Category Archives: whiskey

Winter Bourbons

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stagg jr and weller bourbons

Just like I did with ryes last week, I’m working my way through some new bourbons, too. Here are two that have recently taken their places on my “sipping bourbon” shelf:

Stagg Jr. Barrel Proof. This variety of Stagg comes in at a huge 130+ proof,….like it says, barrel proof (most whiskeys come out of the barrel at a higher proof than they’re bottled at). I’ve been drinking Stagg Jr. in 1 oz splashes with lots of ice, and this is a very palatable bourbon. Because of both the strength and the dark label on the back, this pours in a darker, tobacco-brown color as opposed to your usual copper bourbons. I found Stagg to be surprisingly rich and spicy – it’s a mouth-filling flavor with hints of licorice and clove. I tasted more spice than the sweet corn bourbon that I was expecting. As a high-quality bourbon that’s high proof, Stagg Jr. will run you $80-110.

W.L. Weller Special Reserve. Billed at the “original wheated bourbon” (we’re talking to you, Makers), Weller is a nicely balanced bourbon, and through it has a maple sweetness, there’s a good big mid palate woodiness, too to round it out. This is an easy drinking bourbon that has the elements you’ve come to love: sweet, spice, woody, and smooth. Weller 7 year is around $50 a bottle.

Happy Rye-day!

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sazerac and e.h. taylor rye

In winter, there are usually lots more opportunities to drink whiskies of all sorts, as our gins and vodkas take a break until the warm weather returns. I’m not shy about the fact that I love rye whiskey, so I dug up a few brands that I haven’t tried yet and gave them a sip.

Sazerac Rye. Named for the official cocktail of New Orleans (or is it the other way around?), Sazerac is a spicy, quality offering that Lisa and I tasted on a recent podcast. A sexy and slender bottle that would look great as a Christmas gift, this version embodies the spice and bite that you’ve come to expect from a rye. This is a good choice rye for the cocktail that bears it’s name, and is a quality sipper for the price, too. $30.

Col. E. H. Taylor Rye. A more premium product, Col. Taylor’s Rye is very different than Sazerac. It has the scent of homemade candy and has a more complex profile than just your standard rye spice. Taylor starts sweet and drys out into a woody richness as it coats your mouth. I made an outstanding Manhattan [recipe] with this whiskey, but this one is for the person who just prefers to savor a quality rye slowly…it’s awesome. $70

Porter’s Fire

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porter's fire

As interest moves from flavored vodka in the booze industry, we’re seeing more flavored whiskies arrive to replace them. I recently heard of Porter’s Fire and had to try it – it’s a whiskey liqueur from Ogden’s Own Distillery in Ogden, Utah.

Porter’s Fire is named for Orrin Porter Rockwell, a guy I hadn’t heard of, but Ogden’s tells us: “With his long, flowing hair and beard and his run-ins with the law, Orrin Porter Rockwell was one of the most colorful characters in the history of the Mormon church. He was a close friend of Joseph Smith in New York. It is probable the Rockwell was the youngest member of the LDS church as its inception.”

Like we discussed in our podcast this week, it’s an interesting choice to marry your liquor branding with the Mormons (especially since they don’t drink), but it’s certainly a understandable branding choice for a Utah distillery.

Porter’s Fire is a Canadian whiskey combined with cinnamon and vanilla liqueur. It’s 35% alcohol, and I gotta tell you: the flavor of this liqueur is SO familiar and SO reminiscent of Chila Orchata and RumChata, that I had make a cocktail with them. This is very much a non-creamy version of those horchata liqueurs, I’d almost bet you that you would have trouble telling them apart in a blind taste test. You can also taste the same flavor profile of Five Wives Sinful (Cinnamon Vodka from Ogden’s) too. All 4 of those products feel like they’re seasoned and flavored almost the exact same way, and all of these make for some really simple, tasty Christmastime cocktails too. Here’s a cocktail to try (pictured above):

Sinful Cinnamon Cocktail (by Greg Mays)

  • in a shaker, combine:
  • 2 oz Porter’s Fire Cinnamon Whiskey Liqueur
  • 1 oz Chila Orchata
  • shake well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a cinnamon stick

Penny Packer Bourbon

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penny packer bourbon and commodore cocktail

Imagine a bourbon that you can’t buy in the United States, but has been the biggest bourbon brand in Germany. Confused? Let’s try to explain this: the Penny Packer brand was developed in the 60’s and, as required by law, distilled and aged in the United States. Then, all of this particular bourbon was exported to other countries for decades. That’s how it got huge in Germany, apparently.

Now it’s 2014, and you can buy this decades-old bourbon brand the the U.S. All caught up? Good. Penny Packer is inexpensive, running just over $20 a bottle, and there’s even a $5 rebate if you buy before the end of 2014.

Penny Packer is a good bourbon for the price. It avoids the alcohol “hotness” that inexpensive liquor can have. It’s somewhere in the middle on the sweetness scale. Certainly not as sweet as Maker’s Mark, but not as spicy as Bulleit can be. This is going to sounds strange, but I kept drinking Penny Packer over the course of several weeks to figure out why (or ever if) I actually liked the stuff. I think I can say that if you prefer your whiskey to be balanced between spicy and sweet, this will be a fun one to try, and for the price, why not? It’s balanced, and (sorry) cheap, so it’s a worthwhile purchase.

