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Buffalo Trace is the new name for Leestown/Ancient Age, which is owned by Sazerac. They also make Blanton's and several other bourbons. They originated the single barrel concept with Blantons. They have launched a new web site for Buffalo Trace that is pretty cool.
Has anybody tried the whiskey yet?
- chuck
I tried Buffalo Trace at last fall's bourbon festival. It is very good. A couple of months ago, I finally saw it in a restaurant here in town (Lexington), but I
could not find it in any stores. About a week ago I finally found it, and I bought a bottle yesterday. For the $15.99 price, it is one of the best bourbons
on the market, IMHO -- a great bargain at the very least.
DirtyCowboy
I've tried it. I hope Wee is following this thread, because it just might be the whiskey he's looking for. There really is a flavor that seems to distinguish bourbons made in and before the early seventies, although I can't describe it (at least not in very palatable terms). I didn't like it at first, but I've become quite fond of it lately. Evan Williams 18 year-old has it. Pappy Van Winkle 20 year-old has it in spades. And at a far more reachable price, Buffalo Trace has it. For what it's worth, it makes me think of the way the air in a newly-plowed field tastes. That may not sound appealing, but it's becoming that way to me.
Anyway, just about all the old whiskies I've tasted have that flavor in differing degrees. I used to think it was due to oxidation, but the bottles I've opened haven't really evaporated much. I think it's just the "old fashioned" way of making bourbon, and I certainly find that in Buffalo Trace.
I spoke to a tour guide, Rita, at the distillery and she assured me that Buffalo Trace is made from a completely different mash bill from the other Ancient Age products, and it is also warehoused separately.
-John Lipman-
http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey
As much as I hate to doubt the word of a tour guide, that plant historically has made one formula, period. There is nothing technical to prevent them from using a different mash bill or a different yeast for Buffalo Trace, but I wonder why they would. That is, I wonder what the difference is? A shift in the mash bill by a few percentage points one way or the other isn't worth the trouble. It would need to be a fairly large change, a significant increase in the percentage of rye, for example.
This becomes even more interesting when you consider the fact that they have changed the name of the distillery to Buffalo Trace. We may have to do a little digging...
--Chuck Cowdery
What? Ye dare cast suspicion upon the words of the tour guide? Have you no shame? :-)
Right from the get-go I've felt that the transformation to Buffalo Trace seems to be fundamentally different than the change from Ancient Age to Blanton, or from Stagg to E.H.Taylor, or Sazerac, or whatever. They really seem committed to establishing Buffalo Trace as the brand by which the distillery is to known, even to the point of intentionally ignoring the fact that it's only one of at least half a dozen (previously) well-known brands that they at least claim to be continuing to market (although absolute ZERO advertising can be found for any other brand, and they are not mentioned at all on the web site).
The distillery tour, by the way, is a bit schizophrenic in that the pre-tour video presentation is all about Buffalo Trace and nothing else, whereas the tour itself focuses only upon Blanton's and nothing of Buffalo Trace is ever shown or mentioned. Curious; let us know what you find out...
-John Lipman-
http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey
FYI, the other brands are covered at the Sazerac web site.
--Chuck Cowdery
Thanks, Chuck. Okay, let me re-phrase that...
People who are attracted to Buffalo Trace's website as a result of their excellent current advertising campaign will not see anything (including a link to Sazerac) to indicate this is the distillery where all these other fine whiskeys have been made for years. If I didn't already know what distillery Buffalo Trace was, nothing on that website would have provided any enlightenment.
Curiously, there's a sub-page titled <u>Unique Facts</u>, in which one of the facts cited is "Buffalo Trace is the only distillery using five recipes for whiskey products–two rye, one barley, one pure rye, and one wheat..."
Since you pointed out that there has always been only one formula, even if Buffalo Trace brings that to two, just what are these other whiskey products? Pure rye? Wheat? (maybe they mean the wheated Old Weller). Barley???? If anyone can get to the bottom of all this, Chuck, I believe you can. After all, I think I know a bit about Bourbon, and I've learned over half of everything I know from you. Now GET OUT THERE AND SNOOP! The rest of us are COUNTING ON YOU!! :-)
-John Lipman-
http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey
Interesting. The wheat recipe probably is for Weller, but I do wonder about the rest. I'll see what I can find out.
--Chuck Cowdery
John,
I definitely will give this a try - It has not reached the Atlanta market yet but have already asked my local shop to order some - I'm looking forward to it - It would seem that we are not the only one's that can taste a difference in older stock - I've also asked that he hold a bottle of "Pappy 20" for me as well - He said he orders two cases a week and they are gone within 48 hours - I just purchased a bottle of Booker's from a private collection (v.1965-66) - I'm hoping it will have that "quality" that we both seem to taste - Will let you know
Wee - I'm not sure just what you're buying from that private collection, but if it's from 1965-66 it's sure not Booker's. I don't even think Booker was the distiller then (I believe it was Carl Beam). The tenth anniversary bottling (batch C90-B-8) came out in 1998, which would indicate that the first whiskey destined to become Booker's was distilled in 1980.
So what you bought may turn out to be just regular ol' Booker's (nothing wrong with that if you didn't pay a premium for it), or it might be something else that actually WAS made or bottled in the mid-sixties. That would be good, too. Let us know how it turns out!!
-John Lipman-
http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey