Category: Whiskey
Van Winkle 12-Year Lot “B” Bourbon
As much as I enjoy rye whiskey, when it comes to bourbon my allegiances lie squarely with the “wheated” camp.
“Wheated” you say? Remember that bourbon is defined as having at least 51% corn in its mash bill. Most distilleries end up using 70-75% corn, filling in the rest with 11-13% rye and 10-12% malted barley. But there are a few whiskies that use wheat instead of rye to fill out that 11-13%. The result is a much different whiskey.
Rye lends a spicy, minty, resinous quality to bourbon that gives the whiskey a vibrancy in the glass that can be really alluring, and also enables bourbon (and rye whiskey as well) to go great in cocktails. Wheat on the other hand lends a softer, gentler, and more rounded quality to bourbon, bringing out the sweetness and giving it body and depth. Picture making caramel sauce and at the last moment having to choose between adding salt to make a salted caramel sauce, or adding another couple tablespoons of butter to add more richness. This is similar to choosing between a rye bourbon or a wheated bourbon.
And when I say that there are just a few wheated bourbons out there, I mean it. The readily available ones are Van Winkle bourbons, W.L. Weller bourbons, Maker’s Mark, and Old Fitzgerald. Maker’s Mark is certainly the most ubiquitous of these, and is a decent whiskey, just a bit young (~6 years typically). But it’s the Van Winkle and Weller bourbons that are the real showcases for wheated bourbons.
First, a little bit of history about the two labels. For several decades, both were made at the fabled Stitzel-Weller distillery, run by Pappy Van Winkle himself. The distillery closed in 1992, after which Buffalo Trace purchased the W.L. Weller label and began producing it at their Frankfort distillery. At the same time, production of Van Winkle bourbons moved to the Bernheim distillery, before Julian Van Winkle reached an agreement with Buffalo Trace to also produce the Van Winkle bourbons at their facility. So now both are produced at Buffalo Trace in Frankfort, KY.
Whiskies from the Stitzel-Weller distillery are an increasingly rare and sought after species. Just look at the prices for a bottle of Van Winkle 20 or 23 year-old! But while some folks may argue that the whiskey distilled under these names at later distilleries isn’t quite as good as the Stitzel-Weller distilled whiskey, the fact is that these are two excellent bourbons, no matter their age or where they were distilled.
As for which is a “better” bourbon, this entirely comes down to personal taste. I love wheated bourbons for how voluptuous and full-bodied they are, and how much depth of flavor they have. There are some great rye bourbons out there, but in my book wheated bourbons really take the cake. We even keep a bottle of Maker’s Mark around since it’s such a good, accessible wheater.
The Van Winkle bourbons in particular have a deservedly legendary reputation, and I’ve written about this here before. Suffice to say that the more you learn about Pappy Van Winkle and the history of this distillery, the more you appreciate the whiskies themselves!
This is the Van Winkle 12-year Lot “B”. Despite the name, there never was a Lot “A”, and there’s much open debate about what the Lot “B” means. This batch of the Lot “B” was distilled at the Bernheim distillery, sometime after 1993 and before distilling at Buffalo Trace began.
Tasting Notes
The color of this bourbon is coppery gold with nice, thick legs running down the sides. The nose has mellow notes of dark honey, marzipan, caramel, and caramelized onions. The palate is smooth and soft while still being light and lively. The alcohol is a bit hot and sharp, lending a vibrant, striking tone to the flavors that encompass classic wheated bourbon tones of vanilla, caramel, honey, and toasted almonds. On the finish, a note of citrus winds its way into the mix, alongside similar flavors as the palate, with honey and almonds being the most prominent.
A classic wheated bourbon. Surprisingly it feels a bit young on the palate, largely on account of the heat of the alcohol (despite it’s being just 45.2%). But the spectrum of wheated bourbon flavors are all there, and the result is a great sipping whiskey that won’t break the bank.
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Wathen’s Single Barrel Bourbon, Barrel #818
The story of Wathen’s bourbon is a bit of a puzzle that I put together after scouring far too many websites and whiskey forums. Here’s how it goes:
The Wathen and Medley families are intertwined in the production of Wathen’s Single Barrel, and both have long histories of distilling in Kentucky, generations in fact. They’ve intermarried several times, and thus their distilling histories and paths began to overlap at some point. I’ve even read that a Medley has been a master distiller somewhere in Kentucky from 1812 until 1991, not a bad stretch of time. The Medleys at one point owned three distilleries in Owensboro, and the current Charles Medley Distillery site is one of these.
