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Wednesday Tastings!


tanstaafl2
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1 hour ago, maybeling said:

 

Did he do an OESK? I may have missed that one. He just got in an OESQ 110 proof @ 8 yrs 1 month. I picked one up and have a feeling I may be getting another, it's very drinkable. Also got an OBSV 100 proof at 7 years. Didn't grab that one.

 

It came from the White Elephant gathering. It might be from somewhere else but I don't remember. Maybe it was one of yours? Or maybe I have the recipe wrong! I am not sure if it was one I picked or one that I picked for Jat.

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I'm impressed you still have that Artein sample. You really do have one heck of a backlog!

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23 minutes ago, Kpiz said:

I'm impressed you still have that Artein sample. You really do have one heck of a backlog!

 

I had been hoping to one day stumble on to a Sonnalta PX so I could try them all at one time (which was only about 6 of them at the time!). Sadly I never did and this seemed like as good a time as any!

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A soggy, stormy day across Georgia. So what is one supposed to do? A tasting of course! We really started on Tuesday as Signatory held a little lunch time tasting for some of their independent bottlings. We ended up with a young Macallan that I think was finished in some unusual casks (can't remember now), an interesting 21yo Imperial (a dead distillery I believe) and an Edradour finished in Sauternes which almost always results in a complex profile that I find enjoyable.

 

But with the storms today it somehow felt like a rummy kind of day. In fact a high proof rum kind of day. And when I say high proof...

 

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But before we started hitting the 151 rum we took a little diversion to Woodford to try once again to find something positive about the Masters Collection. Reviews for this one seemed much better than some past bottlings so I once again threw caution to the wind and bought one of these pricey bottles.

 

And once again I was kicked squarely in the ass.

 

This time it is a brandy (presumably Korbel, a BF brand) finished whiskey. Ok, it wasn't terrible but it still didn't rate the price tag for me. If you like the Woodford house style with a bit of the copper penny-ish profile you might like this one. As long as you don't mind a few grapes rubbed all over your penny anyway. But just not enough brandy influence to make this standout as something unique and interesting enough to want to drink on a regular basis.

 

To help get thing back on track we finished the last three samples that weren't chosen last week. An 80's Dant, a WT Tribute and 19yo single cask Springbank recharred sherry cask.The bourbons were both excellent but the Tribute was the consensus pick. The Springbank had surprisingly little sherry influence to me despite being reportedly fully matured in the cask. I suppose the recharring helped caramelize residual sugars for a touch of sweetness while minimizing the sherry influence.

 

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Then it was on to the rum! Only the first bottle on the left had been opened prior to today (and it was opened some time ago). Let's face it, these are big boys no matter how you cut it up. But there were a few surprises. The original bottle, owned by Pernod Richard, still had tons of caramel/demerra/molasses flavor and was drinkable at proof if a touch fiery. Surprisingly the red label "Mosaiq" label (they acquired the brand from Pernod) had pretty much all of the same flavor but a bit less heat making it most enjoyable. The surprise was the Hamilton 151 which came across as all heat that seemed to overwhelm any flavor. Water seemed to make very little difference. A bit disappointing and will need to be tried again. Finally the newest edition of Lemon Hart, again made by Mosaiq who still owns the brand) had a good balance of flavor and heat. The family resemblance was there with the first two bottles and it was not overwhelmingly hot. But the winner here, in a bit of an upset was the Red Label "Mosaiq" bottling which sadly is no longer available.

 

And then it was time to stop...

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I didn't see you talk about the Lock, Stock, and Barrels.  Were those tabled for another time?

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2 hours ago, meadeweber said:

I didn't see you talk about the Lock, Stock, and Barrels.  Were those tabled for another time?

 

Yeah, in retrospect we decided to save them for another time because we knew the rums were going to be, umm, substantial.

 

It proved to be a good decision!

 

I did finish with a bit of the Rhum Rhum Liberation but it proved to be a poor decision. The palate was still in shock... :D

Edited by tanstaafl2
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May be the last Wednesday tasting for the next several weeks and definitely for the next couple of weeks. So we decided to get back to basics a little with a whiskey based lineup.

 

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We decided to bring back the LSB from last week and we even added a few friends! And we decided we would once again do each comparison blind. 

 

First up was the newish Tom Foolery BIB. Could a craft distillery who was doing it the right way finally challenge some of the big boys?????

