Giving Bourbon a finish

It doesn't happen often. There is a reason for finishing to be a technique that is more used in Scotland than in Kentucky.

As bourbon is matured on new wood, the individual barrel is more or less affecting the bourbon the same way. Things like age, mashbill and warehouse location matters a whole lot more than the barrels, as the barrels are similar. Not so in Scotland where all types of casks are used and they are used many times. So in Scotland you do sometimes see tired casks that doesn't really influence and mature the whisky. One way to repair a whisky from a tired cask is to empty the cask and fill the spirit into another casks. Giving a whisky a huge shot of flavour from an active wine casks is very popular and just months in such a cask can have a huge influence. It's called "finishing", and it's done both to repair tired whisky casks, but also as a flavour design.

But for bourbon, finishing is not very common. The lack of tired casks, and the fact that bourbon itself is fast maturing and very intense is the explanation of this. But finished bourbon do exist and I just happened to have a couple of them in my possesion

Malts of Scotland Bourbon

Heaven Hill, Malts of Scotland, Port Cask finish. 52.8% 

distilled 2001, bottled 2015

This is a little bit weird as it tastes more like a cocktail than a bourbon. It is fruity, a bit like bourbon with a dash of blackcurrant. It's very easy drinking, the alcohol is very well integrated. It's a bit more watery than my average bourbon, but also quite woody, which is a bit of a contradiction tastewise. The tasting experience is very unusual for me as I get woody flavours above my tongue and fruity flavours below. I all ends with a sweet finish.

Rating 87/100

Finishing a bourbon, the effect is much less than when finishing a single malt. This is a bourbon most of all with a little fruity twist. The whisky hasn't lost its soul

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

Elijah Craig 12yo

1. Elijah Craig 12yo 47%

Elijah Craig is a  low rye bourbon offer from Heaven Hill, which is aged a little longer than their various Evan Williams offerings, which is probably made from the same mashbill recipe.

Evan Williams 12yo

Two days ago I reviewed some Evan Williams here :

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2012/08/evan-williams-dusties.html

Back to the Elijah Craig. The thing I note from this bourbon is minty nose and flavours. Where as the Evan Williams current versions come as bourbons with a vanilla dominance to me. 

This has got a higher ABV, but the alcoholburn is nonexistant to me, so very drinkable. The few extra years in the cask has smoothened this one out a bit relative to the Evan Williams Single Barrel (EWSB) offering I tasted two days ago. 

There is offcourse more to this than just mint. There's a delicate background of wood, with a slight rye spicyness backing this up. Adding to this some hidden fruityness of bitter oranges and "raw" peaches. The finish is long and balanced with the mint edging in again

This is a very good companion to the EWSB, with plenty of differences as described. Where I live the 12yo is slightly cheaper than the EWSB and both are quite affordable at the danish whisky price level

Rating 87

Both Evan Williams and Elijah Craig are named after historical (near mythical) Kentucky bourbon distillers. 

Elijah Craig is(was) also available as an 18yo. This has just been replaced by a 20yo and doubled in price, showing that bourbons probably are going down the same sad premiumisation path as scotch did.

Evan Williams dusties

Evan Williams is a cheap american bourbon, it's on the shelves to compete with the likes of Jack Daniels and Jim Beam White. Pricewise it's very very cheap, at least in the US. In my opinion it's a better bourbon than Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam, but it's not really a big deal. Evan Williams got a lot more vanilla in the flavour and as such has a little more to offer. For some odd reason the label is very similar to the Jack Daniel's label, I wonder who was first in the design ?

I managed to grab a couple of dusties Evan Williams of whiskyauction.com and the first thing I note is that it has an age statement. 7 years old. If you buy a bottle today, it won't have an age statement. The next thing I note is the proof. 90 proof. Todays regular version is 43%

The third thing I noted on the bottles was the volume. One is 4/5 quart, the other is labeled both as 750ml and 25.4 fl. oz.. This makes it possible to determinate the age period of the bottlings. In 1979 and 1980 distilleries labeled bottles im both systems, then switched to only metric from 1981 and forward. So the first bottle is 1978 or older, the second bottle is from 1979 or 1980. The second bottle has "79" in the bottom and the first has "74" so my good guess is that the whiskeys are from these vintages, give or take, as a bottle could be manufactured earlier than the whiskey inside. So this is really exciting, as I here have bourbons produced in the 60's and in the 70's. The third bottle is Evan Williams Single Barrel vintage 2000 and it's a little less than 9 years old. Evan Williams being a Heaven Hill label, you can assume that this last bottle was distilled at Heaven Hill's Bernheim plant which they acquired from Diageo in 1998. The Old Heaven Hill distillery burned in 1996. But as it's not uncommon for Heaven Hill to source casks elsewhere you don't really know. In the period where Heaven Hill didn't have their own distillery they produced at Early Times, and up to this date the Rittenhouse Rye still is made there (It has been moved to Bernheim as well, but everything released up to this date as bottled in bond is still Early Times)

A trio of Evan Williams

1. Evan Williams 7yo 90 proof bottled 1974

A very nice nose, it's got a slight floral touch. The palate is sweet and full bodies and very well balanced. Hints of honey and fruits. This actual reminds me of older speysides. And all is goodness is well balanced on the wood. This is really a great bourbon. It reminds me of some old Stitzel Weller bottlings where also a lot of flavours easily emerge through the dominant wood that is always a trademark of bourbons. Yummy.

Rating 90 

2. Evan Williams 7yo 90 proof bottled 1979

More what I would expect from a bourbon this age. The wood and the rye spices are what hits me first. The body is good and very well balanced, but I mainly get the rye flavours and a somewhat higher alcohol burnb than the 74. But still a very nice bourbon.

Rating 82

Seems like something drastic happened between these bottling, and beside me being born, I don't know what happened. Maybe older barrels were used ?. Different mashbill ? (I doubt). Sourced casks ? 

3. Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000 barrel 117

Barreled 11/08 2000, Bottled 30/10 2009

I always expect single barrel selections to be better than the regular products. This also has a few more years in the barrel than the current Evan Williams which I reckon is probably around 6-7 years old.

Great Nose. This is more like the 74, with hints of honey and fruits appearing again. Vanilla and the wood impacts make me think of dry wood. Again a very different bourbon. The 74 was fruity and honeyed, the 79 was rye spiced and this is dominated by vanilla wood flavours. I also get some nutty flavours. And the rye spicyness on the finish. This is a classical bourbon and it has the flavours you wish and expect in a good bourbon.

Rating 87

Older versions of Heaven Hill bourbon is bottled as Elijah Craig. They also bottle a wheated version under the Old Fitzgerald label. Every year they release special premium batches under the Parker's Heritage Collection label. And their rye is, as mentioned above, Rittenhouse, which I have reviewed here:

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2012/04/couple-of-rittenhouse-100s.html and here

http://danishwhiskyblog.blogspot.dk/2011/12/couple-of-very-different-whiskeys-from.html (25yo)

 But it doesnt end with that, there's quite a few more labels under the HH umbrella