title27-vol1/pdf/CFR-2008-title27-vol1-sec5-22.pdf

If you can't be bored to read the content of these links I will emphasize the more important parts below.

And. There is more to this than just these regukations, but those link will gives us a pretty good picture of what allows one whisky to be labeled as a bourbon and another whisky to be labeled as a Scotch Single Malt.

But as said, there is more to the differences than just regulations. Climate, enviroment and traditions are just as important.

Most of the regulations is actually traditions made rules. Just to make sure that bourbon tastes like bourn. And scotch single malt tastes like scotch single malt

Bourbon and scotch single malt tastes different. Quite a lot actually. Here is some of the major production differences between bourbon and scotch single malt and I hope it will give you an idea why they are two very different kinds of whisky

1. Ingredients

Scotland.

All malt whisky is made from the same ingredient. Malted barley. There is not much difference from one distillery to another. Over the years, the variety of barley can change, that's about it. Grain varieties change as new better yielding varities is developed. It can be better yield for the farmer and better yield in the brewing/distilling process. Some varities can be disease resistant, but as diseases mutates this ability can be lost. At any given time, the distilleries in Scotland uses the same few varities of barley with a very few rare exceptions, as when Bruichladdich made a malt whisky from bere barley

But for this discussion you can say that all malt whisky is made from the same basic ingredient. Malted barley. With a very few exceptions, I guess roasted barley can be included here.

The one major difference in the barley used for single malt is the phenol content. Barley has to be dried after malting and if you use peat as fuel the peat smoke will induce the barley with a smoky flavor. The more peat you use, the smokier the whisky you will get in the end. By mixing barley that has been peat smoked and barley that hasn't you can customize the peat level of your basic ingredient.

Kentucky

Bourbon is made from a mix of grains. The composition of grains is called the mash bill. At least 51% in a bourbon mash bill has to be corn, the rest is usually rye and barley or wheat and barley.Everything written here about bourbon, could be said about rye whisky as well, rye is made from a mash bill of at least 51% rye.

The importance here, is that two different mashbill will give you two different whiskies. Corn will add sweetness, rye spicyness and wheat a soft toffee creaminess.

The difference

In Scotland they work with the peat level when designing the whisky. In Kentucky it's the mashbill


2. Yeast

Scotland

In Scotland industrial yeast is used, with a few different plants supplying all distilleries

Kentucky

Most, if not every distillery, have their own propriatery yeast which they guard and cultivate as the soul of the whisky and the distillery. One distillery even have five specific strains of yeast. That's Four Roses, With 2 mashbills and 5 yeasts Four Roses makes 10 different bourbons, each with their own flavour profile. Some distilleries secure they yeast strains in several places and on several continents just to make sure it's not lost.

The difference

In Scotland the yeast is something you add to make whisky. In Kentucky, the specific yeast used in the distillery is an essential part of the distillery's identity

3. The stills

Scotland

In Scotland, single malt whisky is distilled in pot stills, usually in a set of two stills. The shape of the stills from one distillery to another varies a lot and has impact on the flavour. The shape of the stills affects the reflux in the distilling. Taller stills give you more reflux, but there are several different kind of other designs on the stills that can increase reflux. The more reflux, the lighter a spirit

Kentucky

Most bourbons are produced on a column still followed by a doubler. The shape of these are not a big factor of the final taste of your bourbon. If any factor at all. Woodford reserve do have pot stills that looks like the one you see in Scotland, but I wonder how much of the Woodford Reserve you see in the bottle have actual been through one of these?

The difference

Still design plays are more important rule in the production of single malt whisky than with bourbon

4. The casks and barrels

Scotland

All kinds of casks are used. Fresh virgin oak, ex-bourbon, ex-rum, ex-sherry, ex-wine, ex-port, ex-madeira, ex-marsala, ex-beer. And then used again, and again and again. Some whisky are matured on one type of casks and then transfered to another type for a short or maybe even longer period. As most of the flavour of a whisky comes from the cask, all these different casks types will result in very different whiskies.

Kentucky

All bourbon must be matured on fresh oak. When it comes to barrels and casks, bourbon producers have a lot less strings to pull compared to other kinds of whisky. So basically all kinds of bourbon has been matured on the same kind of casks. I know this is a simplified view as the barrels can be differed by oak type, char level and you can even find bourbon finished in ex-sherry or ex-port casks. But the variation from cask type is no way on the same level as you see with other kind of whiskies

The difference

Single Malt is using a lot of different casks types, bourbon, just one

5. Climate and the warehouse location

Scotland and Kentucky

The climate of Scotland and the climate in Kentucky is different. Kentucky is hot in summer, and cold in the winter. The temperature differences is less in Scotland. Scotland is also very wet and humid, so water tends to stay in the casks better than in Kentucky, where barrels can loose more water than alcohol. This results is the alcohol strength going up in some barrels in Kentucky as the whisky matures

The microclimate inside the warehouses are also a lot more important in Kentucky than in Scotland. Both in Scotland and in Kentucky they see whisky maturing different from warehouse to warehouse and especially in Kentucky, from the specific location within the warehouse. It's not unusual that some brands of bourbon are drawn from specific warehouse locations

Warehouse location and designs plays a lot bigger role for bourbons than for single malt. Both in Kentcuky and in Scotland there is different designs of warehouses, all affecting the whiskies maturing inside. Especially the giant warehouses that a lot of Kentucky distilleries do use have an important microclimate where one barrel location differs a lot from another