 

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Unfortunately it was pretty quickly clear that the answer was no. A BIB designation aged in full size barrels with a nice bottle appearance and a nice color to the whiskey were early promising signs. It was paired up against an older bottle of OF Signature that we have liked in the past as I did not have a 4yo BIB at hand and it was close enough for this occasion. But it didn't matter that we tasted them blind in this case. Once the Tom Foolery was opened there was an unexpected nose that carried a good bit more graininess than I hoped for or expected. Maybe this was just because it was a new unsealed bottle??? Unfortunately that did not seem to be the case as the palate carried the young small barrel like grainy character through the palate. On top of that there appeared to be an interesting bourbon with some nice potential. But I could not enjoy it fully. The OF was perfectly serviceable although it did not seem to wow us as it did at a tasting a while back. But it was the clear favorite of this pairing.

 

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Next up were the LSB 13 and 16yo along with the original WhistlePig Boss Hog for comparison. The 13 is cut to 101.3 pf while the 16 weighs in at 107. The WP is at cask strength of 134.2. Tasted blind the 13yo still had that odd slightly bitter character to me that led me to distinguish it from the other two. Not sure why but it just doesn't seem to suit me. The 16 however did not continue that trend and was a much more pleasant whiskey. Enough so that I would consider the BP 16yo Hochstadter Rye. If it weren't $200 that is! The WP was admittedly quite good as well with a lovely delicate sweetness and while the proof was evident it still drank quite nicely. A touch of water was also well tolerated. I have tried the second Boss Hog in the past but did not find it to be any better than this original bottle so I did not buy it then and I have no particular inclination to buy the $300 version 3 now. Those 2 whiskey's may well be lovely and I will certainly give them a try if the opportunity presents itself but I think I will be able to do with out! Maybe...

 

Fortunately what I do have is about $500 still in my pocket with which to buy other whiskey and assorted odd spirits from around the world! Well, ok I have spent that already.

 

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Our finale this week was a comparison of the new ECBP at 127 pf to the very first batch, bottled at 134.2 pf. Both were unopened as I pulled this little BP jewel out of a dusty section of the bunker for this comparison. The color is a bit misleading although in the glass the Batch 1 is definitely a darker bourbon. It is also clearly, for me at least, a much better bourbon. Despite the proof this one is quite drinkable and will also tolerate a fair amount of water if necessary. The new version is very much more oak forward but in a slightly thin and unbalanced way, especially when compared to the original batch. Some may find it to be a profile they like but for me it is the least favorite I have had so far. One can only hope this is an anomaly and not the direction of batches to come.

 

That batch 1 is what helped make this series the sought after bottles that it has become and with good reason. This is one to be savored. In fact I think I will head home and savor a bit more!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I haven't seen the new batch of ECBP (A117) around here, and I don't think I'm going to miss it if I don't get one. I have several bottles of the original batch, and its hard to compare any bourbon to it, its one of the best widely distributed (modern day) BP bourbons ever...

I will say that the Boss Hog 3 is much better than the first two, is it $150 better, that's still up in the air (with me). But very good.

 

And as always, Thanks

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On 4/13/2017 at 4:43 PM, tanstaafl2 said:

May be the last Wednesday tasting for the next several weeks and definitely for the next couple of weeks. So we decided to get back to basics a little with a whiskey based lineup.

 

58efe5c23b65a_Wednesdaytasting12APR171.jpg.6c0da4df9446f5f80b43d8d345a3a079.jpg

 

We decided to bring back the LSB from last week and we even added a few friends! And we decided we would once again do each comparison blind. 

 

First up was the newish Tom Foolery BIB. Could a craft distillery who was doing it the right way finally challenge some of the big boys?????

 

58efe5d587800_Wednesdaytasting12APR173.jpg.df227a792af0d76680806576f78ae7bc.jpg

 

Unfortunately it was pretty quickly clear that the answer was no. A BIB designation aged in full size barrels with a nice bottle appearance and a nice color to the whiskey were early promising signs. It was paired up against an older bottle of OF Signature that we have liked in the past as I did not have a 4yo BIB at hand and it was close enough for this occasion. But it didn't matter that we tasted them blind in this case. Once the Tom Foolery was opened there was an unexpected nose that carried a good bit more graininess than I hoped for or expected. Maybe this was just because it was a new unsealed bottle??? Unfortunately that did not seem to be the case as the palate carried the young small barrel like grainy character through the palate. On top of that there appeared to be an interesting bourbon with some nice potential. But I could not enjoy it fully. The OF was perfectly serviceable although it did not seem to wow us as it did at a tasting a while back. But it was the clear favorite of this pairing.

