Pity that Bourbon is only belatedly getting a similar respect.  Per U.S. regulation, Bourbon must have a mashbill that is not less than 51% corn.  That leaves the distiller free to play with the remaining 49%, using varying amounts of corn, wheat, rye…chicken flesh. (Just joking.)  The result, of course, is Bourbons that taste very different from one another.  Different stills, different stillmen, and different aging add all the more diversity amongst Bourbons.

Take Maker’s Mark 46 and W.L. Weller Special Reserve 7-Year Old.  Both are wheated Bourbons.  Yet, they taste very differently.

Maker’s 46 is a significant upgrade from the standard Maker’s Mark.  This wheated Bourbon (92 proof) is big-flavored and tastes of toffee, caramel, and vanilla.  It is delicious.  (Rating ****1/2)

Meanwhile, W.L. Weller Special Reserve 7-Year Old Bourbon (90 proof) is utterly different.(1) The wheat flavor is much more pronounced, and it is less sweet than Maker’s 46, and shows a nutty flavor. (Rating ****1/4)

And this example only scratches the surface.  Throw a rye-heavy Bourbon like Old Forester into the mix and the tippler can really begin to appreciate the breadth of flavors Bourbon offers.

Notes

(1) Chuck Cowdery reports that this 7-Year Old might be going away, alas.

(2) If you are looking to buy these whiskeys online, try this seller.

And if you were to ask a drinker about Irish whiskey, you probably would be told it is “sorta sweet,” “fruity,” and “light-bodied.”  Which also is the case frequently, although many of the Midleton Irish whiskeys are robustly flavored.

All of which is to say that drinkers tend to lump boozes into flavor categories.  Then along comes Cooley Distillery with its Connemara Irish whiskeys and blows these categories to bits.  If you blind-tasted any of the Connemara whiskeys, you probably would declare them “fine Islay whiskies.”  Like Ardbeg, they are very lightly colored;  and they offer smoke and even iodine notes.

Why are they so similar to Scotch?  Well, because they are made with peated malted barley in copper pot stills just like single malt Scotch.

The standard Connemara (80 proof) tastes of smoke, iodine, and nuts (Rating ****).  Connemara 12-year (80 proof) is even better, as a floral note joins the melody. (Rating ****1/2)  Connemara also has come out in a cask strength version.  We tasted a 116.4 proof version many moons ago, and found it eye-popping and a must-try for the malt maniac.  Currently there is a 115.8 proof version selling.

To see if an online retailer can sell you a bottle of Connemara, click here, and then try here.

by Jacob

Eating and drinking local products has become popular in recent years. In an effort to support some of our local producers, I recently sampled three beers from Port City Brewing Company, which is located in Alexandria, Virginia. Founded in 2011, Port City strives to “…be a reliable and innovative regional brewer of top quality beers that are delicious and well balanced, made from the finest ingredients available, and which celebrate their raw materials,” and currently makes four beers, a pale ale, a wit, an IPA, and a porter. Below are my reviews of all but the porter, which I have not yet tried.

Optimal Wit (5%) – Typical of many Belgian style white ales (which it is), the Optimal Wit is a cloudy golden color in the glass, has lemon notes on the nose, and tastes of banana and light orange. It is an effervescent beer that would be ideal to drink on a hot summer day (Rating ****).

Essential Pale Ale (5.5%) – Golden and almost pilsner looking in the glass, the Essential Pale Ale has an apricot and grain (hops) nose with mild hops and a slightly bitter and dry finish (Rating ****)

Monumental IPA (6.3%) – The Monumental IPA looks unfiltered and golden in the glass and has a hoppy, apricot and pit fruit nose. This is a very smooth beer that is not overhopped on first sip. Instead, the hops build on you and provide a nice and hoppy and dry finish. This was my favorite of the lot! (Rating ****1/2).

More information on Port City Brewing Company and how to visit it are available at: http://www.portcitybrewing.com

All four were on the Colin McEnroe WNPR Connecticut Public radio show on April 9, 2012.  You can listen to the show for free at: http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/content/wnpr/colin-mcenroe-show-whiskey 

Barrel-Aged Manhattan. Credit: Drew Long

by Drew Long, Guest Writer

A common complaint about craft cocktails is that a drink that once took two minutes to make now takes ten.

Well, I’ve stretched that out to five months.

Barrel-aged cocktailing is one of the latest trends in drink making. Now, this isn’t simply mixing up a sazerac with your favorite barrel-aged rye. After all, you can’t have whiskey without the wood (regardless of all that white whiskey nonsense). No, barrel-aged cocktails are drinks that are mixed together, poured into a barrel and allowed to age for weeks or months.