So what makes a Bourbon different from other bourbons? Mashbill, yeast and warehouse location are three important factors

And what makes a Single Malt different than other single malts? Peat level, pot still design and cask type are the major factors here


Beside this, all distilleries, both Kentucky and Scotland have a number of other factors they can work with. Fermentaion time, toast/char level of casks, and the number of years a whisky is matured, just to mention a few

The water from Kentucky is different than scottish water. Kentucky water is hard limestone water. In Scotland you see both soft water, which is most common, but also hard water. So within Scotland itself there is differences between the water from one distillery to another. I have heard many different opinions about the importance of the water source over the years. Or how not important the water source is. I will leave this discussion to others

Diageo Lost the Tennessee Whisky War but wins in Kentucky

and bourbon can now be made from re-used barrels:

On May 13, 2013, Tennessee governor Bill Haslam signed House Bill 1084, requiring the Lincoln County process (which involves maple charcoal filtering) to be used for products produced in the state labeling themselves as "Tennessee Whiskey", along with the existing requirements for bourbon.
Diageo wanted to change these definition of Tennessee Whisky but failed. Instead they managed to change the definition of bourbon. I'll clarify below

Bill Haslam

The categorization of Tennessee Whiskey was orchestrated more or less 100% by Brown-Forman, who owns Jack Daniels Distillery, which by far is the biggest distillery in Tennessee, so big that bourbon expert Chuck Cowdery has named it "The Elephant in the Room". 

So far this law has been opposed by Diageo, which at first sight seems very odd. Diageo owns the 2nd traditional distillery in Tennessee, George Dickel. George Dickel and Jack Daniels are the two distilleries that historically has produced bourbon in Tennessee with the added twist of the Lincoln County Process, which is a filtering process prior to aging the whisky. Defining Tennessee whiskey  with the above requirements is a logical step to ensure the definition of whiskey that both Jack Daniels and George Dickel produces as the style of Tennessee Whisky. With several small distilleries opening in Tennessee, they were, before this law was enforced, able to make any style of whiskey and labeling it Tennessee Whisky. Not anymore (with one exception, Prichard's, but that's another story) 

So why is Diageo (George Dickel) opposed to this. Not because they wan't to alter the production methods of George Dickel. It's because they wan't to limit the growth of Jack Daniels

Brown-Formans Jack Daniels and Diageo's Johnnie Walker (a scotch whiskey) are the two leading whisky brands in the world when it comes to sales. The sales of Dickel is maybe 1% of that of Jack Daniels, so that is not a very important brand for Diageo saleswise. It may be strategically, but not when it comes to the economy of Diageo. If Diageo can manage undermine the "Tennessee Whiskey" style, they can get hit in on one of their biggest competitors. Because whisky american style is taking market shares from Diageo these days

Diageo ofcourse claims something else, as Chuck Cowdery writes in his blog:

"Diageo firmly believes a single company should not be able to unilaterally determine the definition of an entire category. At its base, it is anti-competitive and protectionist. Diageo supports a return to the flexibility that Tennessee whisky distillers have had for the past 125 years, up until last year when Brown-Forman convinced the Tennessee legislature to define Tennessee whiskey as the Jack Daniel’s recipe."

Diageo has mainly tried to change the aging definitions of Tennessee Whisky. They want to remove the part that states the whiskey has to be aged in NEW charred oak barrels and that it has to be aged in Tennessee

But with no luck so far. Instead Diageo managed to get in on Brown-Forman another way.

On a federal level, what constitutes Tennessee whisky is legally established under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and at least one other international trade agreement that require that Tennessee whiskey be "a straight Bourbon Whisky authorized to be produced only in the State of Tennessee". Canadian food and drug laws state that Tennessee whiskey must be "a straight Bourbon whisky produced in the State of Tennessee".

Bourbon is defined by The Federal Standards of Identify for Distilled Spirits 27 CFR §5.22

By changing the requirement in §5.22 (b)(1)(i) that bourbon must be stored in "new charred oak containers" to "new or refill charred oak containers" The Federal Standards of Identify for Distilled Spirits has changed the way bourbon (and with that, Tennessee whiskey) is produced 

Personally I think this is grand work by Diageos lobbyists in Washington. Undermining the definition of the style of whiskey your biggest competitors produce, is going to make it possible for the big brand of Diageo, Johnnie Walker, to stop it's current recession and go into growth again. And that will be on expense of american whiskies, which hasn't been in recession like Johnnie Walker, but on a steady growth 

But I don't think this is good for the quality of bourbon we see. This is actually a sad day for bourbon fans. I do hope as many producers as possible will stick to the old definitions

Another thing that will backfire is the lack of used casks, which is allready in higher demand than supplies. The main part of scottish whiskeys is aging in ex-bourbon. I am pretty sure this will begin an era where scotch is aged in new wood and bourbon in refill casks!

I am not sure how this affect the bourbon produced in Japan and China

The biggest problem with bourbon

is diversity.

One thing is the flavour gap. Compared to single malt most people think that bourbon are more similar. This is true, but with some experience you can distuinguish flavours in bourbons better. So the more you drink, the more you get back. If you include ryes you get a bigger flavour gap. Not as big as single malt, but this is due to single malt using a lot of different types of cask and also peat.

No, when I say lack of diversity it's the diversity of different bottlings. I suffer from this personally. I am in charge of a few bourbon tastings in Denmark. Just coming up with a different setup once a year for an annual tasting is tough. Mind you, most of the things I want to present has to be a little more interesting than common stuff like Jim Beam White and Bulleit. It has to be something new and exciting. But the lack of diversity makes me struggle just finding bottles to present.

