Whiskeys Top Shanken's 'Hot Prospects.'

For the first time ever, the whiskey category has the highest number of brands in Impact’s spirits 'Hot Prospect' rankings. Seven whiskey brands earned Hot Prospect honors for 2011, narrowly edging out vodka, which had six.

The winning whiskies are Woodford Reserve Bourbon from Brown-Forman, Pendleton Canadian whisky from Hood River Distillers, Bulleit Bourbon from Diageo North America, Glenmorangie single malt Scotch from Moët Hennessy USA, The Balvenie single malt Scotch from William Grant & Sons USA, Devil’s Cut Bourbon from Beam Inc. and Seagram’s 7 Dark Honey from Diageo North America.

The Hot Prospects designation is for brands that posted at least 15 percent depletions growth in 2011, while also showing consistent growth in 2009 and 2010. Brand volume must be at least 50,000 cases but not more than 200,000 cases. New products can also qualify as Hot Prospects if they pass the 50,000-case mark in their first year.

Also on the list, as a liqueur, is Evan Williams Honey Reserve from Heaven Hill. It is through only the narrowest of technical distinctions that Evan Williams Honey is considered a liqueur while Seagram's 7 Dark Honey is considered whiskey. Both can be found in the American whiskey section of most liquor stores.

That the list includes more bourbons than single malt scotches is notable. That it includes flavored whiskeys at all raises worries about category confusion, but also shows that these products have developed a strong following in a short time. Seagram's 7 Crown, the #1 American Blended Whiskey, has been a moribund brand in a moribund segment, making the rise of Dark Honey a surprise.

Come See Me In Frankfort This Coming Saturday.

Rachael tells me there are still a few tickets left for "American Whiskey 101 with Charles Cowdery" at Capital Cellars, 227 W. Broadway, Frankfort, Kentucky, this Saturday, April 28, from 4 to 6 PM.

The class will be an introduction to bourbon and other American whiskeys, but we'll get as 'advanced' as the class wants and time permits.

You’ll learn what whiskey is, how it compares to other distilled spirits, and how American whiskey compares to other world whiskeys, such as scotch, Canadian, and Irish. Production methods, recipes, tasting techniques, and history are all covered.

And we will taste four, maybe five whiskeys (Class Theme: "All Bourbon, All 100 proof and Above"). The class will be informal and student participation is encouraged. You'll also have a chance to buy copies of my book, Bourbon, Straight, and my DVD documentary, "Made and Bottled in Kentucky."

Cost is $30 ($25 for Cru Club Members). Contact Rachael Peake at Capital Cellars, 502-352-2600, for more information.

LDI Determined To Remain A Mystery.

Fans of American whiskey will sometimes see an unfamiliar label on a liquor store shelf and wonder if they have discovered some previously-unknown distillery. In most cases, what they have found is either an obscure brand from a major distiller, or the product of a non-distiller using whiskey bought from one of the majors.

These days it might also be the product of a micro-distillery, but they are easy to spot and their combined whiskey output doesn’t amount to 1/10 of one percent of US whiskey production.

A straight rye might come from a non-US distillery, such as WhistlePig from Canada, but if it’s bourbon and not from a micro or defunct distillery (now very rare), then it was made by one of the thirteen US whiskey distilleries that are currently active.

If a bottle is bottom shelf, possibly a store brand, vague origins are no big deal. If you don’t pay much you don’t expect much.

But if the product has a premium price you are smart to ask questions and the first and most obvious one is, “who made this?”

Which brings us back to those thirteen large distilleries that produce 99.9 percent of the whiskey made in the USA.

Nine of them are so open they give regular public tours. Three of the remaining four give occasional press and trade tours. That leaves one.

Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana LLC, usually abbreviated as LDI.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana is near Cincinnati and developed in the 19th century as the main distilling center for spirits brokered and distributed through Cincinnati firms. Until the American distilling industry began its big contraction in the 1970s, two of the Big Four -- Seagrams and Schenley -- had large whiskey plants there.

LDI is the old Seagrams place. It traces its roots back to 1847, although little is known about its early days. The name was Rossville then and after 1875 it was owned by the James Walsh Company. They operated it up to Prohibition, and even during Prohibition under a medicinal whiskey license.

At the end of Prohibition, Walsh sold Rossville to Seagrams, which expanded it and operated it until that company was sold for parts in 2001. Pernod-Ricard had it until 2007, then sold it to Angostura, the current owner.

LDI is actually two distilleries. The larger one makes neutral spirits (vodka and gin) while the smaller one makes whiskey. It has maturation warehouses and a bottling house. According to the LDI web site, it sits on 78 acres and is one of the largest beverage alcohol distilleries in the world. It makes distilled and compound gin, corn whiskey, rye whiskey, and three different bourbons.

