Whiskey on the WWW

As mentioned in my last post, there is a wealth of information on the Web for anyone wanting to learn more about whiskey. Below are some that I have found helpful:

http://www.bourbonenthusiast.com/ - This is a good site for bourbon reviews by members of the site's message board.

http://www.maltadvocate.com/ - This is the website for the magazine of the same name. It

covers all whiskeys.

http://www.whiskymag.com/ - Web site for Whisky magazine, published in the U.K. Scotch heavy coverage, but occasional American Whiskey news.

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.com/ - This is the blog for a Chicago based writer who specializes in 'American Whiskey'.

Of course, there are many other resources on the web, and I will feature them periodically on this blog. But there is one site that is my favorite. It's bourbon oriented, and since I am so far partial to bourbon, I am also an active poster on their message board under the name 'Blitz'.

http://www.straightbourbon.com/

Time for learnin'

Not only had I developed at thirst for whiskey, I have developed a thirst for whiskey knowledge. It's funny, once you start talking to people about something you are passionate about, things that support your passion come your way. A while back my friend Steve called me because he came across a program on the History Channel's show 'Modern Marvels' entitled 'Whiskey'. It's a very good primer on the subject and I recommend that you search for this show.

A while later at work two co-workers brought me an article from the local paper about the sale of a distillery in Kentucky, and another friend brought in to work an old bottle he found at home. It was a Bicentennial edition of Jim Beam, in a commemorative bottle from 1976. Of course, he wanted to know if it was worth anything. So here's some interesting information:

Whiskey stops aging once it leaves the barrel. So a whiskey aged 9 years and bottled in 1976 will taste the same as a whiskey aged 9 years and bottled yesterday. Therefore, there is not much value in old Whiskey. There are some old bottles that will have a value as a collectible because of rarity, but it's a small market. So I told my freind "just drink it".

In further quest for knowledge, I also 'youtubed' the words 'whiskey' and 'bourbon'. I found some good educational videos there. Try it.

The best source for information that I have found so far, to nobody's surprise, is on the internet. I will highlight these findings in my next post.

The Journey Begins

I came back from Kentucky with just a half bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon. But having been exposed to the concept of 'Fine' Bourbon, I had a strong desire to try as many Bourbons as possible. Like most people, my time and funds are limited, so this journey will be marathon rather than a sprint. My first purchase of good Bourbon was a bottle of Knob Creek, which is the best selling premium Bourbon from Jim Beam. Having been a long time Jim Beam 'White' drinker, I just have an affinity for the Jim Beam product. Shortly thereafter, I acquired a bottle of Woodford Reserve, Evan Williams Single Barrel 1998, and Jameson Irish Whisky. Thus, the beginning of my humble whiskey collection:

At this point, the reader might be expecting a review of the Bourbons I have tried thus far. Frankly, my tasting skills and experience limit me to only telling you what I like and what I don't, but not exactly why. I am sure that later I will be providing detailed tasting notes as I try new whiskeys. However, one tasting skill that came quickly to me is the difference between aged, premium Bourbon and younger, inexpensive Bourbon. One of my first side-by-side taste tests was my old standard Jim Beam White and Buffalo Trace. The difference is significant, even to an inexperience taster. I don't think I will ever drink the White Label again, except for maybe as a mixer. However, when I have tasted Woodford Reserve and Knob Creek together, the difference is difficult for me to discern. They are both about the same age and have a similar taste, at least to me. More practice is required!

Blitz's final thoughts on visiting the Bourbon Belt

When I told people I was going on a trip to visit the Bourbon distilleries, the typical reaction was something like, "that sounds like an awesome party." I was thinking the same thing. In reality, It wasn't much of a drinking trip at all. At the distilleries, the most we were able to drink was three half-shots of Bourbon at Jim Beam. At two distilleries a day, that's not a lot, and that's O.K. We bought a bottle of Buffalo Trace and drank it at my uncles, but the trip was really more educational than anything. We came away with a tremendous appreciation for the history of Bourbon and for the art and craft of making Bourbon. Also, we realized how few of the Bourbons that we had experienced, and how many different Bourbons we will want to try as we develop our Bourbon palette.

