Stories, Legends, and Lessons: The Duke, a smoky German, and Wild Turkey's Master's Keep Rye

I can't keep up the level of the Little Book extravaganza every post. I do have more fun ones coming, but there are a LOT more of these straight-up reviews; mostly whiskey, but some beer as well, and maybe a tequila or cognac as they come over the transom.

Without further ado, then.

Duke Kentucky Straight bourbon - Duke Spirits. Since "Duke" is John Wayne, you know there's going to be a story here. Stripped to its essentials, Wayne liked bourbon, and his son Ethan recently found a collection of all his old scripts and old bourbon bottles. He took the bottles to someone who knows whiskey, and apparently asked them if they could figure out what Duke liked, and blend up a bourbon like that. This is the result: a 5 year old Kentucky straight bourbon at 44%.

Well, you know. Interesting story, and even an interesting idea to recreate what bourbon John Wayne liked by blending up something from the evidence of his drinking. But to then call that an "original recipe" dating from 1962 is more than a stretch. It's a story, little better than the "grampa's family recipe" stories that the marketplace is littered with in these times.

In this case, the whiskey should have been where they put the emphasis, because it's not bad at all. There's a nose full of spicy old-timey hard candies and hard oak. It lands well with a good firm mouthfeel, and a mouthful of blueberry cobbler, cough drops and brown sugar. A bit thin on the finish, but I almost feel like I'm searching for a problem. That's pretty good for a 5 year old bourbon. Lean on that.

Palatinatus Single Malt - Destillerie Thomas Sippel, Pfalz, Germany. Aged in American oak, peated malt, distilled in 2014
This time the story is mine. I got an email from an old high school friend, Don Hershey. He'd been to Germany on vacation, and they decided to take in a distillery tour. While doing the tour, he saw a copy of Tasting Whiskey, and mentioned to the tour guide that he knew the author. One thing led to another, and they asked him to please take me this bottle to taste.

Don agreed, and met me for a (perfectly conditioned) glass of bitter at Bulls Head pub in Lititz, PA. He told me the story and gave me the bottle, we got caught up, and I went home to try this German malt whiskey. 

45%. It pours a pale gold. The nose is a fruity smoke, with hints of menthol and leaf smoke. Light and youthful, but not green. Sweet and light on the palate, with bacony smoke up front that backs off to allow a clean maltiness to come through and again, the fruitiness. This is light and pleasant at 5 years, and I'm curious where aging will take it. It could use more integration, and that's exactly what time should bring. The Germans are doing a lot of whiskey-making, and they certainly know their malt. Keep your eyes on them.



Wild Turkey Master's Keep Cornerstone Rye
 -- Wild Turkey Master's Keep collection. If this is the one you opened the blog post for, well, I'll be honest: me too. I've been a Turkey fan for years (though I've called them out when they take a wrong turn), and this just sounded like a killer. "...a backbone of 9 year old barrels married with a selection of very rare 11 year old barrels."

This is Eddie Russell's selection, his whiskey, and proof that he's learned what I believe is his father's best lesson: old whiskey is just old whiskey. Some folks seem to think rye is just getting started at 9 and 11 years old. Hogwash, and this stuff gives them the lie. Don't buy into that narrative. Taste and see for yourself.

54.5%. Hello, nose. Baked goods (vanilla, honey, nuts, baklava?), fruit pie crust, bit of anise. Open up: I'm tasting spicy hard candy, more honey, hot but not breathless heat, some of that pastry - well-baked and browned - and dry peppermint pastilles. Oak is present but doesn't intrude. Finishes long, with dried fruit, oak, and spices. At 52% rye, this almost drinks more like a high-rye bourbon, but the dryness of the rye makes it different, and delicious.

A great addition to this Master's Keep collection.

Just to keep you interested. While I was tasting whiskeys, Pippin was tasting rawhide. He found this 4 month old American beef hide quite tasty.

Little Book: Tasting the 3 Chapters with Freddie "Little Book" Noe

Chapters 3, 2, 1; left to right

Pulling Apart Beam's Little Books

Just a warning: we've got seven whiskeys to get through, plus comparisons, plus some reflections on blending. So why not get a drink before starting? 

Beam Suntory (hereafter referred to simply as "Beam") turned out three surprising and excellent whiskeys over the past few years. The "Little Book" bottlings are named for the man who blended them, Freddie Noe. Freddie is the son of Beam master distiller Fred Noe, the grandson of distilling icon Booker Noe, and the great-great grandson of Jim Beam himself. He's said to take after his grandfather, and so he's been known as "Little Book." 

That's all interesting Beam family and company history, up to the point of the release of the first "chapter" of Little Book. Because at that point, two things happened. 

First, "American blended whiskey" took a huge leap upward in respectability. We were used to thinking of things like Kessler's, Four Queens, and the old, pre-Kirin Four Roses, and Seagram's 7: a little bit of whiskey and a lot of grain neutral spirit. 

