Blind tasting with my father

[Clavius]

My father is sort of into bourbon. It's not very often he has a glass but when he does he wants something "good". And his definition of "good" is at least Woodford Reserve but preferably Blanton's or even PVW 20. So I wanted to challenge his taste buds with a blind bourbon tasting. Not with any ultra rare stuff like PVW, etc. But instead with three standard off the shelf bourbons available every day. Really, I just wanted to know if he would like any of them and I was curious as to which one he would like the most.

The three I chose for the blind tasting were Knob Creek ($29.99), VOB BIB ($12.49) and Heaven Hill BIB 6yr White Label ($9.89).

The only thing he knew about these bourbons going into this was that A)they were all 100-proof and B)they were each from a different distillery. So I set up three Glencairns on top of a white piece of paper to be able tell any color differences. I poured about 3/4 of an ounce into each Glencairn. The order left to right was the VOB BIB, Knob Creek and then the HH BIB. He took his time nosing all three and then slowly sampling each one neat left to right and then backwards again.

In short, he did not care for the HH BIB at all and found it "harsh, a different animal" and the weakest of the bunch. Second place went to the VOB BIB which he thought was considerably better and almost drinkable neat. But the winner overall was good ol' Knob Creek. He said it was definitely the best of the three in his opinion.

I was personally surprised by the result. I thought there was a good chance VOB BIB could be the winner in the end.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. It was a fun experience and I think he enjoyed it a lot.

Oh and I forgot to take pictures. Doh!

[flahute]

Fun experiment. Next time, put up the Knob Creek and something else against one of his favorites such as Woodford and Blantons to see what happens.

[mbroo5880i]

Sounds like a fun time! I will be honest while I am ok with VOB BIB and HH BIB, I would pick Knob Creek over them as well. You chose some very good bourbons for a blind SBS tasting. I agree with Steve, it would be good to compare them to one of his favorites.

[Clavius]

Good idea! We'll try it again sometime with KC, Woodford and Blanton's.

The reason I went with the three I did was that they were all 100-proof and I used that as sort of a baseline.

[dcbt]

Could also include Rock Hill Farms in there to see if he still prefers Blanton's to its sibling. RHF is cheaper and stronger, he might be pleasantly surprised.

[Clavius]

Could also include Rock Hill Farms in there to see if he still prefers Blanton's to its sibling. RHF is cheaper and stronger, he might be pleasantly surprised.

[dcbt]

Rock Hill Farms is getting pretty hard to find around here!

[smokinjoe]

Very nice, Clav. How cool to do that with your pops. Blind tastings can be so surprising, eh? Would really like to read about more of your Project Pops tastings.

:toast:

[T Comp]

Not surprising, at the same proof, a 9 year old bourbon would be preferred to a 6 year in blind tasting. I would expect the same if it was the no longer made 10 year HH BIB against the 6 year. Who wouldn't prefer the dusty age stated 8 year WT 101 over todays 4 to 6 year nas? It's great there are still a few tasty bargain priced 4 to 6 year old bourbons which satisfy but there is a tendency to idolatry over them. Most would still taste better with more years of age.

[GaryT]

Sounds like a lot of fun! You might be able to find some that have a similar age (like ETL and ER10; while not age stated, ETL has been around 9 yrs old). Maybe dilute the KC to 90 proof. All three of those are $30 or less as well. I think it's great to get him to try some things he might skip over due to shelf placement. And at the end of the day, if he doesn't like them better, still a lot of fun trying new things!

[ewj]

Good idea! We'll try it again sometime with KC, Woodford and Blanton's.

The reason I went with the three I did was that they were all 100-proof and I used that as sort of a baseline.

what blanton's are we talking here? I think the woodford will be pretty easy to identify blind, no? then again why not find out blind tastings are fun (and revealing)

[393foureyedfox]

i also did a blind tasting this weekend, where (surprising to me) HH6BIB came in last. My selection was WT101, OGDBIB, HH6BIB, Dickel 9/103, and CEHT SmB, as I too was trying to do a 100-ish proof sampling of various distilleries. I wanted to put regular KC in there, but only had the 120 proof version here. HH6 was unanimously last, but they were all good. Dickel 9 was #1 for 3/5 of us.

I agree on the age variances. KC being 9 years gives it an unfair advantage, as the Dickel being a 9 year selected barrel may have also done. But, this isnt a formal tasting, its just fun!

I had a McKenna BIB store select that wouldve been a good contender to put in the mix too....but the 6 year was open and the Mckenna was not, and more than 5 in a tasting gets confusing.

Edited June 30, 2014 by 393foureyedfox