Likker – Page 9 – Thirsty South

September 9, 2013September 9, 2013

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2013: Review and Tasting Notes

Old Forester is old. 140+ years old. They’ve certainly earned the right to celebrate birthdays. For the past twelve years now, Old Forester has released a special “Birthday Bourbon” to celebrate founder George Garvin Brown’s September 2 birthday. I had never actually tried one until this year’s limited edition, which has been getting some really good word of mouth. Jason over at Sour Mash Manifesto called it a “must try” – and he’s not the only one that seems to be enjoying this birthday celebration immensely. John Hansell over on the Whisky Advocate blog called it, “the best tasting (and best balanced) OFBB release in many years.”

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, 2013 Limited Bottling
98 Proof
Approx. $55 Retail
Tasting Dates: August 16-September 7, 2013

This small batch limited release was all barreled on a single day in 2001, and it’s evident that this has some good age on it. The color is a nice medium amber, on the way to maple wood. The nose is a knockout, no doubt – warm and sweet, like brown sugar caramel brownies with a healthy hit of vanilla, and a bit of peachy fruit adding some elegance.

Neat, there’s a sharp bite at first when this hits the tongue, but that mellows out pretty quickly to fall in line with the aroma. Good body, long finish, it really reminds me of those cinnamon-dusted, candied almonds that they sell at ballparks or street festivals – the kind where they give you a sample because they know you’ll find it hard not to buy a whole bag. This is nice stuff, for sure, but I don’t think it delivers nearly as well in sipping as it does just for sniffing. Mainly because it feels a bit harsh. Some may say that’s necessary to keep the dark sugar notes in check, but it feels just a touch out of balance to me, especially for the first few seconds of each sip.

With ice, the sharp bite cools down considerably at first, but then jumps back in after a second. It also does well with a touch of water, still assertive, and less overtly sweet.

Thirsty South Rating: Excellent* – I’m a bit torn on this – the nose is a “wow,” but my overall impression actually falls just short of “excellent.” It’s a nice, limited edition bourbon for $55, but I’m not sure it delivers the kind of value at that price that would get me really excited.

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* Thirsty South Rating Scale:

Wow – among the very best: knock-your-socks-off, profound, complex liquid gold!
Excellent – exceptional in quality and character, worth seeking out, highly recommended
Good Stuff – solid expression of its type/varietal, enjoyable and recommended
Fair – fairly standard or exhibiting obvious though minor flaws
Avoid – move away folks, nothing to see here, a trainwreck

Full Disclosure: Tasting sample provided by Brown-Forman.

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

Elijah Craig Single Barrel 21: Review and Tasting Notes

Just in case you’ve been living in a cave, especially a cave without any liquor stores in it, I have news for you – super aged bourbons are increasingly hard to find and even more increasingly pricey. Want a bottle of Pappy 20? You’ll need a whole lot of luck and just as much money in your wallet. Jefferson’s came out with a limited release of 21 year old bourbon (that they purchased from an unknown distiller) earlier this year, sating some of the demand, and actually their retail price was pretty reasonable at around $120 (and up). Now Elijah Craig has their own 21 year old, too.

A year or so ago, Heaven Hill decided to do away with their year-round 18 year old Elijah Craig, in favor of limited releases of 20 plus year old stuff. Given the fervor for limited releases of older bourbon, that was probably a good business move, especially given the retail price difference between their 18 year old ($45 or so last year) and the new 21 year old release ($140).

That said, Elijah Craig was priced attractively at 18 years old, and it’s priced attractively for a 21 year old bourbon of this quality as well. Word is that 22 year old and 23 year old releases are already in the works. The increasing rate of evaporation as bourbon ages means that every year of additional age makes what’s left in the barrel increasingly precious, so it will be interesting to see where the 22 and 23 year old prices land. Based on demand, they can probably go a good deal higher. But how about based on the merits of the 21 year old Elijah Craig?

I should admit something right here – I’ve personally always preferred the 12 year old Elijah Craig to its 18 year old brother, mainly because the 18 just felt too wood heavy, too “over-oaked” in wine parlance. And the recently released 12 year old barrel proof Elijah Craig is a knockout of a bourbon, especially at roughly $40-$45 per bottle.

So, while I’m a big Elijah Craig fan, I was hopeful but not expecting to be blown away by the 21 year old. And the result? Read on.