Charles Medley, the owner and master distiller of Wathen’s Single Barrel, is the former master distiller at the Glenmore, the former distillery located in Owensboro that was closed after its purchase by United Distillers in 1991. After the purchase, United sold the property and brands to Barton Brands (makers of the 1792 Ridgement Reserve bourbon), but neither company wanted the existing stock of aging Glenmore whiskey. So Charles Medley purchased it and transferred the barrels to a warehouse at the old Medley Distillery. He later began bottling this whiskey under the Wathen’s Single Barrel label, hand-signing each bottle.
Today, the whiskey is bottled and distributed by a company in Missouri, but it is distilled in Kentucky. It doesn’t appear that the whiskey being bottled under the brand is still from the old Glenmore stocks, but it’s not clear where it does come from in this case. Speculation has it that the source is the Medley distillery, but I haven’t seen this confirmed anywhere.
So there you have it – a brand of whiskey named Wathen’s Single Barrel, begun by bottling stocks of whiskey distilled at Glenmore Distillery that were purchased and later bottled at the Medley Distillery by the master distiller who oversaw their making. Oh, and named after the Wathens, a historic distilling name in Kentucky, but none of whom are directly involved in the making of this whiskey.
My only wish is that I knew the answer to the following questions:
- Where the whiskey in this bottle was distilled
- What the different proportions of corn, rye, and barley were
- How old this whiskey is
In fact, the last one is my biggest question, how old is this whiskey? Buy a bottle and you’ll be asking the same question. On the one hand, I have this naive assumption that any single-barrel bottling is going to aim at the higher-end of the market, and therefore be a shade older – at least 8 years for instance. But having tried this whiskey, I’m not so sure that’s the case here. I may be wrong, but you come away with an impression of youth after drinking this bourbon.
In any event, this bottle contains whiskey from barrel #818, and was bottled on July 14, 2009. It’s bottled at a respectable 47%.
The appearance is a light amber gold, and lightening considerably at the edges. The nose has notes of lemon curd, citrus rind, oak resin, and a hint of vanilla, with citrus the dominant note. The mouthfeel is very light and spry, lightly textured, without much oiliness, and quite dry. The citrus theme continues, with lemons, limes, and oranges providing a surprising amount citrus acidity. This is underscored by flavors of butterscotch and pecans. The alcohol is pretty hot, giving a sense that this is a young whiskey. The citrus begins to wane a bit on the finish, giving way to vanilla, caramel, and resin.
On the whole, the flavors give the impression that this is a fairly young whiskey. How young I don’t know, but if I had to guess I’d say right around 5-6 years. It doesn’t have much of the body or depth of sweet flavors that other bourbons typically bring to the table. But in place of this is a pretty refreshing bourbon that has lots of citrus underscored by a layer of austere sweetness that helps to round it all out.
Yet, in the end the alcohol is much too hot and rough around the edges, and the citrus element a bit too bracing for my tastes.
I have to admit though, I like the label, with the look of old paper, the simple graphics, and the printed handwriting talking about the whiskey…
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George T. Stagg Bourbon 2009 Edition
George T. Stagg Bourbon is one of those rare spirits that leaves you in a state of awe after you’ve tried it. This is due as much to the staggeringly high percentage (70.7%) as to the incredible quality of the whiskey itself. I still remember the first time I had the chance to try Stagg. It was the 2007 release, and I remember being immediately taken with its deft combination of finesse and power, like a velvet glove cast in iron. It rolled across your palate, teetering on the edge between delivering powerful waves of flavor and obliterating your taste buds completely. Absolutely spellbinding.
The Stagg bottling is part of Buffalo Trace’s annual Antique Collection that also features the Eagle Rare 17-Year, W.L. Weller Cask-Strength, Sazerac 18-Year Rye, and Thomas Handy Sazerac 6-Year Cask-Strength Rye. There’s good reason that these bottles are in high demand upon release, and very hard to find. Each offering in the Collection is a reliably excellent whiskey, and on most occasions outright brilliant. Of them all, the W.L. Weller remains my favorite, but it’s a tough call, as they’re all so good. But among them all, the Stagg really does stand out.
One element that I’ve always found interesting, is how Stagg’s percentage is always so high, 70.7% this year. In past years it has ranged from a low of 65.45% to a high of 72.4%. This is striking to me, considering that a cask-strength scotch typically weighs in somewhere between 55-60%. Why the difference?
