December 14th, 2009

Your predictions for 2010?

John Hansell

Okay everyone, get out your crystal ball. What do you see happening to the whisky (and whiskey) industry in 2010? I’ll start the discussion by making a couple of predictions myself.

 
More experimental American whiskeys
The American whiskey industry was very slow getting on the experimenting bandwagon (relative to Scotch, Japanese, and Irish whiskey). But with the likes of Woodford Reserve’s Master’s Collection whiskeys, High West’s “Bourye“, The Party Sources “Wheat on Rye” Experimental Whiskey (in association with Buffalo Trace Distillery), and the blossoming small, artisanal distilleries, I think (or at least I hope) 2010 will see more different kinds of experimental bourbons and other American whiskeys on the market than ever before.

More Scotch whiskies without age statements
Across the pond in Scotland, I think more and more distilleries will continue abandoning age statements. It gives them more flexibility in what goes in the bottle. It will also help them blend in younger whiskey coming on the market with existing stocks of older whisky and still command a fair price for it.

Now it’s your turn. Tell us what you think will happen in 2010. We can come back to this one year from now and see how well we did.

Category: Bourbon,Opinions,Rye whiskey,Scotch whisky Tags: , , , 32 Comments

December 8th, 2009

Bourbon and Rye Whiskey drinkers, pay attention: something new!

John Hansell

It wasn’t very long ago when I was lamenting how the Scotch, Irish, and even Japanese whisky industries were being creative and experimentative, while the very traditional and loyal (to the point of being borderline stubborn) bourbon/rye whiskey  industry refused to participate.

Well, times have changed. And it’s no surprise that Buffalo Trace has their fingers in this.

A decade ago I asked why we don’t have four grain bourbon (corn, malted barley, rye AND wheat). Why must it be ryed bourbon or wheated bourbon? Brown-Forman broke that barrier with their Four Grain Master’s Collection several years back. But, there’s more than one way to marry wheat and rye.

#2 Wheat On Rye label crop (Small)Today I received two review bottles of Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection whiskeys. Not from Buffalo Trace, but from The Party Source, a retailer in Kentucky. I’m only going to talk about one of the whiskeys in this post.

It turns out that this bottling is a wheated bourbon that was finished off in a freshly emptied rye barrel. I have not talked to Buffalo Trace or The Party Source yet, but  I gather that the concept here, if I can be so assuming, is to marry the mellow drinkability of a wheated bourbon with the vibrant, spice intensity of a rye whiskey.

You know what? It works. I have only tasted this 8 year old whiskey informally tonight, but the wheated bourbon comes through first on the palate, then the rye emerges as the flavors progress on the palate. And, as an added benefit, this whiskey is bottled at 63.5%, not the typical 45% ABV of previous  Experimental Collection bottlings.

This is certainly exciting on three levels–and all new, as far as I know:

1) I don’t recall a wheated bourbon being finished off in a rye barrel and then bottled.

2) Buffalo Trace appears to be willing to work with retailers, allowing them to create/bottle their own Experimental Collections. How many retailers? I don’t know. I’m sure we’ll find out.

3) It’s bottled at cask strength. A first for the BT Experimental Collection

I’m sure I’ll get a lot more answers in the coming days–both from Buffalo Trace and The Party Source (and maybe other retailers  who are doing the same thing but haven’t told me yet). But, I wanted to let you know what I found out, when I found out. After all, this blog is called “What Does John Know?”

Category: Bourbon,New Releases,Opinions,Rye whiskey Tags: , 25 Comments

September 24th, 2009

Cool news for Four Roses bourbon fans

John Hansell

The Four Roses Distillery actually produces ten different styles of whiskey. They have two mash bills (one with 20% rye; the other with 35% rye). They also use five different yeast strains. So, that makes ten possible combinations.

Distillery Manager Jim Rutlede talked about it here during a guest blog  a while back. Jim uses these ten different styles to blend together (in combinations he feels are appropriate) to make the different bottlings of Four Roses bourbon.

Well, Jay Erisman, the Spirits Manager of The Party Source–and also the author of our Four Roses feature a while back in Malt Advocate–has convinced Four Roses to let him do something really cool. He’s going to do ten different single cask bottlings, using each posssible yeast strain and mash bill combination.  

The first two of ten have already been bottled. You can find the details of Jay’s excellent adventure here on The Party Source’s blog. This should be a very interesting (and informative) project.

Category: Bourbon,New Releases,Specialty retailers Tags: , 10 Comments



Whisky Advocate magazine is America's leading whisky magazine. It's the number one source for whisky information, education and entertainment for whisky enthusiasts.