That's not what Freddie had in mind with these blended whiskeys. He wanted to try things, work with different characters of spirit, while maintaining full transparency for the drinker. While Four Roses has been blending their ten in-house bourbons for years, we don't really think of Four Roses as blended whiskey. Freddie didn't dodge that label, and the industry has responded.

"It's new stuff," he told me a couple weeks ago. We were on the telephone for an hour or so, each of us with a supply of these three whiskeys, and the component whiskeys of Chapter 3 (more on that later). "Our competitors are talking to us and each other, asking questions. It's been real cooperative."

Freddie's been using his position as Fred Noe's grandson to take advantage of tasting widely of what Beam has to offer. "I have a curious palate," he said. He's been tasting whiskeys in the warehouses for years. 

"I get to taste the whiskey through its full lifecycle; I know what they're like at different ages," he said. "I see all the levers you can pull for flavors." It was interesting to hear that; "pulling levers" is a bit of jargon I've started hearing in the last two years from blenders and distillers alike. 

That's the second thing. When that first Little Book hit, those of us who were watching immediately started taking Freddie seriously. He was obviously more than just Fred Noe's son working on a vanity project. 

Freddie started talking about age, and time. "There's a lot of time in blending," he said. "I'll spend a lot of time working on the blends, and then spend a lot of time not working on them. Step away. You have to be able to get away so that the whiskey isn't just your expectations. I have to make sure that the levers we pull still make it Beam. 

"And that means that you've got to know what defines your whiskey," he said, sounding awfully damned experienced for his age. "Even new distilleries have a history. We're all doing it for a cause, a tradition, or a passion."

Then you can take what Freddie called "asset liquids," the core barrels that contain the classic components of Beam whiskeys, and start putting them together in different ways. "A strong base drives the blend," he said. "A younger whiskey will quickly fall behind an older, bolder whiskey. I'll start with equal parts and let the whiskey drive the blend. See what's driving the flavors you like, and move toward that.

"Then I focus on details: a longer finish, more vanilla up front," he said. "I love the process. Blending is a tool, though. I'm a distiller at heart, I will not stick to just blending."

We did some tasting.

Chapter 1 -- 120.4°, a blend of 4 YO straight bourbon, rye and malt whiskeys (both at 6 YO) and a 13 YO corn whiskey. You've got a bourbon, and the component grains of bourbon; it seemed like a good place to start, since you already know they go together well. The nose is full of oak, dusty grain, and vanilla. It's a full, gentle entry on the palate, almost lush, and smooth for the proof. There's a big fat heart of sweet cereal, orange slice candies, and fresh-cut oak. Tasty, juicy bourbon without restraint until the whiskey rolls off the tongue and the finish sets in and dials up the oaky, spicy heat a bit.

Chapter 2 -- 118.8°, a blend of 8 YO Kentucky straight rye, 40 YO (that's right, 40!) 100% corn Canadian whisky, and 13 YO Canadian rye whisky (which I'm guessing is probably Alberta Distillers 100% rye); definitely the lightest in color of the three bottlings. Freddie admitted this one was difficult. "Not every blending idea works out," he confessed. But he'd tagged along on a trip to Alberta Distillers and tasted through their inventory. "I picked up a fruity, floral note, and made a note to work with Canadian whisky. I was interested in whether our aged rye would dominate the Canadian." It is floral and sweet on the nose, with vanilla and caramel, if not the heavy Canadian caramel. Taken on the tongue, it's roly-poly sweet, with grassy rye mint, cinnamon candies and oaky spice on the back end. There's a long finish, especially for a Canadian: oaky, hard candies, and horehound drops. The spice of rye is definitely there, and the lazy sweetness of that 40 YO corn whiskey is like a comfy blanket on a cold night.

Then we tasted the four component whiskeys of Chapter 3.

Knob Creek 9 YO, 117.4° -- Knob has a place in my whiskey heart. The first whiskey I had as a pro was Knob Creek. Took my breath away, bulged my eyes a bit. But damn! Freddie said the Knob is a lot of the flavor of Chapter 3. "It's not the predominant volume in the blend," he said, "but it does add a lot. Booker spoke about its boldness." There's a lot of vanilla up front, with crackling, 'two-legged oak,' my notes say. "Young Knob is more corn forward," Freddie noted. "Watching it transition to more oaky is an eye-opener." On the tongue, there's a lot of cracked corn and more vanilla with a good dose of oaky, almost smokey heat.

Basil Hayden 9 YO, 123° -- There's a big hit of rye spice in the nose; it's weirdly delicate without being shy. "The Basil has twice the rye of Knob," Freddie points out, "but younger Basil has less rye aroma. And this barrel proof Basil is so different from the Basil Hayden bottling." And it is. There's a big wall of sweetness around the inside of my mouth, almost like a firebox lining, with all that spice and oak heat kept inside. "I like to have a bit of a 'Kentucky hug,'" Freddie said. "I like it to squeeze me back." Weird to taste big boy Basil Hayden, but welcome.