Of greatest interest to the enthusiast community are their rye, which is 95 percent rye grain, 5 percent malt; and their high-rye bourbon, which is 60 percent corn, 36 percent rye, 4 percent malt.

Unlike the other twelve major whiskey distilleries in the USA, LDI makes no brands of its own. It sells its entire output in bulk to other producers, large and small, up to and including Diageo (Bulleit 95 Rye) and Pernod (Seagrams Gin). Some LDI whiskey in current distribution was brokered by Pernod, the rest seemingly comes from LDI directly.

In that word “seemingly” lies the rub. The people who run LDI won’t give interviews, at least not to me. Some of LDI’s customers will provide a little bit of information but they don’t necessarily know very much, except what type of whiskey they bought and the fact that LDI made it.

Being secretive and close-mouthed is what bulk producers do. Heaven Hill has always had a big bulk whiskey business but getting them to talk about it is like pulling teeth. Four Roses and Brown-Forman will both confirm that they sell whiskey to Diageo, primarily white dog that Diageo barrels and ages in the maturation warehouses at Stitzel-Weller near Louisville. Buffalo Trace has been in and out of the bulk business and currently says it is out, including at its Tom Moore Distillery, which sold bulk when it was owned by Constellation. Everybody sells bulk whiskey from time to time, to adjust their inventory or when the price is just too good to pass up.

Neither the producers nor their customers will say much about the bulk whiskey business. Since a bulk producer doesn’t really know what happens to the whiskey after it leaves their plant, and since they don’t own the brand names under which it is sold, their reluctance makes a kind of sense. If a marketing company wants you to think it’s really a distiller, as some do, its reluctance to talk about the real producer makes sense too.

Or consider this. Diageo confirms that its new Bulleit 95 Rye is LDI. The LDI high-rye bourbon mash bill is the same as the one Four Roses makes, which is no surprise since both plants used to be owned by Seagrams.

That bourbon recipe happens to be the Bulleit Bourbon recipe. Is Diageo taking spirit distilled in Indiana, aging it in Kentucky, mixing it with the all-Kentucky bourbon from Four Roses, and calling the whole thing “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey”?

Can they? The rules say producers may not misrepresent where a product was manufactured, but they don’t define ‘manufactured.’ They do say that when distilled spirits are bottled by or for a rectifier, the phrase ‘manufactured by’ may be used in lieu of the phrase ‘bottled by.’

If mere bottling is considered ‘manufacturing’ then surely aging is too.

Beyond the TTB’s general misrepresentation rule above, no entity regulates the use of ‘Kentucky’ in the phrase ‘Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.’ Nowhere is it decreed that whiskeys using the phrase must be distilled and aged in Kentucky.

So I’m not saying Diageo has done anything wrong if they are doing this, but it sure would be interesting to know.

Maybe that tells you why nobody wants to talk about LDI. The problem, of course, is that when you can’t get information from authoritative sources, the rumor mill takes over. I may hear something that doesn’t sound quite right but if I can’t get a company to confirm or deny a rumor there’s not much I can do to set the record straight.

The best hope is that LDI’s customers will convince them to open up. The place makes good and interesting whiskey. Somebody should be bragging about it.

Excerpts From "Made and Bottled in Kentucky."

"Made and Bottled in Kentucky" is my 1992 documentary about the Kentucky bourbon whiskey industry. I was going through some old videos and came across this clip of excepts from the doc. I think I made this for the Kentucky Distillers Association, which provided some of the funding for the project, but I'm not sure what they did with it. Anyway, though this is almost 20 years old, Jimmy Russell and Bill Samuels don't look much different.

The video is still available on DVD, either directly from me (that's it on the right, just below the book) or from Amazon.

Texas Bourbon All Gone.

Dan Garrison reported yesterday on his blog that it took just 10 days to sell the entire release of his 2008 Vintage Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey. (I told you about it here.)

But all is not lost if you'd still like to taste it. He further reports that all of the bars and restaurants around Fredericksburg bought plenty.

Cocktail Name Creep And Other Sins.

On Monday I was one of the judges at a fun event at The Violet Hour here in Chicago. It was a competition among six local bartenders to make a unique manhattan recipe using Woodford Reserve bourbon and any other ingredients of their choice. The competition is sponsored by Woodford Reserve, Esquire Magazine, and Akira (a fashion store). Monday's Chicago winner will go on to a finals competition in New York.

The event was fun and all of the people there were very nice. I watched each bartender prepare his or her drink, tasted each, and scored them according to the criteria given. They all tasted pretty good and were well and professionally made, but I have a philosophical objection to all of them.

