American Whiskey — Current Notes — Johnstone Yellin Drinks

The Van Winkle legend has clearly surpassed the liquid contained in the bottles and taken on a life of its own (see Scotland's Port Ellen and Japan's Karuizawa for similar examples) but when good friends win a Van Winkle tasting at a charity auction it's good form to show up when invited and sample some hard to find whiskey (and find out if it's actually worth drinking).

Nothing poured was worth the current pricing but that's an indictment on current pricing rather than the spirit. What follows are a series of honest reviews of the 2014 releases in the Van Winkle line-up. I haven't dressed up my notes to reflect the rarity or cost of these bottles.

And I had the pleasure of tasting them with a group of whiskey drinkers who were focused on the qualities of each whiskey regardless of bottle price. Really fun night!

Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year Old, 43.5% alc./107 Proof, $400-$500

C: Dark Amber

N: Rich grain, cherry wood, sweet corn

P: Woody with corn to the front and a lingering sweetness that transitions into the finish

F: Short but sweet

In conclusion: A perfectly pleasant wheated bourbon that would drink well on a little ice.

Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year Old, Lot B, 45.2% alc./90.4 Proof, $400-$600

C: Dark Amber

N: Warm pork fat and brown sugar, buttered popcorn and subtle wood, somehow mint floss

P: Sweet with balanced corn and wood, pleasant oiliness

F: Very subtle wood spice with soft ground grey pepper

In conclusion: A very interesting wheated bourbon that presented
some surprising notes (see "warm pork fat" and "mint floss"!)

Pappy Can Winkle 15 Year Old, 53.5% alc./107 Proof, $900-$1500

C: Bright Amber

N: Very herbal and vegetal with pronounced char, peanut shells, and some spice

P: Spice to the front, more wood, sweetness behind

F: Pleasant pepper, lingering wood, hints of spice

In conclusion: Given the pronounced char and spice thread this was my favorite of the night

Pappy Can Winkle 20 Year Old, 45.2% alc./90.4 Proof, $1300-$2000

C: Dark Amber

N: Dried apricots, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, and flat cherry Coke

P: Ongoing cherry Coke notes with sweet corn and warm wood

F: Lingering sweetness with dark chocolate and dried cherries

In conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed the dried fruit notes and
lingering sweetness. For some of the group this was the night's
winner. I'd need a bit more spice and char for it to take the
night for me. Very decent, though!

Pappy Can Winkle 23 Year Old, 47.8% alc./95.6 Proof, $2000-$3500

C: Dark Amber

N: Soft caramel, warming oak, and an intriguing fennel/anise note around the edges

P: Again with cherry Coke notes, sweet to the front, peppery to the back

F: Silky with a dill explosion that's followed by milk chocolate and pepper warmth

In conclusion: Good in its own right but the 20 Year Old has more interesting dried fruit notes and the 15 Year Old has better spice notes. I did enjoy the appearance of fennel/anise notes, however.

Bonus Pappy (because when you're having a good night there's nothing wrong with getting really spoiled!):

Pappy Can Winkle 15 Year Old, 53.5% alc./107 Proof, $900-$1500 (2012 Release)

C: Really Dark Amber

N: Some char, some pepper, some dust, fresh jalapeño skin

P: Quite herbaceous (hints of dill), wood shavings, and wood lacquer

F: Peppery with exquisite char elements

In conclusion: A close runner up to the 2014 release 15 Year Old but just a little dusty (think dried cardboard) in comparison. The char notes and spice are a little quieter in comparison, too.

Van Winkle Rye Family Reserve 13 Year Old, C-series, 47.8% alc./95.6 Proof, $1000-$1300

C: Dark Gold

N: Dill, milk chocolate, buttery yet dusty and woody (this aspect messed with my head!)

P: Very pleasant spice with a wonderful buttery texture

F: Lingering wood and soft spice

In conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed this rye whiskey and would love to
add it to my own collection (minus the zero on the end of the current prices). How
it pulls off buttery, dusty, and woody is beyond me. I recommend
hunting out a sample if your palate tends towards rye.

Overall: I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to taste such unicorns. As we discussed on the night, it's hard to taste such expensive whiskies without thinking a little about the cost (we sampled between $7k and $11k worth of whiskey over a few hours) and thinking the most expensive is the best but the truth of the matter is that the 15 Year Old and 20 Year Old releases showed better than the 23 Year Old.

Lo and behold, just as I'm thinking about getting more bourbon notes on to my rebooted blog Day 4 of the Whisky Advent Calendar delivers unto me an Elijah Craig, Small Batch 12 Year Old. I have a bottle of this in my own collection so I might have to explore batch differences a little later.

If, like me, you're more familiar with Scotch naming (it's the distillery front and center and then a brand name or age statement) and wonder how brand names connect to distilleries in the US I found the image below incredibly helpful (click on it to bigify):

So, as you can see, Elijah Craig hails from the Heaven Hill distillery in Kentucky and is a bourbon whiskey made according to their rye mash bill. By law, American bourbon must be made from a mash bill that's at least 51% corn. In this case, we're dealing with 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley. While providing some flavor the malted barley is used for its diastatic power (its enzymatic activity is such that it can do much of the heavy lifting in converting starch to fermentable sugars).

Behind window #4: Elijah Craig, Small Batch 12 Year Old, 47% alc., £27/$41 (<$30 in the US)

C: Deep bronze

N: Big burst of corn sweetness with beautiful woody vanilla and just a hint of herbaceous dill (from the rye) around the edges

P:Good texture, rye spice leads the way with sweeter corn behind that, more dill presence than on the nose followed by aniseed, vanilla, leather, and wood resin

F: Long and spicy with lingering sweetness for balance, some pepper, dark cherry and abundant vanilla

In conclusion: With bourbon, what you get on the nose tends to be what you get on the palate and into the finish. Which is fine. Sometimes, however, you go on a bit of a journey with different notes rising and falling as you move through the layers. Here, the big burst of corn on the nose subsides on the palate allowing that hint of rye on the nose to come to the fore on the palate. A damn fine whiskey!

If you'd like to read a damn fine book that cuts to the chase about bourbon I highly recommend Fred Minnick's Bourbon Curious that was published this year. (I'm hoping to get a review on the blog sometime in the not-too-distant future.)

Sincere thanks to Master of Malt's Drinks by the Dram for the sample.