Baker's 12 YO, 126.6° -- I'm a huge Baker's fan, and was excited to taste this overproof version at five extra years of age. (This was before I knew about the new single barrel Baker's and the 13 YO version...separate post to come on that!). You can smell and taste the extra age: a lot of barrel char here, and the corn is like a roasted cornmeal cornbread (like Brinser's Best, the roasted cornmeal my family has used for at least three generations). It's just a darker, deeper version of a bourbon that's already dark and deep. The corn and oak cling and grip to the palate, exemplifying how the barrel changes and, really, transmogrifies the simplicity of corn spirit. Baker's is a master class in itself.

Booker's 11 YO, 129.2° -- I got a few other Booker's samples out (I get samples of most of the releases, which is an embarrassment of riches, and I'll be sharing more of those now that the blog's back up) and compared them to this one. I was very surprised with how fresh and vital this whiskey smelled at almost twice the average age of the others. Hot caramel, lively spicy oak, and prickly blackberry fly right into your nose on this one. All that, in spades, on the tongue, but now you get that big sweetness wrapping it all up. The finish is long, with a good tannic grip. Booker's at 11 years old is quite a bird.

And finally...the whiskey we came to taste:

Little Book Chapter 3: The Road Home, 122.6° -- So Beam, so Booker: Full-bore bourbon, hot corn, polished oak, vanilla, Red Hots, and dried cherries. Two-stepper on the tongue: the first hit is all hot, sweet corn and spicy, firm oak (can't help thinking of my favorite Parker Beam quote here: "I put corn in my bourbon, and I age it in oak, and when I drink it, that's what I taste: corn, and oak!"), but then it's like the pressure lifts and a big shot of dried fruit comes through, bright and almost juicy, with baking spices. As it fades into the finish, the oak and vanilla come back, and float you off.

Can I taste the component bourbons? Well, yes, and no. Yes, in that I taste that big vanilla from the Knob, the grip of the Baker's, the sweetness of the Basil, and that long Booker's finish. No, in that I don't really taste them that way; I taste a bourbon that has all those things, and more. That distinct two-step palate; the dried fruit, the subdued baking spice. Like Knob, but smoother; like Baker's, but not as dark; like Basil, but richer; like Booker's, but even more drinkable at the full proof. A damned good blend.

And so, overall? Chapter 1 is a new blender, having fun, making a tasty, sweet bourbon out of pieces (Lego Bourbon?). Chapter 2 works with new components, quite different ones (40 year old corn-built Canadian!), and creates something completely new from them. The aptly-named Chapter 3, "The Road Home," is an epiphany, where the blender takes known whiskeys, at full proof, and makes something more out of them, when it would have been easy to screw up, and make something that wasn't really as good as any of them alone. Chapter 3 is a blender coming into his own. Chapter 3 is leveled-up from Chapter 1. 

This was a lot of fun, and a learning experience. I continue to gain respect for the work of blending, and I'm glad to see distillers working with more imaginative blends. Did the whole thing start with High West's Rendezvous Rye, a young and old MGP rye blended together? No, but maybe the modern era of American blending did.

I'm just not that excited to see some blenders jumping the gun entirely and blending completely different spirits together -- bourbon and rum, cognac and tequila, gin and mezcal -- when there's so much to be explored without stunts like these. Am I an old fart? Sure. And things like that don't excite me. But neither do CBD drinks or hard seltzers or juniperless gins. Traditions aren't prisons; they're playgrounds, sandboxes. Play within the rules, and see what you can do that others haven't. That's exciting.

My thanks to Freddie Noe and the folks who put us together.

(All whiskeys tasted were samples, delivered by Beam to me. I'll always tell you where they came from.) 

Seriously...

And that's as political as we're gonna get here.
(It's a joke, BTW.)

Boy, it's dusty in here. 

Hard to believe I used to post every day, for four years. That passed, and then I tried to start it up again in 2016, but blessedly, I got busy, and the blog came in dead last in my priorities.

Things change. I have a book to support, and free rein to do that, so I'm starting up the Inferno again...no, sorry, wrong reference. I'm going to start blogging again.

It's going to be a bit more whiskey-focused this time, since there's that book I'll be flogging. But there's still going to be beer, and food, and travel, and probably pictures of my dog. And I'll be sticking to the original principles of the blog, explained in full here; briefly, though, I'll be writing criticism, not snark, and recognizing that none of us know everything. So whiskey reviews, and industry overviews, and personal profiles will be written with care, with charity. That doesn't mean "I love everything" reviews, it just means that the negative reviews will try to understand what happened, and I probably won't review the real train wrecks. If you want to revel in deliciously cruel reviews of the whiskeys you love to hate...look elsewhere.

There are going to be regular whiskey reviews, and some other spirits, and beers, but mostly whiskey. Part of that's the book support, but some of it is that I found that I missed writing the reviews I was doing for Whisky Advocate. (Yeah, no link. It's the least I can do). And since no one else is really paying for whiskey reviews, I'll do them for myself.

