Sazerac Thomas H. Handy 6 Year Antique Collection 2008
Rye is the cool kid on the whiskey block today. New York Times wine writer Eric Asimov has recently written an article about rye, and several different have lately come out with new bottlings, for instance the A.H. Hirsch Small Batch and 21-year Rye, the 18 and 23-year ryes from Black Maple Hill, and the Old Potrero 18th, 19th Century Style, and Hotalings Ryes, just to name a few. But the hard reality is that there are not a lot of older ryes remaining to be bottled, certainly not enough to satisfy the demand for boutique ryes. As a result, great bottles of rye are quickly becoming very scarce, very pricey commodities.
In terms of scarcity, the Sazerac ryes from Buffalo Trace rank right up there. The two ryes, the 18-Year and the 6-Year Thomas H. Handy Cask-Strength versions, are part of the distillery’s Antique Collection which is released each Fall. Each of the five whiskeys in this collection is very limited, and getting hold of them can be very difficult. And recently, with the rising interest in ryes, the Sazerac bottlings have been harder and harder to find.
I was fortunate this past winter to find a bottle of each Sazerac. Given their rarity, I felt myself lucky to be able to try them both, especially to be able to try them against one another. It is rare that you get to try two whiskeys that are presented so very differently (e.g. 18 years old and 45% vs. 6 years old and cask-strength) against one another, and in this case the contrast was startling.
In fact, having the opportunity to taste these two whiskeys against one another has been a great chance to consider the question of whether I prefer older, more oaky whiskeys, or younger, more brash ones. A handful of other whiskeys that I’ve had the chance to taste recently have played into this discussion as well. And I’ll begin by using these to illustrate my thoughts.
In my experience, younger whiskeys tend to present hotter, more brash flavors. The fiery alcohol of youth has not yet been tamed by very many years in wood, and especially when presented at cask-strength this means that loads of personality and character comes through in the glass. Alongside this is often found a green element, sometimes tasting faintly of stewed green beans. The higher the quality whiskey, and the fresher the cask that it has been aged in, the less noticeable this facet will be. And so great younger whiskeys come to the table with loads of flavor, brashness, and youth, and are often very chameleon like in the glass. One moment they can be smooth and supple, the next undrinkably young, and the next coursing with power and gobs of flavor.
Older whiskeys on the other hand tend to be more calm and collected, sometimes going to far as to be outright stately. Older whiskeys generally present a flavor profile where the layers are better integrated than in a younger whiskey. Depending on how many years it has been in cask, an older whiskey may also have begun to take on more flavors from the cask itself. In some cases this will mean the presence of some drying tannins, or a noticeable oak flavor, and in extreme cases, such as first-fill Oloroso sherry casks, a whiskey that has taken on strong, almost wine-like characteristics. In the bes cases, what an older whiskey has that a younger whiskey does not is poise.
These are generalizations, but in my experience they are fair. I’ve tasted whiskeys that belie both sets of expectations, but the majority I’ve tasted follow this pattern.
Now, imagine this lineup of whiskies: Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 5-Year, Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 7-Year, Glenfarclas 25-Year, Bruichladdich Octomore 5-Year, Glenturret 11-Year. All fabulous whiskies that present a spectrum of great flavors, and that encompass a wide range of ages.
The Glenturret 11-Year is from a first-fill sherry cask and was a deeply flavorful whisky, layered with molasses, maple syrup, and red wine flavors. A dessert-sipper. The Port Charlotte 5-Year was a slap in the face. Loads of smoke, with some taffy sweetness, and a hint of greenness that you couldn’t quite ignore. The 7-Year version of this same whisky was more mature, having smoothed out from the additional couple of years in cask, taming the smoke just enough to allow some more nuanced flavors to enter into the picture and eliminating the green flavor. The Glenfarclas 25-Year was incredibly smooth and remarkably vibrant for a 25-year old whisky. Layers of flavor just opened up as you wound your way through the glass. And the Octomore 5-year was a bombastic glass of smoke underscored by a layer of honey, and in this case no greenness (in contrast to the Port Charlotte 5-Year).
As much as I enjoyed the younger, smoky whiskies, as I drank them I couldn’t help thinking about how good they will taste these in 5 years, when they hit the 10-year mark. Or even more so, in 10 or 15 years. With flavors so powerful, additional time in cask is likely to enable them to transcend the audacity of their smoky youth, and really hit their stride, powerful with the grace that additional age will grant them.
And yet, bourbon and rye ages differently, doesn’t it? Yes, but nonetheless my preference still favors older expressions. I will grant that bourbons run their course much earlier than scotch. I’ve tasted 44-year old scotches that were simply amazing, whereas the oldest bourbon that I’ve tasted seemed a bit worn out at 27 years, and left me wondering how good it must have been a few years earlier.
And my experience with these two Sazeracs has also confirmed my preferences. The 18 year, which I’ve written about earlier, was a heavily oaked whiskey, but it was remarkably smooth, drinkable, and full of flavor. The 6-Year, while excellent, is a different beast altogether. Some of this would have to be down to it being bottled at 63.75%, along with being uncut and unfiltered.
The appearance is a rich, burnished copper. The nose has spearmint, orange zest, buttered rum, and caramel, all packaged together and leaping out of the glass. The palate is very rich, with flavors of caramel, mint, candied fruit, sandalwood, clove, and furniture polish all melding together. The texture is resiny, mouth-coating and silky, but is offset by the very, very hot alcohol presence. This whiskey needs a lot of water to ease the alcohol down, and I found it very hard to find a happy medium that allowed full-flavor expression and drinkability to coexist. The finish is very long, with warm citrus flavors gradually drifting away.
This is a massive, massive whiskey, with tons of flavors in the nose and palate, and this carries through into the long, long finish. Yet, whereas I feel that the 18-Year had just as many flavors taking place (different flavors though, a lot more spice and nuance), the overall package was much smoother, enabling those flavors to be more readily appreciated. This younger expression is a great joy to drink, and it revels in its brash youth, and yet after a glass I found myself wanting a bit for a somewhat more calm experience in a whiskey.
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