Rock Hill Farms

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

OK Everyone! Have you a bottle? Let's do it! Here's the deal - everyone that has a bottle - post your tasting notes. Everyone that does not have a bottle must buy one and post their tasting notes. It's just that simple. Com'mon now anyone can do it!

It's very simple really - 1) buy some bourbon, 2) drink it, 3) write about it on the forum. See - it's the cat's whisker's.

Easy as SIN.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[ratcheer]

Sorry, Linn. I have seen RHF in my ABC store in the past, but not for quite a few months, now. Believe me, I would LIKE to buy a bottle and taste it with you.

Tim

[porgymcnasty]

all that I remember about RHF, was that I was not too impressed! I have AAA, not too impressed either. Why pay more for bourbon that does do that little bit extra. You know excite you, make you want to spend extra, instead of staying with your favourite brands all the time.

Hopefully, when I finally taste Blantons my opinion of Ancient Age will be corrected. At the moment it is rock bottom, let alone rock hill.

George!

http://us.geocities.com/sidecar_sid/front_page.html

[ratcheer]

And why would tasting Blanton's change your opinion of AAA? Sure, they are both from the same distillery, but one is a $45 whiskey while the other is $13.

It would be like comparing a Corvette to a Geo. Just because the 'vette is great shouldn't make you like the Geo any more.

Tim

[porgymcnasty]

sorry, tasting blantons would change my opinion of AA (ancient age, the distillery, not AAA the bottling!)

George!

http://us.geocities.com/sidecar_sid/front_page.html

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

I'm in the same boat Tim. RHF is a 'special order item' at my ABC, and even though I have asked several times for it to be ordered nothing shows up. Richmond says they can't get it. Whenever it does show up I'll be sure to post some kind of tasting on it.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Well George if Blanton's; Elmer T. Lee, or Rock Hill Farms doesn't make your heart sing then it just may be that Buffalo Trace whiskey isn't for you. After all you needn't like every whiskey.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[cowdery]

My love of Blanton's has made me interested in trying Rock Hill, which believe it or not I have never had (can't say that about many bourbons). My hope is that it will taste like a high proof Blanton's, but we'll see.

Buffalo Trace, formerly Ancient Age, has only recently started to make multiple bourbon formulas. For many years they made one. Blanton's was simply Ancient Age that had aged more successfully. It was different for that reason, but it was the same yeast and mash bill. Although I believe Buffalo Trace now makes something like seven different mash bills, I don't know which go into what products. They may very well still have a standard bourbon they use for most of their brands. It especially wouldn't surprise me if Blanton's and Rock Hill Farms have similar, if not identical, pedigrees.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://cowdery.home.netcom.com>--Chuck Cowdery</A>

[ratcheer]

Okay, now I get it.

I bought myself a bottle of Blanton's for Christmas. It was somewhat "laid back" at my first tasting. I thought it was very similar to Evan Williams Single Barrel.

I had my second tasting this past weekend (it is too expensive for me to drink on a regular basis). I savored it very carefully and it does, indeed, have wonderful flavors lurking in there. This time, it reminded me more of Knob Creek, but with more refinement, not quite so bold.

I still rate it only my second favorite. It will take a hell of a whiskey to knock Rare Breed from my personal top spot.

Tim

[ratcheer]

Elmer T. Lee is the one I want to try, next. I have requested it at my ABC store, but, like you said, we almost never hear anything back from these requests.

Anyway, Elmer Lee, the master distiller of both Blanton's and ETL, has said that they are identical production but he selects Blanton's with a drier profile and ETL a little sweeter. He also says that he personally prefers the ETL. (I am not privy to his statements, I just read them in an interview article, somewhere).

So, I sure would like to get my hands on a bottle of ETL (and, Rock Hill Farms, too, for that matter).

Tim

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Tim they are all good enough to want to have at least one bottle of each around at all times. Sure there may be other bourbons that you like better and in your case it is Wild Turkey's Rare Breed. Being a BIG Turkey fan myself I always keep a bottle of Kentucky Spirit on hand.

The only problem I have with keeping these fine bourbons around is in forcing myself to drink less expensive brands and saving these for special occaisions like paydays.

Whenever I finish a bottle and must decide what to open I can hear them arguing amongst themselves. "Pick Me!" yells Elmer T. Lee. "No - Drink Me Next!" shouts the Blanton's. "Hey Linn" the Kentucky Spirit interrupts in a conspirital tone "You know I'm the best. Open me next".

That's why you have to keep all of the other brands guessing by introducing a new bottling into the house now and again. It makes 'em jelous and keeps 'em on their toes.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[Hedmans Brorsa]

Wow! Being used to lagging several steps behind the majority of the contributors of this forum, I suddenly find myself ultra-hip with my bottles of Rock Hill Farms & Elmer T. Lee. )

What with english not being my mother tongue ( I come from Sweden, the home of Astrid Lindgren & recent grand slam winner Thomas Johansson) I don´t think I am the right person to provide for spirited tasting notes.