I could organise a top single malt whisky tasting every week from now on and 20 years in to the future, All different bottlings and all interesting special bottlings. Every week. Probably twice a week if I wanted to.

With bourbon I struggle to do one tasting a year. I know the selection in Denmark is not as big as other places, especially like the US. But the selection in the US is also quite mediocre. Not the quality of the bottles but the amount of different bottlings. I have been visiting many shops selling whisky in the US, and it's not like the bootles are jumping into my basket

The main reason for this is fewer distilleries and fewer independent bottlers and the added fact that both destilleries and bottlers do not bottle that many different interesting things. The only distillery that has a bigger setup is Buffalo Trace.

When a distillery do bottle single barrels they tend to bottle very similar stuff (Like the Evan Williams SB, or the Four Roses SB)

I reckon SMWS, an independent bottler of mainly scottish single malts, bottles more diffrent new stuff than there is bottled new bourbons

One thing I omit from this discussion so far, and which must be included is the explosion of new small distilleries all over America. Hundreds of distilleries, most very small, make bourbon today.

But most of this is too young to be considered. It can also be hard to find except locally. But maybe there is hop for the future. Some of this stuff will grow up and be very interesting in the future. Some of it allready is. If you can find it.

But end of the day, festivals, private gatherings and tastings will be centered around single malt. There just isn't enough interesting bourbons out there to match it. 

It's a shame. I love bourbon. Most of of my bourbon collection is multiple bottles. If you want the good stuff you need to stock up. Single malt wise, I tend to have only one of each. There is just so many different bottlings and it's impossible to keep track. How many different new bottlings of single malt is released every year. I reckon more than 3000

As a bourbon drinker this is probably not a very big problem. There is always good bourbon to be drunk. But as an entusiast, it's hard to gather people for bourbon, when there is 3000 bottles of single malt to be tasted.

I wish there were more bourbons for us entusiasts. It could be fun.

It doesn't help either that bourbon is so popular these days that the most interesting bottlings is getting vacuumed of the shelves. Who wouldn't want to organise a van Winkle vertical?

Cadenhead will release a bourbon

This May I went to the Campbeltown whisky festival with the whiskylassie. A festival I can recommend highly, it was an excellent couple of days, and the organisers did things that makes it worth to travel for this event from all corners of the world. Music, ales, whiskypeople and the most important, a lot of whisky to taste

One of the tasting consisted of a some high end releases from Cadenhead, accompanied by some cask samples. A cask of 25yo Rosebank was opened, gauged and tasted, and anyone who wanted a bottle could purchase this for 150£. This was an excellent malt and offcourse I bought this.

A cask of Rosebank

Another cask sample was a bourbon. This was served blind and caused some puzzled faces amongst the attending whiskyentusiast, I guess most wasn't that experienced with bourbon

Here is my review of the cask sample drawn a few months before bottling.

The bourbon was distilled at the old Heaven Hill just before it burned down in 1996. In 2005 the barrel was transferred to Scotland. This bourbon has been maturing half it's time in Kentucky and the other half in Campbeltown. This makes quite a difference as the temperature differences is much less in Scotland than in Kentucky. This bourbon is a lot less woody than you average bourbon. 

Nose: Sweet, corn, solvent. Does this sound good ?. Maybe not, but it is. Deliciously good. This noses like a sweet grain, but with a lot more body

Palate: Strong, this do for sure have a high ABV. Loads of butterscotchy vanillaed flavours. Remarkable lack of wood compared to what you expect from a bourbon. This reminds me of ryed version of Jefferson's Stitzel Wellers, which I found less woody as well.

This benefits a lot with a bit of water. The alcohol burn, both on the nose and palate dissapears and makes the whisky come to it's true right. Quite surprisingly, a little water makes this whisky more oily, actually remarkable more oily, and the wooden flavours hidden inside comes out

Due to the "double maturation" of this bourbon. 8 years here and 8 years there, I wonder why Cadenhead hasn't claimed they have invented a new whisky catagory. They have done this before. This isn't the first bottling of Heaven Hill to be released from Cadenhead! My suggestion would be to call this kind of bourbon for outland whiskEy, but I think that name has allready been taken by a World of Warcraft realm 

Rating 88/100

There won't be many bottles of this, less than 150 I would say

The festival had many other nice events, like the one shown blow here:

The Springbank Warehouse tasting

With Distillery Manager Gavin McLachlan

Distillery Pagoda's in Kentucky. Diageo reveals plans to get back into Kentucky Bourbon

New distillery in Kentucky

Diageo announced yesterday that they plan to build a $115 million in Shelby County, Kentucky

Pagodas in Kentucky..

