Kevin,
I have been a reader of your blog for the last few years. First of all thanks for taking the time to do it. I have a question that I thought you might have some opinions on, and might be interesting for your readers as well.First a small bit of background, I live in DC and some friends and I have been organizing small (15-20 attendee) Scotch tastings about every 6 months, we’ve been picking regions and having 4 or 5 different scotches to sample (usually 2 or 3 $40-$50 bottles and 1 or 2 $70-$90 bottles). It’s been a lot of fun, and I think we and our friends have gotten too snooty for our own good, and the good of our pocket books.So, for this next time around we decided to be a little cheap/patriotic and have an American whiskey tasting. Myself and a few of my roommates have begun some private research, and I have had real difficulty finding whiskies that stand out. Do you have any recommendations? I’d just like to find a few whiskeys that are complex enough to discuss as well as enjoy.Thanks so much for your time,Nathan C.
- Maker’s Mark is one of my favorites…and different than most Bourbons in that it uses wheat and no Rye.
- Bulleit is a fantastic Bourbon at a good price.
- Buffalo Trace and it’s slightly more expensive older brother Eagle Rare are both fantastic whiskies.
- Stranahan’s (Colorado Single Malt) is really really good.
- Jim Beam Black is a great whiskey for the price
- Russel Reserve and Russle Reserve Rye are tops and I suggest that you include a rye whiskey in the tasting.
- If you DO choose only one Rye – select Sazerac…the 6 year old. It is amazing and I use it a lot.
And don’t give me crap for leaving your favourite off the short list . . . there are so many American whiskies available that this was not meant to be an exhaustive list of excellent whiskies – but it was a list of readily available, priced right whiskies that anyone looking to explore American whiskies should try.
Of Course there are a number of other American Whiskies I enjoy – Pappy Van Winkle 15 year old Family Reserve; Four Roses, Bernheim, Woodford Reserve, Basil Hayden, Old Forrester – are among my favourites, but availability can be sporadic or, to be completely honest, didn’t spring to mind immediately.
Anyway, feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments for the good of Nathan, his friends and other American Whisky drinkers.
I like all the ones you’ve recommended there, Kevin, but would also have to mention the Van Winkle 13yo rye (although it’s getting very expensive on this side of the pond.)
Also a big fan of Elijah Craig 12yo, Old Fitzgerald 1849 and Eagle Rare 17yo.
Let me strongly second the Buffalo Trace and Basil Hayden. I’d add Evan Williams Single Barrel.
I recently tried the Stranahan with a group of friends and it was universally disliked. The whiskey had a strong pine resin flavor to it that everyone found off putting.
Tim,
re: Stranahan’s.
That’s interesting as I liked it quite a bit.
I know that they switched the wash from one brewery to another – and I have not tried it since that happened. I wonder how much that has changed the character….
I would first of all like to thank you all for taking time to blog about something we are all passionate about.. whiskey. I would also like to thank you for trying Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey and providing us with non biased feedback. That is invaluable! I would like to address a few of the comments I have read here. Matthew commented that the bottle of SCW he tried had a strong pine resin flavor. I cant think of a reason that our whiskey would take on that flavor, it could have been oxidation from a bad cork, (we recently switched cork manufactures for this very reason) it might been that another whiskey you tasted just before it brought out a less pleasant flavor in our whiskey, or it might just have been a batch that didn’t agree with you palate. Either way I would ask that you give us another try. Each batch has subtle differences and nuance, I am sure a different bottling will agree with you palate more.
To address Kevin’s comment about us switching breweries, I would like to assure you that the flavor will not change a bit. If you are not familiar with what Kevin was referring to, we subcontract a microbrewery to ferment our proprietary recipe for our wash. When we contract a brewery to brew our recipe, it is because they have the skill to reproduce our desired results consistently and reliably. The criteria we use to hire a brewery is that they must be able to reproduce our exact flavor profile each and every time. So when we switched from the Flying Dog brewery to Oskar Blues brewery there is no discernible change in the wash. They brew our recipe using the highest quality malted barley, that we specify, using our proprietary yeast, and follow our brewing procedure. We hire a microbrewery to ferment our wash because when we were getting started, it saved us a considerable amount of money in equipment costs. If you have any further questions or comments please go to our website and email them in to me. Cheers Jake
Both flying Dog and Oskar Blues make excellent beer. But Oskar Blues is, by far one of my favourite American micro breweies. I shit you not, I am drinking a Dale’s Pale Ale as I write this on my phone.
And I stand behind my recommendation of Stranhan’s as an excellent American Whiskey
You’re lucky to have access to as many bourbons as you listed. Here in Ontario we can get 18 whiskies and 9 of them are Jack Daniels so good luck to the other distilleries in lobbying the LCBO. However, the other issue we face is a reluctance of whisk(e)y drinkers to explore new brands. Our scotch club has about 25 members and 6 tastings a year of 6 different whiskies. When we do single malts, our attendance is 15-18 members. When we do Irish or blends or Canadian or bourbons we are lucky to get 12 people- we’ve had as few as 6 , Anyone who has a little experience tasting knows that the there are excellent whiskies out there that aren’t single malts. Our challenge is to get our members to be more willing to experiment. We have a tasting on March 26th ( Greenore Single grain, Jameson 18 year old, Magilligan Pure Pot, Woodford Reserve, Crown Royal Extra Rare and Alberta Premium 25 year old). This is certainly an eclectic tasting and time will tell if our members think it’s worth $30 or so for a night out. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Kevin, I haven’t tried the Stranahan’s whiskey yet, but am very keen on giving it a whirl as we recently started listing it on TWE (I think you are referring to Matthew’s comment).
Before today I had never read anything but great reviews for Stranahan’s, so my guess is that either there was something faulty with the bottle you tried, Matthew or, as Jake suggested, whatever you tasted before affected your perception of the Stranahans. I find this when tasting whisky a lot, which is why I always drink a lot of water in between samples when writing my tasting notes. A strong flavour (of whatever type) can either drown out or badly affect the next drink tasted, as anyone who has drunk orange juice after chewing mints will testify.
Sorry Tim, I don’t know why I addressed my response to you and not Matthew. Sorry for the confusion.