I accept that drink creation is a very free and easy art form but to me, the baseline for a manhattan is that the whiskey should dominate. Although every drink on Monday night included Woodford Reserve bourbon, you could barely taste it in any of them. By 'dominate' I mean most of the drink, by volume, should be whiskey. That was not the case in any of Monday's recipes.

On TV's Iron Chef, one of the judging criteria is how well the dish expresses the theme ingredient. That was not one of the criteria on Monday. Good thing because had it been, everyone would have scored zero.

It has always been said that Americans like drinks that have a simple, sweet and (usually) fruity taste. In that regard the contestants Monday were doing what they're supposed to do, pleasing their customers. That's all well and good but for me, when I order a manhattan I want to taste the whiskey and if I can't, I'll be disappointed.

One of my fellow judges Monday was Paul McGee, bartender at The Whistler (2421 N Milwaukee Ave.), who pointed out that the manhattan, like the martini and other drinks whose ingredients all contain alcohol, is supposed to be stirred, not shaken. All of Monday's contestants shook. We asked one of them and, again, customer preference ("they like the show") was the explanation. Traditionally, the manhattan may be served straight up or on the rocks. No one Monday risked an on-the-rocks presentation either.

I suppose when 'creativity' is one of the criteria it is natural to veer away from tradition, but is nothing sacred?

Upcoming Bourbon Classes Taught By Me.

For the better part of this year I have been teaching classes for I Wish Lessons. The mission of I Wish Lessons is to make learning fun. How better to make learning fun than by drinking during class?

We hold the Introduction to Bourbon classes at Rocks Lincoln Park (1301 West Schubert, Chicago). The class starts at 7:00 PM, includes a tasting of four bourbons, and lasts about a hour, although one nice thing about doing it in a bar is that students can continue to 'learn' after the class concludes. I usually hang around to answer questions.

The schedule of bourbon classes from now until February is as follows:
Mon, Nov. 15, 2010
Thurs, Dec. 16, 2010
Mon, Jan. 3, 2011
Mon, Jan. 17, 2011
Mon, Feb. 14, 2011
Fri, Feb. 18, 2011

Go here to buy tickets and to check for any date changes. I also teach Introduction to Cognac and Introduction to Single Malt Scotch, but those classes haven't been scheduled yet. Stay tuned.

What's The Deal With Wild Yeast In Bourbon Making?

I have written that Jim Beam uses 'wild yeast' and was just asked twice in as many days what I mean. Unfortunately, the term 'wild yeast' is used by different people to mean different things. In the case of Jim Beam and other 'practical distillers' of American whiskey, here is what it means.

Yeast is, of course, required for fermentation, which is how alcohol is made. Yeast eat sugar and produce alcohol, carbon dioxide, and also flavors. There are millions of different yeast strains and each produces different flavors.

To obtain a 'wild yeast' for making whiskey, a yeast maker would mix up a yeast mash from his own personal recipe, typically one taught to him by his father or uncle. The yeast mash would be a different recipe from the whiskey mash, as its purpose was to make yeast, not whiskey. He would set it in a preferred location and wait. Booker Noe told me that Jim Beam used his screened-in back porch and 'stank up the house' according to Mrs. Beam.

The yeast maker would wait until the mash began to ferment. He would then watch it, smell it, and taste it, to see if it had the qualities he preferred. If it didn't he would try again, over and over, until he got one he liked. He would then propagate it, typically keeping it cool so it would work slowly, periodically transferring some of it to fresh mash in another container, keeping it alive the way a baker does with sour dough starter. This was known as 'jug yeast' because it was kept in a sealed container that looked like an old time milk jug.

The yeast strain would be cultivated in this way and used for as long as possible, indefinitely if it made good whiskey. This was the great skill of the old time distillers, who were sometimes referred to as 'distiller and yeast maker.' Craig Beam has described to me how his grandfather, Earl Beam, taught him how to use the Heaven Hill distillery's version of the Beam family jug yeast to produce enough yeast for production. It was a three day operation that had to be done once a week. That was Craig's first lesson in distilling.

Eddie and Jimmy Russell also have told me yeast making is the distiller's most fundamental skill.

Craig and Eddie have only learned how to propagate the jug yeast for production. They haven't learned how to make yeast from scratch. I asked Craig Beam if he thought anyone today could make a good whiskey jug yeast from scratch. His answer was "maybe."

Bourbon+Tennessee+Southern+Chicago.

I just came across a handout I did for a Southern Foodways Alliance event in Chicago in 2008. I thought you might find it interesting.

What is Bourbon?

Bourbon is whiskey made using corn (maize) as the primary grain. It is further characterized by aging in new charred oak barrels.

What is Tennessee whiskey?