What will I do different next time? Well, first of all, we found out that the Kentucky Bourbon Festival was taking place a few weeks after we were there. If you are going to go the the Bourbon Belt, it would just make sense to go there during the festival, although that might have been a little overwhelming on the first visit. Secondly, I would visit some of the well known 'Bourbon Bars' in the area. Some of them carry up to 120 different Bourbons to sample. It would be a real opportunity to try Bourbons that are not available in my area. Thirdly, I would make the visit a 'buying trip' by patronizing some of the local liquor stores. Again, like the bars, the selection and probably the pricing for Bourbon in the Louisville area must be better than other areas.

All in all it was a lot of fun, the southern hospitality was wonderful, the company was great, and the trip really wet my appetite for all things Bourbon.

Makers Mark Distillery Tour

Our visit to the Makers Mark distillery was wonderful. Like Buffalo Trace, it was a step back in time as soon as we arrived on the property. The grounds and the buildings are beautifully maintained.
Our tour started out with the introduction of Makers Mark 'Ambassadors' who were present for the tour. In effect, Ambassadors are a Makers Mark club. It's a promotional thing. More about this later.

What happened next has become my favorite story from our visit to Kentucky. We had a large tour group, and as we approached the first building on the tour, we were hit with the smell of 'Angels Share'(the smell of Bourbon evaporating through the barrels, see Buffalo Trace blog post). One of the tour members blutered out "whats that smell?" Our tour guide spun around, her eyes got huge, and a little too loudly she exclaimed:

"THAT'S BOURBON! WE ARE A BOURBON DISTILLERY."

Whereas the Buffalo Trace tour focused mostly on the barrel aging, Makers Mark concentrated mostly on the distillation and bottling processes. These two tours are a nice combination in that regard. Of course, there is a tasting at the end of the tour. The tasting took place in their very elegant and beautiful gift shop, which seemed a little out of place in the rustic Kentucky compound. I was curious how they were going to make the tasting interesting, because Makers Mark only makes one product, and nearly everybody who tours their distillery has already tried it. Well, they came up with something clever. At the tasting, you are given one glass of 'white dog' and one glass of finished Makers Mark. 'White Dog' is the distilled product that goes into the barrels for aging. It's perfectly clear and tastes like pure alcohol. Essentially, it's a before-and-after of the barrel aging process.

Makers Mark of course is known for their bottles that are hand dipped in red wax to seal the cap. At the distillery, you can dip your own bottle in wax for a keepsake. It's something that sounds cooler than actually doing it, but it makes for a nice story and I am happy to have the memento.

Interestingly, the bottles that you buy for the dipping are half the size of the normal 750ml bottles, and you can't buy any other Makers Mark bottles at the distillery. The reason given was that they did not want to compete with the local retailers.

Jim Beam Distillery Tour

As a long time Jim Beam drinker, I was excited to go the 'Motherland'. I had read that the Jim Beam tour was the least interesting on the 'Bourbon Trail'. In some ways this is true, but it's not the whole story.

Pulling into the grounds of the Jim Beam facility, you can easily tell that you are visiting the worlds largest producer of Bourbon. There is definitely more of a factory feel to the place, and there are aging warehouses everywhere you look. There are about 75 of these buildings.



The distillery tour at Jim Beam isn't really a tour at all, which is why it probably does not have the best reviews. It's more of a self directed visiting area. It starts with a video presentation, then you are invited to walk an area which includes a warehouse, a couple of small buildings representing different aspects of the Bourbon making business, and finally the original house built on the grounds. The entire visit can take less than ten minutes. As underwhelming as the 'tour' is, Jim Beam had the best taste testing that we experienced in the three distilleries we visited. We were served the following Bourbons:

• Bookers - This is a 7 year 'uncut' or 'Barrel Strength' Bourbon. It's about 120 proof. I had never tasting such a strong Bourbon until then. After I recovered from the shock of the 120 proof, I found this to be a very delicious spirit. Most reveiwers recommend to cut this Bourbon with water for the best affect.


• Knob Creek - This is Jim Beam's very popular Ultra-Premium Bourbon. It's aged 9 years and is very smooth and flavorful. Again, at the time of this tasting I had not really ever drank a premium Bourbon. It's a really accessable Bourbon.


• Basil Haydens - This is a 8 year old Bourbon with more of a 'Rye' flavor. This was my least favorite, probably because of my lack of experience with the Rye. I am looking forward to exploring the Rye Whiskey catagory in the future to gain more of an appreciation.