The first new post -- after this one, natch -- is going to be a chat with Beam Suntory's Freddie Noe and a review of all three of his Little Book chapters, the blended whiskeys from Beam that shook things up a bit. The idea that Beam had some aged malt whiskey*, that Beam was going to admit that they had stocks of Canadian whisky, or that there was 12 year old Baker's...well, I found that all pretty exciting. So when the Beam people asked me if I'd like to talk to Freddie about it, I thought, 'Hey! That would be a great first post for the revived blog.' So that's what I did. That's going to be coming soon, couple of days.

All I can show you for now. Note: no ice in the glass. Fought hard for that, because I know you care. 

Anyway, about the book. It's titled Whiskey Master Class, and it's about the creation of aroma and flavor in whisk/ey. (I promise, I'm not going to make a habit of that 'whisk/ey' construction.) From traditional formulations and the grains in them through malting, milling, mashing, fermentation, distillation, barrel construction and selection, aging, blending, proofing, filtering, bottling, and all the intangible stuff that's so hard to measure...I've tried really hard to cover everything that makes whiskey what it is.

The book was inspired by something that renowned blender and Scotch whisky innovator Dr. Bill Lumsden said to me one time. “If the barrel gives a whisky 50% of its flavor...that just means that the other 50% doesn't come from the barrel.” To really understand a whiskey then, you have to know where every bit of that 100% comes from, and how it's different from another whiskey. That's what the book is all about. I'm very pleased to say that Dr. Bill agreed to write the foreword.

Pippin's only 10 months old...
but his ears are full-grown!

It's due out on February 18 but you can pre-order now: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local independent bookstore (assuming someone asked them to order it...I'm looking at you). You can be sure the blog will run at least that long, and probably up through the 2020 Christmas book-buying season. And I'll probably be fully in the habit by then, and we'll just keep going. My publicist tells me that the blog's good, but I'm going to have to back it up with Instagram (and Twitter, and Facebook), so I'll be there as well, hashtagging like a champ.

I've made a fair number of promises here. I intend to keep them. This stuff is fun. And...pictures of my dog. Promise that, too. Here, take a look at Pippin. 

Little Book is coming soon. And then it's off to the races.






*I have a really annoying habit of mistyping "whiskey" as "shiskey," so if you see that...I was typing so fast I missed it. I almost did here. Just letting you know. 

World Whisky Day tasting at Teresa's in Wayne: join me!

Grueling research in the malt kilns of Bowmore.

No Scottish boat rides are included in this tasting. Sorry.

The gang at Teresa's Next Door contacted me a while ago with a great idea: this new World Whisky Day thing...how about you come out to Wayne and we do a whisky tasting? I checked my calendar, May 18 was open, so I said hell yeah, and we started talking whiskies.

Here's what's going to go down. We're going to do the tasting on Saturday afternoon, May 18, from 12:30 to 3:00, so there's plenty of time left in the day to do other things (like get on the train and head into Philly, or just stay right where you are and enjoy the great beers at Teresa's).

What you'll be tasting (and hearing me talk about) is a kind of whisky overview. The idea was something like "Whisky 101 For Beer Geeks" (because I was frankly appalled at the whiskies beer geeks were drinking), so we lined up a variety. Here's the list:

Irish: Redbreast, the mother of Jameson.
Scotch Blend: Compass Box Great King Street, because good Scotch doesn't have to be a single malt.
Sherried Single Malt: Glenfarclas 105, a big ballsy malt.
Peated Single Malt: Lagavulin 16, from the peaty shore of Islay; smoke it if you got it.
Rye: Templeton Rye, small bottler, big flavor.
Bourbon, before and after: Buffalo Trace and Buffalo Trace White Dog, for an inside look at what the barrel does to whiskey.

All that plus Teresa's seriously good eats to go with it (snacks, but good and carefully paired), plus my amazingly interesting insights on just what the hell it is you're drinking...well, it's quite a deal at $45 (and you have to call ahead 610-293-9909, or email before the event to get registered).  Hope you can join us on Wold Whisky Day, May 18th!

Heaven Hill's Larceny

Time for honesty: usually when I get samples, even whiskey samples, they generally sit on my kitchen table for at least a couple days. The boxes are annoyingly wrapped, I've a tendency to procrastinate (I hear a whisper of chuckles from my editors), and, well, they'll still be there tomorrow.

But today, when I got this box from Heaven Hill...I was pretty sure what it was, so I opened it as soon as I got home. Sure enough, it's the new Larceny. Here's the description: "Larceny is a true small batch Bourbon produced from dumps of 100 or fewer barrels that have been selected from the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th floors of Heaven Hill’s open rick warehouses in Nelson County, Kentucky. Larceny is drawn from barrels that have aged from 6 to 12 years at this high storage, and is bottled at a full-bodied 92 proof, or 46% alcohol by volume."