Tennessee whiskey is the same as bourbon except it is filtered through thick vats of charcoal before aging, and it is made in Tennessee.

What is Southern about it?

In the original colonies, distilled spirits were made from molasses (rum), apples (applejack/apple brandy) and cereals (whiskey), but the primary grain used for whiskey was rye.

Only after settlement of the interior began in earnest, after the Revolution, did Americans begin to make whiskey primarily from corn, especially in what became Kentucky and Tennessee. The practice of making whiskey from corn spread throughout the region. After Prohibition, it contracted back into its original Kentucky-Tennessee heartland.

Whiskey-making was part of the South’s “hogs and hominy” agriculture, as most distillers kept hogs and fed them spent grain from the stills.

What does Chicago have to do with it?

Westward expansion after the Civil War was driven by the railroads. In Chicago, steers shipped East to the hungry city were replaced for the return trip by barrels of whiskey for the thirsty cowboys.

Whiskey was a commodity, bought in bulk from rural distilleries by Chicago merchants who “rectified” it before sending it west. “Rectification” might include blending, filtering, coloring, and flavoring.

After Prohibition, the descendants of those merchants financed the rebuilding of the Southern distilleries. Two examples are Oscar Getz, who owned Barton Brands; and Harry Blum, who owned Jim Beam. Both companies are still headquartered in the Chicago area.

I Teach Bourbon Tomorrow At Rocks.

I'm teaching a Bourbon class tomorrow (Monday, August 30th) at Rocks Lincoln Park (1301 West Schubert). The class starts at 7:00 PM, includes a tasting of four bourbons, and lasts about a hour, although one nice thing about doing it in a bar is that students can continue to 'learn' after the class concludes.

I teach these classes through I Wish Lessons. The mission of I Wish is to make learning fun. How better to make learning fun than by drinking during class?

Either because people have so many other things to do in the summer or because it's too hot to drink whiskey, the classes haven't been selling out lately like they usually do, so there may still be some tickets left. Go here to order tickets for this or any future class.

I Wish also does private lessons for individuals or groups so contact them if you would like me to conduct a private tasting for your group. (For Chicago-area events only. Out-of-town contact me directly.) The standard classes are introductory but for a private event I can go as advanced as you want. I also teach classes about scotch and cognac.

Specific Recommendations For The Bourbon Beginner.

A few weeks ago I posted here some "Advice For The Bourbon Beginner." It attracted many good comments, so be sure to read them if you go back and check it out.

As for the advice itself I see now what was missing; specific suggestions about what to drink. A correction follows. I'll also explain why each recommendation is on the list in terms of what it can teach you.

It's a question I'm often asked, what product do I recommend for the bourbon beginner? I usually suggest Maker's Mark, so let's begin there.

Maker's Mark. A litmus test, really, because if Maker's Mark is too much for you -- "too strong" -- then it is likely bourbon whiskey will never be your drink. Arguably, wheated bourbon is bourbon for people who don't like bourbon, assuming that the characteristic they don't like is the sharpness and heat that is typical of rye-recipe bourbon. It also has the advantage of being in most bars so you don't have to buy a whole bottle to take the test.

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage (any year). I have argued that older bourbons aren't necessarily better than younger ones, just different, but I have to concede that most experienced drinkers prefer the older to the younger style, myself included. While the single barrel and vintage things are fun, the best part of Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage is that it is simply the best whiskey Heaven Hill makes in any given year and Heaven Hill makes a lot of whiskey. For Heaven Hill, at least, the perfect age appears to be nine years, though in fairness barrels for this product are usually pulled from parts of the warehouse that age the whiskey most aggressively.

Jim Beam Black. Similarly, this is the easiest of the Beam company's bourbons to love. It's old enough that the foxy yeast notes of the younger Beams have mellowed and nothing stands in the way of all the caramel and vanilla the spirit has absorbed from the barrel. Booker Noe always said the standard Beam mash bill is 15 percent rye but the company says the mash bill is a secret. (Booker did whisper it in my ear the first time.) Based purely on the taste you would think it contains less. Beam's Knob Creek, for a little more money, has a little more edge but is also easy to like. Try them both to see how different two whiskeys from the same producer that are very similar on paper can taste.

Wild Turkey 101. The idea here is to take it up a notch. Many bourbon drinkers and all loyal Wild Turkey 101 drinkers believe bourbon should burn a little going down. Not a lot, but it's like a scotch drinker who believes scotch has to have at least a little bit of peat. Also, while many bourbon brands talk about making bourbon 'the old-fashioned way,' in terms of its overall style Wild Turkey most nearly does. If 50.5% alcohol is too much for you feel free to add water (to all of the above as well) but stay away from the 40% alcohol (80 proof) bottling.