Read their news release here: http://www.diageo.com/en-ie/newsmedia/pages/resource.aspx?resourceid=2263

It's not long since they talked about reopening Stitzel-Weller, but these plans have been cancelled. Instead a brand new distillery in a better suited location has been planned. Stitzel-Weller, once rural is now located in suburbia Louisville. There is problems with watersupplies, locals complaining about black mold etc

Diageo's last operating distillery in Kentucky was Bernheim, which they sold to Heaven Hill in 1998. Since then they have been on the bourbon market with the Bulleit brand, which has been contract distilled, mainly at Four Roses

Bourbon is booming. Scotch is booming. It was quite predictable that Diageo would come back into Kentucky for a couple of reasons

1. With bourbon being so popular, it is not reliable to rely on external producers for supply. Everybody is having trouble to make enough whiskey for themselves these days, and want to keep the whiskey they do produce for themselves

2. Diageo needs ex-bourbon barrels for their scottish and canadian distilleries. With Suntory's recent acquirement of Beam, I guess Diageo got a little bit worried about supplies. At the moment Diageo is expanding several of their scottish distilleries and also building a brand new distillery next to Teaninich (as well as expanding Teaninich itself), so the demand for barrels and casks able to mature whisky will be high

My 7 favourite whisky books

1. Malt Whisky Yearbook
Edited by Ingvard Ronde
A little encyclopedia about malt whisky distilleries around the world, with main focus on Scotland and Japan. The book is published every autumn and there is plenty of new content to justify a new purchase every year. Every distillery has its own page with info and there are secions with statistics and maps. This is probably the essential book for malt whisky entusiasts.

2. Peat, Smoke and Spirit
Andrew Jefford
A large book covering Islay and her distilleries, the book has a few years on its back, so a new distillery like Kilchoman isn't covered. You will get a very good insigth into the whisky producing enviroment on Islay, islay it self and the 7 distilleries making whisky at the turn of the millenium

3. Appreciating Whisky
Phillip Hills
This book covers tasting whisky. Mainly our senses and what causes the tastes. There's a little bit of chemistry involved but nothing that will scare anyone. It describes how whisky tastes on a general level, and why it does so. It is written by the founder of SMWS

4. The Bluffers Guide to Whisky
David Milsted
This is the booked I learned the most from :-). It shows how to act and conduct yourself in the world of whisky to appear as the guy in the know, opposed to everyone else. Funny and wellwritten. The book has a few years on its back, but most of this stuff is timeless. If you don't want to become a pretender you always learn to easy spot one :-)

5. Canadian Whisky, the portable expert
Davin de Kergommeaux
This is THE book about Canadian Whisky, taking you throught all the destilleries and the history of distilling whisky in Canada. Canadian whisky has it's distinct style and production setup, and is not made the same way as whisky is made in USA, Ireland and Scotland

6. Bourbon, Straight
Charles K. Cowdery
A book about Bourbon. I reviewed the book HERE

7. The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste
Charles K. Cowdery
A book about the bourbon A.H. Hirsch, made in Pennsylvainia in 1974. I reviewed it HERE

My next list is going to be "Great offers in travel retail for the whiskyentusiast"

Bourbon is better than Scotch

When I think of the worst whiskies I have ever tasted, no bourbon is anywhere near hitting the list.

The worst bourbon I have tasted is something like the regular Jack Daniels, and it is not that bad when compared to what is on the shelf out there otherwise. (#JDisabourbon)

There is a reason for this. Both scotch whisky and bourbon are regulated, and both have more heavily regulated subgroups (straight bourbons and single malts).

Most of what is bottled bourbonwise are straight bourbons, so much that the regulations for straight bourbons are often spoken of as the general rules for bourbons. Just take a tour on a bourbon distillery if you don't believe me.  The two main rules for straight bourbons are minimum 2 years in the barrel and  no additives. One of the main and most important rules for bourbons in general is that it must be matured on new virgin oak barrels. Once the barrel has been used, it can not be used for filling new spirit in again, if you want to make bourbon. Not much to play around with here, and it give bourbon a great deal of consistency compared to barrels. The difference in maturation for bourbons comes more from warehouse location and age more than type of barrel.

In Scotland casks are used and reused as many times as the producer wishes. A cheap blend consist of a lot of grain whisky that has been matured on almost dead casks for three years. A cheap bourbon is probably both older and has been on better barrels than a similar priced scotch.

In Scotland virgin oak is used, ex-bourbon barrels, ex-sherry casks, ex-whatever-you-can-think-of really. Then the barrels and casks are reused for refills, and often when the casks are used for the 4th and 5th time it's just containers for grain whisky maturation. And then there is also a lot of finishes going on, where whisky is matured on one kind of casks and then transfered to another type.

This gives scotch a huge varitation in whisky produced and the quality of the whisky. The differences in maturation for scotch comes from cask type and age, not the actual warehouse location.

I do know I simplified things a bit. Bourbon finishes do exist and a few bottles of single malts also exist where warehouse location is emphasized, but in the big picture these bottlings can be neglected

But the conclusion is that it's actual quite hard to find a really bad bourbon out there. Finding bad scotch is easy

PS When it comes to my top list of whiskies it's heavily dominated by scotch, but I have bourbons and ryes on that list as well. When it comes to high-end bottlings Scotland is much more prolific. As bourbon is getting much more popular these years I expect to see a lot more from US. If they can keep up with stocks needed..

China to start Bourbon Production

Today the CWA, Chinese Whisky Association press release publiced that China will start bourbon production summer 2013 around the city of Xingtai in the Hebei Province in north central China, which has a continental climate not unlike that of Kentucky, USA

So far 4 distilleries has been planned, 3 regular sized with a capacity well over 5 million LPA and one micro with a much smaller capacity.

The micro distillery will not be constructed near Xingtai but on Kentucky Island in Shangdon Province, thus making Kentucky Straight Bourbon made in China available for coinnoisseurs in the future

Kentucky Island, Shangdon Province

Corn production has doubled in China since the mid nineties and there is currently more corn harvested than rice

Corn regions of China

The newly appointed Chinese secretary of whisky, 威士忌書呆子, says to the Danish Ministry of Whisky :

"We are currently the second largest corn producer in the world, but with a projected production in the future to be the worlds number 1. It is natural for us to exploit every possible aspect of processing corn into food, not only for animals but also for people. This extends to the production of alcohol"

What about oak ?