 

58efe5d9290c7_Wednesdaytasting12APR174.jpg.f6f250318551ace2db1365a606ec1cfe.jpg

 

Next up were the LSB 13 and 16yo along with the original WhistlePig Boss Hog for comparison. The 13 is cut to 101.3 pf while the 16 weighs in at 107. The WP is at cask strength of 134.2. Tasted blind the 13yo still had that odd slightly bitter character to me that led me to distinguish it from the other two. Not sure why but it just doesn't seem to suit me. The 16 however did not continue that trend and was a much more pleasant whiskey. Enough so that I would consider the BP 16yo Hochstadter Rye. If it weren't $200 that is! The WP was admittedly quite good as well with a lovely delicate sweetness and while the proof was evident it still drank quite nicely. A touch of water was also well tolerated. I have tried the second Boss Hog in the past but did not find it to be any better than this original bottle so I did not buy it then and I have no particular inclination to buy the $300 version 3 now. Those 2 whiskey's may well be lovely and I will certainly give them a try if the opportunity presents itself but I think I will be able to do with out! Maybe...

 

Fortunately what I do have is about $500 still in my pocket with which to buy other whiskey and assorted odd spirits from around the world! Well, ok I have spent that already.

 

58efe5ce63fbb_Wednesdaytasting12APR172.jpg.2211645ce51c9796baa4fd3c6f25e23a.jpg

 

Our finale this week was a comparison of the new ECBP at 127 pf to the very first batch, bottled at 134.2 pf. Both were unopened as I pulled this little BP jewel out of a dusty section of the bunker for this comparison. The color is a bit misleading although in the glass the Batch 1 is definitely a darker bourbon. It is also clearly, for me at least, a much better bourbon. Despite the proof this one is quite drinkable and will also tolerate a fair amount of water if necessary. The new version is very much more oak forward but in a slightly thin and unbalanced way, especially when compared to the original batch. Some may find it to be a profile they like but for me it is the least favorite I have had so far. One can only hope this is an anomaly and not the direction of batches to come.

 

That batch 1 is what helped make this series the sought after bottles that it has become and with good reason. This is one to be savored. In fact I think I will head home and savor a bit more!

Never had the pleasure of trying batch 1.  But I've tried several others (7, 8, 10, 11, 12, A117).  I currently have 11, 12, and A117.  Batch 12 is the clear winner of these 3 with 11 a close runner up.  A117 is a good bourbon on its own but doesn't have near the flavor depth of the others.  It's more of a quick upfront sweetness and a lot of oak finish without as much of that other (wonderful) stuff happening in the middle. Without the previous batches to compare it to I think we'd be talking about how great A117 is but the other batches have spoiled us.  I hope the batches to come step it back up again.  I've said before and stick by it that previous batches of ECBP more than hold their own against many of the LEs out there and are typically easier to come by.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, it wasn't an official Wednesday Tasting but I did manage to squeeze in a quick tasting this past Wednesday before attending the Geprgia Crown Distributor show at the College Football Hall of Fame. Not sure how it is as a HoF in its own right but it made an excellent place for a liquor, beer and wine show!

 

Redemption was just acquired by GA Crown (their whiskey list is fairly small overall) so the 3 new style bottles of young MGP were available but they also had an 8yo CS so naturally I gravitated to that. The Chartreuse Verte VEP was also quite good!

 

But before we got to that we had a little tasting of the CEHT Four Grain. I decided to compare it with something else that was four grain-ish and had at least some age and what I came up with was the PHC Blend of Mashbills from a few years ago.

 

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The proof difference was the big concern here so we did not try it blind. The CEHT had a relatively dry nose (freshly opened) with a hint of herbal/spice character. The palate was mildly sweet and nicely oily to open and then quickly transitioned to the herbal quality found on the nose after which it, it, it...

 

Well, it did nothing much else. Not a lot of depth or complexity and the finish seemed relatively short with even the herbal character fading away quickly. For such a promising start it seemed to pretty well fizzle out at the end leading to a certain amount of disappointment.

 

No such problem with a the PHC. A superb whiskey that I had kind of forgotten about over time. It was around 130 pf and had been open a while but it still had a sweet nose with hints of caramel and perhaps a dusky leathery component. This sweetness carried into the early plate where a rich mouthfeel and heavy but not overly sweet caramel/vanilla notes took over before pulling up some nicely balanced oak character leading to a nice satisfying lightly dry finish. A splash of water did not slow it down at all making it the easy hands down winner.

