Distillers Masterpiece

[RedVette]

18 year old Cognac finished, a Christmas gift from my daughter (yeah, she's a good kid). In looking through the tasting notes I only find one thread from a couple years ago about it. Someone else must have tried it, what am I in for if and when I crack this baby open?

[RedVette]

47 views and no replies, I guess that means that I have something really rare here.

[wrbriggs]

This thread has some comments about the Distiller's Masterpiece. I think the Cognac-finished version was a bit more rare than the port-finished version, but I haven't tried either of them. As collector's items, they are very nice. As drinking bourbons, I have not heard many folks say that it is worth the $$.

[gr8erdane]

From what I have gathered here, price is the biggest issue. Most people will buy untried bourbons up to a certain dollar value they set according to their budget. For most, paying 75 dollars for a bottle is a big expense for a superpremium bourbon that is in current production. An occasional jaunt for over 100 may happen when we are talking about a rare bourbon no longer produced like a Hirsch 20. But for a bourbon to have a pricetag like the DMs is a serious hit on the old bourbon budget when you think that for the same amount you can buy several other superpremiums. I would love to taste the DMs out of curiosity, but I could add a lot of quality lesser priced bourbons to my bunker for the price of a DM.

[squire]

Evening,

I tried the port version at a friend's place. He does not drink Bourbon and had the bottle on hand for guests. The whiskey is just what one would expect from a double aged port influenced Knob Creek. It is not worth a case of Bonded Bourbon but it does have impressive packaging which is precisely why my friend bought it.

Regards,

squire

[boone]

Maybe, Folks have been kinda busy with the holidays and it's not a priority to make posts at this time?

I know that alot of members of this forum have tasted the DM...During the 2003 KBF Marvin brought a bottle to the Gazebo for all of us to try...That was such a generous thing to do I heard that bottling cost over $200 ...and to think Marvin gave one to all of us

I was the DD for the night...I kept my promise and didn't drink a drop

boone

[RedVette]

I was thinking that I might want to bring it to next years festival, and share the wealth. The wife and I wanted to go to last years, but she was hospitalized and we could not travel. By next years event she should be fully rehabilitated, and a September road trip would be good for both of us. A bottle of Distillers Masterpiece ought to get a noob an invite into the Gazeebo, for a little while any ways.

[OneCubeOnly]

I own a bottle of the 18yo (cognac finish). I got it for $140, so during that sale I figured if I'm *EVER* going to purchase one that was my chance.

I find it interesting that whenever a DM discussion comes up, it's always a matter of "is it worth the money?" Of course it isn't. Is it better than 3 bottles of Stagg? No. Is it a wonderfully unique luxury whiskey? Yes.

[chasking]

I don't think the Distiller's Masterpiece line was ever aimed at bourbon drinkers; I think it was probably intended to lure snobby Scotch drinkers to try an American whiskey. Finishing in casks used for port or cognac is a Scotch marketing tool.

However, DM is overpriced even for that market. Consider: as I write this, Binny's lists Balvenie 21yo port-finished Scotch on their web site for $83.99. Meanwhile, Balvenie's entry-level 10yo whisky is priced at the Basil Hayden's/Baker's level (around $35). In other words, the very old, port-wood-finished version costs around 2.5 times the standard version. DM, on the other hand, is about 9 times the price of a bottle of Knob Creek. (I think that's an appropriate comparison: 9yo Beam (at higher proof) vs. 10yo Balvenie; both represent the distillery's better products (Beam's lesser product goes into its lesser whiskies; Balvenie's lesser product goes to blenders).

Does anyone know when the DM products came out? Were there other bourbons on the market of similar age then? Now, while still uncommon an old bourbon like that doesn't raise eyebrows. Did the DM products predate products like the oldest Pappys, the Antique Collection, or the Hirsch offerings? If they were way, way older than any other bourbon on the market when they came out, that might explain at least partly their high price.

But, I think the real reason is that there is always someone attracted by the most expensive of anything. The DM whiskey is certainly distinctive and exclusive; take those two factors plus a high price tag and someone will always buy it. They probably don't plan on selling much of it, so that market (small though it is) is probably sufficient to absorb the limited production.

Consider this: if it didn't cost so much that almost nobody here is willing to buy and taste it, would it get talked about as much as it has?

I've never had it, so I don't know if it's good, bad, or indifferent. I don't even mean to suggest that it's not worth the money. I'm just saying that it's not (as far as I can tell) being marketed to bourbon drinkers.

[cowdery]

Nah, just drop off the bottle and if we like it, we might let you in next year.

[jbutler]

I don't know if that will hold up Chuck. We did let Dane in ...

[gr8erdane]

Yeah, but I had to bribe the Sergeant at Arms to show me the secret handshake and sneak in while the Boss wasn't there. Now you're stuck with me. The Straight Vodka dot com group thanks you for taking me off their hands.

[boone]

Now Dane

You told us that those hundred dollar bill(s) you gave us was a entrance fee?

Bettye Jo

[Barrel_Proof]

I don't know if that will hold up Chuck. We did let Dane in ...

The cooler Dane dropped off for others along the Interstate nearly chilled the deal, however!

Fortunately, we're a forgiving lot -- disappearing cooler wise, at least!

[RedVette]

Something tells me that you guys are making up the rules as you go along. Oh well, nothing wrong with that I guess, it IS the Gazeebo after all.

Unfortunately word has gotten round the office that I am in possesion of a real expensive bottle of hootch, and that I didn't pay anything for it, so they want me to share during New Years. One side of me wants to keep it for something more special, but the other thinks that maybe I just might convert some of those Sc*tch drinkers into Bourbon lovers with this stuff. Decisions, decisions.

And what was that secret handshake again?...

[bobbyc]

Something tells me that you guys are making up the rules as you go along.

We'll do that..........

so they want me to share during New Years

But we won't reach for a precious bottle with one hand while holding a glass of Coke and Ice in the other.........

Either way,someone is going to be happy!

[TNbourbon]

Something tells me that you guys are making up the rules as you go along...

Rules?! What rules? You guys didn't tell me about rules!

...word has gotten round the office that I am in possesion of a real expensive bottle of hootch, and that I didn't pay anything for it..

This is a paradox -- if you didn't pay anything for it, it isn't expensive. Surely you don't want to look cheap to your colleagues. Go out and buy something else for them with your own money.

...One side of me wants to keep it for something more special...

What could be more special than people who will appreciate it (or not!) for what it is?

...but the other thinks that maybe I just might convert some of those Sc*tch drinkers into Bourbon lovers with this stuff...

Look, they're Scotch drinkers -- JB White or Maker's Mark ought to be enough to convert 'em if they haven't numbed themselves to flavor already.

...And what was that secret handshake again?...

It's more like a 'hand-off' -- as you rise up the Gazebo steps for the first time, you give the bottle to the senior SB.com member there.

[cowdery]

"Badges, we don't need no stinking badges" (I mean rules.)

[gr8erdane]

OK, so here's what you do:

Buy a bottle of cheaper but decent bourbon that you don't mind sacrificing to the scotchheads and empty it into a pitcher. Add a touch of sherry or burgundy whichever your version is. CAREFULLY decant your DM into the empty cheap bottle and be sure to mark it so you won't mistake it for what's on the label. Refill the DM bottle from the pitcher. Now you have a wine influenced bourbon worthy of the less discriminating bourbon palettes. Take the bottle to the party, convert the heathens, and return home with the empty bottle as a "collector's item" and rinse thoroughly before refilling with the DM. As long as you refrain from calling what you are serving by name, you are being somewhat honest. Just tell them that this was the BOTTLE and avoid talking about the contents. Maybe you could even follow the previous post and make the bourbon Knob Creek so you can tell them truthfully it is a Beam product.

Now does anyone have a political campaign they need to have run for them?

PS, don't try the same trick at the Gazebo. We can tell the difference and have been known to run off fakes (Eminem wannabes at least).

[pepcycle]

That's exactly what I did at the Gazebo last year with that Weller 19 everyone raved about.

[gr8erdane]

You know, that Montecristo also had a hint of Marlboro to it so I wouldn't doubt it.

[OneCubeOnly]

I don't think the Distiller's Masterpiece line was ever aimed at bourbon drinkers; I think it was probably intended to lure snobby Scotch drinkers to try an American whiskey. Finishing in casks used for port or cognac is a Scotch marketing tool.

I agree about the whole "finishing" gimmick being a scotch technique, but I'm indifferent about DM being a potential tool to sway the scotch crowd to bourbon. Like you mentioned, the pricing just doesn't make the lure appealing enough. I see DM as a pure luxury whiskey. By that I'm equating it to stuff like Johnnie Walker Blue--overpriced rare whiskies that aren't necessarily accessible to everybody and at the same time when you do get a rare taste they'll probably disappoint. My concept of a luxury whiskey is something you'd see in a duty-free shop in Bermuda, splurge for, get it home and you ask yourself "why all the commotion about this stuff!?"

We bourbon lovers are fortunate that the best tasting offerings are priced for the workin' man.

DM was an experiment in two respects: in terms of technique and as a litmus test for the market. Unlike many of the purists, I see the experiment as a success. Will we start seeing "finished" bourbons in the ham-n-eggers' price-range? Probably not. But does American whiskey have the potential to bust out of its paradigm? I think so.

I'm wondering if BT will offer a luxury bottling of its French Oak bourbon, or if B-F will sell its 4-grain in a similar fashion!?

[cowdery]

When the market demonstrates that there are people willing and able to shell out hundreds of dollars for a single bottle of spirits, a smart spirits maker will come up with a product for those people to buy.

[RedVette]

Well, I cracked open the DM last night to celebrate my wife coming home from the hospital. I have no where near the capabilities to taste and describe the experience that many of you do, so I will do it my way. Distillers Masterpiece tastes like...Jamaica. It's fruity, with coconut, banana, leather, some mild tobacco and a little ethyl alcohol thrown in for good measure. It is a thoroughly enjoyable drink, one of my favorites right now, but it would be a lot better if it were a $50 bottle. That's the problem when you go past the point of diminishing returns with anything from electronic equipment, clothing, cars, anything. Yeah it is good, real good, but it isn't a good value. Oh well, it was a great present, and I will continue to enjoy it immensely.

I guess that means that I will have to bring something else to the Gazeebo.

What was that secret handshake again?