But the key -- heh, heh -- point is that Larceny comes from the wheated bourbon that Craig and Parker have been making since Heaven Hill bought the Old Fitzgerald brand back in 1999, and Larceny references the story of John Fitzgerald. Or at least, one of the stories. It's the story that Fitzgerald was a treasury agent who had the keys to distilleries' bonded warehouses...and used them to pilfer whiskey -- the best whiskey, as he apparently had plenty of time to taste them. 

Enough talk. Let's drink! Well, it smells like Heaven Hill: hot sweet corn, light cinnamon notes, an edgy oak note. Mmmm, tasty. This is what I love about Parker's booze: it's always stuffed full of flavor, from the cheapest bottle of Heaven Hill white label all the way up through Evan Williams, Elijah Craig 12 Year Old, all the way on up to the Parker's Heritage bottlings. This is no exception, and it's sharp and lively with it. Imagine a hot sheet of whiskey glass snapping in your mouth and flashing to liquid; it's that quick and light. It's not sweet, it's spicy, oaky, shot with cornbread and a drying heat. The finish is encouraging, a warm tingle through the whole mouth.

I could see drinking this all night -- with a small application of water and a certain amount of pretzels or nuts -- with a group of friends, talking till it's gone. And at $25 suggested price, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a spare.

"CHU Canada, Coordinated Universal Time, Twelve Hours, Eleven minutes..."

Ours looks much like this; more battered.

When I was young, quite young, I'd listen to my father set his watch. He set it by firing up a big, wooden Grunow tube set multiband receiver we had -- my grandfather's house radio -- on the shortwave setting, and tuning in CHU Canada, the Canadian government's time station. We'd listen to the beeps, waiting for the blank spot at 30 seconds, and then the taped announcements of the upcoming minute would come just before the minute hack, alternately in English (first on the even minutes) and French (odd minutes). CHU set their time by atomic clocks, and my father wanted all the clocks in the house to be as accurate as possible, and his watch was always set to CHU (he considered the time signal from KYW, the Philly news AM station, to be passably accurate, but really relied on CHU).

My father didn't have an external need for accurate time, no job or medical reason that things had to be done precisely. My dad was a mild OCD type, a recorder, and I didn't realize how much of one until after he died in 2010. I put a new battery in the kitchen clock for my mother a few weeks ago, and found, taped to the back, a list of all the times he'd re-set the clock, and how much it was off by...according to CHU, no doubt.

What's all this have to do with beer, or whiskey? Well, I was thinking about this today when I was checking the time for an interview appointment. Used to be I'd know which clock in the house was on, and I'd check that one, knowing that I'd set it to a reliable source (honestly, KYW was plenty accurate for me) relatively recently...but most of the rest of the clocks only got set when they were way off or when it was time to Spring Forward or Fall Back. Cathy keeps her clock at bedside 10 minutes fast to jolt her awake in half-asleep state (I don't know how that kind of self-delusion works, but it does for her). Not to mention, we still have some of the cheap battery-operated clocks Cathy and I accumulated as we were growing up, and the hands wobble, and they don't have numbers, and...they're intrinsically inaccurate.

But now? I just look down in the corner of my computer screen, or pop on my cell, and I've got fiendishly accurate time, checked against atomic clocks, and it's not only easy and available, it updates automatically. I can have accuracy my father only dreamed of at a glance, with no continuing effort at all.

Bought craft beer lately? Let me be an old fart. Back in the 1980s, when I started drinking out of the mainstream, this wasn't easy. We drank Guinness and Bass (usually old Guinness and Bass), we drank Heineken (usually skunked; my first draft Heineken was surprisingly good!): they were easier to get. When craft started to peek its head up, I would drive three hours to buy some. Truly, we did that. You kids today with your "I drove six hours to get Dark Lord!" We would drive two hours just to get a sixpack of porter. Plain old amber ale. I would drive two hours through traffic and over mountains -- literally -- to get to a brewpub that had three beers: gold, amber, and porter. And when I got home, I'd set my watch by CHU Canada.

Whiskey? Back in the 1980s, most American distilleries didn't bottle anything but standard stuff; no small batches, no single barrels no super-aged Pappy. Many Scottish distillers didn't do single malt bottlings, it all went to blends. If they did singles, they weren't available except in specialist stores. And no one knew a damned thing about them or how they were made. Same thing with beer, really.

Flick on the cellphone, tell me the time. I can hop on my bike, ride ten minutes to Manny Brown's, and get a glass of good craft beer. Ride ten minutes more, and even Store #0909 of the Stupid State Store System can offer me a selection of whisky that would make what I could find most places 25 years ago look sick.

Are the prices higher? Yeah, and you're paying for monthly cell service and your internet connection; CHU is free. Rather do that? There are places you can't get cell signal; okay, there are still places that have crap selections. It's not a perfect analogy!

But really? These ARE the good times. We not only have it so good, we have it so easy. The Web makes it ridiculously easy to find good drinks, and to share that knowledge. The Web also makes the spread of ticker snobology easier, but that's simply something to deal with. I'm just glad I got over that phase when I was still limited to a notebook with really tiny printing in the back.