 

Perhaps the CEHT will grow a bit with time. I am certainly not ready to give up on it yet. But while by no means terrible it was OK at best for me with the weak finish.

 

Has been an interesting week. On Tuesday a young master distiller from Kentucky was in town for a visit and I was able to meet him and talk bourbon and horse racing while getting a couple of bottles signed.

 

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Last week I swapped my usual Wednesday for a Tuesday and spent some time talking bourbon, chamber stills and the craft distillery business with master distiller and fellow SB member Todd Leopold who was in town for a couple of days.  He also introduces his new summer gin while tasting us through pretty much his entire lineup from liquours to gin to whiskey. Coming soon will be the first bourbon from the Leopold Brothers which we also got to taste.

 

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Been awhile since the last Wednesday tasting other than the brief foray into the new Four Grain last week as it has been a busy month between the Sampler, the International Whisky night and a few other "spirited" activities.

 

We had to keep this one a bit small as well due to some evening commitments. I for one was off to the rollout of the Independent Distillery aged rum at the local Tiki bar, SOS.

 

But before that we managed to warm up with a few choice bottles featuring a few whiskies and a side by side comparison of the new batch 11 of HW Yippee Ki Yay with the very first batch from 2(?) years ago.

 

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But first we tried to knock out a few low fill leftovers from the International Whisky gathering this past weekend. First up was a lovely grain whisky from Cambus bottles by the cask strength collection form Signatory. I had forgotten that this was a barrel pick by K&L wines. It is still very enjoyable pour straight from the bottle at 104.6 pf but we decided to hang onto the last bit for a comparison with a similar 22yo Cambus CS from Signatory I picked up in Scotland in 2015. The 22yo is not a store pick so it will be interesting to see if it is as good as the K&L pick.

 

Next we broke open a couple of Balvenie "Warehouse 24" picks (barrels that you can buy a 200ml "sample from right from the cask) that we also got on our Scotland trip but had kind of been forgotten in the interim. One was a 14yo first fill bourbon barrel at 119.6 pf and the other was a 12yo first fill sherry cask at 125.4 pf. I wonder if you can tell which was which from the picture...

 

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Both welcomed a bit of water but the sherry barrel in particular was pretty toasty. The bourbon barrel was also loaded with char as you can kind of see in the picture although the sherry cask was not. There was a bit of something, not quite bitterness but maybe an off herbal note in the bourbon barrel that made it a bit underwhelming. The Sherry obviously had significant raisin/red fruit character but really needed some water to make it fully enjoyable and even then was not quite "wow". Over all I thought both were a bit of a disappointment.

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Next was a distillery only single cask from SmokinJoe's favorite distillery, Auchentoshan, that was about 9.5 years and an even 113 pf. It was as best I remember fully matured in a Bordeaux cask and it was surprisingly good. Soft and easy on entry but built quickly on the palate and into the finish with lots of port like red fruit notes and a hint of delicate winey musty dryness in the finish that added complexity and really tied it all together. Generally a lighter triple distilled lowland style whisky, this was by far the best Auch-ster I have tried.

 

Next we slammed our way through the remnants of a 19yo Glendronach all sherry K&L pick that was all chocolaty sherry goodness at an immentently drinkable 109.4 pf before we changed gears and tackled the new High West Yippie Ki-Yay.

 

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The first thing of interest was the different fill levels of the two bottles. Although both were new and unopened the batch 1 extend well into the neck while the new batch 11 looked as though someone had siphoned off a pour already! In the interim between these two bottles HW was acquired by the ever growing conglomerate, Constellation Brands (newly reported suitor for Brown-Forman I might add!) and I am told by a highly placed source that HW would tend to slightly overfill the bottle specifically because it didn't look like it was quite full. However the new "sheriff" in town apparently didn't see it that way and is now filling right at (or perhaps below???) the required 750 ml level. I don't know how much the difference is but it looks like it might be a decent sized pour!

 

In any case, on to the whiskey. The picture suggests that the Batch 1 is also a bit darker than the batch 11 (although not as dramatically so as the picture might suggest). But in front of a white background batch 1 is definitely darker. The pour itself was done blind where it was harder to discern a difference in color in the glass but both of us tasting definitely thought that what proved to be batch 1 was richer, more fruit forward and generally more enjoyable. We also felt that maybe the base whiskey seemed a touch different as well (both were reported as using Double Rye but the whiskey used in various batches of Double rye can certainly change too over time). Of course if you don't like the heavy vermouth finish (not that batch 11 is exactly light on the vermouth) then maybe the new batch will be more to your liking. Not saying it was bad but it was definitely different. Maybe some of the vermouth/syrah barrels in batch 11 were reused?