Buffalo Trace Distillery Tour

Being an inexperienced Bourbon drinker at the time, I had not even heard of Buffalo Trace distillery when we first scheduled our visit there. It’s not the kind of Bourbon that you see at a typical liquor store in our area. The liquor ‘Super Stores’ carry it though. We arrived at Buffalo Trace at 11:30 in the morning. As soon as we got out of the car, it was like we had taken a trip back in time. The buildings probably look the same as they did 100 years ago. Most of the buildings are brick, with unusual black patches, which turned out to be a harmless mold that grows on the buildings due to the high humidity level in the area. The high humidity of course is due to about a quarter of a million barrels of Bourbon sitting around.

Our second early impression at Buffalo Trace was unexpected. As we approached the visitor center, Blitz Jr. and I looked at each other and at the same time said “do you smell that?” It was an odor that I had never experienced before, but it was familiar. It smelled like Bourbon, but with a humid, woody accent. We would later learn that this smell is called the ‘Angels Share’. It’s the result of Bourbon evaporating through the oak barrels.
It is really something to behold.

Our tour began with our introduction to our guide, Freddie Johnson. We hit the jackpot with this guy. I don’t know what you get with the other tour guides, but I can’t imagine a guide to be more knowledgeable or entertaining. He basically grew up on the distillery, and had stories about himself and his family that would be difficult to replicate.

The tour begins with a video, which provides some good basic information on Bourbon making and history. Next we went through the warehouses and learned more about the aging process. We finished up in the bottling room. The tour was informative, especially in discussing the aging process and techniques.

After the tour, of course, there was a tasting session. We were offered Buffalo Trace, the flagship brand of the distillery, and Eagle Rare, a single barrel ‘rye recipe’ bourbon.

Buffalo Trace 'shots':

• Buffalo Trace offers a 'hard hat' tour of the distillation area in addition to the regular tour. We did not participate due to time constraints, but I am told it is worthwhile. You need to set this up ahead of time. Also, the hard hat tour is not for those who are afraid of heights or tight spaces.


• Buffalo Trace also produces a Vodka called 'Rain'. We were given a taste. I don't really know how good Vodka is supposed to taste, but I liked it. It's made from an Illinois farmers entire crop. I couldn't help but think about how he would answer the question 'what kind of corn do you grow?' He would say, 'Vodka corn, of course'. Funny.

Blitz plans a trip to the Bourbon Belt

So Blitz and his son are planning a trip from the Chicago area to the Bourbon Belt in Kentucky in August of 2008. This was relatively easy because Blitz's uncle lives in Louisville, and because most of the distillieries down there are part of a consortium called the 'The Kentucky Bourbon Trail'. It's really easy to plan a trip using their website. Since we only had two days, we planned to visit three distilleries: Buffalo Trace, Makers Mark and Jim Beam. Here's a tip. When we arrived at our first tour at Buffalo Trace, we met some guys from North Carolina who were on a two day Distillery Tour Bachelors Party. How cool is that! Anyway, we were trading stories with them about our respective distillery schedules, and when we told them we were visiting Jim Beam on Sunday, they warned us that the County where Jim Beam is located is dry on Sunday, so there are no tastings. Thank god we got that information because the tasting was the best part of the Jim Beam visit (more detail about this in my subsequent review of the tour).

The beginning - How I became a Whiskey drinker

I never really drank whiskey until after I was graduated from college. I was a beer, gin, vodka kind of guy. My father-in-law was a whiskey drinker. Canadian Club was his weapon of choice. He was up there in years, and was a self proclaimed 'cheapskate'. He was nearly impossible to buy him a Birthday or Christmas present. Therefor, everybody bought him C.C! Naturally, he could not drink it all, so I was the lucky recipient of his extras.

And then there was Bourbon...

Eventually, the supply of free Canadian Club ran out. May he rest in peace. Around that time, a buddy brought over a bottle of Jim Beam (white label). I immediately preferred the taste, although I really couldn’t describe why. So I became a Jim Beam drinker. On the rocks. No mixes. For many years. This all changed when I visited the distilleries in Kentucky in the summer of 2008. More about that later.

The inspiration……

The genesis for my Whiskey ‘awakening’ was an episode of a TV show called ‘Three Sheets’. My son, Blitz Jr., is a big fan. It’s a show about a guy who goes around the world experiencing the drinking culture in different countries, including the local hangover cure. One day they had a show in Kentucky. The host, Zane Lamprey, visited 'Bourbons Bistro' in Louisville, Buffalo Trace distillery, and some local watering hole. Blitz Jr and I immediatly turned to each other and said "We gotta go." The rest, as they say, is history.