Old Forester Signature. Although Wild Turkey is made very traditionally, the brand is only 70 years old, has had several owners, and has only been made exclusively at its present distillery for about 40 years. Old Forester, on the other hand, is 140 years old and has had only one owner (Brown-Forman), though it did switch distilleries about 30 years ago. Although Old Forester is a bargain today, it really represents what a finer bourbon tasted like back before today's super-premiums existed. It is simply a very good, solid, reliable, traditional bourbon. Unlike with Turkey, here I don't object if you'd rather try the 43% alcohol expression instead of the 50%.

After the above I suggest you dabble in some extra age, perhaps with Weller 12 or Elijah Craig 12, and try a straight rye like Jim Beam Rye, Wild Turkey Rye, or Rittenhouse Rye. This would be a good time to add a Tennessee whiskey to the collection, Dickel 12 or Jack Daniel's Single Barrel, though if you've never had it you really should try Jack Daniel's No. 7, since it is the most popular whiskey in the world.

That should hold you for now.

A Few Suggestions For Improving The Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

On Tuesday I expressed some opinions about the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival (KBF) in Bardstown, Kentucky. This year's event is September 14-19. (I'll be there.)

Here are a few specific suggestions for improving the KBF. Feel free to add your own via comments. (I will be enforcing a constructive-suggestions-only policy.)

• Put up some signs. BIG signs. As it is you can drive through the center of little Bardstown in the middle of the festival and not know anything special is going on. Welcome signs but also directional signs.
• Promote bourbon. The producers are there to promote their brands but the festival needs to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and appreciation of bourbon generally, to both beginners and veteran enthusiasts. Where are the seminars, the guided tastings, the master classes, the presentations on history and craft? How about a whiskey-themed film and video festival?
• Attract collectors. Get a law passed allowing whiskey collectors (legal age only, of course) to have a legal and above board swap meet. It would be a natural extension of the existing Master Distiller's Auction.
• Discourage driving. Make it easy and convenient for people to get around without using their cars. Eliminate the parking immediately adjacent to the festival grounds and use those lots for more festival acreage. Have remote parking and connect the parking, festival sites, and area hotels using buses.
• Think 'big tent.' In the spirit of American whiskey solidarity invite Tennessee distilleries Jack Daniel's and George Dickel to participate in events such as the Spalding Hall lawn booths and the World Championship Bourbon Barrel Relay. Both companies (Brown-Forman and Diageo) are major players in Kentucky too.
• Think even bigger. Find a role for the new craft distillers that are springing up all over the country and encourage all producers to feature all of their U.S.-made whiskey products, such as straight rye whiskey. There is a lot to be gained by being less literal and more inclusive.
• Work your brand. Pay for the improvements by working your valuable Kentucky Bourbon Festival brand a lot harder and all year round.

Yes, you can still call it the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Absolutely. That's the brand. But when you say "Kentucky" think "center of but not sum of" the universe, and when you say "bourbon" think "American whiskey" in all its styles and forms.

To quote architect Daniel Burnham, as I did last year during the KBF when I was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, "Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood."

No Short-Cuts To Whiskey Appreciation.

Regular readers of this space may have noticed that while I will review specific whiskeys from time to time I don't score them. I last wrote about this here.

One of the main reasons I hate ratings is because they are a crutch for lazy people looking for a short cut. They are looking for a short cut because they have no base of knowledge and no interest in obtaining one. People who buy-by-the-numbers are people who do everything by the short cut route and who are looking for social validation more than they are a great bottle of whiskey.

As a writer, I hate the idea that these people don't even read the reviews, they just look at the numbers. Ideally, a critic will give you enough information to make up your own mind but you as the reader have to work too. You have to think. You don't need to be a writer to pull a two-digit number out of the air and you don't need to think to turn those numbers into a shopping list.

People who buy-by-the-numbers wouldn't recognize "brine and spice, apple pip, and traces of aniseed"* if it bit them.

I don't blame or condemn the writers, publications, and entities like the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) that give ratings. They are forced to do it because they depend on advertising revenue or (in the case of BTI) fees to stay in business. The producers would scream bloody murder if any of those entities switched to the type of "good-better-best" ranking system I advocate.

Ridgemont Reserve 1792 is a very good bourbon made by Sazerac at its Tom Moore Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. Accordiing to BTI, 1792 is a 93, ranking above the brands 1792 considers its competitors: Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve (both 90), and Gentleman Jack (82).

The sad reality is that their 93 will sell more bottles of 1792 than positive reviews by me and every other writer combined. And selling more bottles is what the producers are in business to do.