 

I don't know how exactly to categorize the difference but we definitely felt like a difference was there.

 

And with that I was off to Tiki-land (because apparently I had not had enough yet!) and another Wednesday tasting was in the books!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by tanstaafl2
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This week we focused on a couple of new arrivals to my favorite store, DBH. First we got in the second of our three barrel picks from Four Roses that we selected last February. The 100 pf OBSV was the first to arrive and this week it was a BP 9y4m OESK at 119.6 pf (or thereabouts). Next was a bottle of Chartreuse V.E.P. "Jaune" (Yellow). It tends to be less common and I love Chartreuse so when it became available I decided to pick one up to with my V.E.P. "Vert" which is of course green.

 

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We started with a blind SBSBS of the new FR Private selection against an 9y5m OESK from another local store (World of Beverage) from a couple of years ago and just to muddy the waters through the recent Elliott's select which just happens to be a 14yo OESK. The Elliott's Select I have was 114.2 while the other local PS was the lowest at 104.2 pf.

 

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There were only two of us tasting but the new DBH bottle and the Elliott's Select were the top two with the DBH coming out the winner in the end by a hair. It had a nice mouthfeel but was actually a bit more caramel forward on the tip of the tongue (more so than either of us recalled when we picked it) but developed a nice earthy spiciness in the back of the palate that continued well into a nice long finished. A touch warm, it handled water well and may have had an even longer finish as a result. The "Elliott" was not my favorite bottle when it first came out but seems to have improved with the mystical powers of air time in the bottle into a well balanced whiskey with oak tones that balanced a nice soft sweetness. Kinda wish I had more of it now...

 

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Then, just for funzies, we tried it SBS (blind of course) with the GBS OBSK from a few years ago. We decided to pass on the Elliot select from the gift shop and just did the new DBH pick against the GBS pick. We were both a bit surprised here as we both liked each of them but the GBS bottle came out on top. Surprisingly the GBS had that same caramel sweetness noted previously with the DBH bottle and it was the pick for both of us. But unless our pourer got them reversed (and I tried some more of the GBS afterwards so I am pretty sure he didn't) it was the one we both thought was the DBH bottle. Apparently not! Such are the wonders of blind tasting. It will be a blind tasting to repeat on a future Wednesday.

 

Then we wandered off into the world of Chartreuse. The VEP's were compared to the relatively cheaper "regular" bottles (not blind) and I enjoyed both of the VEP's immensely. But in the end I think I am still a higher proof and much more herbal green guy first and foremost.

 

5931cb458a6af_Wednesdaytasting31MAY175FourRosesChartreuse.jpg.0d64734716c56d1299ed5fae777a6495.jpg5931cb4d7a17e_Wednesdaytasting31MAY176FourRosesChartreuse.jpg.bc7ccf71ef97f64a4dc1de23ba9b4574.jpg5931be661420d_Wednesdaytasting31MAY177FourRosesChartreuse.jpg.ce07f03eba6f3bc3108c61e485a18a3c.jpg 

 

It does appear I am about due for some more of both the regular green and yellow. Too many cocktails!

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Educational as always! Thanks for all the tasting notes. Do you mind posting the warehouses and bottle numbers for the two OESKs you tried? There was an OESK in my barrel selection lineup but I was the only one with that one in my top 3. I was sad when it was revealed that that one was an OESK since the K yeasts are pretty hard to come by these days.

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17 hours ago, Kpiz said:

Educational as always! Thanks for all the tasting notes. Do you mind posting the warehouses and bottle numbers for the two OESKs you tried? There was an OESK in my barrel selection lineup but I was the only one with that one in my top 3. I was sad when it was revealed that that one was an OESK since the K yeasts are pretty hard to come by these days.
 

 

We tried three OESK's.

 

New DBH - QS 51-4O

Elliott Select - QN 53-3C (or G?)

Other local store - EN 52-1S

 

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 I have n OBSK Elliott pick from the gift shop that is QN 77-1R.

 

Interestingly they location of the OBSK GBS pick, which was younger but selected several years ago (I really need to create a timeline of GBS picks!), was in a similar location to the more recent DBH pick. It was QS 87-3C! So the Q warehouse seems to have fared well for the K recipe.

 

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Edited by tanstaafl2
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1 hour ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

We tried three OESK's.