When Scotch producers fill barrels with new-make spirit, they typically dilute it 63.5%. This has long been considered the optimal percentage at which to initiate a whisky’s aging process. Over the course of time then, the amount of alcohol in the whisky drops. If we assume that Buffalo Trace fills their casks with 63.5% whiskey too (I haven’t been able to find a source indicating the strength of the whisky when it is put in cask), then we’re witnessing the opposite phenomena here. The amount of alcohol in the whiskey is rising, not dropping. We see the same thing happening with the W.L. Weller and Thomas Handy bottlings as well.
The difference is the result of the different humidity levels in the environment that the whisk(e)y is aging in. The air in a warehouse full of casks in Scotland is more humid than the air in one of the buildings that Buffalo Trace is aging their whiskey in. The more humid the air is, the less water will evaporate from the whisky. Instead, alcohol evaporates from the whisky. Thus, while scotch ages, it loses more alcohol than it does water, in effect lowering the alcohol level of the whisky. In contrast, because the air is drier in a bourbon warehouse, more water evaporates from the whiskey than alcohol, and the exact opposite takes place – the alcohol percentage of the whiskey rises because more water is evaporating than alcohol.
So it basically comes down to humidity levels. More humidity – as in Scotland – results in dropping alcohol levels. Less humidity – as in a warehouse in Kentucky – results in rising alcohol levels. Now, there are sure to be exceptions to this. But from what I have seen thus far, this is a general pattern.
In the end, we have a bottle of George T. Stagg bourbon that weighs in at 70.7%. The first question is: is it drinkable at this percentage? In my experience it is only just drinkable at 70+%. Very, very small sips. But fortunately, it’s great whiskey, and takes well to a bit of water to mellow it out. So make sure you have your dribbler handy when you pour a glass of this elixir.
The whiskey pours the color of mahogany. The nose is very sweet, with rich, warm notes of caramel and vanilla, crushed almonds, and grade B maple syrup. The palate kicks off with caramel and brown sugar, slowly opening up to include walnuts, spicy resin and a shade of wood smoke. The texture is rich and luxurious, with a definite bite to it, even after adding water. The finish concludes with flavors of salted caramel and mesquite honey.
A very big whiskey, that brings loads of flavors to the table. I don’t think it’s overly dynamic, but it makes up for with the sheer power of the flavors that it conveys. You’ll likely need to ease your way through a glass of this, but it will be a very enjoyable journey.
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Yamazaki 18-Year
There are a couple of different versions of how the Japanese whisky industry began. Regardless of which version you hear or believe, the two principal figures at the start of whisky history in Japan were Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru, who came together in 1923 at the founding of the Yamazaki distillery.
Torii had been a whisky importer and had produced his own blend of Scotch whisky in the early part of the century. But his real aim was to build the first Japanese distillery. In 1923 he hired Taketsuru, an equally if not more compelling figure when viewed through the lens of history. Taketsuru had travelled to Scotland in the latter half of the 1910’s and had worked at a couple of different distilleries during this time. His love affair with Scotch whisky firmly in-place, he moved back to Japan with the goal of starting a Japanese distillery.
Taketsuru wanted to produce a whisky similar to the smoky whiskies he had been part of producing in Scotland, a goal that would be postponed until a later date. Instead, when he and Torii came together in 1923, they created a whisky that may have lacked some of the smokiness Taketsuru was fond of, but quickly gained in popularity nonetheless. A few years later, Taketsuru embarked on his own distilling adventure, founding the Nikka Yoichi distillery in Hokkaido in 1934.
Today, Japanese whisky is a rare find in America. The only company exporting any whisky to the US from Japan is Suntory, who produce Yamazaki (among other brand names). A few different bottlings of Yamazaki reach the states, including the 12, 18, and 25 year old bottlings, and a very limited 25-year distilled in 1984. Very recently, Suntory began exporting a new Japanese whisky to the states, the Hibiki 12-year old.
I recently read an interesting article about Japanese whisky in the Malt Advocate, and was intrigued by the author’s description of Japanese whisky as being very well-balanced and delicate in flavor, similar in a way to Japanese food. I was in the midst of preparing for a tasting that was to include the Yamazaki 12-year, and in preparing some notes and tasting through the whiskies, I was surprised to find this description to be somewhat apt.
The Yamazaki 18-year is aged in a combination of three types of casks, American bourbon, Spanish sherry, and Japanese oak. The result is an intriguing interplay of flavors from the different types of woods and liquids they previously held. Without a doubt, there is a strong element of oak in the whisky, but it plays off well against the other flavors, and is supported by a nicely structured body.
