Tasting Whiskey

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Tasting Whiskey Page 17

by Lew Bryson


  Part 2: Defining Whiskey Classes

  The next part of the standards is more particular. The final distillation must be under 160 proof. If the whiskey is aged in oak, it must go into the barrel at no more than 125 proof, or what distillers call the “entry proof.”

  The lower proof, compared to the initial definition, means there’s more of the grain and fermentation flavor left. Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell explained that to me this way: “How do you like a steak?” he asked. Rare, I told him, and he nodded. “There’s more flavor of the meat in it that way. Same way, we run the spirit off at a lower proof, and put it in the barrel at a lower proof, so there’s more good flavor in there.”

  In addition to those proof requirements, bourbon must be made from a mash that is at least 51 percent corn, rye from a mash that is at least 51 percent rye, and so on, similarly, for wheat, malt, and rye malt whiskeys. These types of whiskey must also be aged in “charred new oak containers.” You can age your whiskey in used barrels, but then the label must call it “whiskey distilled from bourbon mash” (or rye, wheat, etc.). It doesn’t have to be in big letters, but it has to be there.

  The niche definition for corn whiskey, such as Heaven Hill’s Mellow Corn and Georgia Moon, in contrast, specifies that if the whiskey is aged — for which there’s no requirement — it be aged in “used or uncharred new oak” containers and not “subjected in any manner to treatment with charred wood.” Corn whiskey should taste like corn, not oak.

  Part 3: Defining Straight Whiskey

  The third part of the standards, the part about straight whiskey, talks about age. If a whiskey has conformed to the standards explained above and was stored in the oak containers for at least 2 years, it is “straight whiskey”: straight bourbon whiskey, straight rye whiskey, and so on.

  The TTB labeling regulations also say that if the youngest whiskey in the bottle is under 4 years old, the label must state exactly how old it is; once it hits 4 years of age, no age statement is needed. If an age statement is used — as with Knob Creek’s “aged nine years” — all whiskey in the bottle must be at least that old.

  Keep in mind that unless a straight whiskey is labeled as a “single barrel” bottling, it is a blend of at least two barrels (and usually over a thousand at the larger distilleries), though some distillers prefer to call it “mingled” or “married” rather than “blended.” They don’t want any confusion: American “blended whiskey” is not a blend of aged whiskeys like blended Scotch; it’s a blend of straight whiskey and cheap, unaged grain neutral spirit, a product aimed at the low end of the market. There aren’t many of these left.

  There’s one more part to the definition, and that has to do with purity. The addition of “harmless coloring, flavoring, and blending materials,” which is allowed in other spirits, is specifically prohibited in the case of straight whiskey; no such material whatsoever is allowed. Bourbon and rye are not allowed to be colored, flavored, or adulterated with anything but enough pure water to bring them to bottling proof. The flavored whiskeys you’ve seen recently are all labeled as “bourbon flavored with . . . ,” a little bit of government-required honesty.

  To Sum Up

  Those are the requirements. American whiskey — bourbon, rye, and the others — is:

  Distilled from a fermented grain mash of at least 51 percent corn (or rye, or wheat, etc., and most have a larger proportion of the main grain)

  Distilled to a proof no higher than 159 (79.5 percent ABV)

  Aged, at a starting strength no higher than 125 proof, in a charred, new oak barrel (used barrels may be used, but the labeling is different)

  Bottled at no less than 80 proof, with no coloring or flavoring added

  Further, if it is aged for more than 2 years in the oak, it is “straight whiskey”; if it is aged less than 4 years, it must have an age statement on the label.