Elijah Craig Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Aged 21 Years
Barrel #4032, barreled on 04-20-90
90 Proof
Approx. $140 Retail
Tasting Dates: August 16-September 1, 2013

This old boy packs a punch to the nose – think sawdust baking in the summer heat in an old wooden barn. While you’re at it, imagine rum raisin mixed with a bit of purple grape. They work together surprisingly well. There are hints of rye spice underneath, but it’s not at all sharp or green. And the color is a moderately deep amber, clear and bright.

This 21 year old has a strong and persistent burn on the tongue, not unpleasant, but… strong for 90 proof. It manages to be full and thick without feeling syrupy, with a mouth-coating presence that seeks out every nook and cranny. There’s an almost-burnt-caramel quality to it, but it doesn’t comes across as sweet since the wood and clove-like baking spices are there tackling the sugar. This may not help to say, but it feels old in a way that is neither astonishing (as in the Pappy 23 year old) nor upsetting (as in prior Elijah Craig bottlings).

A sip of water before the bourbon brings out the velvety caramel notes and pushes the cinnamon forward more prominently as well. It rounds out in the mouth, not as powerful, not as assertive, but certainly more integrated. I think it benefits the bourbon greatly.

With a cube of ice, the brute strength on the nose is dialed back, the fruity grape and cinnamon pear-like notes come through more. The ice, though, does make this Elijah Craig feel less… old. It takes away some of that aged patina. That’s not to say that it peels away the years, just that the presence of ice dulls some of the dusty character that’s just so hard to find. My preference is neat, with water as a companion – to keep the evident age of the bourbon but also help pull it together into a more harmonious whole.

Thirsty South Rating: Excellent*
Elijah delivers here, avoiding the overly woody character of some of its well-aged forebears. If you want to experience an older bourbon, this is a great place to start – IF you can get your hands on a bottle. Do I like it better than the 12 year old barrel proof? No. Even if they were priced the same, I’d personally choose the 12 year old. But experiencing those additional nine years in the barrel makes this 21 year old a worthy exploration for those seeking an older whiskey. Also, please note that there WILL be variation from barrel to barrel – thus is the nature of single barrel bottlings.

An aside: I hardly ever comment on the bottle itself – but I really like the elegant design on the glass here, a nice touch to elevate this from the other Elijah Craigs. Ain’t it pretty?

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* Thirsty South Rating Scale:

Full Disclosure: Tasting sample provided by Heaven Hill.

August 27, 2013August 22, 2013

Cayrum: Review and Tasting Notes

Last week, I mentioned Kane Family Rum Company’s Cayrum as part of an unusual cocktail with Whynatte and Fernet-Branca. Now, here’s a bit more on Cayrum itself. As mentioned, the company is based here in Atlanta, though the rum is distilled, aged (three years in bourbon barrels) and infused with local Dominican honey and ginger in the Dominican Republic. The distilling is overseen by master rum blender Victor Eugenio, in a distillery owned by Jose Antonio Barcelo, a member of one of the three well known Dominican rum families (the others are Brugel and Bermudez – together they make up “the 3 B’s”). Rum is serious business in the Dominican Republic, but Cayrum is more about sharing what many Dominican locals do with the rum after they’ve bought it.

I met up with Zach Kane, who, along with his father, helps run the business. He explained a bit about how his family came to make Cayrum, and why. They had been making a similar concoction for years at their vacation home in the Dominican Republic, just for friends and family. As they shared it, they realized how much everyone seemed to appreciate this unique spin on rum, and also realized that there could be great opportunity to introduce this kind of local Dominican infusion to the states. They tried all kinds of recipes before settling on a 3 year aged rum as the base, and even considered opening a distillery in Georgia before realizing that they couldn’t beat the quality and history of Dominican rum.

In essence, Cayrum is simply rum infused with honey and ginger. It’s primarily meant to be imbibed chilled, by itself, but it also works well as a sweet and spicy component in cocktails or mixed simply with complimentary drinks like iced tea or (for ginger lovers) ginger beer. Cayrum has been available in Georgia for a bit over two years now, has made its way to New York, and is expecting distribution soon in Colorado and Texas. So, on to the tasting notes.

Kane Family Rum Company Cayrum, rum infused with honey and ginger
80 proof
Approx. $20-$25 retail
Tasting Dates: June-August, 2013

Cayrum shows a bright medium amber color in the bottle. When you pour it out, the somewhat thick but not yet syrupy body is evident . On the nose, the ginger hits you first, not overly powerful, but very present. Burnt honey/Bit-o-Honey undertones come in, and some warm wood notes, too.