I think we're going to get over the obsession phase, and soon. It's going to collapse under its own weight, or it may blow up into such a huge balloon that it will lift up and float away, leaving the rest of us at the bar, drinking good stuff, lots of good stuff, that you can get every day (or every season) for a reliable price. All within an easy distance, all with the ease of looking at a phone.

Coordinated Universal Drinks Time. It's here.

Malt Advocate Whisky Awards start to flow tomorrow up now!

Yes, you've seen this post before...I post-dated it so you could see that I'm posting links to the awards as the days roll on. Don't want you to miss anything!


Malt Advocate's Whisky Awards program is the longest-running in the industry; this is our 17th year. Like last year, we're going to roll out the awards one at a time on John Hansell's "What Does John Know" blog, and it starts tomorrow. Here's the schedule.

Best Buy Whisk(e)y of the Year -- TIE: Evan Williams, and Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond 6 Year Old

Artisan Whisky of the Year -- Kilchoman Summer 2010 release

American Whiskey of the Year -- Buffalo Trace Antique Collection

Canadian Whisky of the Year -- Forty Creek Confederation Oak

Irish Whiskey of the Year -- Redbreast 12 Year Old

Scotch Whisky Blend of the Year -- Compass Box Flaming Heart

Scotch Whisky Single Malt of the Year -- Glenfarclas 40 Year Old

World Whisky of the Year  -- Amrut Fusion
Pioneer of the Year -- David Perkins and High West

Industry Leader of the Year -- Glencairn Crystal

Distillery of the Year -- Heaven Hill
Lifetime Achievement Awards
Top Ten New Whiskies

I helped write the awards this year, and I'm excited to see what people think. We've got some potentially controversial choices; should be fun to see the discussion!

Big American Whiskey Article

Once again, I wrote the annual American Whiskey piece for Massachusetts Beverage Business magazine, and it's up here. Have a look, let's talk about what I got right, and what I missed, and what I screwed up!

Parker's Heritage Collection #4: 10 Year Old Wheated Bourbon

Ten years ago, Parker Beam started mashing wheated bourbon at Heaven Hill (well, okay, at Bernheim, the distillery Heaven Hill bought after theirs burned in 1996). The distillery had bought the Old Fitzgerald brand, and that is a wheated mashbill, so...Parker made wheated bourbon for the first time.

The Parker's Heritage Collection -- fine whiskeys from Heaven Hill's warehouses, selected by Mister Beam himself -- has put forth some real beauties lately, like this one. But this year, the Collection backs down from the extreme -- amazing -- age of the the last two (and backs down in price quite a bit, too), bringing us a 10 year old bottling of those first runs of wheated bourbon. This sample is non-chill filtered, and bottled at 127.8° of barrel proof, and it's just drinkable at full strength, which is pretty impressive. I know, I know...you guys can all drink uncut Stagg, whatever. I'm talking about a seriously overproof whiskey that you can actually drink without wincing.

So what do I get when I do? Sweet youthful corn, King syrup, sweet grass, and just a touch of mint make up the nose. The whiskey is overproof hot, but yields oak spice, cornbread, vanilla, and more mint on the end. Let's be smart and add some water. Much the same, without the heat; more enjoyable, good balance. You know...I screwed up and added too much water, and this whiskey didn't fall apart. Good sign.

I'm tasting it with some other wheated bourbons, like Very Special Old Fitzgerald (which I reviewed ten years ago here), Maker's Mark, Weller Antique, and a 19 year old W.L. Weller from Sazerac's Antique Collection. Let's make some comparisons. The VSOF (12 years old and 90° proof; made at Bernheim, but not by Parker) is richer, but simpler at the same time: the sweetness is more pronounced. Maker's Mark is the sweetest of the lot, though it still holds up well at around 6 years of age. Weller Antique has more of the overproof bite at 107° proof and about 7 years of age; the wood is a bit more forward on the higher proof, but I still love this one. The 19 year old Weller, though, doesn't hold up well in this relatively young company, tasting decidedly old and woody.

Back to the Parker's...decided difference here. I'm recalling that Parker likes them "high and dry," from the hotter floors, not sappy, with a firm wood note. It's here, and I think they caught it before it got too big. That's really pretty nice right at full-bore.

There's a similarity (not to say 'sameness'!) among these whiskeys, and it's not a lack of rye spice, but rather a firm sweetness; not sugary, but like that King syrup, or light molasses, a more mature sweetness. I should have maybe trotted out the bottle of Bernheim...maybe another night. I do think you'll like this one. I do.

Big News for Malt Advocate

The magazine I've been with longer than almost any other, Malt Advocate, has been sold to M. Shanken Communications (the publishers of Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado, Food Arts, Market Watch, and Impact). This is big news for whisky-lovers -- Malt Advocate is the clear leader in the American market, and thanks to John Hansell's blog, What Does John Know?, a world leader as well -- and it's also big news for me.