  It’s also interesting to consider what the regulations don’t require. Despite what people might tell you — although most of it is — bourbon does not have to be:

  Made in Kentucky

  Made from corn and only two other grains

  Aged in white oak barrels

  Aged in American oak barrels

  You might also want to compare straight bourbon whiskey to single malt Scotch whisky. Consider this: A single malt is all aged malt whisky from one distiller, at least 3 years old (usually older). Straight bourbon whiskey is all aged whiskey from one distiller, at least 2 years old (almost always at least 4 years old). Neither bourbon nor single malt are blended with neutral or grain spirits. Yet while you’ll find only a couple of good single malts for less than $40 these days — Bowmore Legend and Glenmorangie Original come to mind — you can still buy a bottle of good, flavor-packed bourbon — Evan Williams, Very Old Barton, Old Heaven Hill Bonded, all around 6 years old — for under $15!

  The old Wild Turkey distillery, now replaced by a much larger, modern plant, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky

  Stricter Than Single Malt

  If you want to get bourbon that is held to even tighter standards of origin than single malt, track down some bottled-in-bond bourbon. It’s not that hard; the Old Grand-Dad Bottled in Bond is pretty easy to find, Very Old Barton Bond is widespread in Kentucky and surrounding states, and Heaven Hill has two bonded versions of its Heaven Hill brand (you want the white label) and also Old Fitzgerald, a rare wheated bond. They’re good whiskeys, with that 100-proof power that makes them stand out in a cocktail, but they don’t get a lot of love from their company’s marketing departments, or from bourbon drinkers in general, and that puzzles me.

  What’s so special about bottled-in-bond whiskey? If people know about it at all, they most likely think it means that it’s 100 proof. It’s a lot more than that; it has to meet the requirements of the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897. That means all the whiskey in the bottle has to be:

  At least 4 years old

  Bottled at no more or less than 100 proof

  Have no additives other than pure water

  Be labeled as the product of the distillery where it was made and, if different, the distillery where it was bottled

  Be the product of only one distillery, and made by the same master distiller, in one distilling season of a single year

  Think about that last one. All the whiskey in the bond is guaranteed to be made by the same person, at the same distillery, in one season. Makes single malt’s “all from one distillery” look a bit less exacting.

  But bonds today are not exclusive whiskeys. To tell the truth, they’re usually pretty cheap; the ones I list above can mostly be had for under $20 a bottle. “A lot of the brands are older labels that maybe at some point were exclusively bonds,” Heaven Hill’s long-time communications director Larry Kass explains. “You’ll have small brands that are bonds, but not big brands. They never had marketing support, so there’s not that cost.”

  Bond is a term that’s not well understood among bourbon drinkers, a little historical quirk that doesn’t really mean much. For the taster, though, these can be a bonanza, with or without a few drops of water. Old Grand-Dad’s high-rye formula sings clearest at 100 proof, a fruity, spicy bourbon with a solid body. Heaven Hill 6 Year Old is a favorite: a bold, raunchy beauty, rich with notes of warehouse reek, that sweet smell of bourbon slowly drooling from the seams of the barrels, caramelizing in the hot Kentucky summer as it oozes down over oaken staves. They’d be great whiskeys at twice the price.

  It’s not just bourbon, either. You can get bottled-in-bond rye; Rittenhouse Rye bonded is spectacular stuff, and probably the hottest-selling bonded whiskey right now, thanks to critical acclaim and the love of mixologists for its classic taste in classic cocktails. Mellow Corn corn whiskey is bottled in bond and aged 4 years in used bourbon barrels; if you thought bourbon smelled like corn, Mellow Corn smells like sweet, oily-rich corn — corn eau-de-vie.

  Finally, it’s not whiskey, but you can also get Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy — real New Jersey�
��style applejack, from a company whose distilling roots go back to 1780 — in a genuine bonded version, and it’s worth looking for. Made under all the same requirements as bonded whiskey, aged in charred oak barrels for at least 4 years, it’s rich with apple and vanilla aroma and has a smooth but potent punch of flavor; the apple on the finish as you breathe across the drying spirit is inspiring. I’ve been in Laird’s warehouse in New Jersey and was struck by how much it smelled and felt like a bourbon warehouse.