I much prefer this over ice rather than neat. Neat, it comes across a bit too sharp – a bit too much burn from both the alcohol and the ginger. Over ice, Cayrum is indeed quite full in the mouth. The ginger is prominent, starting off with a warm rush then kicking into a tingling spicy almost-burn. There’s something mildly medicinal, maybe a touch soap-y, lurking in the background. There’s no denying that Cayrum is sweet – both the rum and the honey bring a syrupy, raisin-y character to it that comes in behind the bite of the ginger. The finish is long, both spicy and sweet, with a touch of heat.

I’ve played around with Cayrum a good bit – you can mix it with ginger beer for an extra ginger-y Dark and Stormy. It also works well with ice team and lemon, or, for something a bit more unusual, blood orange soda and a squeeze of lime. Really, you can use Cayrum in any aged rum-based cocktail where you might want an extra hit of sugar and spice. It can also take the place of a ginger liqueur like the King’s Ginger or Domaine de Canton.

Thirsty South Rating: Good Stuff* For ginger lovers – Cayrum is a home run. For everyone else, it’s a unique spin on rum that is fun to experiment with in mixed drinks or simply enjoy sipping cold over ice. Like a quick trip to the Caribbean.

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* Thirsty South Rating Scale:

Full Disclosure: Tasting sample was provided by Kane Family Rum Company.

August 20, 2013August 20, 2013

Coffee, Fernet Branca, Rum: Whynatte?

Why the hell would anyone want to mix a latte energy drink, Fernet-Branca, and ginger-honey infused rum? The answer lies somewhere at the center of the Venn diagram where hipster bartenders, tweaked-out party twenty somethings, and laid-back Dominicanos converge. And if you read that and think there’s no way that Venn diagram actually exists in the real world, well… you might be right. But I’m hopeful that somewhere down a dark alley not far from the beach in Punta Cana, there’s a mustachioed mixologist with a PDT Cocktail Book on the shelf, a fridge full of Whynatte, an old uncle home-infusing ginger-honey rum, and a raging dance floor nearby. It could happen, right?

The truth is, this drink was inspired by a random confluence of events. I was talking with Jesse Altman, founder of Whynatte, for a profile in Creative Loafing (that came out this week – check it out). For those of you not familiar with Atlanta-based Whynatte, it’s basically a canned latte energy drink that was built for mixing – with things like Jägermeister, Fireball whiskey, and, um, whipped cream vodka. As I said in Creative Loafing, Whynatte is “decidedly not the stuff you find at reverent temples to cocktail classicism. In fact, it’s tremendously popular at places like Smith’s Olde Bar and the Vortex, and even the Cheetah. Why not?”

In any case, Jesse and I were talking about how Whynatte just doesn’t fit behind certain bars, and I asked if anyone had paired it with something super-bartender-nerdy like… Fernet-Branca. After all, Fernet fits somewhere on the same branch of the spirits tree as Jägermeister – embraced both for its purported medicinal qualities and definitive medicinal taste. The key difference for Fernet-Branca is that it dials way back on the sugary syrup of Jägermeister. Altman said they had once tried a push to get some serious bartenders to get creative with Whynatte, but it was the simple shooters that really seemed to click best.

After our chat, I just couldn’t let go of this seemingly incongruous pairing – between the whipped cream vodka loving party animal and the hipster bar geek. I did a bit of digging around for other similar drinks, which mainly reinforced that Fernet-Branca and (hot) coffee or espresso are frequent companions. So maybe this pairing wasn’t so crazy after all.

I tried simple first – just two ingredients – and landed on 2oz Whynatte and 1oz Fernet-Branca over ice. It makes for a bracingly refreshing cold coffee drink. Then I tried adding in rye, figuring bourbon might be too sweet, and found a nice balance at 2oz Whynatte, 2oz rye, 1oz Fernet-Branca. You still get the herbal punch of the Fernet, the creamy coffee flavors still coat the tongue, and the rye somehow manages to bridge the two with a potent whiskey presence. Not bad.

Doing some further digging, I came across a cocktail recipe that got me thinking that rum could be a good companion. I started rifling through my rum options for inspiration. An unaged rum proved too sharp. An older rum seemed a bit, well, wasted in such a concoction. A spiced rum proved too… much. And then I tried a bottle of Cayrum that I had been given not long ago.

Cayrum, from the Kane Family Rum Company, also happens to be based in Atlanta, though the rum is distilled, aged (three years in bourbon barrels) and infused with local honey and ginger in the Dominican Republic. The ginger really pops in this stuff – it could almost replace a ginger liqueur like Domaine de Canton or the King’s Ginger in cocktail recipes. But it’s the honey (at least, I think it is) that helps bring the Cayrum into harmony with the latte and the Fernet-Branca when you mix those ingredients together.