The details are here. It's a great opportunity to increase the magazine's circulation, given the experience and resources the parent company now brings. We'll have opportunities to do more stories, maybe go to 6 issues a year, and get more support for WhiskyFests.

If you're worried about what it might mean for the quality and independence of the magazine...don't be. John's made it clear to me and to Mr. Shanken that the magazine will continue an independent path, without connection between editorial and advertising, the same as it's been from the beginning. John will continue as editor and publisher, his wife Amy will continue as events director, the offices will stay in Emmaus with the same staff. I'm still the managing editor, and the writers are still the same.

But we've got a chance to bring you more Malt Advocate now. Time for us to join the big leagues.

Just too much to do...

So Friday I kind of bumbled through the day, getting caught up on phone calls and e-mail, writing scripts for the interviews I'm conducting this week for a few stories I've got to do. I did platelet donation in the morning, and it went smoothly, and sang a confirmation mass in the afternoon. Thomas was in Harrisburg at a mock trial state final competition, so Cathy and Nora and I went out for Chinese; got Szechuan (or however we're supposed to spell it these days) seafood, which was tasty, and split a bottle of Stone 8th anniversary, the "imperial mild," and it was good (though I probably should have had it when I got it), rich but very drinkable, and imposing enough to handle the spice. Then we went home and watched more of Season 1 of Heroes.

Saturday was crazier. Cathy left for Harrisburg at 8 to visit with an old friend of her family who is in the endgame of a nastily rapid bout of cancer. Thomas left Harrisburg at 8 to return here. Nora and I left at 8 to take her to Drexel for another robotics competition, and I came back and sang another confirmation mass (we had about 250 kids in the parish being confirmed over the weekend). When that was done, I went back to the house, picked up Thomas, and we drove north to Hellertown, to have lunch at the Braveheart Highland Pub. I had a pint of O'Hara's Stout, we split the smoked fish plate (excellent), and I had a caesar salad with grilled shrimp. A very nice lunch; then we hustled him over to Southern Lehigh HS for his final regular season forensics tournament, qualifiers for the national tournament (he made it to the final round today, but didn't quite make the cut). I drove back to Drexel, picked up Nora, drove home, met Cathy, we all changed. Drove to Nora's school, dropped her off with a friend's family for an overnight birthday party, and we drove to the annual fundraiser auction at Holy Ghost Prep.

I had offered a basket of three whiskies (Tomatin 12 Year Old (from John Hansell), a 1994 Knappogue Castle, and a bottle of Rock Hill Farms bourbon) with a sub to Malt Advocate, a book on Islay whisky (Peat Smoke & Spirit), and some other stuff; and also offered an in-house tutored whisky tasting -- 13 whiskies -- with cigars and snacks. That met some brisk bidding and wound up going for $1200; felt pretty good about raising that much for the school! We had dinner with the auction: lobster tail, lump crabmeat, sushi, poached salmon, stone crab claws, huge shrimp, and a crab casserole...all delicious. I shared around a bottle of Bernheim Wheat Whiskey and a bottle of Parker's Golden Anniversary (gave some of each to the two guys who bought the whisky tasting), had a couple beers (Lager...and Weyerbacher Muse). Then we went home and crashed...Only I'd had a big coffee on the way home from Drexel, and wound up reading till about 3!

Got up at 7:15. Cathy drove up to Southern Lehigh to help judge the tournament, and I did two Palm Sunday masses, then went to Roxborough to pick up Nora. Came back home, had some Prima Donna and sourdough for lunch...and haven't done much else, to tell the truth. We're all napping a bit today. Might have another beer tonight, though...

If You're Looking for a Christmas Present...

...there's five bottles of George T. Stagg on the shelf at the PLCB State Store in Newtown, PA.

I'm just sayin'...

And as of 12:32 PM on Monday...there are only two (and one bottle of Eagle Rare 17, too, but no other Antique Collection whiskeys). Doubt not the power of the blog, or the depth of desire for Stagg!

Ah, the Vitality of Youth

I've got a guest post up at What Does John Know, Malt Advocate publisher John Hansell's blog, about young spirits; specifically, rye whiskey. Young rye whiskeys seem to come across better than young bourbons to me, and I was just openly speculating on why. Have a look, and take a good look around while you're there; there's an incredible amount of news, notes, and informed discussion about whisky.

Happy Birthday, Mister Jack

September, the folks at Jack Daniel's tell me, is the month of Jack Daniel's -- Mister Jack Daniel's birthday, celebrating 159 years since their founder was born. And since he founded the distillery and made the whiskey that would become the very bestselling American whiskey, they're celebrating with a cake...a cake cocktail.

It's made with Jack Daniel's, Tuaca, marshmallow syrup, and Sprite. They sent me a kit with small amounts of all those things (really, a half-assed can of Sprite) and a glass, with a marshmallow and a candle for a birthday garnish. That's what theirs looks like, down below; mine, er, doesn't look that good, because I'm a kocktail klutz. But it does kinda smell like a cake...a marshmallow and orange yellow cake. It's sweet, but damn, Sam, if they're garnishing it with a marshmallow, whatta ya expect? Wow, it's sweet. Oh, well. Happy Birthday, Mister Jack!

