RATINGS SYSTEM
*Horrid- Won't drink unless threatened with violence. **Tolerable- Will drink if it is free.
***Good- Will drink and even pay for.
****Very Good- Will seek out for purchase. *****Superb- Will walk miles to acquire.
10/2008 BUFFALO TRACE KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY MADNESS- we see that our retailer is selling fifths of BUFFALO TRACE for $18!!! Hurry, buy an armload NOW! (Click HERE.)
Usually, this terrific 90 proof Bourbon retails for $23-$27, and at that price it is a super deal. Why? Simple --- the flavor is splendid. Sip it straight and you have a robust spirit; take it with a splash of water and you have a gentle sipping whiskey. In both instances, your mouth will sense a wealth of flavors, such as toasted pear, barrel, mint, menthol... SO GOOD. Fabulous stuff. (Rating ****3/4)
For further details on BUFFALO TRACE BOURBON, surf to http://www.BuffaloTrace.com. Click here to see if you can buy a bottle or two or twelve online.
10/2008 WILD TURKEY KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY (101 PROOF) AND RUSSELL'S RESERVE KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY Funny, frequently when we mention WILD TURKEY to someone, their eyes widen with a sort of mock-yet-sorta-real fear. "Oh, the TURKEY. Yeah, serious stuff." Perhaps WILD TURKEY is a bit like Tequila --- the first time folks try it, they try it the wrong way. They're at a bar or party, they're already loopy, and they do a few shots and... Well, we need say no more. In truth, WILD TURKEY 101 is a good Bourbon and a great deal at $20 to $25 retail for a fifth. We enjoy it with a couple ice cubes, which take a little of the heat off and helps the whiskey show its flavors --- white pepper, honey, menthol, and barrel. Very enjoyable. (Rating ***3/4)
RUSSELL'S RESERVE (90 proof) is a more recent WILD TURKEY product. It is aged 10 years and sold for a little over $30 retail for a fifth. Call it TURKEY IN A TIE. Like WT 101, RUSSELL'S RESERVE shows the same good flavors at WT 101, although they are a little less intense, and joined by a nice toffee note. It is enjoyable, but not quite as complex or engaging as one would expect from a Bourbon aged 10 years. In our humble view, the increased price provides an increase in the quality of the flavor, but not enough to justify a higher rating than WT 101. (Rating ***3/4)
10/2008 THE KENTUCKY BOURBON FESTIVAL It is 10:21 AM in Clermont, Kentucky, a sparsely populated non-town 27 miles southeast of Louisville, and I am sipping 135 proof bourbon fresh from the still. It is water-clear, and tastes of sweet corn and spicy rye. When I swallow this young liquor, I feel a little itch in the back of my throat, then --- poof --- my mouth feels dry and clean.
Early-in-the-day samplings of "white dog" are not unusual in the ten Bourbon distilleries of Kentucky. It is a matter of quality control. By law, Bourbon must be aged at least two years in a new oak barrel that has been flame-charred inside. Most Bourbon whiskey sits in barrels for much longer --- four to nine years, typically, and sometimes 15 years or more. Distillers, quite sensibly, run a dizzying array of quality control measurements and tests to up the odds that the charred barrel will transform the "white dog" into the smooth, sweet, amber-brown hooch that we know as
Bourbon whiskey. In this instance, though, the sampling is little more than an excuse for me and the gaggle of writers junketed by Jim Beam Global Spirits & Wine to sip whiskey at the company’s flagship distillery. Indeed, morning tippling appears to be de rigueur during the annual mid-September whoop-up that is the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.
The festival was thrown first in Bardstown in 1992. Constellation Spirits’ Pam Gover, described it as a modest affair. "About 250 people paid $50 each to have dinner and drink bourbon. It was a one-night event." The Kentucky Bourbon Festival drew together locals and industry people who worked for the distilleries in Bardstown and nearby towns, such as Clermont, Frankfort, and Loreto.