"We will be using the oriental white oak, qeurcus aliena, but also imported american white oak from Missouri in the new "wood for shoes" and "wood for toys" trading programs. We will use the existing chinese cooperage Semi-Independent Staves Company just outside Xingtai"

What about the American Bourbon regulations that classifies Bourbon as a domestic american made product only ?

"Thats an american rule and its not valid in China"

The Danish Ministry of Whisky has also consulted a range of american bourbon experts:

M Kaplan: This is great news. I have actually been hired as advisory master blender for Jimbim (one of the 4 distilleries currently under construction). Expect a Marsala finished bourbon in 2016

T Borschel: I am moving to China

A Herz: I suspect the two bottles of chinese bourbon currently on sale at Bonhams might be fakes, but maybe the chinese has reverted the time machine I use to get dusties from the past to actual sell whisky from the future today!

Sku : I only drink cognac and armagnac these days so I can't really be bothered

C Cowdery: If it looks like bourbon, smells like bourbon and tastes like bourbon, then it is bourbon

PS China has chosen the spelling whisky, also for its bourbons.. The traditinal spelling of whiskey is unpronouncable for chinese and this spelling is not even used unanimously in America

Willet 25yo Rye Barrel 1372

Willet Distillery

I recently visited Willet Distillery. Willet distillery was founded on a farm outside Bardstown in 1935 by Thompson Willet, and operated until the early 80's. The property of the distillery was purchased by the founders son-in-law, Even G Kulsveen and the world was introduced to a company called Kentucky Bourbon Distillers. KBD operates as what us scotch drinkers would call an independent bottler, which is buying whiskey from other distilleries and then maturing and bottling it until they find it to be right time. I was told by their distillery staff that they actually went one step further than this, by actually sending their own staff into other distilleries and producing their own make. A bit similar to a ghost brewery like Mikkeler!

Until now that is. Willet Distillery reopened here in 2012

Willet Distillery. The Tower hosts the column still

Bottom of the column still

Willet Potstill

Kentucky Bourbon Distilleries are behind many labels of bourbons and ryes. If you see a label, that you can't obviously connect to a real specific distillery, chances are great, that the whiskey was bottled by or sourced through KBD. 

The Willet itself is just one of very many KBD labels. It's a range of single casks bourbon and ryes in all imaginable ages and should be considered a KBD top shelf product. So far this has proved to be one of my favourite ranges.

1. Willet Rye Barrel #1372 25yo 47%

Distilled 10th May 1983

 I found a bottle of this at Limburg festival. Limburg is an abundance whisky. Thousands of bottlings. But not much bourbon. I reckon I was able to locate just a handful of bottles. This was one of them, and the sample bottle was all the stand had. Not possible to purchase a bottle. But I talked them into to selling me the dreg, probably around a third of a bottle.

 The colour is dark, even for a bourbon. The first thing that meets me is this fantastic floor varnish old liquid wood nose with a notable rye hint in the background. Simply fantastic and one of those legendary noses you just can sit back and sniff forever. 

 The palate is magnificient complex....

It's dry in a sense like the whiskey is jumpings off your tongue. Licorise, oriental flowers, floral rye spicyness, perfumes, all on a background of loads of heavy delicate wood and floor varnish. 

Almost all the taste sensation is at the very back of your mouth and tongue, which is typical of old and well matured whisk(e)ys. This is a dram to savour. One of those to drink laid back with eyes closed. It's like being in heaven for a few seconds. It's a constant conflict between nosing and drinking as I really just wants to sit and nose this forever, but I also wants to sit and drink this forever. This is a prime example why I think ryes really first comes to its greatness at older ages, where the spicyness and woodyness can blend into a magnificient balance of fantastic flavours.

Rating 94

The Americans are so fortunate, but is it over ?

Whisky Prices has gone up considerably for special bottlings in the last few years. Right now the american bourbon scene is the best value for money scene without a doubt, but is it ending?

Van Winkle products and  A.H. Hirsch are becoming the Port Ellen and Brora of bourbons with prices raising, but these are examples of whiskey from closed distilleries

(Provenance of van Winkle?, look HERE)

But highly sought after products like the BTAC series are available in the 75-100$ range. This is extremely cheap and demand and supply are not in synchronisation.. I wonder how long this price level will last ?

Will the Bourbons see the same premiumisation as we have seen in the field of Scotch Single Malts ?

I think the first sign of this is the 18yo Elijah Craig. It's just been discontinued. It was around 60$. It is getting replaced by 20yo Elijah Craig at 130$

The reason for this ?. There are several reasons.

First: Marketing strategy. Having a high end expensive front will make you brand appear "Exclusive". It will also make your "lower end" products appear cheaper (Oh, Elijah Craig 12 is soooo much cheaper than the 20yo...)

"It's expensive it must good"....I only have to mention Dalmore, Glenfiddich, Highland Park, Macallan to point at companies following the same strategy...especially Dalmore :-), someone spelled it Da£mor€ on facebook the other day!

Second: The supply/demand situation. High End Quality Bourbons popularity is raising. With low supply there is enough people willing to pay the higher prices. And what happens when bourbons become popular outside USA ?

So just last year (it seems) you had to look real hard to find a bottle over 100$. Soon you have to look real hard to find a bottle less than 100$

Just as a curiosity I can mention that the standard price of George T. Stagg in Denmark is around 350-450$. A return trip to London and picking one up at TWE for around 100£ is considerably cheaper, 100£ would be twice the price I paid for my bottle in Utah :-), but somehow it suddenly looks like a cheap price

George T. Stagg

Review coming one day, I got an open bottle!