Here’s a bourbon cocktail you can try with it:

Commodore

  • in a shaker filled with ice, combine:
  • 2 oz bourbon
  • 3/4 oz white creme de cacao (chocolate liqueur)
  • 1/2 oz lime juice
  • 1 dash grenadine
  • shake and strain into a champagne flute
  • garnish with a lemon wheel

Affinity Cocktail

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affinity cocktail

I’ve noticed that many of the early 1900s cocktails are comprised of liquor mixed with with varying ratios of vermouths, each one of them with a different flavor profile. Here’s a 2:1:1 ratio drink that follows that classic formula. It’s beautifully classy and it tastes awesome, too.

Affinity Cocktail

  • in a stirring glass add:
  • 1 oz white (dry) vermouth
  • 1 oz red (sweet) vermouth
  • 2 oz scotch
  • 2 dashes of bitters
  • stir with lots of ice until very cold
  • strain into a chilled cocktail glass
  • garnish with a lemon peel

Fat Trout Scotch

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fat trout scotch

I’ve spoken about it before, but it’s been quite a process for me to become a scotch drinker. As such, the majority of scotch that I am sent are low-dollar blended scotches that are typically less than $30 a bottle. Fat Trout is no exception – it’s a $25 blended scotch.

A relatively new U.S. import, The Fat Trout is branded the “Sportman’s Choice” by the bottler and aged a minimum of three years, which is relatively young for scotch. The initial scent of Fat Trout is bananas and tropical fruit, certainly quite sweet. When tasting, this scotch is a touch immature, with a stronger flavor on the tongue that’s not as sweet as it smells.

In you can imagine a spectrum that includes American-palate-friendly scotches on one end (like Dewars or Johnnie Walker), and smoky, peaty scotches on the other (like Bruichladdich or Laphroig), I’d place The Fat Trout at maybe the 25% mark. It has a richer barley bite and a touch of peat, but it’s definitely not as polarizing as some of the advanced single malts that I’ve tried.  

Ultimately, at $25, this is a good baby-step scotch for an American whiskey drinker. The Fat Trout is not too complex, and this whisky has a pretty pleasant sweet nose+barley flavor combination that inserts it into the flavor midrange of scotches.

Los Angeles Cocktail

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los angeles cocktail

I have several cocktail books that I find recipes in, and while I love books like The Savoy and Jerry Thomas, these 100-year-old guides often have recipes that are hard to follow or antiquated. With drinks like smashes and sangarees and measurement sizes like ponys and wineglasses, I browse through them regularly, but hardly ever choose recipes to make cocktails from.

One of the most useful recipe books I have, though, with a nice balance between old school and modern, is Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide. I was flipping through Trader Vic’s this weekend and found a tasty recipe for a Los Angeles cocktail. It’s rich and refreshing, with similarities to a Whiskey Sour. Try it out:

Los Angeles Cocktail

  • in a shaker, combine:
  • 1 1/2 oz of bourbon
  • 1 dash of Italian (red) vermouth
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • 1 egg
  • juice of 1/4 lemon
  • dry shake (no ice) the ingredients, then add ice and shake well
  • pour into a cocktail glass or small old fashioned and garnish with a lemon slice

Crater Lake Rye

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Crater Lake Rye

Crater Lake has a wide range of spirits (distilled by Bendistillery), though this rye is their first aged spirit,. Until now, it was just clear stuff – gins (which I really liked) and vodkas.

I love rye whiskey, and this is a decent one, though a tad on the mild side. Crater Lake is a nice, copper colored whiskey that’s 95% rye and 40% alcohol. Even with 95% of the grain being rye, the spice is pretty tame. Maybe this is because of the 40% alcohol level (some of the more premium ryes can be as high at 60%), or maybe it’s something in the aging (Crater Lake doesn’t list the age of this whiskey).

At $30, Crater Lake Rye will get you a whiskey that has a really nice smell, some marzipan/almond sweetness in the flavor, with a touch of apricots and cherry. The alcohol hits you in the nose a little bit, particularly for a lower-alcohol spirit. It is a good cocktail rye, and it’s a good sipper too.

Jack Daniel’s Rested Rye

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jack daniel's rested rye

Jack Daniel’s is working quickly to get into the increasingly important rye whiskey game. Months back, they released an unaged limited-edition taste of their rye to retail, and now, it’s time for a rested version, 2 years in a barrel, still limited-edition, and still not a finished product. It’s an interesting way to ramp up a product which must age for several years before it’s finished, and it’s certainly a unique approach to marketing an aged spirit.

At $50 a bottle, Rested Rye is mostly a collector’s purchase, since it won’t be available long-term. I’m under the impression that 4 years is the goal for the final Jack Daniel’s Rye product, so this whiskey is young and brash, and everybody knows it. Other than the brashness, the flavor starts with a sweetness that’s particularly unique to Jack: like pancakes with maple syrup. The flavor ends up with a charred wood flavor that’s a touch bitter.

The rough edges of Rested Rye will be sorted out as the product ages, and I will say something I recall thinking when I tried the unaged version: this is a unique rye whiskey, particularly in the sweetness of the flavor. There’s no shortage of great ryes on the shelf, but having Jack in the game is still a very welcome addition.

Loch Lomond

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loch lomond cocktail

Here’s another simple scotch cocktail, which reminds me a bit of the cocktail that Mark Twain loved. It’s matches the 100-year-old cocktail definition perfectly: spirit, bitters, sugar, and water. Enjoy!

Loch Lomond

  • 1 1/2 oz scotch
  • 3 dashes bitters
  • 1 tsp simple syrup
  • shake with ice and strain into a small chilled cocktail glass