Since then, the event has swollen to a six-day party drawing 55,000 visitors from more than a dozen countries. Every day is stuffed with events and activities, some located in charming downtown Bardstown (2007 population: 11,500), and others in surrounding areas. Kids might enjoy the few non-boozy offerings, such as riding on a restored 1905 steam engine, watching the hot air balloon launch, and whirling on the fair rides. There also are, it is true, educational opportunities. Craftsmen from the Independent Stave Company put on impressive exhibitions of barrel-making and repair, and the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History is a wunderkammer of the whiskey world of the past three centuries. Mostly, though, the week's activities are devoted to the celebration and consumption of Bourbon. There are distillery tours, Bourbon dinners and tastings, whiskey-soaked concerts, and a whiskey auction. Those who cannot get their fill of hooch during the day and night can attend a whiskey breakfast where they can nosh on pancakes topped with bourbon butter and slurp bourbon-laced coffee.
Many of the events are upscale, and will appeal to the deep-pocketed consumers of the boutique Bourbons that fetch $40 to $100 a bottle. The cigar smoker is $75. Playing in the festival's golf tournament runs $125. The week is topped off with the Gala, a black-tie cocktail party, dinner, and dance attended by whiskey industry heavies, Bourbon-lovers, and anyone who can afford the $140 admission charge.
The growth of the Kentucky Bourbon festival has been fueled, in part, by the nature of the enterprise --- it is an excuse to take time off work to drink, eat, and goof off.
Anecdotal evidence also suggests that some Kentuckians are drawn to the festival because it celebrates Kentucky heritage and makes them feel good about their state. Bourbon does not have to be made in Kentucky, although nearly all of it is. (A. Smith Bowman Distillery of Fredericksburg, Virginia, which produces Virginia Gentleman Bourbon, is the lone large exception to this rule.) Kentucky distillers have been at it for over 200 years, so Bourbon whiskey and the attached industries of corn farming and barrel-making are part of the social fabric. (By law, Bourbon must be made from at least 51% corn. Most distillers, though, use 70% or more.)
Arguably, though, the explosive growth of the festival reflects the global rise in demand for Bourbon whiskey. Bourbon whiskey also has been a growth industry, a manufacturing business that has boomed over the past decade. The Kentucky Distillers Association reports that Bourbon production has doubled since 1999, with over 937,000 barrels being filled last year. Sales have climbed steadily, and exports have hit record levels. According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, foreign sales increased 14.4%, from $623 million to $713 million between 2006 and 2007. Growth has been fueled by increased sales of the pricey "high end" and "super premium" Bourbons that come in bulbous, thick glass decanters topped with polished wood cork-stops. Sales of Woodford Reserve Bourbon, for example, have increased an average of 24% per year during the past five years. Thus, Bourbon is big business in Kentucky. According to Jeff Conder, a vice president at Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., the whiskey industry provides Kentucky with over 3,000 jobs and nearly $115 million in state and local taxes. Collectively, the industry has announced $100 million in planned capital investments to expand operations. The Wild Turkey distillery is expanding production, and Constellation Spirits will break ground on a new visitors center in 2009. The industry is geared up for further growth; approximately 5 million barrels --- or 265 million gallons --- of whiskey are aging in Kentucky warehouses.
With a per capita income under $30,000 per year, which puts the state 47th in the nation, Kentucky’s government and business leaders clearly see the advantage in hitching the state to this hot product. The state's tourism agency advertises both the Bourbon Festival and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the area between Louisville and Bardstown where most of the state’s distilleries may be found. The Maker’s Mark Distillery in Loreto, which is 20 minutes north of Bardstown, had 70,000 visitors in 2007. Jim Beam's Clermont distillery had 80,000 visitors annually, and the company is expanding its "welcome center" to handle 200,000 Bourbon pilgrims per year. All told, the Bourbon distilleries handle 300 to 500,000 visitors annually. To keep all these folks from getting lost, the state's transportation agency and the distilleries shared the cost to erect myriad signs along the highways to direct drivers to their destinations.
Kentucky's political leaders have pitched in too. Senator Jim Bunning got the U.S. Senate to enact a resolution in 2007 that declared September to be "National Bourbon Heritage Month," and singled out Kentucky for its contribution to the industry. Both this year and last, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and the man he knocked from office, Ernie Fletcher, issued similar proclamations. Beshear has ballyhooed Bourbon's "significant economic, agricultural and tourism impact in Kentucky and beyond."
For all the fun and profit of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, though, there are moments when the attendee may weary of the surfeit of Bourbon. After a mere three days of the festival, this writer felt the pain that Anne Royall, the early 19th-century American journalist: "When I was in Virginia, it was too much whiskey --- in Ohio, too much whiskey --- in Tennessee, it is too, too much whiskey!"
