Ten Suggestions For Bourbon Beginners.

You don't have to start with Jack and Jim if you don't want to, and you shouldn't start with George T. Stagg or Pappy 23, even if you can. Here are ten bourbons, each from a different distillery or recipe, that should give you a good introduction to the bourbon landscape. (They are in no particular order.)

1.  Maker's Mark. (Beam Inc.) The brand that made the others possible by showing that you can successfully position bourbon as a quality product on par with any of the world's great distilled spirits. Wheat rather than rye in the mash makes it sweeter and milder than a typical bourbon but it has enough depth and richness to satisfy sophisticated sippers.

2.  Knob Creek. (Beam Inc.) Launched more than 20 years ago and the leader in its segment, Knob is Jim Beam juice aged for nine years and bottled at 50% ABV. It has a thick, smoky flavor with touches of anise, clove, and bitter lemon, and finishes surprisingly clean.

3. Woodford Reserve (Brown-Forman) The picturesque distillery in Versailles, Kentucky, uses Scottish-made pot stills but your bottle contains both bourbon made there and at the company's conventional distillery near Louisville. Rich, warm vanilla fudge with plum and white pepper.

4.  Eagle Rare Single Barrel (Sazerac) It's ten-years-old, 45% ABV, and single barrel, all packed into a beautiful bottle. The whiskey has a huge mouth feel, lots of caramel and vanilla, with a hint of licorice.

5.  Bulleit. (Diageo) It's a family name, pronounced like the projectile. It's bourbon, so mostly corn, but not shy about its rye, containing about twice as much of that spicy and flavorful grain as any other bourbon, giving it an earthy sharpness on top of a silky corn base. No age statement, 45% ABV.

6.  Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage. (Heaven Hill) If you want to taste the best whiskey Parker and Craig Beam made in any given year, this is the place to find it. It varies from year-to-year and barrel-to-barrel, but always has a hearty flavor with plenty of tobacco and dark fruit, with a hint of mint. Nine-years-old, 43.2% ABV.

7.  Russell's Reserve Bourbon. (Campari America) Named in honor of veteran Master Distiller Jimmy Russell, this bourbon is 10-years-old and 45% ABV. It offers rich, buttery caramel overlaid with earthy pipe tobacco, cumin, lemon, and black pepper, and is probably the best introduction to the Wild Turkey family.

8.  Ridgemont Reserve 1792. (Sazerac) Made at the only distillery within the city limits of Bardstown, the self-proclaimed Bourbon Capital of the Known Universe, it is eight-years-old, 46.85% ABV, with a full, round, sumptuous body and slightly nutty flavor that comes from the high percentage of malt in the mash.

9.  Four Roses. (Kirin) Known as yellow label to distinguish it from the single barrel and small batch expressions, it is full beneficiary of the distillery's unique practice of making and mixing together ten different bourbon recipes. No age statement, 40% ABV.

10.  Weller 12-Year-Old. (Sazerac) Often in short supply, and with good reason, it substitutes wheat for rye like Maker's and Old Fitzgerald, but with a lot more wood time. Good thing, because the wood tannins balance a sweetness that might be too much without them. Bottled at 45% ABV.

If you've already had all these, congratulations. You're no longer a beginner.

Why The Bourbon Country Reader Is Not Available Electronically.

I often receive inquiries about making my American whiskey newsletter, The Bourbon Country Reader, available electronically.

Although Kindle's system for e-publishing periodicals is a bit over my head, I really can't plead technical difficulty. It would be easy enough to distribute is as a PDF, since that's how I deliver it to the printer.

The truth is, I'm reluctant to put them into circulation electronically. People are just too caviler about the way they share intellectual property. Tell you what; just because it's you, if you will click on the newsletter icon to the right (or here), I will give you one free sample issue.

But, really, I get it. I have two alternative solutions. You are reading one of them. Obviously, the blog is free, and although I may cover some of the same subjects in both, there is virtually no overlap between the newsletter and blog. This is your free taste. If you want more, pony up for one or more of the choices on the right.

Please note that I'm not sponsored by any distilled spirits company. Similarly, The Bourbon Country Reader accepts no advertising. My magazine writing is strictly freelance, piecework, I don't have a staff gig at any publication or, for that matter, anywhere. I have been self-employed for close to 30 years. You know how you like to go to the farmer's market and buy carrots directly from the farmer? Well, that's me. I'm the farmer.

I don't use Google Ads or any other advertising here on the blog. The only advertising I subject you to is for my products, the stuff over there on the right, all of which I personally endorse.

The Hirsch book is an example of the other alternative solution to distributing The Reader electronically, which is to take stories from past issues, perhaps (as I did with Hirsch) enlarge them a bit, and then release them as ebooks.

