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| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
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April 14, 2023 |
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A wild bunch of American whiskies,
part tres
Because we found more of them.
(Magazine ad for the blend Four Roses Premium American Light Whiskey, circa 1972. We'll rather have some of their straight bourbon within this session, if you don't mind!)
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Old Grand-Dad '100 Proof Bonded' (50%, OB, USA, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky, +/-2022) 
Remember, 'bonded' should mean 100° proof US, a single distillery, a single season and a minimum of four years of aging. I've never tried this one, as a matter of fact I've only ever tried one 'regular' Old Grand-Dad, bottled at 43% vol. circa 1975. In short, I'm very late. This belongs to Jim Beam and is supposed to be made at Clermont. Got to love the bourbon bloggers. Colour: full gold. Nose: quite some rye, some burnt caramel, violets, toasted oak, a little lavender and even touches of aniseed. Like it at full capacity (the whiskey's right!) With water: vanilla fudge, crème au beurre, whiffs of fresh-sawn hardwood, cherrywood… Mouth (neat): good, punchy, full of sweet oak, varnish, caramel, and with really a lot of liquorice. A slightly sticky style. With water: honeyed spices, clove, allspice, bitterer curries, always quite some varnish. Finish: rather long, very much oak-driven, with a pack of cinnamon mints in the aftertaste. Some good marmalade. Comments: I think I liked the bonded Rebel Yell just a notch better.
SGP:650 - 79 points. |
Since we found that Jack Daniel's 'Triple Mash' so good the other day, let's have more Jack… |
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Jack Daniel's 'Tennessee Apple' (35%, OB, USA, Apple Liqueur, +/-2022) 
Whooops, this is not whisky, it is, apparently, a blend of Jack Daniel's classic old #7 with some apple liqueur indeed. Oh well, they say what's done is done. Colour: gold. Nose: it reeks of apple liqueur indeed, nail polish remover, jelly babies, pear drops, amyl diacetate and so on. Very extreme in that respect and feeling pretty 'made in the lab'. Mouth: ultra-sweet, all on bubblegum, Juicy fruit, saccharin and, indeed, that ultra-sweet apple liqueur they sell in Spain for +/-5€ a bottle. Finish: rather long and extremely sweet, pretty cloying. Comments: it's not too bad, and we really love apples, but boy is it sickly sweet! Not a bad liqueur, on the contrary, but I couldn't drink it without two or three tonnes of ice. Take my score with a grain of sugar. I mean, of salt.
SGP:920 - 65 points. |
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Jack Daniel's 'Tennessee Fire' (35%, OB, USA, Cinnamon Liqueur, +/-2022)
Well, if this is anywhere close to that horrendous 'Fireball' (WF 25), we're virtually dead. Isn't it strange that some huge, successful companies would molest and even disrespect some of their top brands like this? Colour: gold. Nose: Christmas candles, cinnamon pie, that pack of cinnamon mints, cinnamon chewing gum… It really is a one-descriptor show. Mouth: starts soapy, gets then extremely sweel and, indeed, ridden with lab cinnamon. But it is much, much less spicy than that deadly Fireball. Finish: rather long, sugary, getting spicier now. Trident Cinnamon chewing-gum. Sadly, the aftertaste is pretty eternal, as often with cinnamon. Comments: perhaps a spoonful in some herbal tea? No proper jack that I can detect. Score is anecdotal once more, the only thing I'm sure about is that this is way, way better than Fireball. Not much of an achievement, really.
SGP:824 – 65 points. |
Let's have a cup of coffee (resets your palate)… Good. Glasses need to be rinsed using kerosene and nitric acid. |
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Sazerac 'Straight Rye' (45%, OB, USA, Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey, +/-2022) 
From Buffalo Trace in Kentucky, bottled at 6 years of age. We last tried this famous one around ten years ago and found it rather 'very-good-not-totally-great'. Colour: gold. Nose: feels a little sweet – nothing to do with the Jacks – and pretty oaky at first. Then vanilla, sawdust, rye bread, fresh-sawn hardwood, plus something both meaty and tarry, could this be beef jerky? It's rather deep if you give it a little time, I would suppose that's the rye. Mouth: oaky and spicy upfront, very grassy, austere, with a lot of husk, wheat bran, liquorice, and touches of bitter old walnuts. You could think of a salty old fino but old finos do not, and should not display any oakiness. Finish: rather long, very dry. More bran, husk, even a little mustard. Comments: a rather austere style, I'm surprised they don't make it sweeter while everyone's getting a sweeter tooth all around the world. Is it a matter of… ethos?