For the people who give ratings the pointlessness of it doesn't harm their credibility as long as they're running an honest game and so far as I know everyone is. That it is a silly and meaningless game is beside the point as long as people buy-by-the-numbers. The only harm it does is put great bottles of whiskey into the cabinets of people who manifestly do not deserve them.

As long as there are people with money to spend who believe the ratings mean something there will be ratings.


* From Dominic Roskrow's Guest Review of Caol Ila, 25 Year Old on "What Does John Know." He gave it an 88.

Advice For The Bourbon Beginner.

Many people who are new to bourbon don't know where to start. Some turn to books, magazines or web sites like StraightBourbon or BourbonEnthusiast for recommendations. But it can be confusing.

I'm on record, in my book and elsewhere, as not thinking very much of rating systems. Their basic flaw is that they give a sheen of objectivity to something inherently subjective.

I had a long conversation about this with Jim Murray once and his conclusion was, "we owe it to people to give them some kind of guidance."

Point taken.

Here, for example, is a pitfall to avoid. Newcomers do themselves no favor by trying to find a consensus 'best' bourbon or other whiskey as if they can learn all they need to know by tasting 'the best.' Unfortunately, products enthusiasts rave about tend to be atypical and hard to appreciate if you are still learning the basics.

My recommendation for a beginner is to work your way through the leading brands from the major producers -- Jim Beam white, Jack Daniel's No. 7, Evan Williams black, Wild Turkey 101.

Compare them to each other, get to know them.

Taste them the right way. Start your journey by developing your tasting technique. I recommend tasting everything both neat and diluted with room temperature water.

Remember that smelling is a crucial part of tasting.

For the next round, pick the two or three of the first group that you liked best and figure out what that producer's step-up is. If you like Wild Turkey 101, you might want to step up to Russell's Reserve, Rare Breed or Kentucky Spirit. Which one? It doesn't really matter, though budget might play a role as Kentucky Spirit costs twice as much as Russell's Reserve.

After that you should be able to fly solo.

Most of all, resist the lure of short cuts. They're a waste of time because they don't work. You don't become a bourbon connoisseur just because you drank a bottle of Pappy 23. That's probably the hardest thing to get across to young people so I'll repeat it, because they love it when you do that. Short cuts don't work.

Okay, vets. What are your tips for beginners?

New Heaven Hill Wheater Has Cognac Vibe.

It is in very well-aged wheated bourbons that you can experience why I believe bourbon whiskey evolved more in imitation of cognac than scotch. Without the sharp, grassy notes of rye the new charred barrel reigns supreme and it is almost possible to forget you are drinking whiskey and not brandy.

You can taste this for yourself if you are lucky enough to snag a bottle of Heaven Hill’s upcoming limited edition, cask strength, non-chilled filtered, 10-year-old wheated bourbon. That is this year’s Parker’s Heritage Collection release, which should start to appear in stores next month. But it won't be there long. There will be fewer than 5,000 bottles available. The suggested retail is $79.99.

Here are my tasting notes for the first of what will be two batches. The first one is 63.9 percent alcohol (127.8° proof).

Undiluted I get red raspberry on the nose and very dark molasses on the palate. Diluted I get caramel and vanilla on both, also old oak on the nose and on the palate very light notes of mint, oregano, and teriyaki sauce.

Especially when diluted it is all wheater, with caramel and vanilla dominating, though at times the caramel slips away and pancake syrup sweetness takes over. Undiluted it is very rich and intense. More licorice comes through, especially on the finish.

That’s what I think. Here is what Parker Beam has to say about his latest creation: “I am genuinely excited to introduce a nicely aged, cask-strength wheated bourbon for this next version of my Parker’s Heritage Collection. At this age and barrel-proof is how a wheated bourbon shows best. It has the caramel and smoke notes that only ten years in the top floors of our rickhouses can produce.”

Parker loves those top floors. That’s why this whiskey bears little resemblance to any other 10+ year old wheater you know. This is also some of the oldest wheated bourbon made at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville since Heaven Hill took it over in 1999. The second batch, in fact, is not quite old enough and won’t be dumped until next month.

Not that $80 is cheap, but this year is more in line with the first Parker’s Heritage Collection releases in 2007. Prices for 2008 and 2009 were $200 and $150 respectively.

Woodford Masters Collection Future Releases Revealed Exclusively To WHISKY Magazine (And Me).

The Woodford Reserve Masters Collection is an annual experimental whiskey release that began in 2005. Each release is different.

They are, of course, planned years ahead but Woodford has never revealed what it has in the pipeline until now, exclusively to me for WHISKY Magazine, Issue 89, available now.

Only the Maple Finish has been scheduled, for 2010, out this fall. The rest will roll out between 2011 and 2018 depending on what is ready in any given year. Get the current WHISKY Magazine for the full story.