For what it´s worth, I find RHF to be a somewhat heavier proposition than Blanton´s and Elmer, this fact, no doubt partly due to its higher proof. I also noted that the dry, sophisticated vanilla that (at least initially) dominates B. & Elmer is not very noticeable in RHF. The most prevalent trait in the latter, apart from an overall feel of "spiced caramel", is a light toasty oakiness which results in a very luxurious mouthfeel. Truly delicious! I´m not that crazy about the nose, though, but this is something that I think is lacking in all the Buffalo Trace-products that I have encountered.

As for the differences between Blanton´s & Elmer T. Lee I agree. Blanton´s is decidedly drier. After a quite similar start, B. develops its trademark spiciness. Elmer, on the other hand, wanders into a more citrusey territory. But they´re very similar.

Best wishes,

H.B.

P.S Linn : I got Kentucky Spirit & Russell´s reserve yesterday. Time will tell if they will rise above Old Rip 15 yo...

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Oh Yeah!! Get down with your bad self H.B.! Super Bowl Party at Hedmans house! He lives in Sweden so we don't need to bring any ice.

Thanks for posting your impressions of these fine bourbons. Whether or not they surpass your beloved 15 y.o. Old Rip in your estimation is an altogether different and totally personal aspect of bourbonic enjoyment. When we are talking high end single barrels and small batchers I just do my best to enjoy them all. Each individual bourbon has a personality all its own for you to enjoy.

Your other bottles will surely be jelous of the Wild Turkey newcomers. They taste as good as they look. Be sure to enjoy them with a big thick juicy beefsteak!

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Rock Hill Farms Single Barrel Bourbon

Proof: 100 -> Bottled in Bond

Price: $42 per 750ml bottle. Special order only at Virginia ABC stores.

Distiller: Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky

Master Distiller: Gary Gayheart. Gary was born in the mountains of eastern Kentucky in 1939. He later attended the University of Louisville and earned a B.S. in Chemistry in 1961. Gary worked as chemist for the Fleischmann Distilling Corp. in Owensboro, Ky. Then in 1969 he took a job with the Schenley Corp. at what is now the Buffalo Trace Distillery. In the early 1980's he assumed masterdistiller's responsibility at Schenley's Berhiem distillery in Louisville, and split his time between the two distilleries.

Age: No Age Statement on Bottle. Gayheart states that " Rock Hill Farms is usually selected from barrels aged from eight to nine years. This seems to be the best age where to my taste the mellow bourbon character is at it's peak. After that a little more woody character than I like begins to appear."

Mashbill: This is the standard Ancient Age mashbill and is now known as 'BT#2'. It is a traditional rye recipe that is high in corn. They won't tell me what the exact ratio is, but according to BT President Mark Brown they believe that this mashbill dates back to 1870 when Col. E.H. Taylor and George T. Stagg started up the Old Fire Copper Distillery on this site. "We do know", says Brown,"that it is the same formula we produced during prohibition, since we have recently sampled some whiskey made here then - it was identical to our whiskey today."

Color; Classic amber with a burnished copper cast.

Body: FULL bodied and nicely mouth coating. Oily in a good way.

Nose: Delightfully complex. The sweetness of this bourbon comes through as fresh ripe ears of corn; honeysuckel blossoms, juicy pears, and hints of dark mollassas.

Palete: All of the rich aromas from the nose transfer to the palete in a wonderfully complex vortex of sweet delight. Well balanced and amalgamated the rye spicyness and oak are tart counterpoints. If you could drink Gershwin's 'Rapsody In Blue' it would taste like Rock Hill Farms.

Finish: 'Rapsody In Blue' continues in a long soul satisfiying finish that soothes away lifes stresses and smooths the path for tommorows challanges.

Overview: This is some of the very best bourbon that I have ever had. I put RHF in a three way blind tasting between Blanton's and my best bottle of Wild Turkey's Kentucky Spirit {the one I proclaimed to be the best bourbon on the planet}. All I had to do was pick the one I thought tasted best. What would turn out to be the Blanton's was eliminated in the first round. Then things got tough. The one I picked as best tasting to me was Kentucky Spirit, but Rock Hill Farms is so good I put it in the same league.

Pants Rating:There has never been a 'five pants' bourbon. Well there ought to be! Two of them in fact! Rock Hill Farms and Kentucky Spirit. Buy them both and see which one you like best!

PANTS AWAY!

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[BourbonBlonde]

It's definitely one of my favorites.

--Suzie

There is a hole in Misery's fence.

They cannot shut you in...

--Paul Gallico

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Thanks Suzie. You're too kind. Sorry I misspelled 'Rhapsody'. I really do try to catch that stuff.

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[bluesbassdad]

Tim,

Sometimes when I'm drinking, someone's comment will cause me to take an odd tangent. See the following.

I am the satisfied owner of a fully tarted-up Geo Prizm, which is actually a Chevy version of the Toyota Corolla, which, in turn, is a close but black-sheep relative of the Lexus.