The whisky is the color of liquid gold with a burned, amber hue to it. The nose has fresh notes of citrus and vanilla, and sweeter notes of raisins and brown sugar. The palate has piercing notes of cedar, caramel, crème anglaise, and a slight citrus astringency. The body is light but firm, not heavy on the palate but not feeling thin and watery either. There is a warming sweetness on the finish, with initial flavors of caramelized sugars giving way to molasses and then angling back towards yummy crème brulee.
I really enjoyed this whisky, I must say. I was pretty skeptical about it, having never heard much about it, and was (snobbishly) skeptical when I saw that it had a screw top. But the flavors are nicely balanced, and it is a great sipping whisky. Having also tried the 12-year, I think the 18 is really a class above its younger sibling, so if you’re thinking of picking up one of the two, I’d definitely recommend the 18-year.
Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 Year Rye
The Pappy Van Winkle line of whiskies is one of my favorite collections out there today. From the ground up it’s a family of great to excellent bourbons, from the Old Rip Van Winkle all the way up to the Pappy Van Winkle 23-year. But it may be the Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 Year Rye that I get the most excited about.
While I thoroughly enjoy a good bourbon, and firmly believe that bourbon deserves a place in every whisk(e)y drinker’s quiver (especially those whisk(e)y drinkers that enjoy a good cigar here and there, as I’m nearly convinced that bourbon marries beautifully with a cigar), a good rye can really knock my socks off in a way that bourbons never quite manage. I’ve been lucky enough to try some great ryes, including the Black Maple Hill 18-year and 23-year, the Sazerac Thomas Handy 6-year and 18-year, and the Rittenhouse 23-year, and in each case have been spellbound by the dimensions of flavors that they exhibited, not just creamy caramels, but resins, spices, and fruits.
The Van Winkle 13-year Rye confirms the great experiences that I’ve had with these other ryes. And given the family’s distilling pedigree, it’s no real surprise.
The “Pappy” in Pappy Van Winkle is the original Julian P. “Pappy” Van Winkle who began work as a traveling salesman for the WL Weller & Sons wholesaler in Louisville in 1893, at the age of 18. In 1908, along with a partner he purchased the firm and later purchased a related company, the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery in Louisville, forming the Stitzel-Weller Distillery. The Stitzel distillery had been founded in 1872. Their prominent brands were W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell, and Cabin Still.
A new distillery was opened in Shively, Kentucky in 1935 when Pappy was 61, and he led operations there until 1963 at the age of 89. His son, Julian Jr., sold the distillery in 1972, but maintained ownership of the Van Winkle label. Since then he, and later his son Julian III, have continued to produce whiskey, renting time on other company’s stills. They first distilled at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery itself until 1992, then at the Bernheim Distillery, and later (and currently) at the Buffalo Trace Distillery (owned by Sazerac) in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Today, the Van Winkle whiskies include Old Rip Van Winkle, Rip Van Winkle 107, and the Van Winkle 12, 15, 20, and 23 year Bourbons. And, of course, the 13-year Rye.
Not only is the whiskey top notch, but the bottle is nice too, classy in a simple way with a tan label with red trim and black font. The label has, hand written, the number I2953, which I take to be either the number of the bottle, or the cask that they bottled. It was bottled at 47.8%.
In the glass, the whiskey is a shimmering, coppery gold. The nose has notes of hazelnuts, toffee, vanilla, caramel, and a whiff of citrus. The palate has a lighter texture and body than the nose would lead you to expect, albeit not in a bad way. It’s simply more refreshing than the sweet flavors on the nose would indicate. The flavors are composed of vanilla, toffee, slightly astringent citrus, oranges, and just a bit of zip from the alcohol. Very smooth and dangerously drinkable. On the finish the citrus and vanilla are dominant, rounded off by a soothing hint of buttered rum.
This rye is less peppery and more bourbon-like than others that I’ve tried. The caramel, toffee, and vanilla flavors are dominant, very reminiscent of the older Van Winkle bourbons. Definitely not a bad thing, as those are some fabulous whiskies, as is this one. And given the fact that it is also very affordable, I simply cannot recommend this whiskey highly enough – if you can find it. That’s the trick, this is a tough whiskey to find, as are most of the very nice ryes out there. So don’t hesitate if you see it. And then raise a glass to Pappy!
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