• Maple Finish (2010). Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in toasted sugar maple casks.
• Wine Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used wine casks (wine type to be announced).
• Tequila Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used Herradura Tequila casks.
• Rum Finish. Mature Woodford Reserve bourbon finished in used rum casks.
• Straight Rye Whiskey, Low BEP (Barrel Entry Proof). Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with an 86° BEP (43% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Straight Rye Whiskey, Historic BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with a 99.8° BEP (49.9% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Rye Mash Whiskey, Low BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with an 86° BEP (43% alcohol), aged in used barrels.
• Rye Mash Whiskey, Historic BEP. Whiskey made from a 100 percent rye mash with a 99.8° BEP (49.9% alcohol), aged in used barrels.
• Straight Malt Whiskey. Whiskey made from a 100 percent barley malt mash with a 124.8° BEP (62.4% alcohol), aged in new charred barrels.
• Malt Mash Whiskey. Whiskey made from a 100 percent barley malt mash with an 86.6° BEP (43.3% alcohol), aged in used barrels.

Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition Coming In September.

It’s hard to make money writing about whiskey but there are other benefits. I get lots of free samples for one. What’s more, I get lots of very good free samples, like advance tastes of limited releases.

While they are all great and I hope they never stop coming, some excite me more than others. Only a few invariably get tasted right away.

At the top of that list is Four Roses.

When a box arrives from Bandy Carroll Hellige (Four Roses’ ad agency) I can’t wait to get it open. Today it contained a tiny (100 ml) bottle of the 2010 Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition, which is scheduled for a September release of 3,600 bottles.

Four Roses, you see, has a unique advantage over other distilleries when it comes to limited editions. It is the only distillery that makes ten different bourbon recipes and because it makes them year in and year out, its warehouses contain all ten whiskeys at every possible age from newborn to double-digits.

The possibilities are endless.

In the USA, Four Roses has three platforms: (1) standard, a mixture of all 10 recipes; (2) small batch, a mixture of two to four recipes; and (3) single barrel, by definition a single recipe.

Each spring Four Roses issues a limited edition from the single barrel platform and each fall it issues one from the small batch platform.

Finally, for full geeky pleasure, the ten recipes have names, sort of, a sequence of four letters. To find out what it all means go here.

This fall’s small batch will be a mixture of three bourbons, a 15-year-old OBSV, an 11-year-old OBSK, and a 10-year-old OESK. It’s bottled uncut and unfiltered, so 110° proof (55% alcohol).

The nose is about what you would expect with tobacco-ey wood notes. I was surprised, therefore, that the taste starts out fresh and fruity, with citrus, raspberry, honey, and oak. Then came the dark caramel and molasses, syrupy and just slightly bitter. The finish, also slightly bitter, is very rich and long.

Every mixture of bourbons from the Four Roses vaults is interesting, but this is one of the more successful purely for drinking. To the extent they use these limited editions to test candidates for future regular-issue products, this would be a good one to consider.

The New Bourbon Country Reader Is On Its Way.

The new Bourbon Country Reader (Volume 13, Number 1) was mailed today.

This time we mark a pair of historic milestones. July 1, 2010, marked the first public sale of whiskey made at George Washington’s Mount Vernon distillery since it burned down in 1814. But Washington’s distillery is not operating as promised. We call this story, “George Washington’s Distillery Is Back In Business … Sort Of.”

Sometime next year, a last vestige of Cincinnati’s once thriving whiskey industry will close its doors for good. This inspired a two-part "History Of The Cincinnati Whiskey Industry,” which we begin in this issue.

Finally, we offer a modest proposal regarding a subject that has popped up here on the blog a few times, the federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, in particular the uniquely American definition of blended whiskey.

What? You say you don't receive The Bourbon Country Reader? It's very nostalgic, as it comes on paper, in an envelope, in the mail. (That's what the little box outside your front door is for.)

Subscriptions to The Bourbon Country Reader are $20/year for U.S. addresses, $24.50 for Canada, and $28.50 for everybody else. It is published six times a year. Well, maybe not, but your subscription always includes six issues.

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More Information About New Jim Beam Signature.

I spoke to Adam Graber today, who is on Beam's innovation team, and I have quite a bit more information about Jim Beam Signature Six Grains. As I reported yesterday the six grains are corn, rye, malt, wheat, brown rice, and triticale.

The folks at Beam were nice enough to get me a bottle too so, first, tasting notes.

At six to seven years old, this should be similar to Jim Beam Black, which it just so happens I was drinking liberally last night during the hockey match. It isn't. It is very different. It reminds me a little of Bernheim wheat. It has a nuttiness to it, brazil nut, hazelnut, that sort of thing. I'm also reminded of granola. It has a big mouth feel and is a little drier than most bourbons. I'm getting, of all things, intense notes of root beer on the nose.

