Review: Buffalo Trace Experimental 23 Year Giant French Oak - The Frankenstein Beast

August 27, 2013

Review: Buffalo Trace Experimental 23 Year Giant French Oak - The Frankenstein Beast

Geeking Out on the Road

Heading west from Boston you'll find Waltham Massachusetts and Gordon's Fine Wines & Liquors.  We stopped in on the way to the mountains looking for our splurge bottle for the weekend.  After almost an hour talking with the fine proprietor, Joe, about whiskey - topics ranging from the merits of craft distilling to up-or-down votes on many bourbons and malts (he loves Laphroaig Quarter Cask - go figure!), it was down to two contenders: Jefferson 21-Year and Buffalo Trace Experimental 23 Year.  Well, since you read the title of this post, you already know who won.  You can get the Jefferson pretty easily but we'd never seen the Buffalo Trace on the shelf before.  And since the BT was a half-bottle and we didn't really plan to drink an entire bottle of whiskey over the weekend, we took a roll of the dice and went for it.


It's Alive!  It's ALLLIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVEEEEE!!!

So Buffalo Trace has went and gone a little mad scientist on us.  With the Experimental Collection, they're releasing all kinds of different combinations of recipes, barrels, and ages.  It's kind of like mixing and matching the different body parts of all their whiskeys, trying to come up with the ultimate beast of a bourbon.  (Ok maybe it's more like Serpentor, for those of a certain age).

We don't know how to feel about this.  On the one hand, it's cool to operate at the scale where you can try out this many different styles and bottle all of them.  On the other hand, why do we want to be the guinea pig?  Don't the good folks at Buffalo Trace know the best combination of corn, water, and wood?  Isn't that sort of what they do for a living??

Well at the end of the day there are so many different combinations of possibilities that we're willing to suspend disbelief.  For the computer geeks out there, it's like open-source whiskey making.  Put out all the variations and let folks like us choose the most perfect iteration.  Maybe in a small way this post could even help to shape the future of Buffalo Trace.  Who knows?  Anyway, chop it up Dr Frank!  Let's see what you got.


Yes Master, I Shall Bring The Body To Warehouse K!

The cool thing about Dr Frankenstein is that, like any good scientist, he takes copious notes.  In this case we get to learn every little detail about the bourbon.


Lab report: Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection 23 Year Giant French Oak Barrel

  • Total Production: 1 Barrel.   They only made one (albeit giant) barrel of it.  Herein lies the beauty and the folly of the Experimental line.  They only have one barrel's worth of each variation!  
  • Created on May 16th, 1989
  • Put in a barrel the next day, May 17th.  (ok...  not sure why that detail is included)
  • Uses a "Rye Mash Bourbon #2" recipe.  So it's a bourbon, aka 51% corn, and has a high rye content
  • Left the still at 135 proof, entered the barrel at 130 proof
  • Sat in warehouse K/1, Rick 0, Row 0, Slot 0.  Does this mean it was the first barrel in that warehouse, and sat in the #1 spot for 23 years?  (We think so.)
  • And there's more...




  • It was aged in a very large barrel.  Bourbon typically ages in 53 gallon barrels.  The giant french oak barrel is 135 gallons.  What does this mean?  Well some theories would say that in a giant barrel the whiskey would be at less risk to become over-wooded.  The larger the barrel, the less wood touches whiskey...
  • The barrel used was medium to heavy char - referring to the amount of flame used to treat the inside of the barrel.  (For awesome char geekery look here)
  • It was bottled on June 27th 2012 (damn that's hubby's birthday!!!)
  • 46.8% of the barrel evaporated by the time they emptied the barrel and bottled the whiskey (that's the "angel's share")
  • It's chill-filtered and bottled at 90 proof

Ok enough detail for ya?  Let's see how it tastes...

Tasting Notes

Appearance:  Coke, with one melted ice cube.  Pretty.

Nose:  Vanilla, nougat, white chocolate, cherry, light woodiness, a little citrus or maybe crisp apple.  Very enticing, pretty awesome nose.