SGP:462 - 85 points. |
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Templeton Rye 'Maple Cask Finish' (46%, OB, USA, +/-2022) 
Mind you, this was not finished in maple wood, rather in maple syrup. It says maple cask, not maple wood! Now why anyone would do this, I don't know. Do they make maple syrup in Iowa? Is it a local thing? I'm just glad the new wave of 'tequila finishes' everyone was talking about two years ago didn't quite happen yet. Colour: gold. Nose: it's about rye bread, lavender, grist, breads, tomato leaves, then ginger and cinnamon, sawdust… And there's little maple syrup that I can detect. A dry nose, which we enjoy. Now again, the devil would tend to hide on the palate… Mouth: I do find some sweetness but I couldn't say it's maple syrup. A lot of gingerbread, nutmeg and cinnamon (mints, rolls), pepper… But that was the arrival, the flavouring with syrup starts to feel from mid-palate. Nothing too off-putting though and above all, nothing too sweet. Finish: long, spicy, a little too oaky for me now. Comments: is this still MGP rye or is it their own juice already? No ideas…
SGP:561 - 82 points. |
That's what's always surprising with American distilleries, you can bottle other parties' juices under the name of your own distillery. So you can have a small unconnected column full of cobwebs and occupied by a family of field-mouses sitting in a corner, and presto! Not even sure you need a still to be a distillery… Imagine you could buy 'Convalmore', or 'Coleburn', or 'Brora' (oops, too late) and just buy some juice elsewhere… But let's go on, if you please… |
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FEW 'Bourbon' (50.5%, OB, USA, for LMDW Antipodes, single barrel special selection, cask #14.914, 2022)
This is 70% maize, 20% rye and 10% malted barley. Colour: deep gold. Nose: salted butter toffee, plus salted butter toffee, plus salted butter toffee. I'm sure you get the picture. A little dark chocolate and just coffee beans then, oak leaves, black tea, and even a feeling of tar and brake pad. Some pinewood too, charcoal, black cigars (maduro, right?)… Or even those Toscani they keep rolling in Italy. With water: the rye woke up. Rye bread and artichokes. Mouth (neat): much fruitier, thicker, spicier, concentrated, with some heavy oak spices leading to a full-blown coffee-y palate. Tar and speculoos. With water: almost civilised now, but this is proof that in a few cases, heavy oak can work. Sorcery and menthol. Finish: very long, drying, tarry, with clove and rye bread. Some bitter, peppery olive oil in the aftertaste, plus fig wine in the very end. Love that. Comments: how old is this concoction? You cannot not think of walnut stain at some point, but I am partial to all these flavours from Illinois.
SGP:472 - 87 points. |
Let's roll this out, we won't do any other American session before long… Say not before summer. |
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Smooth Ambler 6 yo 2016/2022 (61.45%, La Distillerie Générale, cask #2956)
This is Pernod Ricard's own line of 'indie' bottlings, which would suggest that West Virginia's Smooth Ambler belongs to them. This is 71% maize, 21% rye and 8% malted barley. I don't think they're making everything they produce themselves though, so not 100% sure this is their own juice, could be. America!… Colour: deep gold. Nose: absolutely lovely, with tonnes of butterscotch and litres of cellulosic varnish. Not much else this far, perhaps caramelised popcorn, but that's probably the very high strength. With water: menthol, miso, umami, Scotch tape, coal tar. Mouth (neat): very creamy, rich, powerful, with once again a lot of butterscotch, as well as a few 'fizzy' fruits. Green gooseberries, for example. A lot of dark chocolate too. But it burns, so… With water: gets even thicker, with some resinous and even rubbery spices and fruits. Much, much nicer than it sounds, but it remains a little hard after the FEW. Finish: long and very chocolaty. Comments: I had already tried some very good 'Old Scouts' by Smooth Amber, so no surprises here, it is, well, very good.
