Ahhh, Blanton‘s. This is the granddaddy of the Single Barrel bourbon craze. They started releasing it in single barrel form in the 1980s, and it is still produced from barrels in Buffalo Trace warehouse H. One of the cool things about Blanton’s is it’s unique bottle, and the tops. There are eight different horses on the top of Blanton’s bottles, representing a jockey and horse coming to the gate, running a race, and winning – how very Kentucky! I picked up this bottle from the Buffalo Trace Distillery when we were there in June. It didn’t disappoint.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Blanton’s Single Barrel (Barrel no. 328, 5-9-13). The granddaddy of the single barrel bourbons.
The nose was fantastic – corn, apples, cinnamon, rye, and a hint of…apricot? But the taste – so smooth, so clean. It’s has a nice mouth coat – soft and buttery. It’s got a bit of wood char bitterness, but is as smooth as almost any I’ve tasted. You can taste the corn, and there’s a sweet detection of summer fruits, like apples.
The finish is mild, not overwhelming. I love this bourbon.
Sometimes the most fun a bourbon enthusiast can have is hunting down a hard to find libation. Now, obviously this can stop being fun and get to frustrating when it’s a Pappy Van Winkle. But when it’s something still obtainable, the thrill of the hunt is on!
This summer, I have heard from several people how the Woodford Reserve Masters Collection ‘Four Wood’ release was both hard to find, and terribly mediocre. I scouted out a few stones, but couldn’t seem to find it here in Michigan, so I went to the next level. The state of Pennsylvania state controls all liquor sales, and state-runs the stores (rather than independent retailers). On top of that, they have a great, robust web site and mobile app so that you can easily purchase your booze online. I searched, and quickly found the elusive Four Wood, and the game was afoot. Only one problem – they don’t ship to Michigan. How to solve this? Well… my wife is a former Pennsylvanian, a native of the Philly suburbs. And her mother, my mother-in-law, still lives there. Even more serendipitous, she was coming to spend some time with us this very weekend. So, I purchased the bottle online and shipped it to her! It took a bit of convincing that she wasn’t breaking any laws in bringing it to me, but a two hour plane ride later, and here she (and said bottle) is!
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Woodford Reserve Masters Collection Four Wood
Now this is an oddball. Matured in oak and finished in maple wood and wine barrels, this selection takes the finishing process to a new level. Which is exactly what made it less popular with bloggers on the interwebs – it was described as a schizophrenic flavor profile, too wildly veering between tastes to be satisfying. Would I agree?
My take: Yes, the naysayers are right…sort of. It had a very strong nose and a loooong, strong finish, but a few too many flavors keeps it from having a clear taste profile. Fun for a try, but not as nice as other Woodfords.
Last Christmas, I received a gift from my sister Denise that keeps on giving. The Grand Traverse Distillery in Traverse City, Michigan produces a great line of spirits, many of which I have had the opportunity to try before. In particular, their Cherry Whiskey is a favorite of mine, sweet and smooth. But for this week, it is the Grand Traverse Distillery Bourbon that tempts my palate.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Grand Traverse Distillery Bourbon
The Grand Traverse Bourbon is a higher percentage of corn – 70% – than I usually like, but it is aged for 3 years and 3 months, and according to their website, “blended to 92 proof with Pure Michigan glacial water from the Great Lakes without cold filtering it.”If that sounds refreshing, it should, because this bourbon is, but it drinks like a tough old gal too.
My take: Grand Traverse does a fine job with this bourbon. The nose has tang, with hints of cigar box, corn, oak char and cinnamon. The taste is very similar, a smoky wide flavor with a smooth medium finish. Notes of vanilla, oak and a good amount of corn are present, and the finish is crisp.
The downside is that, while it is smooth, it’s not as flavorful as our Kentucky friends. Still, a quality selection, and Michigan made.
Last Christmas, I received an interesting gift from my mother – three unique bottles from the Buffalo Trace ‘Single Oak Project.’ I was intrigued immediately, and the explanation she had printed off to go along with the beautifully wrapped gift explained just how unique this was:
“…It all started with 96 individually selected American oak trees that differed according to the number of growth rings per inch and growing location. Each tree was then cut into two parts – top and bottom – yielding 192 unique tree sections. A single barrel was constructed from each unique section. Prior to construction we varied the stave seasoning times. The 192 barrels were then charred differently. These single oak barrels were then filled with different recipe whiskeys, at various entry proofs and aged in a variety of different warehouse styles.
We believe that this experiment will allow you to directly compare the impact of 7 different critical variables across 192 bottles for a total of 1,396 taste combinations. None of the 192 bottles in the complete set are exactly alike….” (from the Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project website)
After several months of admiring the bottles and project, we finally decided to take one out for a test spin!
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project Barrel number 72
So what did we find?
My take: The nose said this one was going to have some flavor. The sweet smells of toffee, caramel and maple syrup meshed with the tangier notes of baking spices, nutmeg, and a slight smell of oak.
The taste was dry and thick, certainly a mouth-coater. It tasted full bodied, and the taste agreed. Again, sweet tastes of honey, caramel and toffee mixed with the nutmeg and oak, and I dare say there was a peak of mint in there as well!
With a long, lingering but smooth finish, this was a good glass of whiskey. So why not a higher rating? While flavorful, there was nothing truly outstanding about this glass, no real standout characteristic. I’m very enthusiastic about trying the others though!
Dan scale (1-10): 7.7
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Four Roses Single Barrel
Last month, I received a wonderful birthday gift from my family. Knowing what a fan of bourbon I was becoming, they purchased my wife and I tickets to a private dinner and bourbon tasting with none other than the Van Winkle family, or Pappy Van Winkle fame. We trekked down to Kentucky, and made a bourbon day of it – first we visited the Woodford Reserve distillery, pictures of which will be coming shortly. Then, it was on to Buffalo Trace, where some of the absolute best bourbons – including Pappy Van Winkle, as well as Blanton’s, Eagle Rare and others – are produced.
The dinner was great and the tour fun, but the highlight was sampling the 10, 12, 15, 20 and 23 year old Pappys. After wards, in a Q&A, I asked Preston Van Winkle a question I was dying to know the answer to: knowing how very very hard (read impossible) it is to get one’s hands on a bottle of PVW, what was his other favorite bourbon? His answer was Four Roses Single Barrel. And so with that, I bought a bottle to try for myself.
Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon
I tasted the bourbon in the way I have seen other connoisseurs on the web do it, as well as that way I had been taught to by the guides at Woodford Reserve.
My take: Very nice. Smooth, hints of clove, mint, nutmeg. Good nose, warmth from the finish. I liked it even better with an ice chip. Jen was particularly fond of it as well. Spicier than I like, but definitely a treat.
Baseball and Bourbon 