Body:  First of all, wickedly smooth.  Also very rich and sweet.  There's a slight tartness to the wood taste - this is being really picky - but maybe the slightest bit over-oaked.  All-in-all though this is a great tasting bourbon.

Finish: Nice round finish. No burn, but a nice spirit warmth.  Pretty much just what you look for in a prime-time bourbon.  Medium length with some nice rye spiciness coming through, little bursts of red pepper and mint, and a little pleasing saddle leather.


Review

First of all, it's next to impossible to get a bottle of 23 year buffalo trace off the shelf.  Pappy 23 Year is pretty much your only shot.  But Pappy 23 is a very different beast.  It's still got Stitzel-Weller juice mixed in, it's a wheated rather than hi-rye recipe, it's $250 retail (but good luck finding any on the shelves!), and it's sort of the unicorn of bourbon.  Don't get us wrong, this is no Pappy 23 Year.  But it's not completely out of the ballpark.  And this half-bottle was $59.

The similarities are that it's smooth as hell.  It's obviously well-aged, immensely drinkable, and outclasses 90% of what you can find on the shelf today.  With the rye vs wheat issue, we still prefer the wheat, however they've done a very nice job with the rye recipe.  More similarities to Pappy 23: it's dry and punchy, has a tight nutty woody kick to it, and it's crisp and compact.  It doesn't have the big plummy sweet brown molasses of an E.H. Taylor or a Michter's 10, it's much more on the side of Elijah Craig with a woody spicy crack.  And there's the rub.  While it compares nicely to Pappy 23 for less than half the price, does it compare that nicely to a lot of the bourbon you can buy for around $50-$80 a bottle?

Ok enough with the parallels and comparisons.  Does it taste good?  Yes!  We're very happy with this bottle.  It's a treat to be able to try 23 year bourbon, it's cool that they put out half-bottles for tasting, and - let's be honest - we love all the geekery around it.  And damn it does taste good.  Maybe a little more balls on the proofing would put it totally over the top, but for the money and all things considered, it's a solid SmokyBeast "B+".  For a splurge half-bottle to split for a special night, this is a great fit.

So our feedback to the experimental committee:  Put out more 23-year bourbon!  Also how about a wheated giant oak barrel?  Finally, we understand that with almost 50% evaporation it might be hard to release at barrel strength, but 95 proof should be the floor.  We'll check back in 2036 to see how that turned out.

enjoy/SB

On Second Pour:   We always like to go back for a second pour, and when it makes a big difference, we update our posts.  In this case, a few days later after this bottle has had time to open up, this is a really great whiskey.  The woodiness has mellowed out a bit, the rich caramel molasses has come up to the front, and the overall smoothness is still pretty awesome.  Bumping this one up to a SB "A-".  It's great.  We only wish we'd had the will-power to save a sample to bring home so that we could blind against some Pappy!
Review: Tullibardine 1988 - Uncle Jerry's Dram

August 21, 2013

Review: Tullibardine 1988 - Uncle Jerry's Dram

Unexpected Treasure

It was my uncle Jerry who turned me on to the finer things in life.  He took me to Jean-Georges where I ate foie gras for the first time.  He threw a surprise party for his wife on their anniversary at Birdland with a private performance by a famous jazz quartet.  He would always show up at our holiday dinners with a bottle of single malt.  Not as a present, mind you, but so that he'd be sure to have something he wanted to drink.  He poured me my first glass of good scotch.

Uncle Jerry never got to read this blog.  He passed away a few months before my wife and I started writing it.  But his memory is deep in its pages.

This evening, while watching a quiet summer sunset at my family home in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, I found myself looking for a drink.  I usually bring a bottle with me from New York to sip on these types of occasions.  But between Pack & Play's, snacks, toys, PJs, and enough diapers to pamper China, I forgot the booze.  Oh how times have changed.  So in desperation I opened up the liquor cabinet and dug through its contents searching for a dram.