If AAA is to Rock Hill Farms as Geo is to Lexus, then I'm for sure going to have to get me some AAA, not that I haven't been trying. I have several $30-plus bourbons right now that I thought I owed it to myself to try at least once; Rock Hill Farms is one of them. Yet when I consider the cost, I doubt that I will replace any of them when they are empty (well, maybe just one).

In the case of Kentucky Spirit and Rare Breed, as good as they are, I'm sure I can get by nicely with Russell's Reserve in their place. Perhaps AAA would serve the same role in regard to Blanton's and Rock Hill Farms.

The only problem is that I have yet to find AAA on the shelves in SoCal; nor have I found a mail-order/internet source.

I wonder; is Buffalo Trace from the same mashbill? Is its flavor profile similar to Rock Hill Farms?

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[MurphyDawg]

Hey Dave,

I put Ancient ancient Age 10 on my version of you "Desert Island 5" , not Blanton's , or any other BT product. . . . .while not quite in Blantons Range, it is THAT DAMN GOOD!!! If it can be your everyday pour, then you are one spoiled individual, keep trying, find some, ITS WORTH IT!

TomC

[bobbyc]

AAA is a fine product , Blanton's seems to me to be far and away better but when you figure un the cost difference your not giving up much by selecting the AAA. Once I pulled out a plain bottle of Ancient Age 90proof and my buddy I was going to drink it with pulled out a Mountian Dew. I asked him why he said he needed something to drink it with. I said this Isn't Jim Beam you won't need that , and as it turned out he didn't!

[ratcheer]

Yes, back in the early 70's when I was a very young man and couldn't afford anything expensive, I fairly quickly found about three bourbons that were tasty and inexpensive. They were easy on the tongue, too. Those were AAA, Old Forester 86 proof, and Henry McKenna.

When I was younger than that, I had been used to pretty bad whiskeys such as Early Times (which was still actually bourbon, then), Rebel Yell, and Old Hickory (a Pennsylvania-produced straight bourbon). I suppose I thought it was just a manly thing that you had to suffer the burn and choke it down in order to get the desired effect, which at the time was drunkenness. We would mix with just about anything to try to make it easier to drink: Coke, Seven Up, orange juice, even apple juice.

When I was a freshman in college, a new friend from Kentucky saw me drinking Rebel Yell and suggested I try Old Fitzgerald, instead. Even though it was from the same distillery (Stitzel-Weller) and wasn't that much more expensive, it opened my eyes to the quality things in life. I have never gone back to the "cheaper or bigger is better" way of doing things.

Tim

P.S. - I filled in a request form at my ABC store, yesterday, asking them to stock some Rock Hills Farms bourbon. It is on the official state list, so it should just be a matter of them getting some in. Maybe in a month or two, I'll be able to taste some.

[bluesbassdad]

After a few days of dutifully (well, that's not quite the right word ) drinking bourbons such as Old Forester 100, Old Fitz BIB (I'm still not sure about that one), Virginia Gentleman red label, and Wild Turkey 101 (IMHO, unbeatable at the price), this afternoon I broke out the Rock Hill Farms. No fancy-shmancy tasting, just drinking.

Even so I can't help but be intrigued by the flavors, some of which have become less obvious as the effect of the alcohol takes hold. Gingerbread? Could be. Has anyone else had that thought?

Oh, BTW, I don't see "Bottled in Bond" on my bottle, just pretty, gold horsies, and the legend "Single Barrel Bourbon".

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[Guest **DONOTDELETE**]

Check the proof on your bottle Dave, as there was once an 80 proof version. Try making Rock Hill Farms the first drink of the day and see if the gingerbread is still there. Are you keeping a small notebook of your tasting impressions? It's always interesting to look over old notes when revisiting a bottling.

[bobbyc]

When I saw this It seemed that something wasn't right. So I had to drop into the cellar to check something. My RHF has Bottled in Bond on a brown neckband , the chain that holds the little plate goes over this paper band so it would be hard to remove it . Maybe this is a touch they are now leaving off of RHF. Did you overlook it?

[bluesbassdad]

Mine says "100 PROOF". It came from Sam's; so I assume it's fairly new stock.

***

No, I don't have the gumption to keep records, one of my lesser failings, really. I know I should, but no matter what the subject, any such attempt (motorcycle service, dog training, musical intruments) has always fallen into disuse within a few weeks.

Of course, as long as Jim keeps this forum going, at least I'll have a few records to refer back to.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[bluesbassdad]

Well... It's been long enough since I opened this bottle that I really don't recall the answer to your question.

Right now all that's on the top portion of the bottle is a gold band with the letters RH inside a brownish circle. I certainly don't recall anything else, and I'm a sucker for neck hangers and such; I keep them all, even if they do get in the way while I'm pouring. (Well, to be honest, I did remove the airline bottle of Rare Breed that was hanging on the last bottle of WT101 I bought.)

IIRC, there was nothing but a transparent plastic seal around the matching flanges on the top of the bottle and the bottom of the stopper. It's a good thing it was there, too. The cork lining on my stopper is not well formed, making for a rather poor seal.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield