Bourbon Bargain Alert - Evan Williams 1783

The boomerang effect: When you share knowledge and have the luck to have knowledge come back to be shared with you.  That's what happened a few weeks ago when I got an email from Dad titled, "Just in case...".  It was a forward from his buddy Denny who had found a new love and that love was Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch Bourbon.  You know, "just in case" I needed to add another bottle to my collection.

Included in the email was a lengthy review of the product with history of the distillery (1783 was the year it was established), tasting notes, and the 10 year length of time that this bourbon has sat in the barrel aging.  It sounded good enough to seek out and try. 

I happened to be headed to Total Wine and Spirits in Fort Lauderdale the day after I received this email.  Lincoln Henderson, Master Distiller for Angel's Envy, was holding a tasting and I thought it would be cool to meet him.  What a great guy.  We chatted for a few and then I headed to the bourbon section to see what else was on the shelf.  It was there that I saw Evan Williams 1783 Number 10 Small Batch Bourbon.

It was also there that I saw the one bit that the review I'd read did not state...

The price was $9.99 for a 750ml bottle!!

Upon returning home, I was eager to give it a shot.  Could a bourbon at this price actually be decent?  I grabbed a glass, twisted off the screw cap (yup, $9.99 doesn't get ya a cork), and poured myself a couple fingers worth.  The nose was oaky with hints of sweetness, vanilla and sweet corn seemed to be what stood out most.  Surprisingly, chocolate appeared when I took the first sip along with some hints of pepper, allspice, and more oak.  The finish had a little spice to it along with some nuttiness but it faded fast and I found it thin and kind of lackluster.  At 86 proof, it was smooth as hell though.  Later in the evening, I made myself an Old Fashioned with this juice and it wasn't great.  Just not enough spice to counterbalance the sweetness of the drink.  Perhaps without muddling a sugar cube and merely adding bitters and an orange rind it would fare better?

I've found myself stepping away from the more expensive bourbons and ryes lately, instead focusing on value in the category.  I'm here to tell ya - there's a lot to be had at under $30 and even under $20.  Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch Bourbon proves that you can still find a decent quality bourbon at a price under $10 too!

Bourbon Bargain Alert - Four Roses Single Barrel

 

Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey

Not too long ago I was doing some bourbon research online, searching for anyone who would be carrying the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection when it came out here in South Florida.  Well, in the midst of that search, I noticed that Crown Wine & Spirits had a great bargain on their website.  It listed Four Roses Single Barrel at $29.99!  That's at least a 25% savings from anywhere else I'd seen it advertised.  A google search for "Four Roses Single Barrel" will show 3 results at $29.99, $39.99, and $49.99, with the $29.99 being Crown Wine & Spirits.  Even Total Wine & Spirits had it at $39.99 on my last visit. Today I was in South Miami running some errands so I stopped by and picked up one of the last couple bottles they had on the shelf.  Being that it's been some time since I last saw this deal, I think it could be a set price.

A little background on Four Roses...  Four Roses was named Distiller of the Year by Whisky Magazine in November 2010, a year that happened to be the 100th anniversary of the distillery's building. That award is quite an achievement considering the rollercoaster ride this brand has gone on.  The award can be attributed to Master Distiller Jim Rutledge whose passion for bourbon gave new life to the Four Roses brand, a brand that has been around for over 120 years.

After being sold in 1943 when Seagram's purchased the Frankfort distilling company, the Four Roses brand was turned into rubble.  In 1947, Seagram's, owned by a Canadian liquor baron named Sam Bronfman at the time, took Four Roses (which had become the #1 selling bourbon after Prohibition ended in 1933) off the market and turned it into a blended whisky.  A blended whisky usually refers to whiskey¹ that is blended with a neutral spirit such as vodka or grain alcohol.  Once this change was made, a decision followed to take Four Roses off of the market altogether in the United States.  It had gone from a #1 selling bourbon to a bottom shelf blended whisky in no time at all.