And Now...whiskies that are over-priced

John Hansell's What Does John Know? blog has a good -- if somewhat inevitable -- companion post to last week's "What Are The Good Whisky Values?" post. This one asks which whiskies are over-valued. It's just been posted, but there are already some trends appearing in the comments. Early front-runner: Johnny Walker Blue.

Jimmy Bedford Dies at 69

I just saw on Chuck Cowdery's blog that Jimmy Bedford has died at the age of 69, of an apparent heart attack. Go read Chuck's obituary of Jimmy, and think about the man who was one of only seven master distillers in the history of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.

Unique Whiskies at San Francisco WhiskyFest

While I'm pimping John's blog, you should really check this out. Last year we initiated a charity tasting at WhiskyFest San Francisco. For $20/$40 a quarter ounce, with all proceeds donated to a local food bank, guests could try some rare or -- in the case of four specially-created bottles of The Macallan -- unique whiskies. We upped the bar this year: there are six unique whiskies/whiskeys at WhiskyFest San Francisco: truly unique, only available here, single-bottle, absolute "one offs."

Intrigued? Read all about it.

American whiskey for July 4th

I just got this on Facebook from Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers' Association. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail will be open for the holiday weekend: a great chance to tour the places where Americans make America's whiskey. (Er, the workers are American, that is...some of the owners of the companies are not: Wild Turkey's owned by Italians, Four Roses is owned by Japanese. But the distilleries are right there in Kentucky.)

Anyway, here are the schedules for tours; all times are Eastern.

Buffalo Trace, Frankfort – open Friday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., closed Sunday.

Four Roses, Lawrenceburg – open Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., last tour at 3:00 p.m., closed Sunday.

Heaven Hill, Bardstown – open Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m.

Jim Beam, Clermont – open Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Maker’s Mark, Loretto – open Friday and Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Sunday tours 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.

Wild Turkey, Lawrenceburg – Tours Friday at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Gift shop will be open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed on Saturday and Sunday.

Woodford Reserve, Versailles – Tours Friday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Closed Saturday. Tours on Sunday at 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Visit www.kybourbontrail.com for more information on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

Red Stag by Jim Beam

Well, this is different. Label's different, liquid looks different, the smell's different, and the taste is damned different. Funny thing is...the bottle's the same.

It's Red Stag by Jim Beam, labeled as "Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Infused with Natural Flavors," with a big sub-label "BLACK CHERRY." Which right away makes me wonder if there are other flavors ready if this works. I also wonder at how they put the Jim Beam name and seal and bottle on this new and kind of risky venture. (Budweiser Select, anyone?)

Does it work? Well, the cherry flavor is, as it says, an infusion of natural flavors, and it smells and tastes like it. It tastes like bourbon that's had cherries steeping in it, something we used to do back home in Pennsylvania Dutch country, a thing called cherry baunz (you also added sugar and tried to crush a few stones). The fruit flavor is not nasty or fake -- as I mentioned to a friend on-line, it's impressively authentic -- and it's not completely overwhelming. It does come across as too sweet...but for what? For bourbon? It's not, it's flavored bourbon. That's one of the good things Beam did: everything is spelled out nice and honest on the label.

And the best part of it being flavored bourbon, is that they kept it 80 proof, which keeps it from being wicked gross nasty sweet, like the first batch I tasted of Wild Turkey's American Honey. But like American Honey has become (and I do nip off Cathy's bottle occasionally), this stuff is just sweet...and it fits. Because it's got real bourbon flavor, coming from real bourbon. It's the bourbon that keeps me picking up the glass.

I almost want to mix this with some heavy cream. I think that's where Red Stag's best future lies: recipes and cocktails. I do have a shameful liking for sweet Manhattans; this might be wicked tasty. Sipping? Huh-uh. Over ice, splash of seltzer? Getting warmer. Don't think of it as bourbon whiskey. Think of it as cherry baunz.

And I just got the word: on shelves in June.

Official: Local 44 to open on New Year's Day

Just got an e-mail from the folks at Local 44 (who are, of course, also the folks at Memphis Taproom):

"Thursday night...January 1st...at 5pm... Local 44 will open its doors for business."

Twenty taps, a bunch of whisky, sneak menu previews (the kitchen opens for real on Friday the 2nd), and the atmo of being hard-core: "As Art Etchells recently pointed out to us: When you drink on New Years Day, you drink with the pros.We couldn't have said it better ourselves."

They'll be open daily from 11:30am to 2am (kitchen until Midnight), seven days a week.

Local 44 is located at: 4333 Spruce Street (Corner of 44th & Spruce),Philadelphia.

I may have to cut the pork and sauerkraut a bit short and head on down, because...I am a pro.