  Bonded whiskey (and apple brandy) is still “the good stuff,” even though it’s often overlooked. Find some, and see what history tastes like.

  Oak barrels at the Jack Daniel’s warehouse in Tennessee

  American Whiskeys

  Bourbon

  At least 51% corn, plus rye/wheat and barley

  New charred oak barrels

  Made and aged in the u.s.

  Traditional Bourbons

  Made with corn, rye, and barley

  Spicy (cinnamon, pepper, mint), fiery, powerful flavor

  Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)

  Buffalo Trace

  Bulleit

  Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old

  Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old

  Evan Williams Single Barrel

  Evan Williams Black

  Four Roses Yellow

  Jim Beam Black

  Jim Beam White

  Old Forester

  Old Grand-Dad 100

  Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond

  Wild Turkey 101

  Premium Bottlings ($30–$100)

  Angel’s Envy

  Baker’s

  Black Maple Hill

  Blanton’s

  Booker’s

  E. H. Taylor, Jr.

  Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old

  Elmer T. Lee

  Four Roses Single Barrel

  Four Roses Small Batch

  George T. Stagg

  John J. Bowman

  Knob Creek

  Parker’s Heritage Collection

  Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit

  Wild Turkey Rare Breed

  Woodford Reserve

  Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)

  A. H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old

  Elijah Craig 21-Year-Old Single Barrel

  Jefferson’s Presidential Select

  Jim Beam Distiller’s Masterpiece

  Michter’s 20-Year-Old

  Wild Turkey Tradition

  Willett Family Reserve

  Wheated Bourbons

  Made with corn, wheat, and barley

  Smoother, softer, less spicy flavor; ages well

  Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)

  Larceny

  Maker’s Mark

  Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond

  Old Weller Antique

  Premium Bottlings ($30–$100)

  Maker’s 46

  William Larue Weller

  Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)

  Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15-Year-Old

  Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-Year-Old

  Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year-Old

  Van Winkle Special Reserve

  Tennessee Whiskey

  Made with corn, rye, and barley; employs Lincoln County process (pre-aging charcoal “mellowing”)

  Sweet, smooth flavor with big corn character

  Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)

  Gentleman Jack

  George Dickel No. 12

  George Dickel No. 8

  Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7

  Premium Bottlings (under $30)

  George Dickel Barrel Select

  Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel

  Rye

  Just like bourbon, but 51% rye

  Spicy, herbal, grassy flavors, with a big kick; fiery when young

  Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)

  Bulleit Rye

  Jim Beam Rye

  Old Overholt Rye

  Rittenhouse Rye Bonded

  Wild Turkey Rye 81

  Premium Bottlings (under $30–$100)

  (ri)1 (from Jim Beam)

  Dad’s Hat

  FEW Rye

  Jefferson’s Rye

  Knob Creek Rye

  McKenzie Rye

  Michter’s US1

  Rendezvous Rye

  Sazerac 6-Year-Old

  Sazerac 18-Year-Old

  Templeton

  Thomas H. Handy

  Wild Turkey Rye 101

  Willett Family Estate Rye

  Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)

  Jefferson’s Presidential Select 21-Year-Old Rye

  Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye

  Innovations in Bourbon

  The strict rules about how American whiskey can be made are a double-edged sword. They assure the consumer of a quality product, unadulterated by cheap neutral spirits, colorings, or flavors — the bane of the rectifiers banished for good — and ostensibly guarantee that bourbon and rye will maintain a consistent style.

  But that’s not quite true, actually. Old-timers confirm that bourbon has changed somewhat over the past 60 years, and it is for the better. Corn is more uniformly high quality, and we’ve learned a lot about the chemistry of stills, warehouse construction, and wood management, from the science of forestry to new ways of heat-treating barrels.

