Awesome! Let me know when. Our Spirits of Legend group did the first ever Red Fork Barrel Strength barrel pick recently. Good stuff.
Bourbon š„
- Thread starter Chris Harmon
- Start date
Tried outstanding bourbon and rye from Stellum distillery. Both have won tons of awards at international spirits festivals. Really good.
Were you at the "tulsa hills" event?.. if you saw a guy in a black stetson, you should have come over n had some dalmore with me.
Just returned from Whisky Advocates event in Miami... lots of stuff to sample.. really impressed with Bardstown, Blackened, and old forester birthday....
Necter of the Gods...
1/2 oz pour.. but, incredible mouthfeel.. vanilla, spice, cinnamon toast...
So my next class is Feb 11 at Red Fork Distillery. The first class in Dec was an absolute blast.
Red Fork just released a rye. So Iām going to do a rye drink, a drink with their rum, then a dessert drink for the ladies. For Valentineās Day. What makes the classes fun is I have people make the drinks for the group. And the owners of the distillery have a great spread of appetizers to go with the drinks. Oh and they do a distillery tour with tastings first.
Let me know if you would like more info, or go on the Red Fork Distillery FB page. Itās a nice evening out with your wife, girlfriend, or both. šš
So my class was incredibly well received. We will be doing classes on a regular basis.
My next class is October 7. They fill up very quickly, we usually do 21-23 reservations. A great date night. Let me know if you want to go.
Didja know Greg Allen who took a majority ownership around 2012,(from investing in Balcones) is from Enid.
Mr Tate, the original owner and distiller, got into it with Mr. Allen and threatened violence. A few years later Mr. Tate left the company over the dispute and lawsuits. They bought him out and then fired him.
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I didnāt know there was a JR and Bobby role play involved, but I knew the owners were from Oklahoma and smart enough to do all their distilling and sales in Texas to avoid needless taxes.
Yeah, Mr Tate was a Virginia(West?) transplant & he threatened to put two bullets in Mr Allen's head, and burn down the distillery that he created. Creative/budgetary differences.
Courts, off duty sheriffs, Board of Directors, restraining orders, lawsuits, mediators, criminal charges, the whole shabang. Mr Allen said it was by far one of the strangest things he had ever heard of, much less been involved in. His comment was something along the lines of, it was surreal.
I'd say it was more a mix of JR and Bobby, & Bo/Luke and Boss Hogg.
IIRC at one point before the distillery, Mr Tate thought about becoming a Preacher Man. Even went to school for that for a little bit, maybe?
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Completely off topic, but I have just made a new type of cocktail for me. Muddled marjoram leaves, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, simple syrup with the bourbon. Then top with a fruit IPA beer. This may go in my next class.
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A lot of new spirits are gimmicks.. new barrel finishes.. infusions.. young people dont want to admit that Dad's Jim Beam was perfect...
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The old stand-by's are still some of the best out there. People are paying big money for bottles that don't taste half as good as Knob Creek 9-year, Woodford proprietary blend or Maker's cask strength at half the cost.
If they werent the best, they would have been relegated to the bargain bins of history.
I am not against new finishes or recipes. But its getting to the point of where it seems that the distillers are trying to appeal to the short attention span generation that has to have something new every minute.
My biggest issue is with the current trend toward rapid aging. Too many small distillers are using it.
A little more experimentation provides a few more quality beers than it does provide quality bourbons. Point agreed on that though.
As a novice, Iād like to see a discussion of best bourbons grouped at price points or ranges. I understand there are a ton of list on the internet but they are so varied except at the upper level that they are somewhat useless due to the diversity of methods and opinion. Donāt know who to trust, but I do know the folks in our little community are the best.
The biggest hurdle today is the bourbon boom that has happened over the last five years, with a ton of 21 to 35 year olds deciding to get into bourbon. Nothing wrong with that, but the demand has far outweighed supply, especially on the limited release stuff. So many things have become allocated that used to just sit on the shelf. It has also created a secondary market, with absurd prices on hard to find bottles. Another problem is a bunch of folks are collecting bottles rather than drinking them.
20 years ago, I'd buy Rock Hill Farms or Blanton's for the weekend at about 45 per bottle. Now, the MSRP on those is up to 65, but you won't find them on the shelf. Rock Hill Farms no longer comes to Oklahoma. You won't see Blanton's on the shelf...if you do, it's 80 to 100. Blanton's is good, but it's not that good. I have a couple bottles that I paid 65.
