Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Virgil Kaine Bourbon and Ginger

“Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train…” So begins one of the most legendary songs in the rock lexicon, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” The song tells the story of the surrender of the Confederacy from the viewpoint of a southerner. Written by The Band, released in 1969 and sung by Levon Helm, the American, southern drummer and singer in a band of Canadians who understood Americana as good as anyone. This week is the fourth anniversary of Helm’s passing, so let’s raise today’s glass to him. The fact it’s named Virgil Kaine makes it all the more appropriate.

Virgil Kaine (with a “K”) is also the name of a whiskey maker from South Carolina. Founded by two acclaimed chefs, the idea was to take the concepts of molecular gastronomy and apply it to whiskey making. While there are many examples of this today – Jefferson’s Chef Collaboration, for instance – the idea was more novel in 2011 when David Szlam and Ryan Meany decided to take a love of whiskey and culinary experimentation and start the company.

Their most recognizable product is the Bourbon and Ginger. The process is unique: they start with a young sourced bourbon, heavy in rye (60-36-4 corn/rye/barley) and then infuse locally grown yellow hawaiian ginger. Different sources mention the addition of other ingredients, including (potentially) cinnamon and vanilla. After maceration, the bourbon is distilled a second time for refinement before being bottled and sold. But how does it taste?

Dan’s take:

The nose is a cool customer. There is obviously ginger, but not nearly as strong as I expected. Similarly, there is light cinnamon, vanilla and a touch of baking spice. What there isn’t is oak or strong bourbon presence. The fact this is a young pour shows in the nose. Still, it is a pleasant softness, that slightly reminded me of a glass of Vernors.

The taste is more aggressive with its ginger – it comes in right from the get go. It has a freshness to it, along with a soft sweetness. There is vanilla, and the light pop on the back of the tongue of cinnamon. The vanilla is soft, and like in the nose, the rye bourbon is not harsh in the least. I can understand why they are choosing to use a young bourbon – the taste retains the corn sweetness, but doesn’t overpower the gentle ginger notes with oak and burn. It tastes like a cocktail, and a well mixed one at that. I am curious how a wheated variation may taste…

Jen pointed out the same thing. When we added soda water, it deadened the flavor too much. The best way to enjoy it was neat or with a few rocks. Straight, it drinks like a nice – albeit potent – cocktail. If you like your whiskey with a touch of ginger, you cannot go wrong with this one.

This product does not seem to be available in Michigan, or many northern or western states yet. I grabbed my bottles while in Atlanta and Asheville a few weeks back. Hopefully, distribution will expand further as well. It’s a fun addition to the liquor cabinet.

Dan’s Rating: 8.2

Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Old Forester 1870 Original Batch Bourbon

Next week is an exciting first for me – Jen and I will be attending the WhiskeyFest 2016 in Chicago! Hosted by Whiskey Advocate magazine, this is the biggest and baddest of the Whiskey festivals. Already there are dozens – dozens – of bourbon, scotch, malt, wheat and every other kind of whiskey imaginable distillers RSVP’ed. I have spent the last couple months whittling down the list of what I absolutely must try, and have prepared for a truly great event.

But before all of that excitement, there are newer things to try closer to home, and that’s where I found myself this week, at a new speakeasy-inspired bar in Grosse Pointe called “The Whiskey Six.” Named after the supposed engine of choice among Detroit River traversing bootleggers, the bar/restaurant boasts an impressive list of whiskies (if mostly from the usual suspects – Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, Four Roses, Heaven Hill and, for today’s choice, Brown-Forman). Indeed, it is from the Brown-Forman catalog that we try Old Forester 1870 Original Batch Bourbon, our taste of the week.

On the surface, Brown-Forman hype this newer Old Forester release as closer in spirit (if not taste) to the the original methods used by Old Forester founder George Garvin Brown in 1870. Theoretically, that is true, but the truth is that Mr. Brown basically blended whiskies from three different distilling sources for maximum consistency from batch to batch. If this sounds familiar, it should, because it’s basically what any non-Single Barrel release does today. Hardly revolutionary.

Still, it is always nice to recall history, and the idea of blending of barrels from three different warehouses is a nice throwback. The only problem is that, to my palette, it doesn’t work.