My father never picked up the single malt bug, and so I was planning on making due with Dewar's or Maker's Mark, maybe if I got desperate enough that bottle of Johnny Red.  I kept digging though, just in case.  Towards the back of the shelf, I saw a bottle with a fancy label and a few inches left in it.  "Distilled in 1988" sat across the top in white over a blue background.  I took it out to study it.  I was pretty sure that "Tullibardine" was not in my dad's repertoire.  Then I remembered, Uncle Jerry had come up for a weekend a few years ago and of course he'd brought a bottle of scotch with him.  As I held it in my hand, the memories came back to me.  His smile as he corked the bottle and poured us two glasses.  The gray whiskers of his well-groomed goatee crinkling as he swished it around in his mouth, savoring the first taste.



I put on some jazz trumpet (Jerry had played trumped in the Army), poured myself a glass of Tullibardine, and toasted Uncle Jerry.  The sun dipped over the hills and turned the sky deep and red in a miraculous show of color.  Jerry would have enjoyed this night.  A good drink, good music, and family were the things that made him happy.


About Tullibardine

Founded in 1949, the distillery is located in the Perth & Kinross region of the Scottish Highlands.  It was mothballed in 1995, however stock of the vintage barrels remained in the warehouse and was purchased along with the distillery in 2003.  The new ownership began releasing these old barrels in various vintages.  Our bottle, pictured above, was distilled in 1988 and released in 2007 at 19-years of age.  The label reads "The 1988 is a fitting celebration of quincentennial of King James IV's coronation.  To mark that special event of 1488, King James purchased ale from Scotland's first ever brewery, a beer sprung from the same pure spring water that feeds the Tullibardine Distillery today."

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Very delicate, light, and perfumy.  This has riesling grapes, sandalwood, rose, lilac, and comes together very much like apple cider.

Body:  Soft but full in texture, the gentle years of oak fit beautifully into the floral bouquet.  White chocolate, honey, some of the signature leather oil that we find in well-aged scotch, more apples and sweet grapes.

Finish:  Very well balanced finish where the wood and spirit level off the little bursts of fruit and candy.  No smoke here at all, this is not a smoky beast but a lovely lady.  Lemon hard candy (the kind that comes in a circular tin with cursive script on it), vanilla latte, tiny explosions of black pepper and nutmeg.

Review

Our senses are by definition subjective and sometimes it's difficult to separate taste from sentimentality.  That being said, this bottle was a perfect compliment to a wonderful evening.  Its light and delicate finish was great for a warm summer night.  The fruits and smooth wood were marvelously mellow and delicious.  Perhaps the fact that it had been sitting in the bottle three-quarters empty for some years increased the mellowness of the malt, but it was incredibly drinkable.  Have a slow sip with people you love, and take a moment to appreciate the finer things in life.

Cheers/SB


Review: Glendronach Parliament 21 Year - Natural Beastly Beauties

August 16, 2013

Review: Glendronach Parliament 21 Year - Natural Beastly Beauties

GlenDronach was our first love story with a very lightly peated scotch.  From the sordid past of our hero, James Allardice, with his prostitute guerilla marketing department, to its 100% sherry cask aging, to its wonderful dark and natural color, the 15-Year GlenDronach Revival won our hearts and sent our taste buds soaring.  When our package arrived from the chaps at Royal Mile Whiskies with our bottle of the 21-Year Parliament bottling, anticipation was overwhelming.


The very thought of another natural colored sherried beauty awaiting us at home tickled our hearts and minds like an old jazz standard.


Battle of the Natural Beauties

So we couldn't resist putting these two beauties head-to-head for a sherry battle extraordinaire.  Here are the tasting notes, draw your swords and prepare to fight!

Nose-to-Nose


Revival:  Yes, the Swedish Fish are back.  Uber-sweet red candy.  Some citrus - candied orange peels, and maybe a hint of lemon rind.

Parliament: Beautiful fine wood and fruit.  The sweetness is more subtle here.  Instead of Swedish Fish it's like ripe plums sitting in a cherry wood salad bowl.  The wood has lots more definition - bold oak with a hint of char.  The dessert wine and the wood combine for a truly wonderful nose.  It smells like an expensive date...  the kind that ends well.