Luck would have it that Four Roses would become the bourbon of choice in Japan in the 1980s and the demand for bourbon from the Japanese market exploded later in the decade.  Rutledge was there to capitalize on this demand.  In 1996, Rutledge lobbied for Four Roses to at least be available in Kentucky and Seagram's granted his wish but said it would not support the decision with any marketing dollars.  Shortly thereafter, Seagram's met it's doom thanks to some poor decisions by Sam Bronfman's grandson, Edgar Jr, who had taken over as CEO.  Lo and behold, Japanese brewer, Kirin, was there to pick up the pieces and they quickly rid themselves of the blended Four Roses whiskey, bringing back Four Roses bourbon at the urging of Jim Rutledge.  The fire was built for the resurrection of Four Roses bourbon the second the new Japanese owners took their first sip.  They knew they had a winner and believe the US market was a gold mine waiting to be excavated.  They were right.

Four Roses Single Barrel Private Selection (photo credit: David Kehr)

The first order of businesss was to focus on introducing a premium spirit and in 2004, Four Roses Single Barrel hit the market.  The following year it received a Gold Medal from the Whiskey Magazine Best of the Best Awards for Best American Whiskey under 10 years of age.  Two years later and Four Roses returned to the top spot as the #1 selling single barrel bourbon whiskey in the state of Kentucky.  In 2006, Four Roses introduced their Small Batch bourbon, one of 6 different brands that now exists under the Four Roses name.  They also have a really cool program for distributors to select their own barrels made from specific mash bills consisting of various proprietary yeasts. These bourbons are bottled at barrel strength - no water is added to alter the flavors or lower the alcohol content.

At $29.99, this is a great deal on a phenomenal bourbon.  It's one of my personal favorites and is always on my home bar. Not ready to spend $30?  Locally you can find Four Roses Single Barrel on the shelf behind the bar at Michael's Genuine Food & Drink as well as Sustain.  I recommend sipping this one neat or with very few (1-3) ice cubes.  A sweet, oak-y nose along with flavors of caramel, dried spice, and a little citrus on the finish are the standouts.  If you are a bourbon fan, this is a must try.

You can thank me later ;)



1. I'm spelling whiskey two different ways on purpose. There is a difference and here is a little history I learned on a tour of the Buffalo Trace distillery. It is said that back in the 1800s Scotch whisky developed a bad reputation for being a cheap whisky because it was being produced quickly through the use of a continuous still known as a coffey still. It flooded the market and tarnished the reputation of whisky producers. As a result, Irish and American producers began inserting an "e" into their whisk(e)y to distinguish it from the poor Scotch being produced.

Bourbon of the Month - February 2010

You heard about my Bourbon of the Year for 2009 back in January, so I thought I'd continue the series and deliver my Bourbon of the Month each month.

This month I'm highlighting one of my favorite every day* bourbons - Eagle Rare.  Eagle Rare Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is bottled from a single charred oak barrel and not blended with other barrels.  This creates a unique flavor for each barrel from which bottles are filled and then marked with their barrel number and the dates in which they were aged (in many cases though not all).  

Eagle Rare was first introduced by Seagrams in 1975 as a 101-proof bourbon before it was sold to the Sazerac Company in 1989, eventually ending up at the Buffalo Trace Distillery (what I also call Bourbon "Mecca") where it is produced today in two varieties.  The first variety is aged for 10 years and bottled at 90 proof.  This is the one you can find at many liquor stores and sitting on many bar shelves across the country.  The bourbon has a nose that begins with a grainy note to it and then quickly transforms into bourbon notes of charcoal and hints of banana.  The palate starts toasty and oak-y, then explodes with flavors of dried fruit, char, and spice.  The finish is a pleasant alcohol burn sweet with caramel undertones.  This is likely the sweetness of the corn shining through.  It's a surprisingly smooth finish to what begins as a spicy explosion on the palate.  This isn't a sissy-boy bourbon but it's no ass kicker either.  I like to sip it neat or with a single ice cube but I also will occasionally have one on the rocks as the flavors are strong enough to put up with a little watering down.  Eagle Rare 10 year is a phenomenal value bourbon that I've found anywhere between $25 and $30 per 750ml bottle.