My take:

There are a lot of things going on in a glass of Old Forester 1870. Upon nosing the glass, I found it exceptionally hot, and with eyes closed, I wouldn’t have guessed it the 90 proof it is, but probably more like cask strength. Upon letting it sit for a minute, it began to open, slowly, but what was revealed was scattered and still very hot. Notes of clove began to waft, as did a medicinal scent, suggesting lavender and even a touch of juniper. I did not denote any soft sugar, but rather, a spicy rye.

I found the taste burned as well. On the front, there was a suggestion of bitter cherries with a touch of molasses. Also forward was a hint of cinnamon, a bit of toffee and a course black pepper. I found there to be several tastes going on at once, and none of them complimentary.

The finish was long and hinted at dried fruit and dry spiciness.

I admit, I have never been a huge fan of Brown-Forman products, save Jack Daniels. Woodford Reserve does nothing for me, and I still say Early Times 354 was the worst bourbon I’ve ever tasted. That said, I respect that their products are usually dependable, if not exemplary. Old Forester 1870 fits into that pattern. It’s a fine bourbon for a shot or two, and a good mixer for a bitter cocktail. But at the price a bottle is usually found ($50+), I just think you can get better.

Dan’s Rating: 7.3

Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Abraham Bowman Limited Edition Vanilla Bean Infused Whiskey

Among the many great things about travelling to Kentucky for bourbon events is the opportunity to purchase harder-to-find products that just aren’t available here in my home state of Michigan. While the local selection has certainly improved in the last five years, it is still a drop in the bucket compared to what is available in the larger Kentucky stores, much less the more legendary stops in Bourbon country.

When we were in the Bluegrass State last month for the Bourbon Classic, we were able to fit in a bit of shopping. Now, those expecting to run into those more well known unicorns – Pappy, BTAC, Four Roses Limited Edition, etc – will find themselves every bit as frustrated as they might in their own state. But some good knowledge of stores and a bit of luck mixed with a willingness to search, and you can certainly find some unique bottles.

It was with that mind set that Jen and I stumbled across a unique variation on a brand I had reviewed in February. Then, I tried the Buffalo-Trace produced, Virginia aged John J. Bowman single barrel for the first time, and found it enjoyable. This time, we found a bottle of a Abraham Bowman limited release, aged in Vanilla beans. It certainly seemed unique enough, so we brought the last bottle on the shelf home to try for ourselves.

The Bowman distillery in Virginia has been putting out Limited Edition efforts for a few years now – past releases included a port-wine finish and a double barreled. This year, they released a vanilla bean infused version. The distillery explains this as quite a process – they “chopped up Madagascar vanilla beans in October, 2012″ that then “were added at various levels and tasted every ten weeks to observe how their flavor interacted with the bourbon as it aged. After a little over two years, all of the barrels were married together.”

What resulted was less a”flavored” bourbon and more of an interesting, enhanced version of their whiskey. Luckily for us, although the release was originally only supposed to be available in the Bowman home state of Virginia, we found a bottle in Kentucky, so a few got out.

Was it any good? Jen and I gave it a shot (pun fully intended).

Our take:

Dan: The nose is certainly vanilla-infused, but not nearly as much as i expected. There are serious rye notes here, as well as a nuttiness akin to walnut and pecan, and a soft oak smokiness. That’s not to say there isn’t an abundance of vanilla – it’s definitely there – but it does downplay some of the other sweeter notes I would expect. There’s no sweetness aside from the vanilla at all. But I think it’s well balanced.

Jen: The nose is a bit too Bath and Body works for me. And I don’t have to sit around with my nose in a glass, so who cares if it smells like there should be coordinating lotions?

Dan: The taste is surprising. I don’t get a flood of vanilla – this is no ‘flavored’ whiskey. Cinnamon and spice, orange, with more of that nuttiness in there, along with a touch of bitterness I am going to assign to the vanilla bean. Madagascar vanilla beans are known for being rich and creamy, and while the mouth feel here is thicker than the average whiskey, I wouldn’t call it creamy or buttery. It has a flatness to it – exceptionally smooth, but not particularly sweet.