Body-to-Body

Revival:  Been savoring this bottle since our review a few months ago and now it's an old friend.  Thick with some plummy oil, raisins, stone fruits (a "sherry bomb" as it's affectionately dubbed by whisky geeks the world over), a tiny hint of smoke, and a lovely undercurrent of oak.

Parliament:  Oh my.  That is some good shiznit.  So many complex flavors going on here.  There's honey, there's fruit, spices and wood.  Dramatically more sophisticated than the 15-Year.  Let's try and break it down...  The 15 is a single malt married with a dessert wine.  Pretty straightforward spirit flavor and oak topped with hefty brandied sweet dessert wine.  The 21-Year is much bigger.  A lot more body with big bold spirit flavors - oak, leather, a hint of smoke, and spicy pepper flakes, and hot mustard.  The fruits are still dominant and ever-present, but more refined.  Sweet cherries, nectarines, ripe melon.   High-cocoa dark chocolate.  Just a fullness and richness that's hard to put into words, but is immediately apparent in the head-to-head.  Almost like a hint of a very high quality rye whiskey with a spicy dry heat.

Finish-to-Finish

Revival:  The sweet syrupy fruits slowly fade, leaving a warm whisky glow.  Very nice simple finish, no new flavors being discovered but also no bitterness or burn.

Parliament:  It's the same phenomenon where the sweet dessert wine flavor diminishes and is replaced.  However in this case there are three waves of flavor experience.  After the sweet comes a rich flurry of spices: cinnamon, burnt chili pepper, hot mustard, and orange rind.  Then after the spices come florals: herbal wildflowers, rose hips, and mint.  Then finally it resolves with a very clean finish of oak floating over a very strong spirit warmth.

Review:  We were blown away by the Parliament.  It's not to be missed.  The extra few percent of alcohol is awesome and really turns up the boldness, countering the sweetness for a terrific balance.  We still love the Revival, but this bottle makes it look one-dimensional, taking the sherried-malt quality up a notch with a whole new level of sophistication.  It's a really awesome experience.  At £58.29 [$90] (note - this is for the UK 700ml size instead of the American 750) the Glendronach Parliament can do battle with any <$100 malt.  A SmokyBeast "A".  Grab one and treat yourself.  Let us know what you think.  /sb
Review: Stagg Jr., Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof - Battle of Three Barrel Proof Beasts

August 10, 2013

Review: Stagg Jr., Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof - Battle of Three Barrel Proof Beasts

We're Up All Night To Get Lucky



There's a new game in town.  From the legendary George T Stagg bourbon that rocks the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection every year comes a new, young, barrel proof offspring called Stagg Jr.  It's not on the shelves yet.  Stores are lining up to get half a dozen bottles.  We got lucky.

Queue soundtrack =>



New Stallion in Town?




Sadly the days of finding George T. Stagg, Pappy, and AH Hirsch on the shelves are long gone.  Could Stagg Jr be the prodigal son?  The little brother who rises to great heights?  The Eli Manning, the Serena Williams of the family, ready to step up and take the championship?  We put it to the test against our other two favorite barrel proof beasts.





Contenders

Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof (NAS) 67.25%, 134.5 proof  $75.99
Stagg Jr. ("nearly a decade") 67.20%, 134.4 proof  $49.99
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (12 Years) 67.1%, 134.2 proof  $39.99




Let's break it down and see how they do.

Appearance

ECBP:  Dr. Pepper.

Taylor:  Honest Tea.

Stagg:  Chamomile.

Winner:  ECBP is the darkest.  (Stagg looks extremely dark in the bottle because it's got a strategically placed black label on the back).


Nose

Stagg: Crushed pepper, bitter orange rind, blue cotton candy, canned corn.  Hot and heady.

Taylor: Way more refined.  Far less hot than the Stagg.  Sweet honey, tangerines, herbals - mint, maybe tarragon/rosemary or some other leafy spice.  Clove cigarettes.

ECBP: Cinnamon, roasted pecans, smoky pork, oiled leather.

Winner: Elijah Craig wins the nose hands down.