SGP:551 - 85 points. |
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Rabbit Hole 'Heigold' (47.5%, OB, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 2022)
This is 'high rye' by Rabbit Hole Distillery. Lovely, as we're actually tasting this one day before Easter. 70% maize, 25% MALTED rye, 5% malted barley. Colour: gold. Nose: it's a fresher, more floral, fruitier bourbon after all the oak bombs we just tried. Some metallic touches (copper, as always, also silverware) plus a little musk, tangerines and guavas. I find it surprisingly un-bourbon, and even a little malty. Is that the malted rye? Mouth: very good, lively, fruity, indeed a little malty, with more tangerines and guavas, citrons, cedarwood, Szechuan pepper, quince jelly, pencil shavings… Finish: medium, not exactly complex but really refreshing and relaxing. Some sweet cinnamon cake and blood oranges, ras-el-hanout, stewed apricots... Comments: very different and just charming. A matter of enzymes? It cannot be refill wood, can it.
SGP:651 - 85 points. |
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Westland (46%, OB, USA, single malt, +/-2023) 
This is the current flagship bottling by this other 'French' distillery, bought by Rémy three or four years ago. That's what's happened with quite a few new fiercely independent craft distillers: they sold. I suppose you can't blame them. Colour: gold. Nose: so vastly superior to the 'Colere' that we tried the other day! Incredible mango cakes and muffins, Jaffa cakes, sultanas, lemongrass, pine resin, roussanne and petit manseng grapes, some salsify gratin, parsnips… It is simply an amazing nose. It's not impossible that like at many other distilleries, their flagship bottle would be their best. Mouth: amen. Amazing chocolate filled with lemon marmalade, nutmeg, white pepper, tapioca, amaretti, bitter oranges, marzipan… Finish: long, perfect, chiselled, with a perfect oak. Oranges, peppers and butterscotch. Comments: I think they have it fully right, if I may, even if the oak remains a little loud and perhaps not fully adapted to my Middle-European palate, especially as globalisation seems to be over… After all, they write that it was 'thoughtfully made'.
SGP:661 - 89 points. |
Perhaps a monster crossbreed… |
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Indiana Straight Rye 2017 (56.4%, Swell de Spirits, Islay cask finish, 371 bottles) 
Some in-cask world blend, just what that world needed. Seriously, this doctored little MGP could be good, if not very orthodox. Colour: full gold. Nose: smoked mangos, not much to add. With water: maracuja water, hay, rhubarb, cigarette smoke… Mouth (neat): very loco. Huge caraway, lapsang souchong, sour cream and lemon-flavoured yogurt, It is almost as if that little Islay literally digested the American rye, although the latter would then fight back, with many oak spices. Scottish smoke plus American mangos and cinnamon, what a funny transatlantic ménage-à-trois. Finish: long and weird. Rubber boots, peppermint and mango juice. Comments: very unnatural, sometimes even stridently dissonant, but good fun for sure. But I'm not sure there's a tanker-sized market…
SGP:654 - 83 points. |
Good, a last one, and perhaps do what we sometimes like to do with Scotch whisky or cognac, have a very old bottle as the digestif… |
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Four Roses (Paul Jones Co., USA, straight bourbon, 1 quart, driven cork, +/-1919)
Sadly, I have very little experience with old bottles of bourbon, but here goes... This is a very rare pre-prohibition bottle of Four Roses made by Paul Jones Co., with no label and some data engraved in the glass, such as the mention 'New protective bottle adopted July 1914'. The Four Roses distillery a.k.a. former Old Prentice Distillery, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, was rebuilt in 1910 and it seems that they kept making Four Roses bourbon during prohibition at the Frankfort Distilling Company, bought in 1922, as the latter was granted a distilling license for 'medical purpose'. Four Roses was bought by Seagram's only in 1943. |
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| Four Roses / Old Prentice Distillery (source Four Roses Bourbon) |
Colour: straw. Nose: it is pretty light, rather delicate, with a little banana wine, some putty, beeswax, old papers, plantain, notes of very old Champagne, some root vegetables perhaps, preserved bamboo shoots, a little white chocolate, a touch of wood smoke… What's sure is that this baby's totally alive and even kicking. It was some 'good glass' that they were using back then. Mouth: a little flat which is normal, but with a lot to tell us, a little meatiness, cereals, cardboard, papers, bananas, a little caramel, corn syrup, old mead… I cannot find any 'taste of glass', nor any 'taste of light' for that matter. Finish: not that short, it's even gaining body, there's just a little plain sugar on top of some lovely honey. The aftertaste is just a little cardboardy, which was to be expected. There's also a little marrow and a little smoke. Comments: scoring this incredible old bourbon doesn't make much sense, I even feel a little shame. But as they say, that's what we do.
SGP:341 – 85 points.
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