It's quite good, well-balanced. It's not just interesting, it's good.

Now, the backstory. Every year in the fall, before they start up again for the winter season, they have a few days when then can try some things, a week to ten days typically. R&D always comes in with a 'wish list' of experiments they want to try.

They have been doing this for years. This particular project started under Jerry Dalton, when he was Master Distiller, with Fred Noe and the other distillers participating. (Dalton retired in 2007.) As Graber put it, "with Jerry being scientifically-minded, he was always interested in trying different small grains, more for basic learning than with the idea of developing new products." They carefully document the conversion rates and yields of the different combinations.

They experiment with different mash bills, yeasts, distillation proofs, entry proofs, woods, everything.

They do use the regular set up at Clermont to make these, not a pilot distillery, although they do have one. "We're not set up for really small scale production but we can do it," said Graber. A typical experimental batch is about 40 barrels.

The Six Grains product is actually a combination of several different whiskeys, melded together, some of which were seven years old. Everything is bourbon but with a very high percentage of small grains, about 30%, so about twice the usual amount.

They never made a six grain mash. They made a bourbon mash using wheat instead of rye. Then another one using brown rice instead of rye, that sort of thing. Graber said the brown rice white dog especially had an unusual flavor.

They all used the standard Jim Beam yeast.

It came to about 4,000 cases.

So that's why Travel Retail. "If we went into domestic distribution," said Graber, "we'd sell all of it just in Kentucky. We thought travel retail would be a good showcase for it."

My friend Lief in Sweden, who called it to my attention, caught it quick as it only just started to ship. They're putting about 2,000 cases into Europe, the rest will go to Australia and other markets, all in Duty Free/Travel Retail. The rest of the roll-out is still a few months away.

Most of the experiments they do never become products. After they have researched them for all of the learning they can gain, they're just blended away into other products. But there are a lot of these experiments in the pipeline, though that's all they would tell me.

They hinted, however, that the next thing to hit the market will be for the Knob Creek brand.

I applaud Jim Beam for doing this and for being so open in talking about it. I wish they had made it more available for enthusiasts here in the USA, but the strategy for limited distribution products is always tricky.

Despite the inconvenience, I have no doubt that many clever enthusiasts will find a way to get their hands on a bottle.

Beam Listens, Responds, Creates New Products.

Back in October I gave it to Beam Global for their lack of new enthusiast products. I was not alone. Since then we have had Old Crow Reserve, a small step but one in the right direction. In a few weeks we will have Maker's Mark 46, a very much bigger deal.

But the flagship product of Beam Global Spirits & Wine continues to be Jim Beam Bourbon, the world's number one bourbon, which does lots of nice commemorative bottles but hasn't had a new product targeted at whiskey enthusiasts in a very long time. Note the caveat. Whatever you may think of Red Stag by Jim Beam, you have to agree it was not created for whiskey enthusiasts.

Then rumors reached me about a new Jim Beam product spotted in Europe, in Travel Retail (what used to be called Duty Free) outlets. It was called Jim Beam Signature. Normally a Travel Retail bottling is nothing special, maybe an age or proof not normally available, usually in a fancy package with a fancy price to match. This one was six years old and 89° proof (44.5% ABV).

But the label included two very provocative words: "six grains." That's not a claim you can easily brush away as fluff. That's specific. It also means true "small batch" production. Normally what's "small" about small batch bourbons is the bottling batch, a small number of (one hopes) exceptional barrels specially selected. That's true of virtually every small batch whiskey on the market, not just those from Beam.

But to make a special mash bill in an ordinary distillery takes a commitment. More often that sort of thing is piloted first, in a smaller distillery. Not every producer has one. It figures that Beam would, but I've never seen it nor heard anybody talk about it. I'm still looking for details but Beam does have such a distillery and that is where this product was made.

So, what are the six grains?

First, of course, is corn (maize), which is more than 51% of the mash. It is a bourbon.

Second and Third, as you would expect, it contains the other two standard Jim Beam Bourbon grains, rye and malted barley.

Fourth, the other obvious choice: wheat.

Fifth and Sixth, now it gets interesting. Number 5 is triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye created about a century ago. Number 6 is brown rice.

Fred Noe is credited with the product's creation and it is the first in a series.

I expect to have more information shortly, including perhaps a sample to taste, but couldn't wait to share what I've already learned. This is exciting.

It does strike me that this sort of thing, more than being a response to me and other critics, is a response to the growing craft distilling movement. You can be cynical about that, I suppose, but count me as someone who wants to taste what the distillers at Jim Beam can do when they get a chance to cut loose.