Ahh, What a bittersweet weekend. The name of this blog may be “baseball and bourbon,” but if you’ve read a few posts, you know that I am equally a football fan. Last night, my college – the University of Missouri – lost a nail-biter of a game in double overtime to South Carolina. This hurt as Missouri was in fifth place in the BCS, and could have been headed for a national title chance. When I woke up this morning, the loss still lingered. But with the Detroit Lions playing Dallas at 1 o’clock, and a new bourbon to try, hope sprung eternal.

The Detroit Lions. Oh what an exasperating team they can be. In my 36 years on this earth, I have been able to witness one playoff win. Optimism has been high this season, and the Lions have responded by playing the style of up and down, win one lose one football they have played most of my life. Today’s game against the Cowboys seemed particularly important, as losing would definitely move them to the far edges of the playoff picture.

The game was thrilling, but the ending…what an ending. Taking the ball 80 yards in less than a minute, with quarterback Matt Stafford diving in to score the winning touchdown with mere seconds on the clock: amazing. So maybe my newly uplifted spirits guided my review of this weeks selection, the Calumet Farm bourbon. But like the Lions, this drink was sweet.

My take: Calumet Farm comes courtesy of a recommendation (like many of my selections) from the guys at Kakos in Birmingham, MI.  It’s a newer bourbon line, with the name from a farm well known for it’s Kentucky Derby winning steeds. I do not know the source of Calumet Farms, and it has no age statement. This one was right up my alley.

The nose was sweet – vanilla, corn, caramel.  

The taste is a little thin, but full of butterscotch, vanilla, caramel,charred oak and a slight, white pepper. It didn’t taste like an older bourbon, so my guess is that it’s 6 years or under. But it was still flavorful and smooth.
 And the finish – absolutely delicious, sweet and so very smooth.  I actually had  more than my usual first tasting because it was so smooth.  I should mention Jen found it a bit bitter, and she is less of a fan of smooth than I am (she likes single barrels more, where I am a bigger fan of blends).

I feel weird saying this about a bourbon that is so new on the scene, but I loved it.

Dan scale (1-10): 8.7

*Update – I have since been told that Calumet Farm Bourbon was a very limited run, and will probably not be available again after this year.  If you’ve heard something different, please let me know.  Otherwise, best gettn’ while the gettin’ s good!