Virginia Gentleman

Virginia Gentleman 90 proof

This is an interesting bourbon. It's an older product of bourbon made at A. Smith Bowman in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

A. Smith Bowman is part of the Sazerac group (Buffalo Trace) and it's actually a redestillation of Buffalo Trace destillate. This distillery is on my agenda in my upcoming US trip, and I am particular hoping to try some of their current and more premium products :-)

This bottle was a gift from one of my former bridge partners, who now are in charge of a restaurant here in Aarhus called "Den Rustikke", a faboulous place and deservedly no. 1 on tripadvisor for Aarhus Restaurants. He laid hands on a bunch of the remaining bottles of this in Denmark and he generously gave me a full bottle.

Virginia Gentleman

This is a delicate bourbon, very smooth and sweet, very drinkable and less woody and less rough than most other comparable priced bourbons. There's a little rye spice in this, but end of the day this is an uncomplicated bourbon on the sweet side. I am still learning how to drink and taste bourbons, but as my experience grows I get better in discovering the deeper layers of this fine american product.  

Rating 83

It's impotant you rehearse and train your palate and the more you drink the wiser you get !!

More of the Weller heritage

I've allready been through 15yo and 20yo Pappy van Winkle, which was made at Stitzel-Weller distillery with the old Weller wheated bourbon mash bill. I am not 100% sure the 15yo Pappy reviewed is of Stitzel-Weller heritage, but it could very well be, by the time and where I bought it.

Here is a few more of the Weller heritage whiskeys.

Buffalo Trace acquired the Weller brand name and is now producing bourbon after the Weller recipe. The fact that the van Winkles are now tightly associated with Buffalo Trace is making the heritage obvious, at least from the hands-on side. Julian P. "Pappy" van Winkle opened the Stitzel-Weller distillery in 1935. His grandson Julian III van Winkle and great-grandson Preston van Winkle is now in charge of the "Old Rip van Winkle Distillery" (which was a distillery - back in history, but today it's "just" a company name, following a confusing american tradition of naming companies "distillery" that isn't distilleries)

Here's three whiskeys of the Weller heritage:

1. W.L. Weller Aged 12years 45%
This a soft, sweet and delicate bourbon, where my first impression on the nose was oranges!. Not uncommon for me to find this in bourbons. This is almost like drinking caramelfudge sweets with a wooden alcoholic twist. Very nice and this is a very affordable dram, I even found some cheap bottles in Denmark at 289,- which is around 30£. One for the sweet tooth

Rating 86

2. William Larue Weller 66.75%
Part of the 2011 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (BTAC)

Special bottling of the same whiskey as the 12yo I reckon. This is not for the faint hearted. The ABV and intensity is breathtaking. Don't tell anyone, but I actually had to add some water to this. It was not to open up the whiskey, it was to make the alcohol burn go away and making me able to drink it. I didn't learn to drink casks strength single malts overnight, and I need to practise on full strength bourbons as well. I need to practise! I really do. It's just practising. It really is.....
With the ABV a little down I am now able to taste this fabulous dram. Out comes the nutty flavours. Caramel with a hint of fruit and brandy, finishing of with licorise tree. The balance between the taste components in this whiskey is simply spectacular good as soon as I got the ABV down. Caramel, fudge, no floor varnish really, nuts, mints, all very well mixed together.

rating 90

3. Jefferson Presidential Select 18yo 47%
Batch No 27

Jefferson is the brand name of a range of bottlings from the company McLain and Kyne. As they source their whiskies from different distilleries, this is what I would call an independent bottler.

This 18yo is labeled as originating from Stitzel-Weller so there you go.

The nose is a give away as it's more similar to PvW 20yo than any other bourbon I have tried. The wood is laid back and relaxed compared to bourbons in general and I pick up a nutty flavour as well. Loads of caramel-fudge-floor varnish infused together in a delicious cocktail of flavours, with a little hint of wood spices I normally associate with well aged scotch. The finish is long and delivers the mentioned flavours again and again

Rating 90


Comment: As a relative new bourbon drinker I just love how continued drinking learns me to discover new layers of this wonderful dram. No doubt the Weller experiences has educated me and my palate. The more you drink the more wise you get

Can a whiskybook be a page-turner ?

And can an ebook be a page-turner ?

I wouldn't have thought so

Recently the american bourbon expert Chuck Cowdery, released a book about one single bottling, called The best bourbon you never taste, with the subtitle : 

The true story of A.H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon. Distilled in the Spring of 1974

This is not a "real" printed book as it's only available on digital media. This was my first experience with a digital book, but I managed to get on amazon and get the book for my laptop, and with a little trouble I also managed to make it appear on my mobile phone. 

The book is the story about this particular one bottling, but also about the the distillery which made the whiskey inside the bottle, Michter's in Pennsylvania (which actually just was the distillerys final name)

It's also a great insight into American Whiskey History. Or maybe more correctly, a glimpse into American Whiskey History.

I found the book very exciting to read. The chapters are set out very intelligent, as a reader I had this "What's going to happen"-feeling, or as this is whiskey-history, "what did happen?"-feeling

What did happen at Michter's ?. What Whiskey did they produce ?. Why did Michter's close in 1990 ? Why was a batch of 16yo 1974 vintage bourbon from this distillery bottled in 2003 ?