I also sell back issues of the newsletter but those are on that pesky paper too. If you would like to influence my future ebook output, look at The Bourbon Country Reader Issue Contents in Chronological Order, which is the back issues index, and suggest stories you would like to read. Click on my profile, to the right, for my email address.

If you want to do that, that would be great.

While we're on the subject of The Bourbon Country Reader, I have a message for current subscribers. Yes, the current issue is overdue. I'll get it out shortly, I promise.

If You Have A Hirsch, Drink It.

I'm already receiving enthusiastic feedback on the new A. H. Hirsch ebook.

Naturally, many people tell me their personal Hirsch stories. Some say they have a bottle or two, but are reluctant to open them due to their rarity and value. Allow me to give you permission to treat yourself. I say this for the following reasons.

1. The pure principle that whiskey is for drinking, not for looking at. The fullest way to appreciate what you have is to experience it. If you've never tasted the A. H. Hirsch bourbon and you can, what are you waiting for? A special occasion? Opening a bottle of A. H. Hirsch Special Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a special occasion. Experience is always worth more than expectation.

2. Don't pay too much attention to the 'soaring prices' you may hear about for A. H. Hirsch and products like it. They can be misleading. Legal restrictions on the resale of alcohol generally keep people from selling even very valuable bottles, so your supposed profit might be hard to realize. Likewise, when you see high retail prices, you might consider that it's not selling at that price and that's why the store still has it.

Have fun with it. Tell yourself and whoever you invite to share it with you that you are opening a $1,000 bottle of whiskey. How many chances will you have to do that?

A few people have reminded me that some stores didn't do very well with the Hirsch and eventually blew it out at bargain prices, such as $25 for the 16-year-old and $40 for the 20-year-old. One control state did a close-out of them so my correspondent visited as many state stores as he could, cleaning each out in turn. He still has a few bottles in reserve.

Remember this fun fact. All of the A. H. Hirsch bourbon was distilled in the spring of 1974. It first entered commerce in 1989. It was readily available in many retail outlets at sub-$100 prices for the next 20 years. It was only after Preiss did the $1,500 'farewell' decanter that people began to realize they had missed something.

I've also been reminded that it is not universally admired. I love the stuff, but that's just me.

I recently saw a spectacular whiskey collection that includes about 20 bottles of A. H. Hirsch, in every iteration except the 15-year-old.

If you are dying to taste it but don't have a bottle and don't know how to get one, keep your ear to the ground and ask around. Just remember that selling alcohol without a license, under any circumstances, is bootlegging and very illegal. Most of the people who have bottles they would like to sell would like to do so legally. Maybe someone cleverer than me can figure out a way to make that happen.

All of this is what makes it such a fascinating story.

The New A. H. Hirsch Ebook Is Now Available.

A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a legendary spirit whose rise paralleled the revival of the American whiskey industry itself after nearly 30 years of flat sales and discouraged marketers. It's also the story of a small distillery in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, whose fame dates back to the 1750s, and whose final collapse prefaced its famous product's reign.

If you're a whiskey fan and you've had it, you know. If you're a whiskey fan and you haven't, you should.

Too bad, it's all gone.

Or is it?

Seemingly the story of a single product, The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste touches numerous strands of American history and includes a colorful cast of characters, from the whiskey-making Beams, to the giants of the post-Prohibition distilled spirits business, to the mysterious Mr. Hirsch himself. A great product needs a great story, and A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey had that in abundance.

It was only around for about 20 years and is now largely out of distribution but if you really want to taste it, that just might be possible.

Long a subject of rumor and speculation, the true story can now be told. 

The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste. The True Story Of A. H. Hirsch Reserve Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Distilled In The Spring Of 1974, is now available as an ebook in the Kindle or Nook format. You don't need a Kindle or Nook to read an ebook. You can download a free reader for PCs and smart phones, or you can just read it using your web browser. Kindle seems to be compatible with every platform except Nook and Nook seems to be compatible with every platform except Kindle.

Click here to see it on Kindle (Amazon).

Click here to see it on Nook (Barnes & Noble).

The GMO In The Julep.

I talked to a reporter yesterday and she was nice enough to send me a link to the published piece. Here it is.

The headline is certainly a grabber: "Derby Shocker: Does Your Mint Julep Contain GMOs? Most Kentucky bourbon is made with genetically modified corn. We’ll tell you what to buy instead."

Despite the provocative headline, the short article itself is very well done and she accurately reports the issue as the industry sees it. A good business person tries to satisfy his or her customers. If customers want bourbon made from non-GMO corn, the producers will try to give it to them. That doesn't mean anyone in the business believes there is anything wrong with bourbon made from genetically-modified corn. It just means we are, as Paul Simon sang, "trying to keep the customers satisfied."

Obviously, if the GMO issue begins to hurt our non-U.S. sales that will be a big problem, as export has been a key driver in the revival of American whiskey.