 

New DBH - QS 51-4O

Elliott Select - QN 53-3C (or G?)

Other local store - EN 52-1S

 

 I have n OBSK Elliott pick from the gift shop that is QN 77-1R.

 

Interestingly they location of the OBSK GBS pick, which was younger but selected several years ago (I really need to create a timeline of GBS picks!), was in a similar location to the more recent DBH pick. It was QS 87-3C! So the Q warehouse seems to have fared well for the K recipe.

 

 

Thank you much! Dang, the OESK we tried was QS 51-1G, 9y 8mo old. I only took brief notes during the tasting but I remember it had some what of a muted nose with mostly sawdust and raw lumber. The palate was also light but it was somewhat spicy (actually more like spices than spicy - e.g. cinnamon) and easy to drink. It had a decent finish.

 

That was my #3 after the first round of tasting, and it fell out of the top 3 after tasting through again. I think it was Mandy's 6th favorite out of 7. I can't help but wonder if perhaps that one didn't get a fair shake...the one before the OESK in the lineup was a younger OBSV that had good flavor but some serious heat, so it's possible that it blew out our taste buds and made it difficult to appreciate the OESK. I know this is somewhat of a futile exercise, but it's hard for me not to mentally revisit the tasting and wonder about some of these things.

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I forgot to mention - Mandy remembers you and Jat from the several barrel selections you've done. She chuckled when I asked - I think she enjoys having you boys in! She said she thought Dekalb was on the calendar again for another selection in a few months but she wasn't sure.

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On ‎6‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 4:42 PM, Kpiz said:

I forgot to mention - Mandy remembers you and Jat from the several barrel selections you've done. She chuckled when I asked - I think she enjoys having you boys in! She said she thought Dekalb was on the calendar again for another selection in a few months but she wasn't sure.

 

Entirely possible. Will still have a barrel from the February pick that hasn't been bottled yet.

 

I know we are finally going to do a barrel at BT in the fall. Probably just regular BT but it is a start.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So there have been no recent Wednesday tastings for a variety of reasons lately but not for a lack of desire! However least week we had a very special "Tuesday Tasting" in London (Chiswick officially) at the offices of Compass Box in the delightful company of the always enjoyable and often educational John Glaser. Joining me for this special treat was my friend Jat, his brother in law and SB.com's own Paul/The Black Tot who was passing through London on the way to his next gig to an exotic far flung ocean destination.

 

After tasting a few things currently in the works (shh, it's a secret! But it's gonna be good!) we were able to do a little blending exercise with John as the judge. He was very diplomatic and said they were all good...

 

Sadly I don't think we remembered to take a single group picture to commemorate the occasion. Too much drinking going on! I do have this little jewel as a memento though. For awhile anyway. I may have sampled a bit already...

 

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Components used were all bottled in about 2016 and included a 2008 Clynelish, a Highland Blended malt (something like Spice Tree as I recall), a 2005 Laphroaig, a 2005 Benrinnes sherry cask and my favorite, a 22yo Part Dundas grain whisky. I was tempted to just bottle that grain whisky. But I ended up blending all 5 with the Port Dundas as the base at 65%, 15% Benrinnes sherry, 12% Clynelish, 5% Spice Tree and just a touch of the young Laphroaig at 3% just to see if I could taste it.  Now that it has had time to marry a bit I will see how it tastes.

 

Paul and I checked out The Bar With No Name and a tiki bar called Trailer Happiness (which was a bit like stumbling through a time machine into either an Austin Powers movie set or the 70's. Or both) in London the night before. A delightful dinner with John and company followed on the next night at Mac & Wild where we feasted on Scottish venison. And more whisky (and rum too!).

 

Then I was off to Paris where it was museums by day and cocktail bars by night.

 

I did manage to pick up a few bottles along the way as well. Subjects for a future Wednesday tasting no doubt.

 

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First were a couple of bottles of Amer Picon Black Label which I sent back with Jat so I haven't picked them up yet. While picking those up at The Whisky Exchange a couple of single cask exclusives began to call my name (well more than a couple but I restrained myself two as these had not been planned for in my luggage carrying capacity. But they look like they will be fun!

 

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Both at cask strength, the Redbreast is 119.8 pf and about 15 years entirely in sherry. The Kavalan is a little lower proof at 104.8 and aged in a cask that formerly held an unidentified Islay whisky. Should be interesting.