I can only recommend this book. It's for hardcore whiskyfans, but as you read this, I am sure you are :-)

It's only available digital. You can read Chuck Cowdery's own presentation on his blog HERE and it will also tell you how to get a copy. I had to download a free app on my phone to read it, but it's ready readable on my laptop. I paid 11.49$ 

PS I actual always thought reading an ebook would be annoying. It wasn't. And it's a very convenient way to get cheap access to books that would otherwise be hard, expensive or impossible to get hold of.

Willet

Kentucky Bourbon Distillers is sort of what we (us scotch drinkers) would call an independent bottler. Sourcing casks from distilleries and bottling them

There's a little difference. Willet is actual the name of a distillery, which was working from the mid thirties up to the early eighties.

There's a scandinavian connection to the Willet distillery. Even Kulsveen, a native norwegian, and son-in-law to Thompson Willet, purchased the property, founded KBD in 1984. The distillery has reopened  this year. But inbetween the Willet name has lived on as a range of bottlings. Hard to your hands on in Denmark, but I succeded in finding a couple of excellent bottlings in my holiday travels

Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Bourbon
13yo 62% Barrel no. 3718
Distilled 14. May 1996

This is one of the most well balanced and complex bourbons I have tried. Wood, Syrupsweetness, Vanilla, Nuts, Caramel, Butterscotch it's all there in perfect harmony. The whisky is thick and oily like a wooden custard cream. The high ABV is only slightly felt. Delicious

Rating 91


Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye
25yo 47% Barrel no. 1372
Distilled 10. May 1983

The typical floor varnish I usually get in old ryes is toned down and spiced up to a delicious nose, with only a hint of the classical rye spicyness. The balance is great. The palate is a wood explosion dryness with a thick layer of orange flavours accompanied by a hint of nuts. The wood is very dominating but the whiskey is very delicate still. Woodylicious with a fantastic caramelcandy finish

Rating 89

Pappy van Winkle family Reserve 20 years old

Pappy van Winkle family Reserve 20 years old 45.2%

Pappy van Winkle

This whiskey is made at the legendary Stitzel-Weller distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. Stitzel-Weller closed in 1992 and has among bourbon drinkers reached the same mythical status as Brora and Port Ellen has for scotch drinkers.

Pappy van Winkle worked for a wholesale company named W.L Weller and Sons in the beginning of last century. He eventually bought it with a partner, and they also purchased the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery , with brands like W.L Weller, Old Fitzgerald and others. In 1935 they opened a new distillery and named it Stitzel-Weller.

Stitzel-Weller was sold (to what is now Diageo) in 1992, Weller brands was sold to Buffalo Trace, while Old Fitzgerald followed the distillery. The distillery was closed as Diageo moved all their production to Bernheim. Bernheim was sold to Heaven Hill in 1999 and Old Fitzgerald is today a Heaven Hill brand. The Weller brands is owned by Buffalo Trace.

Traditionally, bourbon was (and is) made from corn, rye and barley, but Weller is known for being a wheated bourbon, made from corn, wheat and barley. This gives a softer, smoother, no rye spice, bourbon, very different from other bourbons.

Originally van Winkle whiskies were sourced from old Stitzel Weller stock, but production has moved to Buffalo Trace. Today, both Buffalo Trace and van Winkle is owned by the Sazerac Company. The van Winkle company is still run by 3rd and 4th generation van Winkle. Stitzel-Weller closed in 1992, it only takes a bit of math to figure out if van Winkle whiskies are from Buffalo Trace or Stiitzel-Weller. 20yo released in 2012 should still be from Stitzel-Weller stock as far as rumours goes.

(An exception to this is the van Winkle rye which was sourced from other distilleries, at least originally)

Nose : oranges cakes, delicate wood
Palate : Bitter oranges, nutty, creamy, with the wood not being overpowering at all. This is smooth, soft and delicate. Very drinkable, the is absolutely no need for adding water
Finish : Medium intensity, but long, very very long. The orangewood lingers forever. Fantastic

This is just not like any other bourbon I have tried. So delicate and subtle, and the first bourbon where I get nutty flavours.

This is one of those whiskies that puts a quiet happy smile on your face

So should we be worried that future bottlings of this will be from a different distillery. Yes and No. It will most likely not be same. Time will tell. But if you have tasted 12yo Old Rip van Winkle and BTAC's William Larue Weller, you know that these whiskies are also great.

As a whisky entusiast I am only excited to see what kind of Pappy 20's the future will give us. Just to be safe I have stocked an extra bottle of this

Rating 92


I reviewed PvW 15 last year here : http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/high-west-bourye-and-pappy-van-winkle.html

A couple of Rittenhouse 100's

Bottled in Bond, now what is that ?

To be labeled Bottled in Bond the following requirements have to be met (from Wikipedia) :

To be labeled as "Bottled-in-Bond" or "Bonded," the spirit must be the product of one distillation season and one distiller at one distillery. It must have been stored (i.e., aged) in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 (U.S.) proof (50% alcohol by volume). The bottled product's label must identify the distillery (by DSP number) where it was distilled and, if different, where it was bottled.

Rittenhouse is the rye brand label of Heaven Hill. They have a range of different Rittenhouses, I've reviewed a 25yo before here.

I got a couple of bottlings. The standard, reddish label and a single barrel bottled by The Whisky Exchange in London, greenish label.