Top photo: Barrels at the Maker's Mark Distillery (Credit: Kevin R. Kosar)
Middle photo: Bourbon barrel by Independent Stave Company (Credit: Kevin R. Kosar)
Bottom photo: Bottling line at Four Roses Distillery (Credit: Kentucky Distillers Association)
This is a lengthier version of a piece that appeared at TheAmerican.com. It is reprinted with the permission of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C.
9/2008 DISTILLERY VISIT: JIM BEAM OF CLAREMONT, KENTUCKY (PART 1) What can be said, other than "WOW!" AlcoholReviews.com joined a group of dipsomaniacal reporters on a press trip to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Part of the fun, ahem, work involved visiting the Jim Beam distillery.
Below is a video of Jim Beam whiskey being produced. Notice that it is water clear. This particular "white dog," as this unaged whiskey is called, came off the still at over 130 proof. We took a few sips and detected corn and rye notes, and felt a dryness and a slight throat itch as it went down the pipe. It tasted mighty good. (Turn on your speakers before playing this video.)
9/2008 DISTILLERY VISIT: JIM BEAM OF CLAREMONT, KENTUCKY (PART 2) The machinery at the Jim Beam distillery is very impressive, particularly the bottling machines, at least one of which can fill over 400 bottles per minute. Mind boggling. (Turn on your speakers before playing these videos.)
9/2008 BLANTON'S SINGLE BARREL KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY Gadzooks, how many years has it been since we reviewed this bourbon? Well, anyhoo, before proceeding, it's worth asking, "What's a single barrel bourbon?" The answer is that when one sees the words "single barrel" on the label it means that the whiskey in the bottle came from one barrel. To the novice whiskey drinker, this may seem no big deal. "Isn't that the way all Bourbon and whiskey gets bottled?" Answer: No! Most whiskeys are pulled from the barrel and blended with whiskeys from other casks, the aim being to produce a homogenized product, so that every bottle tastes exactly the same. With a single barrel whiskey, one will get some flavor variation from barrel to barrel, though, if it is a good single barrel, not so much variation that the regular tippler of the brand, who demands flavor consistency, will get annoyed.
The label on this particular bottle of BLANTON'S reads, "dumped on 3/26/08 from Barrel No. 107 stored in Warehouse H on Rick No. 46." It is 93 proof, and a humdinger of a whiskey. Those who are new to Bourbon are advised to take a teeny sip straight, then add a few drops of water, then repeat this exercise until one reaches a point where the BLANTON'S is palatable. En route, one will pick up notes of spearmint, eucalyptus, roasted pear, vanilla, licorice... It's very tasty. Add to BLANTON'S great taste its classy packaging --- a squat octagonal bottle topped by a metal race horse and rider cork --- and you have a very nice gift. (Rating ****1/2)
8/2008 EAGLE RARE SINGLE BARREL KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY (AGED 10 YEARS) We first encountered this 90 proof Bourbon a half-dozen years or more back, and we were mighty impressed. Such flavor for a great price --- $22 at the time, as we recall --- was worthy of a high rating. To taste it again, we shared it with some casual Bourbon drinkers, folks who enjoy the stuff, but don't study it, obsess over the production details, or even remember all the brands they have tried. Well, all four of them loved it. Big flavor, but very smooth. We agreed it is a bit too robust to take straight, and everyone cut it, varying from a little water to a half glass of crushed ice. It shows a range of notes: orange peel, almond, vanilla, and a char that verges on smoke. Impressive, and still very well priced at $25-$30 for a fifth. (Rating ****1/2)
To see if our retailer can sell you a bottle of EAGLE RARE, click here. For further details, surf here or check with Buffalo Trace Distillery.
5/2008 W.L. WELLER SPECIAL RESERVE KENTUCKY STRAIGHT BOURBON WHISKEY Wow- we really love this 90 proof bourbon. It has a great mouthfeel, and it offers up some luscious notes: butterscotch, spearmint, orange peel, and more. Serve it straight or add just a few drops of water. Delicious. (Rating ****1/2)
To see if our retailer can sell you a bottle of W.L. WELLER, click here. Otherwise, check with the company that produces it, Buffalo Trace of Franklin County, Kentucky.
F. Sot Fitzgerald