Body (neat)

Granted this is masochism, but it's important to see which is most drinkable neat...

Taylor: Very drinkable.  More heat than burn.  Shockingly un-painful at 134.5 proof.

Stagg: Way rougher than the Taylor.  This is rocket fuel w/o water.

ECBP:  Very smooth and rich, also stunningly drinkable at full test.  Cherries, Luden's cough drops, but a little less balance than the Taylor.

Winner: Taylor wins the neat taste test.

Body (w/ a dozen eye-dropper drops of water & 10 minutes in the glass)

Stagg: Opens up much nicer than the nose.  Now we're getting tastes of old man Stagg.  Big bold taste backed by the oak and char.  Rich raisins and sweet peaches.  Still raw and hot.

ECBP:  Not much change with the water.  Very nice spice.  Hint of licorice.  Cherries.  Woody.

Taylor:  Solid delicious bourbon here.  Spice, spirit warmth, molasses sweetness all coming together in a musky, cologne, oiled leather drinkability.

Winner:  Tie between the Taylor and the ECBP.  Taylor is more refined and balanced, Elijah has more richness and body.

Finish

Stagg:  Massive chest warmth and throat burn.  Robusto cigar smoke on the breath.  Chili peppers on the tongue.  It's still showing the youth and breathing fire through the water, but it's a lively and fresh powerful blast of whiskey.

ECBP: The finish is the worst part of this whiskey.  A bitterness creeps up, over-sour cherry skin, maybe a rough oak cask taste.  It's got all the elements of a nice finish but they don't come together right.  The wood doesn't cancel out the burn and the sweetness doesn't compliment the spice.

Taylor:  It's kind of "all in" with the Taylor.  The wood flavor comes out but doesn't overpower.  The sweetness and spice combine into a nice round punch.  It's by far the smoothest finish with a nice long lingering campfire-stone smokiness.

Winner:  The Taylor wins again for finish.

Overall

Best Value:  For the money we give the award to the Elijah Craig.  At half the price of the Taylor, it's a very impressive beast.  It's way smoother than the Stagg Jr, has a lot more spice, and is easily some of the best valued juice we've seen in a long time.  It has a similar flavor profile as Pappy 23 year, with lots of wood snap and a dry spicy crisp crack.

Best Overall:  Without considering money, the Colonel E.H. Taylor takes the prize.  It's not quite as dark and rich as the ECBP, but with just a few drops of water it's simply delicious.  The best all around balance, and honestly this is the closest whiskey to the original George T Stagg.  A huge ballsy beast that hits you in the chest but gives you that thick, sweet, nutty, smoky, rich awesomeness that you will be thinking about the next day.

No ribbon for Stagg Jr?  We're going to let this bottle open up for a few days and suffer through another greatest hits tasting.  After all, the first time we had George T Stagg we'd never tasted anything at that proof before, and it took some getting used to.  It turned out to be an all-time favorite.  Also it's worth noting that we'd still go out and buy another bottle of this for safe-keeping if it was available.  We're talking best-of-the-beast here and although it we couldn't give it gold or silver, bronze in this competition is nothing to sneeze at.  It's a big, spicy, hot, punchy new friend that has found a welcome place on the shelf.

We're up all night 'til the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky

/SmokyBeast

Update:  Ok, so we put the Stagg Jr. in the decanter, let it air out for a few days, added some different amounts of water (up to 50%), let those air out, and have basically given it every benefit of the doubt.  Sadly we can't get behind this.  A beast it is!  But not a beast that we really care to drink.  The nose and body have some interesting flavors, but it's just so hot and burning that it's not easy to drink.  We love Buffalo Trace and really had high hopes for this one, but sadly it's getting a SmokyBeast "C-".




Review: Talisker 18 - A Seriously Badass Beast

August 6, 2013

Review: Talisker 18 - A Seriously Badass Beast

Birthdays, Back Then...

The year: 1995.

Our hero: Your faithful hubby.  Today: close to forty (shhhh!) with a bouncing baby girl;  Then: a strapping, heavy-drinking, profanity-ridden, late-sleeping, long-haired college junior during a semester abroad on the verge of his twenty-first birthday.  

