OYO Bourbon Whiskey Michelone Reserve

[oke&coke]

I think this is quite decent stuff, a sweet-tasting bourbon of uncommon balance and quaffability. It's funny how what's taken for granted in Scotland - the blending tradition - makes bourbon drinkers uncomfortable. In Scotland, there's no demand to know the specific make-up of the blend, it's accepted that that's part of the blender's art and skill.

What OYO is doing reminds me of Smooth Ambler's recent "Contradiction" release. Both are craft distillers, coping with the problem endemic to their breed - how does one stay afloat while waiting for stocks of whiskey to mature? Each is blending their young whiskey - in OYO's case, a wheat whiskey not labeled as a straight (and, therefore, I assume, less than two years old) - with a mature straight bourbon. High West also blends together very young and fully mature whiskies, in their "Double Rye". But with High West, both components are sourced whiskies.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this approach. Blending takes taste, skill and knowledge. This isn't just buying some Barton barrels and pouring it into fancy bottle with the name of Kentucky horse farm. I think this is legit, and asks to be judged on its own merit. As such, it's pretty fair tipple.

Actually, what makes bourbon folk uneasy is not the blending art. Hell, some of the biggest names in the business are blending masters with what they can do with two or more barrels. What gets us is when someone makes a bourbon blend, good or bad, then makes up some BS story about what it is and where it came from.

[squire]

Some of the biggest names in the business (Old Forester, W.L. Weller) started as blends of Straights. When Rye was King some of the biggest names (Guckenheimer, Overholt) were often blends of Pure Ryes from different distilleries. Early on some American Blends, Bourbon or Rye based, following the Scottish model were highly thought of and even sold for a higher prices then bottom shelf Straights.

Lots of opportunity for Blends today and the story about how they were created more interesting than a fake history.

Edited July 11, 2015 by squire

[Jazzhead]

Good points, squire. The particular tack taken by Michelone Reserve and Contradiction is the blending of the company's own nascent, distilled product (in each case, coincidently, a wheater), and mature straight bourbon. Smooth Ambler uses MGP bourbon and says so, OYO describes the makeup of the blend but not the origin of the mature straight. I for one appreciate that disclosiure, discosure that's ironically rare if not non-existant among scotch blenders. It makes the exploration of a new whiskey more interesting to have that knowledge and context.

I think Templeton Rye is very good whiskey, but I understand where soe folks are coming from when they resent the artifice of the brand's "background story". They market their "prohibition-style" rye and apparently that's a romantic image, caught up with the whole twenties Iowa ethos of good hooch and a Bix solo. (Sipping a bourbon to "I'm Coming, Virginia" is one of those elemental pleasures I recommend everyone partake of at least once. )

But I bet they'd have done even better if they'd raised the cloak of mystery and given straightforward information about the product. A 95% rye mashbill, for example, is pretty unique in the marketplace. I wonder - is such a relatively high rye content indeed "Prohibition style"?

Edited July 11, 2015 by Jazzhead

[squire]

"Prohibition Style" was cheap, harsh, rough, rot gut made as quickly as possible in unsanitary conditions using sugar, yeast and water. Unpalatable and sometimes even dangerous to drink. Grain was an unnecessary expense and there were certainly no aging warehouses in the Templeton area. Also the only way a specific area could be known for bootlegging required the collusion of lax or corrupt local law enforcement who allowed the hooch to be made at all.