Jen: But the taste was very nice. I think the vanilla flattens the complexity of the whiskey giving it a simpler taste, much like a flavored whiskey. However, unlike other cherry or honey whiskeys, the vanilla is integrated very naturally and very skillfully into the rest of the flavor profile. So you avoid feeling like a sorority girl while you drink it. It’s a very pleasant drink, and very tasty.

Dan: Good call. It is a bit flat, and very smooth, and has a medium finish that is ALL vanilla. It’s hard to prescribe who this is for, other than the adventurous bourbon enthusiast. It’s not complex enough for the aficionado, not soft enough for the flavored whiskey fan. I bet it would make an awesome mixed drink. But at $70 and up a bottle, that’s a pricey mixer.

We both like it, and it’s fun and different. A nice addition to the collection, but if it makes more than it’s current limited edition run, I probably wouldn’t seek it out again.

Dan’s take: 8.1

Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Parker’s Heritage 8th Edition – Wheat Whiskey (13 Years Aged)

The past few years, I have largely sat out the fall release extravaganza in the bourbon/whiskey world. Following them online can be great fun, but knowing so few would make it to Michigan precluded me from searching for them. Outside of the obvious Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection releases being hard to find, rarely have I seen an Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, a Parker’s Heritage or a Elijah Craig 21-22-23 on shelves here in the great Mitten state.

THis year was different, both in selection and my personal hunt. I decided to go after more of this year’s fall releases, and was pleased to find that many more were coming to Michigan, albeit in very very small numbers. And earlier this month, when the Bourbonr Blog posted their poll winners for the best of the 2014 Fall releases, I was proud to say I was able to hunt down half of them, including 5 of the top 10.

So now it’s time to start sampling them, and I opened with an absolute doozy – the 8th Edition of Heaven Hill’s Parker’s Heritage, a 13 year old Wheat Whiskey. And in a word, wow.

The Parker’s Heritage label was started by Heaven Hill in 2007 to pay tribute to their Master Distiller Parker Beam. Parker Beam (and yes, he is of the Jim Beam family) has been with Heaven Hill since 1960, and been the Master Distiller there since 1975.

The first Parker’s Heritage, in 2007, was an 11-year old cask strength. Every fall since then, Heaven Hill has issued another limited edition, small bottling of a unique whiskey to pay tribute to Parker.

This year, it is a 13-year old Wheat Whiskey, made from the initial barrels of Bernheim Wheat Whiskey. Bernheim is bottled at 7 years old, so this years P.H. has an extra six years in the barrel – and these barrels were on the top floors of Heaven Hill Rickhouse Y. It has a minimum of 51% soft winter wheat in the mashbill, and to top that off, it was bottled at cask strength and without cold filtering. This years Parker’s Heritage is the closest thing you can get to drinking it straight from the barrel. But how was it?

Dan’s Take:

The nose jumped out at me with a real serious burn. And why not – at 127.4 proof, it had better! I let it sit for a minute and tried again, but it was still hot and not giving away anything. A little water and things were looking up. There was a deep honey and caramel, and a tang of what I would describe as citrus. The wood notes were muted, but I got a hint of baking spices and even a fresh biscuit-like smell.

The taste was outstanding. The first sip was heavy in the oak and baking spices I would expect from, well, a cask strength 13-year old wheat whiskey. But unbelievably smooth. The wood taste wasn’t tannic either – there wasn’t a bitterness, just a smooth woodiness and spice. The sweeter tastes – vanilla, a touch of toffee candy – swirled around as the thick pour subsided into a soft but lingering finish full of cinnamon and clove, and again a biscuity goodness.

The first taste was so good, in fact, that I dove directly into another – and again, it was fantastic. To have such a sweet nose, a complex taste full of character but not overpowering with bitter or tannins, and a medium, smooth finish that ends dry like coconut and oak, but not harsh in any way.

The Parker’s Heritage 8th Edition is one of my favorite whiskies of all time. Perfectly blended and delivered. It just makes me all that more sad that it will not be available again. Well done, Heaven Hill.

Dan’s Rating: 9.5

Master Distiller Parker Beam was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig Disease, several years back. In addition to a portion of Parker’s Heritage sales going to ALS research, you can visit his ALS Promise Fund page here, and support a great cause for a legendary man.

Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Angel’s Envy Rye

First of all…Happy New Year! Hopefully you had a wonderful holiday season, full of merriment, joy and bourbon. I most certainly did, so much so that I’m just now saying Happy New Year on the 12th of January! I would be lying if I didn’t admit that part of the delay in posting a blog was due to football – between my Missouri Tigers winning a New Years Day bowl and my beloved Detroit Lions losing a game to the Dallas ~~Referees~~ Cowboys, I’ve been wrapped up in football fever.

One of the best things about being emotionally invested in football this time of year is gathering with friends and coping with the nervousness of a tight game by sampling a new whiskey or two. And that is exactly what we did as time ran down on the Lions-Cowboys. We opened a bottle of Angel’s Envy Rye and tried something new.

I first had Angel’s Envy Rye last year at the Bourbon Classic. I admit, by the time I sampled it, I had partaken of a few other whiskies and my palate wasn’t quite as clean as I’d like for a review. But even then, I knew there was something very different about this pour. It took a little longer for the A.E. Rye to make it to Michigan, so in May I purchased a bottle while in Maryland to have for myself. This seemed the perfect opportunity to try it.

Few bourbons have grown on me like Angel’s Envy has. When I first reviewed it last year, I thought it remarkably smooth and clean – and a little dull. And I still think that it is one of the less complex bourbons I’ve had, in that price range anyway. But given the choice between a glass of Angel’s Envy and most other readily available bourbons, I have found I will choose the Angel’s Envy consistently. That has even included Kentucky Derby day! So what of this Rye?

I remember trying it at the Bourbon Classic and thinking “this is like candy!” And why not – Angel’s Envy Rye is finished for “up to 18 months” in Plantation XO Rum casks. So they take a rye whiskey, and then age it for a year and a half in rum casks before bottling it at 100 proof. Sound interesting? It certainly tastes interesting.

Dan’s Take:

Angel’s Envy Rye comes in the same style attractive bottle as its sister. It’s a little pricier ($60-80), and a little harder to find. I have read from others that it is an MGP/LDI sourced rye, so it shares characteristics with Bulleit. And let’s skip to the chase – if you like your rye whiskies tough, spicy and hot, this isn’t the one for you. But if you like something with some sweetness, read on.

This rye has a nose that’s as exotic as the trip these barrels have seen. There is little of the typical whiskey bite – rather, a sweet bouquet of orange peel, brown sugar, coconut and pear melt with a soft rye scent of clove, cinnamon and allspice. This smells sugary, much more like a rum than a whiskey, and it’s light and pleasant.

The taste has a lot going on. It has a thickness to it, creamy and buttery but with many of those same rum characteristics. Honey and cinnamon, with a touch that could even be pineapple. The toasted oak is very light, and the rye doesn’t fully blossom until the back of the palate. The higher proof also shows through, and it does have a bit of a bite in the back end (if only because it started so sweet). Make no mistake, it tastes like whiskey, not rum, but the typical pepper of rye is far offset by the sweetness that envelopes.

The finish is, admittedly, a bit confusing. The rye notes are there, with their spice and slight burn, but there is the thickness of rum as well. The sweetness, so nice in the sip, is a bit muddled in the finish.

I like sweet drinks, and I like mellower whiskies, so I rate this one with a pretty big caveat – this is not your grandfather’s rye. It may share a recipe with Bulleit or Dickel, but the finishing makes it wholly unique. This is a great whiskey for a summer night, I believe (or a winter night you want to pretend). As a taste profile, it might even be closer to the glut of “flavored” whiskeys on the market – but it has a few things none of them seem to: it’s made of a solid product to start, and the flavor is much more natural than any maple or honey additive found in one of those products. So my rating is for someone who, like me, has a sweet tooth now and again.

Dan’s Rating: 8.1

Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Willett Family Estate 2 Year Rye

Well, first of all, Happy Halloween! Once more it’s the time of year with ghosts and goblins, tricks and treats. Children dressing scarily and wondering through your streets collecting candy. I hope you and yours enjoy it this year. It’s also deep into autumn, with the harvest coming up, and I like to think of all the corn, the wheat, the ryes that will soon be mashed and distilled into my favorite treat – whiskey!