The result is as obvious as it is surprising.

About a year ago, a friend bought me a small, 2 liter barrel that I aged a blend of white spirits in to produce a rather potent rye whiskey. Once I removed the whiskey, I needed to put something back in to prevent the wood from drying out, which would ruin the barrel. Lacking any ideas, I fell back on an old favorite: I filled the barrel with Early Times Kentucky whiskey.

Although aged Early Times is spectacular, I wanted to try something else. That something else ended up being a barrel-aged Manhattan.

The key to this process is picking elements that have spent time in a barrel or would benefit from it. With a Manhattan, you’re looking at whiskey and wine, both of which have spent time in wood and were better for it. A Rob Roy–the Manhattan’s Scottish cousin–would also work, naturally. On the other hand, a barrel-aged Tom Collins would be appalling. Gin does just fine without the barrel-aging process.

With a cocktail recipe and barrel-appropriate libations in hand, the only other thing you need is time. Well, time and a barrel, which are easy to find online. For the Manhattan, I began by aging 2 liters of Early Times for three months. Through evaporation and absorption into the wood, in which the Early Times mingled with the rye blend that preceded it, the volume of whiskey reduced by about a third, or about .6 liters. That works out to be the better part of one 750 ml bottle of Dolin’s sweet vermouth (after topping off the barrel, you’ll have enough vermouth left for a celebratory, mid-aging cocktail).

Knowing if the whiskey has reduced enough is as much an art as a math test. Every few weeks, I checked the barrel’s weight by picking it up, and by the three-month mark I noticed that it felt considerably lighter. So I poured the whiskey back into the original 1.75 liter Early Times bottle and measured the volume of liquid. A full 1.75 liters works out to about 7.4 cups of liquid. After the initial three months of aging, I had about 1.15 liters, or just under 5 cups, which is two thirds the original volume. And as Mr. Boston will tell you, a Manhattan is two parts whiskey and one part sweet vermouth. I knew it was time to add the wine.

Once I topped off the barrel, I plugged the bung, swirled the whole thing for a minute or two and then let the concoction sit for another couple months (swirling the barrel every now and then). Although I planned to let the mixture sit for three months, I pulled a sample after two (periodic sampling is critical) and knew it was ready.

Five months and 2.5 liters of whiskey and vermouth later, I had the makings of the best Manhattan cocktail I’ve ever made or paid for.

After co-mingling in the barrel, the whiskey and vermouth blend into a single spirit. It’s a sweet whiskey with additional notes of caramel and vanilla from the wood. The color is lighter than a traditional Manhattan, more liquid amber than deep maroon.

Intuitively, the results make sense. Blending whiskey and other spirits is as old as distilling itself, and infusing spirits with everything from bacon to peaches is pretty common. Yet, the outcome of the barrel-aged Manhattan project is still a surprise. This whiskey, this spirit that now lives in a bottle in my basement tastes like a Manhattan.

Straight from the barrel, the blend is certainly fine enough to drink as is. But to be a Manhattan cocktail, you need only a few dashes of Angostura bitters, a quick stir in an ice filled shaker and a brandied cherry. Simple steps after a long wait.

Sure, a perfect Manhattan could take 10 minutes in a good bar, but a spectacular one is worth waiting a much, much longer time for.

Barrel-Aged Manhattan

3 oz. of barrel-aged whiskey and sweet vermouth

3 dashes of Angostura bitters

1 brandied cherry to garnish (I prefer Les Parisiennes)

Time

Fill a cocktail shaker half full of ice. Add the aged whiskey and vermouth blend, and three dashes of bitters. Stir to chill and pour into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the brandied cherry.

Jameson Gold Reserve Irish Whiskey

Often we are asked by whiskey virgins, “What whiskey should we  try?”

Irish is a fine place to start.  It usually is not very pricy, and Irish tends to be a gentle, approachable whiskey, unlike Scotch, which can overwhelm the unseasoned palate.

Twenty years ago, there were not a whole lot of Irish whiskeys available outside of Ireland and England. (Happily, times have changed.)  Back then, regular Bushmills and Jameson were usually all you could find.

Jameson is  a storied brand, but for a time it sort of fellow into a ho-hum rut.  It was fine to sip, but no great shakes.  The company did get its focus back, and these days Jameson is a brand worthy of attention.

The standard Jameson Irish whiskey  (80 proof) remains a solid drank (Rating ***1/2).