The first thing that hits me is that the back labels states "Distilled by DSP-354". This is actually the Early Times distillery (owned by Brown-Forman). So Heaven Hill must be distilling their Rye at one of their competitors distilleries. Brown-Forman is the owner of Jack Daniels, Woodford Reserve, Old Forrester etc)

Now on to the whiskeys. They are very similar, but not the same

These are sweet fruity ryes, with the typical rye spicyness being well hosted by the sweetness. I get a dominant banana flavour, which for me is typical Rittenhouse. Loads of floor varnish which always hits me in bourbons, the huge new wood impact on the sweet corn I guess. This is a rye, yes, but the mashbill contains a lot of corn, Rittenhouse is reckoned to be close to 51% rye, some barley (10%-ish?) and the rest is corn

The single cask is more fullbodied and rounder and slightly less rough and less woody in its expression. The rye spicyness of the singlebarrel reminds me of classical gin flavours

Finish : More Bananas

Rating 83
Rating 88 (TWE single Barrel)


This just proves that single barrels is something that needs to be explored with bourbon and ryes as I have been doing for years with single malts

Last drams of 2011 part 5

Old Grand Dad 100 proof bottled in bond 1982

To me, the bourbon terms sometimes seems odd. Bottled in bond means a vintage whiskey and straight means the whiskey is minimum 4 years old :-)

(read more exact definition here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottled_in_bond)

The Old Grand Dad is today a Beam brand, and uses a special high rye mash bill different from the other Beam whiskies. The whisky is named after Basil Hayden, the original distiller Raymond Haydens grand-dad. The name is also known from Beam's Basil Hayden's bouron which also uses the same mash bill.

Nose : Shoe polish, rye, liqeur

Palate : Wow, pure rye heaven. It's very smooth and hasn't got a lot of wood. Is this OBE ? (old bottle effect). I do find slight similarities to this and AH Hirsch 16, and the AH Hirsch 16 did spend around 1½ decade in stainless steel tanks. One thing is sure, I am glad I have been stocking up on bourbons bottled last century. I get more from this. Mint, licorise, floor varnish, rye, vanilla, but this is also one of the least woody and smoothest bourbons I have tried

Finish : medium-long

Rating 91

Thanks to Mike Ly for the sample

A couple of very different whiskeys from Kentucky

1. Rittenhouse Rye 25yo 50%
Barrel no. 6

Rittenhouse is a label by Heaven Hill. The old Heaven Hill distillery burned down in the 90's and a few years later Heaven Hill acquired the modern Bernheim Plant from Diageo (who had closed a range of distilleries in the 90's and moved all their production here, before moving away from the production side of american whiskeys). This rye is most likely distilled at the old Heaven Hill distillery. 

I think that rye whiskey can age a lot easier than bourbon. It seems the spirit is a lot more robust for wood influence. It could be the fact that the rye spirit itself is a lot more flavourful than corn spirit?. This barrel no. 6 Rittenhouse 25yo has retained a surprising amount of the rye flavour after so many years in the barrel. The nose is very similar to a much younger rye, without the spirit burn. I usually find older ryes more woody, but not as woody as older bourbons. The nose puts me into a scenery of walking through a forest of fresh pine woods in the summer. Very aromatic and spicy, and you just want to get your nose as close as possible to the spirit to inhale these nice aromas. Opposied to scottish single malts, I don't really mind that bourbons and ryes are watered down. They are far more intense and flavourful. This is well represented at 50% and will still be too intense for some, if not most. The palate has got the same rye spices, with a lot of delicate toffee-caramel flavours and the wood is coming in the finish. Seems more intensive than the other Rittenhouse 25yo's I tried. A very delicious dram, and it benefits a lot from a few drops of water - and I don't add water to whisky very often

Rating 86

2. Kirkland 7yo Straight Bourbon 51.5%
Batch B-5183

Corn Juice. Sweet and woody. Nothing spectacular, it can be drunk neat, with ice or in a cocktail. At 20$ish a liter this is quite a good deal. A lot of dominant flavours, wood, toffee and slightly bitter on the finish. Lasting impression is a lot of toffee and very drinkable- For a lower priced bourbon that easy matches and beats a lot of the more known brands

Rating 80

High West Bourye and Pappy van Winkle 15

High West is a new distillery in Park City, Utah.

So far they have released "only" unaged stuff, their silver oat, silver barley and vodka.

But they also bottled a range of ryes and bourbons, sourced at different distilelleries

This is the third High West I review, the other two can be found here :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/3-ryes-and-bourbon.html

1. High West Bourye 46%

This is a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey. As far as I know this is a blend of 10yo four roses (their 20% rye mashbill), 12yo LDI (95% rye and 5% barley) and 16yo Barton (53% rye, 37% corn and 10% barley)

Nose : Treesap, spice, sweet wood, delicious rye, one of those whiskies you just want to keep on nosing

Palate : Sweetness, quite woody, but bourbon and ryes do appear woody to me as I started out as a single malt drinker. There's a reallly good balance between the wood, vanilla and spicy rye. 95% ryes can be somehow synthetic and one-sided, but the flavours are really well blendend together here

Finish : medium-long

Rating 90

Comment's : This whiskey isn't a traditional blend, but being vatted together of casks from three different distilleries it actually is. American and scottish blends are used to describe different kind of products.

But this IS blended together really good. My favourite High West so far!

2. Pappy van Winkle 15yo 53.5%

Nose: Wood, solvent, vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom

Palate: Intensen: Very woody, creamy vanilla, tobacco, liqorise

Finish : medium-long

Comment : This is a wheated bourbon. If you like woody tastes this is for you

Rating 85