So it's frustrating as a longtime bourbon drinker that now it's hard to find some things. Producers have ramped up production, so supply will be up in five to 10 years after everything has aged.
To answer your question, everyone has a different palette, so you might not like what I like. With that said, I think there are some "crowd pleasers" that are basic, but really good.
For around $30 to $40 for a 750mL, look for Knob Creek 9-year, Buffalo Trace (a little hard to find at times), and Maker's Mark Cask Strength. If you move into the $45 to $60 range, Baker's 7, 4 Roses Small Batch Select, Old Ezra 7 and John J. Bowman Single Barrel are fantastic and worth the money. If you can find them, Eagle Rare and Weller Antique are tasty in that price range. As for some budget options, Larceny, Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond (BiB), Early Times BiB, JW Dant BiB are good options and usually come in under $25. The Evan Williams BiB can be found for $15. I'm sure I'm forgetting some good ones.
Thanks for the great information. Buffalo Trace has been my go to, with Maker's falling right in behind. I never understood collecting bottles, unless it was for disposal after they had been enjoyed!
So funny how times change. As I stated earlier in this thread, I used to bootleg Makers back to campus from KY when nobody had heard of it and it wasnāt sold in stores outside the Commonwealth. And 4 Roses was something winos and Japanese tourists preferred. Now Makers is everywhere and 4 Roses is top shelf.
Iāve never understood the attraction to Pappy. Even at $60 a bottle itās not something I would choose over Blantonās or the original small batch Makers back in the day.
Meanwhile Iāve watched āexpertsā and house wives take the Pepsi challenge with it and pick it as superior more than once.
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I forgot to include Wild Turkey 101 on the budget list. It holds up to most bottles that are twice its price.
I'm assuming that was over five years ago at least. It used to sit on the shelves all over Tulsa. I never bought it because there were so many good bottles that were cheaper. I haven't even seen a bottle of Van Winkle in person for over two years, other than at a store, behind glass, for about $1500 to $3000. Just ridiculous.
The Affordable Vs Expensive Blind Bourbon Bottle Battle
Is expensive bourbon whiskey really that much better than the good-yet-affordable stuff? Weāre finding out in a blind taste test!
uproxx.com
Yup.. should have put a time frame on it...
Being a scotch drinker, i had never even heard of it, but, i thought the bottles were funny looking and almost bought one.
Bacon/Ham smoked corn Bourbon... its not just for breakfast anymore..
thewhiskeywash.com
Bourbon Distilled From Smokehouse Smoked Corn Coming From High Wire
High Wire Distilling out of South Carolina is set to offer up a smoky variant of their Jimmy Red Corn bourbon distilled from corn smoked in a ham smokehouse in Tennessee.
thewhiskeywash.com
I really don't do much hard liquor at all but my MIL bought me a series of flavored bourbons from some distiller in Missouri a few years ago. They were decent.The Affordable Vs Expensive Blind Bourbon Bottle Battle
Is expensive bourbon whiskey really that much better than the good-yet-affordable stuff? Weāre finding out in a blind taste test!
As for the ratings of expensive vs cheaper bottles, I saw one a few years ago about vodka. This was when everyone was raving about Grey Goose and being solely Grey Goose vodka drinkers. So an outfit sort of like Consumer Reports for liquor did a blind taste test and public rating. The winner and highest rated amongst the taste testers was a Smirnoff like off brand that came in a plastic bottle. I think the highest rated of the more expensive brands was Stoli. Absolut and Grey Goose were like 10th and 11th out of the 20 sampled.
So the story on vodka is, back in the day vodka was considered just a commodity spirit. Since it wasnāt flavored, it was just made as a nondescript liquor.
An enterprising guy saw the potential, and contacted a French distiller. He figured since the French made great wine, they could make good spirits. So he started marketing it in fancy wooden boxes as āpremiumā vodka. And that was Grey Goose. All marketing.
Vodka is one of those spirits that can be made out of anything that will ferment. Proof it high enough and you get everclear.
I dont like absolut. Elit is good for icy sipping if your travel agent wife celebrates booking a Russian trip (pre war) with American Caviar. I like Grey Goose in a dirty martini and Belvedere in a dry martini. Although calling anything other than a London Dry gin drink a martini is rather bourgeois. But, then so is shaking a martini, Mr. Bond.
I used to work in a bar in my younger days. My bar manager was Continental. He hated the American affectation with shaken drinks and the propensity to call anything a martini. He blamed it entirely on James Bond.
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