Secondly, congratulations to the San Francisco Giants, who last night won their third World Series in five years. I feel like the Giants are our adoptive team, as my wife Jen and I went to see them during our honeymoon in 2012. Particularly amazing was the performance of Madison Bumgarner, I’m glad I watched this series through to the end!

And now…on to bourbon. Or in this case, rye.

The Willett name has a long and storied history, going all the way back to pilgrims who arrived in the US in the 1600s. The Willett family has been responsible for bourbon distilling in Kentucky since the 1860s, and has played an important role in much of the great bourbon legacy there.

In the 1930s, the Willett family started the Willett Distilling Company on the family farm in Bardstown, Kentucky, and it still sits there today. Willett, which later changed it’s name to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers(1984), made bourbons on the family farm up until the 1970s. At that time, during the oil crisis, they made the decisions to have their whiskey brands made elsewhere and age and bottle them (or just bottle them) onsite. This allowed them to convert their production facilities to make gasahol fuel. This venture did not work out, however, and by the 1980s, the Willett location was only used for it’s warehouses and bottling.

Several brands are released under the Kentucky Bourbon Distillers name – Johnny Drum, Kentucky Vintage, Rowan’s Creek, Noah’s Mill among others. They also do aging and bottling for a few other brands, including Corner Creek and the sought after Black Maple Hill.

In the mid 2000’s, the family started work to reopen the Willett production facilities, and by 2012, they barreled the first of their new products. And in 2014, they unveiled it at last – the Willett Family 2 Year Rye.

I was down in Kentucky in June and visited Willett, and was lucky enough to land a few bottles of the brand new, Willett produced two year rye. So how’d it taste?

Dan's (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Willett Family 2 Year Rye — Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Willett Family 2 Year Rye

My review:

107 proof – that was the strength of my Willett 2 Year Rye – a nice barrel proof number. And Willett certainly knows bottling – their Still Pot Reserve has won awards for it’s beautiful bottles, and their ryes come in beautiful bottles adorned with the family seal as well. In short, it’s a lovely bottle.

It has a nice gold color, and the nose is fantastic. There is a definite fruitiness in the nose – I picked up cherry, citrus and a hint of raisin. The woodiness reminded me of something other than oak – more like a cedar or even a Christmas pine. I soaked it in, and found some vanilla. What shocked me the most was the lack of a burn. Despite the high proof, this pour didn’t smell like pure alcohol, and had a surprising richness.

I’ll admit, my first sip was jarring. The nose had put me to sleep, and I took perhaps too big of a drink, forgetting the high potency of the proof. But even as I coughed a bit, caught off guard, I noticed how smooth it was going down. My next drink was more restrained, and I got a good feel for this rye. It was softer than a 2 year has any right to be, with a great range of flavor that belies it’s age. It had an earthiness to it, and I thought mint rose to the top, along with a maple. I didn’t note the usual pepper or cinnamon ryes have – it’s probably too young to have really soaked that in from the wood – but there is far more citrus than I would have ever expected. Overall, it’s rather sweet.

And it has a nice finish to boot. Not the longest finish, but smooth and lingering where a touch of spice mixes with an earthiness (that is probably the biggest tip off to it’s age).

On the whole, I’m not as big a fan of ryes as I am traditional bourbons. But for this Willett entry, I’ll make an exception. It doesn’t have the ‘graininess’ of a young rye – that taste that lets you know that some of this whiskey has never touched the side of a barrel. Instead, I would have thought upon blind taste that it was at least four, and maybe even six or eight years old. What really intrigues me is what these barrels will taste like in a few more years!

Dan’s Rating: 8.5

Dan’s (not quite) Bourbon of the Week: Jack Daniels Sinatra Select

Oh, Frank Sinatra. There are few voices in music I enjoy more, few people who’s interpretation of a song I respect more. In short, there are few vocalists who I enjoy more. The legend of his connection to Jack Daniels whiskey, “the nectar of the gods,” is well documented and very, very cool. Long before Jack became the libation of choice for rock and rollers, it was three fingers and some rocks for the swingingest cat that ever put on a fedora to take a Las Vegas stage.