Location: Glasgow, Scotland.  

To be precise:  A bar on Grange Road, about a half mile in the wrong direction from Glasgow University, that featured thirty beers on tap and thirty different bottles of whisky.

Mission: "Drink the bar."

Background

When I arrived in Scotland for my semester abroad, Americans were known for three traits:  They talked too loud, ate too much, and couldn't handle their drink.  I set about to change the last one.

Nobly forgoing academics and "alarum" clocks, repeatedly risking life and limb to cross the street against right-bound traffic, I began my training.  Queue soundtrack =>


I hit the bars every day at 2pm sharp.  We drank. Pints of lager.  Pints of "heavy".  And whisky.  Shots of whisky.  Shots of shitty whisky.  Grouse.  John Powers.  Those were the high points.  I'm pretty sure the low points didn't even have a name on the label.

The Rise

Maybe it was my stature.  At six foot and two hundred-thirty pounds, I was more than double the mass of my average competition.  Maybe it was my Russian heritage: drinking was in my blood.  But I like to think it was sheer will.  Determination.  The eye of the tiger.  I drank, conservatively, half of the United Kingdom under the table. 

My Downfall

On the night of my birthday all my fallen competitors hit back hard.  "Drink the bar!" they dared.  Thiry pints and thirty shots were lined up.  All the jeers and jests of fat, loud, weak-drinking Americans were thrown in my face.  I hit that Grange Road pub hard.  Keep in mind these were imperial pints.  Keep in mind we were alternating said pints with the aforementioned shots of shitty whisky.  "Wonderwall" blasted from every available speaker.  The room started a slow and steady spin.  More pints, more shots.  More spins. I vaguely remember giving up on shots versus beers and pouring the shots into the beers towards the end.  

Adrienne?!??

I didn't "drink the bar".  I did vomit...  Repeatedly.  

Meanwhile, About 200 Miles North

That same year something much more dignified was happening.  Something involving less late-night kebabs and less early morning Irn Bru's.  And far less vomiting.  

Up in the Isle of Skye, Talisker was brewing a batch of single malt.  Like your humble narrator, it probably started brackish, unrefined.  But over the years we both mellowed.  We gained character.  We matured.  Well, one of us did.  

Talisker 18-Year



It's comforting to think that today I'm drinking something that was born in that same fateful year.  The 2013 Talisker 18-Year was distilled in 1995.  It patiently aged in oak barrels while I became a (somewhat) respectable citizen, traded my thirty pints for a slow-sipped malt, and came to appreciate the finer things.  And this is a finer thing.

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Peat & sweet!  There's something really wonderful going on here with a gorgeous balance of peat smoke, wood, sweet grapes, and botanicals - sunflowers and tarragon.  The tell-tale signs of citrus and sea-brine that take us to the Scottish Islands.  And that men's club leather chair smell speaks to sophistication and age.

Body:  The body is where we get the spice: cayenne, hot mustard, fresh spring ramps. Sweet honeyed tea moves to the sides of the tongue and the spice collects in front.  On the second sip we get peanuts and honey.

Finish:  Warmth without burn - this is a dry finish, very solid.  Punchy tight smoke floats over a crisp snappy click of green apples and more cayenne pepper.  The smoke, spice, and fruit fade evenly leaving a hint of fine cigar tobacco and oak.

Review

Talisker 18 is a wonderful beast.  You can taste the two decades of slow ocean breeze and gentle oak nipping away at the warm malt.  The quality is undeniable.  If you love Talisker, as we do, you will want to have a bottle on your bar at all times.  One word of caution:  Talisker 18 varies widely in price.  Here it is at Binny's in Chicago for $99.  Here it is in NYC for $147.  Assuming you're closer to a hundred than one-fifty, Talisker 18 gets a SmokyBeast "A-".  Pick it up.  Celebrate how much you've changed over the last 18 years.  Just don't pour it into your twentieth pint and end up puking on Grange Road.

/SmokyBeast