This is not a drink for everyone. Or maybe I should say, this is a drink for hardly anyone. There’s a 2 in 3 chance that you’ll find it disgusting. And a 0.9 in 3 chance that you’ll find it only mildly offensive. But I like this drink – it manages to be creamy, sweet, bitter, bracing, and spicy in some strange jumble of proportions. The ratio I settled on was 1 part Whynatte to 1 part Cayrum to 1/2 part Fernet-Branca. If you want something more coffee-like and less cocktail-ish, just amp up the Whynatte. If you find the medicinal slap of Fernet offensive, definitely dial back the Fernet-Branca. Me? I’m happy imagining my place at the bar by the beach, chatting with a mustachioed bartender while a nearby throng of partygoers dances the night away.

The Dominicano Hipster All Night Rave
2oz Whynatte coffee and energy drink
2oz Cayrum honey and ginger infused rum
1oz Fernet-Branca
Combine and stir over ice. If you like it frothy, shake it up first.

The Mustachioed Rye-natte
2oz Whynatte coffee and energy drink
1oz rye whiskey
1oz Fernet Branca
Combine and stir over ice. If you like it frothy, shake it up first.

The Why Not Fernet
2oz Whynatte coffee and energy drink
1oz Fernet-Branca
Combine and stir over ice. If you like it frothy, shake it up first.

July 19, 2013July 21, 2013

Tales of the Cocktail 2013: Part Deux

Thirsty South man in the field Scott Henry is in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail 2013. Scott is an amateur tippler who applies his training as a journalist — more than a decade writing, editing and drinking for Creative Loafing Atlanta — to pester barkeeps across the country about their cocktail recipes, their mixing techniques, that bottle I don’t recognize on the third shelf … no, the one behind the Becherovka, just to the left of the Peat Monster …

Yesterday morning, Tales of the Cocktail founder Ann Tuennerman dropped into the media lounge and got into what likely was one of many discussions over the course of the week concerning the much-debated question of whether Tales has gotten too big.

Czech herbal liqueur ice fountain at a free tasting event

She explained that the number of seminars did not increase since last year, having held at 59 ticketed events over five days. But while the seminars are the heart and soul of Tales, they’re far from the only happenings that define the convention for many people. Most casual Tales-goers will attend only a handful of seminars — which typically cost $55 apiece — but are likely to drop in on perhaps a dozen or so of the tasting rooms, where distillers and distributors hand out cocktails, food and swag, all for free.

That’s to say nothing of the tastings that take place in the street outside the Monteleone Hotel, the parties at various locations around the French Quarter, and the arguably gimmicky peripheral events, such as the pedicab-trip-and-a-shave promotion sponsored by a single-barrel Scotch.

It’s these sorts of distributor-driven events that have driven many bartenders to complain that Tales has gotten too big and too commercial in recent years. And, from a purist’s perspective, they might be right. But I tend to think it’s not its size that gives the convention its character, but its tone. And that, with some exceptions, has remained pretty consistent.

Certainly, the seminars haven’t been dumbed down. If anything, they’ve gotten more scholarly. Just today, I attended one seminar about the flavor profiles of curacao, Cognac, Dutch genever and other popular spirits of the early 19th century, and another on the colorful history of the Prohibition-era bar scene in Havana. A friend of mine went to a seminar on the history of ice. I’ll repeat that: the history of ice.

And even when the sillier tasting events and product launches threaten to get out of hand with freebies and spokesmodels in tight T-shirts, there’s still a focus on the taste and/or the craftsmanship, not the buzz. For instance, I stopped this morning into a tasting for various spirits produced by the St. George Distillery of Alameda, California. I sampled cocktails employing their new pisco, the name of which escapes me, their assertive Terroir Gin and their Breaking & Entering Bourbon — the last in a whiskey milk punch, perhaps the closest thing there is to liquid crack. In other words, there was ample opportunity to get hammered, but the event was convivial but low-key, with patrons asking about recipes and botanicals.

At nearly every such event, there are knowledgeable liquor reps to tell you exactly how the spirit is made and, many times, even the company founders themselves, who can share trade secrets on their distribution travails and their upcoming releases.

So, Tales continues to grow. But, speaking as a veteran who’s been here several times since 2007, I’d say it’s evolving rather than devolving.