 

The rest of the group is a curious mixture I acquired in Paris of Armagnac, Jamaican and Marie Gallant Rhum, French made rye, Marc de Bourgogne and a couple more Nikka from the Barrel picked up at the otherwise uninspiring Duty Free at CDG. Oh, and a special nine Century anniversary bottling of Chartreuse from a few years ago and those delightful little supposedly hand carved wooden "boxes" of the Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal. Who could pass those up!

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Sounds like a great trip! Healthy assortment of bottles you brought back as well. I'm looking forward to hearing more about them in your future tastings.

 

It's amazing how much color those Kavalans have, considering their relatively short aging time in used casks.

 

Serge at WhiskyFun gave a Charron 1995 vintage pretty solid marks recently, I wonder if that's the same cask/batch you picked up?

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26 minutes ago, Kpiz said:

Sounds like a great trip! Healthy assortment of bottles you brought back as well. I'm looking forward to hearing more about them in your future tastings.

 

It's amazing how much color those Kavalans have, considering their relatively short aging time in used casks.

 

Serge at WhiskyFun gave a Charron 1995 vintage pretty solid marks recently, I wonder if that's the same cask/batch you picked up?

 

Might be from a similar batch (Similar ABV at 48.9) but mine was just recently bottled so probably a year plus older.

 

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LMDW had the 1994 as well as I recall but I chose this one purely because it was slightly lower proof and one of the associates, who seemed to know brandy, thought it was the better of the two. Wish I had room for both!

Edited by tanstaafl2
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  • 3 weeks later...

It has been a while since our last Wednesday tasting. Too many trips near and far of late. But it was worth the wait I think. Might as well come back with a big one!

 

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Now, which of these two tells the most authentic story of Four Roses??? I am sure Mr. Young put his best effort into the book but I think you can guess where I stand!

 

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Long anticipated, it has finally arrived! hard to see here but it weighs in at a solid but not overpowering 53.8 ABV/107.6 proof (is there more than one batch?). And who should we get to go up against the newcomer? I think there really are only a couple of choices in my mind!

 

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So which one of these does not belong with the others?

 

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Well, we were feeling a pit proud of ourselves so why not stick our latest single barrel pick in the ring? This one was by far the highest proof of the bunch. Both this bottle and the 2012 SmB were previously opened while the 50th Anniversary and the 2013 SmB, which I pulled out of the bunker for this august occasion, had not yet had a chance to enjoy some of that legendary air time that smokinjoe is always going on about...

 

Tasting was done blind of course and the only one we had tried recently was our single barrel but even that had been a few weeks. After a bit of time to open up a little the nose showed a clear familial resemblance across the board. Despite its relative youth and single barrel-ness the OESK stood up pretty well here. It is perhaps worth noting that both the 12 and 13 SmB LE used at least some OESK while the 50th has a healthy dollop of 15yo OBSK.

 

Originally I think I tended to prefer the 12 to the 13 but this time the 2013 seemed to be my favorite. Indeed blind I thought it was the 2012. 12 and 13 were similar enough, at least to me, that they were pretty easy to distinguish. The 50th undoubtedly carried more oak as it drifted into the finish but was very well balanced. But over all it was not head and shoulders above the rest (nor did we really expect it to be). But I think I might choose the 2013 as my favorite of this bunch on this particular day. The 2012 was carrying a bit more spiciness than I remember while the 2013 was just so rich and well balanced. The 50th is a bit more robust to me and perhaps a little more herbal. At original retail price the 2013 certainly carried the day as well (I think I paid the outrageous sum of $75 or so back then. Our current single barrel is $62.99!). The extra proof of our single barrel tended to give it away a bit but a drop or two of water helped to make it just about as enjoyable.

 

In making our guesses we both switched the 2012 and 2013 (which as I noted were quite similar) but were able to correctly identify the 50th and the OESK SB.

 

But I am delighted to have them all to savor, enjoy and yes, perhaps even share B) in the weeks and months to come!

 

We had the new ECBP waiting in the wings but decided it should be saved for another day. Unfortunately it will not be next week as I must travel for work which most annoyingly is keeping me from going on a Cuervo sponsored tequila boondoggle to Guadalajara next weekend that the store has been invited too.

 

TANSTAAFL's Corollary strikes again! :angry:

 

 

 

Edited by tanstaafl2
Fixing the proof
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Wow, that's a dream tasting for many of us (including me). Kudos for breaking out the bottles from the bunker to taste SBS with the new release.