How big an issue is it, really? My guess is I'll catch more flack for my description of the proper way to drink a mint julep.

Limestone Branch Distillery, Lebanon, Kentucky.

This past Friday I visited Limestone Branch, a new micro-distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky. Its proprietors are brothers Steve and Paul Beam, who are descended from both the Beams (Minor Case Beam via Guy Beam) and the Dants (Joseph Washington Dant via William Washington Dant).

I had a very pleasant time visiting with Steve Beam, seeing the place, and tasting the products.

Limestone Branch is in a handsome, purpose-built structure on about 25 acres just outside of Lebanon. They have two lakes on the property, which has a lot of potential for walking paths and other uses. Conveniently, Steve is a landscape architect by training.

The brothers Beam make everything themselves with help from their father, who worked at Cummins-Collins in Athertonville, among other distilleries. They grew some of their own corn on the distillery grounds. They make a very clean spirit, with good flavor, and little harshness or burn. They're double-distilling. Their doubler is a 150-gallon handmade copper Hoga.

Everything they are selling now is unaged but they do have some product, including a bourbon, in barrels.

In addition to the distillery itself there is a comfortable tasting room (including some seating outside), a gift shop, and a small museum. Lebanon has only recently shown up on my radar. It's a lovely little town with a nice historic core. The big attraction for bourbon fans is Kentucky Cooperage, the Kentucky branch of Independent Stave, which makes most of the barrels for the bourbon industry. Lebanon is the seat of Marion County, which as the name suggests was founded by and still has a large Catholic population.

I also recommend the Cedarwood Restaurant, which is just west of the cooperage, for authentic country cooking and ambiance.

Limestone Branch's brand is T. J. Pottinger, which was one of the brands, along with Old Trump, made by Minor Case Beam at his distillery in Nelson County, which merged with Dant's Yellowstone and operated there until Prohibition. Pottinger was a prominent distiller, miller, and landowner. He founded the town of New Haven, which is still home to many members of the Beam and related families.

Limestone Branch is one of the micro-distillery members of the Kentucky Distillers Association. Kentucky was somewhat late to the micro-distillery game, but it's a natural place for them and guys like Steve Beam are making up for lost time.

In light of yesterday's post, it may seem hypocritical of me to write positively about a distillery that is selling a corn whiskey labeled as moonshine and a half-corn, half-sugar spirit called sugar shine. It may be a fine distinction, but they aren't romanticizing crime or criminality, it's about the products themselves. T. J. Pottinger was not a moonshiner. Sugar shine is an authentic recipe and representative of what at least some moonshine used to be. Most of it today is 100 percent sugar. I would be happier if they dropped the 'moonshine' name from the corn whiskey and just called it what it is.

Clyde May's Whiskey Tries The “Les Mis” Defense.

Clyde May's Alabama Style Whiskey

The hero in “Les Mis” is a good man hounded by a mad policeman for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family.

Something like that.

The “Les Mis” defense is tricky as a literary device, let alone a legal defense, since you have to turn a criminal into a hero. As Victor Hugo proved, to get there you have to really stack the deck.

Although not accepted by any courts, the “Les Mis” defense has popular appeal. That's why Spirits Acquisitions Inc. is using it to re-launch the whiskey formerly known as Conecuh Ridge.

Here’s the angle (from the company's press release):

“Clyde May’s Whiskey is an American spirit that captures the spirit of a real American.

"Clyde May, a World War II veteran, returned home to Alabama to farm his land and raise his family. Though Clyde reared eight children, his farming endeavors were not as successful. He turned to the illegal trade of whiskey-making…to help supplement his income.”

In other words, if you’re a veteran, and better at making babies than earning money, it’s okay -- even noble -- to turn to crime. When you romanticize criminal activity to commercialize it, this is where you go.

Patrick McGeeney, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Spirit Acquisitions Inc., didn’t do anything to soften the metaphor, he doubled down on it. “We are proud to relaunch this legendary brand. Clyde May was a true American hero who risked the law in order to provide for his family. He had a reputation for honesty, integrity and producing the finest whiskey in the area. We intend to stay true to Mr. May’s values and bring his whiskey back to life.”

Clyde May was an American hero who just did what he had to do to feed his family. You know, like Al Capone.

Spirit Acquisitions doesn’t mention that the first attempt to market this product, beginning about ten years ago, blew up when the president of the predecessor company, Clyde May’s son Kenny, got caught by Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control illegally selling whiskey from the trunk of his car.

Way to stay true to Clyde’s values, Kenny.

An august group like the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) should tell McGeeney that there is no place for a product like this in the American alcoholic beverages industry. Associating its products with crime and criminals is just about the stupidest thing an industry constantly under siege by neo-Prohibitionists could do.

Naturally, the WSWA gave Clyde May’s Whiskey a Gold Medal instead.