Bulleit Rollout

[cowdery]

I went to the official Illinois rollout of Bulleit Bourbon last night. A couple of interesting things. First, Bulleit contains more rye than any other bourbon, more even than Old Grand-Dad. It is about 30% rye (OGD is a little less). Second, this is still Diageo's brand. It didn't go to Kirin with Four Roses, although it is still made at that distillery, and Diageo (world's largest drinks company) is putting a big push on for it, pitting it against Jim Beam's Knob Creek and Brown-Forman's Woodford Reserve. This is interesting because it means the big boys are taking that segment seriously and are unwilling to cede sucess in it to any of the others. Third, the event itself was interesting in that Tom Bulleit very capably conducted a genuine tasting comparing Bulleit to JD Black, WT 101 and MM as well as Woodford and Knob Creek. MIA from the whole discussion, interestingly enough, even after I tried to interject it, was Blanton's.

Fourth, they put on a really nice spread at the Signature Room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Tower. Good eats, free-flowing whiskey and lots of cute PR women. My kind of party.

[Bob]

Chuck,

It sounds like a good evening! So tell us, how was the Bulleit? Is this a new bottling, or the same as has been available for awhile?

Bob

[pepcycle]

Chicago gets all the thunder.

At the tasting in Lexington, all we got was a half shot from a plastic medicine cup and a fashion show by a half a dozen bearded biker types who slugged it, wiped their lips on their sleeves and declared it palatable.

The only high point was having Jeff and Leslie to watch my back.

[cowdery]

I asked Tom about that today and he said it has been the same since 1999.

It deserves a taste, especially if you like ryes or high rye bourbons like Grand-Dad. I think most people on this board, who tend to go for the really hearty stuff with a lot of age, will find it a little thin. But it's not nasty. It's a nice drink.

[Bob]

I got a mini at WhiskeyFest, but haven't opened it yet. One of these days, I'll have to give it a try!

Bob