 

Interesting point about the proof and whether there's more than one batch of the Al Young LE. Now that I think about it, the reviews and press I've seen so far have stated an ABV of 54.49% (108.98 proof), which is obviously different than your bottle. For example, Whisky Advocate has 54.49% ABV listed: http://whiskyadvocate.com/summer-2017-editors-choice-four-roses-2017-small-batch-limited-edition-al-youngs-50th-anniversary/ and so did Whiskey Wash https://thewhiskeywash.com/reviews/whiskey-review-four-roses-al-young-50th-anniversary/. However, the bottles I've seen people post on social media are all 53.8% like yours.

 

So perhaps there is more than one batch. I'm not sure why they would do that, since I'm sure they have a bottling tank big enough to hold the entire batch. Maybe the reviews out there are all of samples rather than regular sized bottles? I've read that some proof can be lost in the bottling process, so maybe if those media samples were bottled separately, they ended up slightly higher. Or perhaps the reviews are citing figures from the initial estimates and the final blend ended up being a slightly different proof than anticipated.

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Might just be the media bottles versus the final bottling proof as you say but can't rule out more than one batch I suppose.

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  • 3 months later...

It has been a long time since my last post due to travel, KBF and other assorted happenings. We did a few small tastings in between but I didn't get time to post anything about them. This week we tried to get back into the regular Wednesday routine. And of course we went with our motto of go big or go home!

 

Of course if you go big it tends to make it harder to go home...

 

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First up was the new PHC as we finished up the remaining portion of the bottle I "acquired" at the end of a recent small whiskey festival in town. How it survived to the end is still a mystery to me. Decided to pair it up with a bottle of PHC Promise of Hope since that was one of the last straight whiskies from PHC in recent times.

 

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We recognized the difference in proof was likely to make these very different so no point in trying to do it blind. And we were right! The POH is a lovely whiskey but not really able to stand up to the new single barrel release at 122 proof. As a SB there will potentially be differences between barrels but of the three different barrels I have seen so far all were at 122 proof. This suggest that it was all likely cut a little to 122 before bottling. Kind of an odd number to choose but there it is. In any case the new PHC was richer in body and flavor, a bit more oaky and generally just delicious! One to try if you can!

 

 

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We than moved on to the two most recent store picks of Four Roses. The OESK came out a few months ago while the OBSV landed fairly recently and both run right about 120 proof. Initially the OBSV seemed a bit "tight" but now after being open a week o so it seems to have really opened up nicely. The OESK on the other hand was rich easy drinking whiskey from the start, a little sweet on the nose and front palate and for me some nice herbal character in the finish. Both are great but that OESK turned out especially well even if I do say so myself!

 

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We stuck with the bourbon theme by trying the newest Birthday Bourbon against the 2013 edition. I had thought this was the one we liked best last year but looking back I see it was the 2015. Although the 2013 was a close second. In any case this new one seemed solid if not spectacular. A decent deal if it were closer to $50 but quite frankly I think the OF 1920 is as good or better and easier to find. Not one I would chase or pay more than retail for as it just doesn't seem worth the effort. 

 

Then it was on to the rye!

 

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We got a bit lazy and didn't do this one blind but I did want to bring a little competition to the field. Also was kind of secretly hoping I would find the Owl to be lacking in some way. No such luck. Very solid rye that tastes more like a lower rye mash bill to me. The bottle was newly open were as the other three were not. I was kind of hoping to see if there were any similarities to the HW 16 that might suggest Barton but I did not find that much in common. Of course this was the Barton 80% rye. It might be more like the 53% Barton rye that HW was also using in their blends in the past. The real surprise here was the 2016 Saz 18. This one seemed much flatter and tired than I remember from prior tastings. The cork was solid so I am not sure what was going on. The VWFRR was still my favorite of the group (This was a 2012 bottle I believe) with that soft kind of meaty character that sets it apart for me.

 

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But I have to admit it is a very pleasant tasting whiskey in a nice looking bottle and ultimately despite the cost, which seems to be the reality these days for older "limited edition" rye, if it is good so I suppose it doesn't matter where it came from.

 

But I still would like to know.!;)

 

Then a rep showed up with some tequila to taste for an upcoming barrel pick and things devolved rather quickly... :wacko:

 

So the Springer I brought for "dessert" got tucked away for another day. 

 

 

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On 11/2/2017 at 4:53 PM, tanstaafl2 said:

So the Springer I brought for "dessert" got tucked away for another day

 

Springbank 19 Rum? Just a guess... Regardless, seems like a pretty f'in epic Wednesday!

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