  “You’re probably old enough to remember tasting some musty bottles of bourbon,” Dave Scheurich mentioned to me when we were talking about this. Dave was the distillery manager at Woodford Reserve at the time. “You don’t get those any more. And you know there aren’t as many distillers around, either. The reason’s the same: it was a tough business in the 1970s and ’80s, and the guys who made bad whiskey aren’t around now.”

  The flip side of the regulations is that they seem to force these whiskeys into what could be a stultifying similarity: all made with a majority of one grain, all distilled to roughly the same proof, all aged in the same new charred oak barrels, all chivvied into the same rough age groups, and no fiddling with color or flavor. That’s exactly the complaint you’ll hear from those who reject the category (usually Scotch drinkers): “Bourbons all taste the same: oaky, vanilla-sweet, hot, and rough,” or some variation of that.

  The 53-Gallon Barrel

  While we’re talking about strict rules, why are all American whiskey barrels 53 gallons? Like much of whiskey making, that’s a standard that came about through common usage, rather than because of a consideration of the benefits, and it’s not a legal standard. Old-timers will tell you that the barrels used to be 48 gallons and were easier to move around, and significantly, that’s what all the ricks in the warehouses were built to accommodate. During World War II a study was done to see how much bigger the barrels could be built to save seasoned oak wood without having to change the ricks: 53 gallons was the size. The change was made, and it’s become the de facto standard. Every major American distiller uses 53-gallon barrels.

  Bourbon Flavor Graph

  Key

  Wheat

  W1. Larceny

  W2. Maker’s 46

  W3. Maker’s Mark

  W4. Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond

  W5. Old Weller Antique

  W6. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15-Year-Old

  W7. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-Year-Old

  W8. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year-Old

  W9. William Larue Weller

  Traditional

  1. A. H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old

  2. Angel’s Envy

  3. Baker’s

  4. Basil Hayden

  5. Blanton’s

  6. Booker’s

  7. Buffalo Trace

  8. Bulleit

  9. E. H. Taylor, Jr.

  10. Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old

  11. Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old

  12. Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old

  13. Elmer T. Lee

  14. Evan Williams Black
/>   15. Four Roses Small Batch

  16. Four Roses Yellow

  17. George T. Stagg

  18. Jefferson’s Presidential

  19. Jim Beam Black

  20. Jim Beam White

  21. John J. Bowman

  22. Knob Creek

  23. Michter’s 20-Year-Old

  24. Old Forester

  25. Old Grand-Dad 100

  26. Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond

  27. Wild Turkey 101

  28. Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit

  29. Wild Turkey Rare Breed

  30. Woodford Reserve

  The Mashbill

  Starting at the beginning, there are the ratios in the mash. Increase the base grain, and bourbon becomes sweeter, while rye becomes spicier, more forward. Or tweak the small grains: increase the rye, as in Bulleit, and you get a bourbon that can pass for a rye whiskey in a blind tasting (maybe that’s why Bulleit Rye is made with a 95 percent rye mashbill, for a clear difference). Use wheat instead of rye, as is done with Maker’s Mark, the Van Winkles, W. L. Weller, and Old Fitzgerald, and you get a much smoother, mellower bourbon, even when young.

  A distiller may have more than one mashbill for bourbons, another for rye, maybe another for a run of wheated bourbon. Beam, for instance, uses a high-rye mashbill — at 30 percent rye, it’s quite high — for Old Grand-Dad and Basil Hayden’s, and a more traditional proportion for its other whiskeys. A bourbon drinker has to admit that there’s maybe something to it. Scotch distillers work with stills of varying geometry and construction, they can play with the cuts and redistill, they have the option of peating their malt from a bare whisper to a roar, and they can play their barrel types like a huge console organ. Irish distillers have even more options, with their combination of pot and column stills, double or triple distilling, and raw barley additions. The Canadians use any kind of still they want, about any grain they want, and blend as they see fit. American distillers, in comparison, work within a relative straitjacket of regulations, which traditional practice only pulls tighter.

 

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