My introduction to Frank came many years before my introduction to Jack, courtesy of a Christmas record (Christmas Songs by Frank Sinatra). A regular in my house at the holidays, I quickly found his versions of the holiday classics to be my favorites. As I got older, I purchased an anthology on CD (Sinatra Reprise: The Very Good Years) and it was official – I was a full on fan of Ol’ Blue Eyes. I started to get all of the albums I could – and believe me, there are a ton. My favorite era, though, has always stayed that 1955-1969 era, starting with In The Wee Small Hours, and ending with My Way. Songs For Swingin’ Lovers, Come Fly With Me, September of My Years and on and on, all of them brilliant.

I discovered Jack along the way as well, and throughout my 20s, it remained my drink of choice. Smooth but punchy, a little bite but flavorful, good with Coke or straight, Jack Daniels was a staple of mine, at bar or home. Later, when they put out the even smother Gentleman Jack, it took over the coveted position as my favorite cocktail drink. As a fact I will detail in a longer post sometime in the future, it was my love of Jack Daniels that started me down the path of Bourbon, as a great friend noted my love of Jack and pointed me in the direction of Kentucky whiskey.

The past few years, the team at Brown Forman (owners of the Jack Daniels brand) has introduced a number of specialty releases to their trademark product. They also embraced the relationship between Ol’ Blue Eyes and Old No. 7 and developed a marketing campaign around it including radio and television advertising.

With this in mind came the Jack Daniels Sinatra Select special release – a unique, limited and (very) pricey tribute to the Chairman of the Board. I coveted a bottle, and at my birthday, received a wonderful gift from my wife and her family: a bottle of the treat. So how did it taste?

First of all, I do not judge the value of a bourbon (or in this case – whiskey). If it is one thing I’ve learned in this crazy, often inflated market, it’s that value can only be determined by the individual. I don’t know that a bottle of anything is worth $1,500 to me, but plenty of folks clamor on Craigslist to grab a bottle of Pappy for just that. I am far more likely to point out a great deal or value than the opposite.

I bring that up, because the Jack Daniels Sinatra Select is very pricey.Around $175+ in stores, and far more online. Is it worth it? That is completely dependent on the collector. Personally, I’m glad to have it.

The packaging is beautiful, with a case and small book detailing the Sinatra-Jack history. There is also an ‘invitation’ to the Jack Daniels Country Club, As the website explains:

Founded by Frank Sinatra, the Country Club was only for his closest friends. When Frank once arrived in England decked out in classic British style — gray flannel trousers and a dark blue blazer with a crest — the local media went into a tizzy to determine just what royal house the crest represented. It became clear upon closer examination the crest was crossed golf clubs and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s surrounded by the words: “Jack Daniel’s Country Club.” Frank had commissioned the patch for himself and a few close friends, and had them added to custom-made blazer.

Also, the bottle is a one-liter size (instead of 750 mL), so there is more pour. The Sinatra Select is aged in casks that have had grooves put into the barrel staves. This allows for more alcohol to stay in contact with the wood itself (increases surface area).

The nose shows this. Outside of being a sharper alcohol smell than the regular Jack (it’s 90 proof, as opposed to the typical 80), there is a thick wood, as well as smokiness and a hint of tobacco. Just like Frank would have liked it.

The taste puts you on your heals a bit. It does not have they typical Jack smoothness. It is immediately husky, with that oak flavor prominent right from the start. There are touches of orange peel and molasses, but the wood and some accompanying black pepper take over quickly and remain well into the finish.

The finish itself is on the short size, and smoother than the taste would have you anticipate. But the biggest item of note is that this whiskey tastes dry! Jack Daniels Sinatra Select has the tannins and dryness that would typically be associated with gin or red wine. It wasn’t unpleasant, but seemed like a negative aspect of the stave grooving.

The drink is cool, just like it’s namesake. And it’s fun – and a fine collector piece. As a glass to have on the regular, you might want to grab some Gentleman Jack or regular Number 7.

Dan’s Rating: 7.7

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Category: Whiskey Reviews