The second variety of Eagle Rare is part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and is bottled at the same 90 proof as the 10 year variety.  The difference is that this bourbon is aged for 17 years.  The extra 7 years in the barrel really allows the contents to pick up more of the flavor from the charred oak and results in a much darker amber color to the bourbon rather than the lighter honey color of the 10 year variety.**  The nose of the 17 year variety of Eagle Rare starts dry with that familiar note of grain and then opens up a bit, revealing leather, char, caramel, and spice.  The palate begins the same way - slightly dry before giving way to an explosion of dried fruit, almond, char, leather, and caramel.  The finish has a bit more pep than the 10 year variety but remains smooth with a nice warming feel from the alcohol as it heads down the throat.  I enjoy this bourbon neat.  It's flavors are more delicate and I find ice to have too much of a dulling effect on the taste.  Eagle Rare 17 year is an very impressive bourbon that I like to save for special occasions.  This is largely due to its price being anywhere from $65 to $70 per 750ml bottle due to limited production and the length of the aging process.  The 2008 version, for example, used 62 hand selected 53 liquid gallon barrels that yielded just over 17 gallons per barrel of bourbon after the aging process was completed.  This results in an availability of about 5400 bottles, that's it folks.  I was lucky enough to score a bottle this past fall at Total Wine & Spirits and that bottle still sits about half full on my bar today along with a bottle of the 10 year.

For the casual bourbon drinker, I definitely recommend giving Eagle Rare 10 year a shot next time you have the chance.  I know many bars in Miami are carrying it and, in fact, Michael's Genuine Food & Drink just made it their house bourbon.  Great move.  The more advanced bourbon drinker should keep an eye on the bourbon section of your favorite spirits store come fall to make sure you don't miss out on the 2010 variety of Eagle Rare 17 year bourbon.  That or see if you can buy online but be wary of pricing as online prices can and usually will be inflated. 




 * An every day bourbon is a bourbon that's price, flavor, and alcohol content are manageable enough that one could drink a glass every day
**the pics I'm displaying don't seem to showcase much of a difference in color most likely because I think they are trade renderings that I got from the Buffalo Trace website not actual product pics

The Great Bourbon Bargain Alert!

As many of you know, I'm a bourbon connoisseur.  I have quite a collection of full, partially full, and completely empty bourbon bottles at home and I choose to sip a bourbon almost daily.  With that said, I'm always on the lookout for a good bourbon deal and yesterday I found a great one to share.

I went to Big Daddy's liquor store in Coconut Grove yesterday to commandeer a keg for my New Year's Eve party and naturally sauntered over to the bourbon shelves to see if they had anything interesting.  Big Daddy's doesn't really have a terrific selection of bourbons but they do have the staples like Maker's Mark, Basil Hayden, Booker's, and Blanton's.  Lo and behold, I noticed that one of my favorite bargain bourbons, Corner Creek, was on sale for $9.99!  I didn't think it was possible for bargain bourbons like Corner Creek (usually priced at about $17.99-$19.99 per 750ml bottle) to become and even better bargain but the proof was sitting there on that shelf, staring me in the face with its' little red sale tag taunting me to make the purchase.  Naturally, I did just that.

So, if you're into bourbon and want a nice, smooth sipper at a great price - head to Big Daddy's in the Grove now and get yourself a bottle of Corner Creek.  It's an 88-proof bourbon that is only lightly filtered so it holds some nice flavor notes to it - vanilla, caramel, char/wood, and hints of cherry.  Somewhat surprising to me is that it is also a very smooth bourbon that I like to sip neat or with a cube or two of ice, depending on what kind of a mood I'm in.  The flavor isn't overly bold, so a little ice melt won't ruin it for ya.  It comes in a bottle resembling a wine bottle, actually.  At $9.99, this is a must buy, must try.

Your welcome.