But Jameson 12-Year Old  (80 proof)  is significantly  better.  It is rounder, richer, and more nuanced.  (Rating ****)

Jameson 1780  (80 proof) is tricky to find these days. It is very different from the standard Jameson. It is sherry casked, which makes it a little less sweet. The sherry flavor comes through and this whiskey has a more oily texture. (Rating ****)

Then there is Jameson Gold (80 proof) –oh my.  This $70 or so a bottle Irish whiskey is delicious.  It is utterly silky in the mouth, and shows flavors of honey, barley, orange peel and more.  Wow. (Rating ****1/2)

Feel free to contact our retailer to see if he can sell you any of these Jameson Irish whiskeys. Otherwise, surf to http://www.JamesonWhiskey.com/ to learn more.

The nose is straight forward—hello barley and caramel. In the mouth is is earthy, fruity, and a little sweet.  The close offers a soft snap.

We’ll take our Powers straight up, thank you, with a robust stout or porter on the side.  (Rating ***3/4)

The 1990-1992 Vintages

A vintage Irish whiskey-isn’t that wonderful?

We tasted the 1992 Knappogue some time back and are thrilled to encounter the 1993.

When placed next to Powers and Red Breast, Knappogue Castle 1993 turned out to be the lightest colored of the three by far.  It is nearly Chardonnay colored. Knappogue is oily in the mouth (scotch lovers might well be taken by this characteristic), silky, slightly dry, and generally quite mild. It has a nutty-nugety note on the close that gives it some chew.

Intriguing—many tasting this blind wouldn’t recognize that it is Irish whiskey because it doesn’t clobber you with barley.  (Rating ****)

You can pester our retailer to see if he can sell you either Powers or Knappogue Castle.  Just click here.

This 12-year old, pot still whiskey is just delicious.  Redbreast is copper colored—a really pretty spirit.  The nose is a tangle of fruit and flowers.

In the mouth Redbreast is a viscous, captivating whiskey.  What begins fruity and sweet quickly turns robust and oily.  The barley shines.  Does Irish whiskey get better than this? (Rating *****)

See if our retailer can sell you this Irish Whiskey by clicking here.

Epstein has been exploring and writing about food since the 1980s, and her experience shows. She deftly covers Champagne from its origins to present-day iconic status in crisp matter-of-fact prose.  You won’t catch her passing off romantic wine-industry hooey.

Epstein also weaves in coverage of other sparking wines—Asti, Prosecco, Cava, and more.  Champagne: A Global History has lovely illustrations, along with buying, storage, and serving advice, and cocktail recipes. It can be read in four to eight hours, after which the reader might feel the itch to heard to the wine store to shop for some bottles of bubbly.

Click here to learn more or purchase a copy of Champagne: A Global History.

Editor’s note: We’re republishing this article from our archive as part of a reorganization of the site’s content.

Knob Creek
by Colin A. Dodds

If you ever wondered what was behind the grimace of Humphrey Bogart or John Wayne as they drank some nonspecific mixture in the movies of yesteryear, Knob Creek Straight Bourbon Whiskey is an edifying experience.

The key word in its extended name is ‘Straight’- this is alcohol first (100 proof) and beverage second. It has a dark, sharp

flavor with very little of the sweetness that characterizes bourbons like Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Old Crow. What sweetness it does possess takes the form of a subdued, almost smoky syrup-like undertone.

There is something refreshing about the flavor- in the way that standing out in the freezing cold until half of you burns and the other half is numb is refreshing. Even Wild Turkey and Old Grandad are not the trial by fire that Knob Creek is. To the less experienced bourbon drinker, Knob Creek burns in such a way that the drinker is torn between being proud of having swallowed it and the urge to

immediately wipe the taste from memory. The flavor reminds you of the very pain that alcohol supposedly undoes, elusive to the degree it is intense, unremitting…It is a fine bourbon for the ‘man on a mission,’ when that mission is to get drunk via a merciless and honest (for aren’t all merciless things ultimately honest?) bourbon.

Knob Creek had a brief advertising campaign a year or so ago. It had no laughing, socializing people in it. No indication is made of the of the goodtime possibilities of this drink. The ads consisted of the label, blown up to ad size. I realize now that this was the closest I have come in my short life to truth in advertising. The reason is this, Knob Creek is a bourbon of reckoning.

Sure, you can swill a couple glasses among friends and be howling happy. It will be the night of your life- provided you don’t end up in jail.  Then again, it still might be the night of your life.

But to me, Knob Creek is a solitary drink.  It’s just you and this rectagular, ancient-looking bottle, and a whole lot of taste. (Rating ****1/2)

Click here to order Knob Creek Whiskey, and surf here to read more about this Jim Beam product.