Background

I'll start by saying that, to date, I have really enjoyed everything I’ve tasted from Frank August. BUT… in the current market I've been trying so hard to not pay the premiums associated with NDP whiskey. There are too many heritage brands releasing double-digit age statement, flagship offerings to want to spend the premium per bottle price on this middle market. And look, none of those linked options are positioned as cheap off the shelf bottles, but I personally tend to be in a camp where I’d rather spend around $200 on a 15 or 17 year Jacob’s Well bottle than ~$130 on 8 year sourced MGP (and no shots at Seelbach’s, I love what they do).

All that said, this tasting was an opportunity to hear about the brand directly from founder Johnathan Crocker. And I was floored by how considered Jonathan was throughout. Every decision he makes with the brand seems to be incredibly thorough. He strikes me as someone who wakes up at the ass crack of dawn every day with a meticulous schedule. Also, he's from upstate NY and so am I... so I'm biased. Here are some key takeaways from the tasting, before we get into the reviews:

Background

I’ll keep this quick because I know I’m a pretty notorious (unsolicited!) Jack Rose shill… but huge credit to them for the wild number of offerings they’ve rolled out for Bourbon Heritage month. They’ve done deep dive distillery tastings on Buffalo Trace, Old Forester, and now Wild Turkey alongside “classes” on maturation and corn’s importance. Here we are with Wild Turkey, and a lineup headlined by Russell’s Reserve 15 and Master’s Keep Triumph, two whiskeys I’ve yet to review but am excited to do so. First up, though, is a trio of single barrels. Onto the reviews!

Background

A sign of the times perhaps, but allegedly these barrel finished Heaven Hill Select Stocks have been (unsure if current or past tense) available at the gift shop for some time! So much so that Bill Thomas, owner of Jack Rose, apparently was allowed to buy a veritable horde of them. Hence, this tasting, covering five different offerings:

• 14th Edition: Small Batch Bourbon made from mingling 7- and 12-year-old barrels together; finished in a used Brandy barrel for more than four years.

• 15th Edition: Small Batch Bourbon made from mingling 7- and 12-year-old barrels together; finished in a used Armagnac barrel for more than four years.

• 16th Edition: Small Batch Bourbon made from mingling 7- and 12-year-old barrels together; finished in a used Sherry barrel for more than four years.

• 17th* Edition: Wheated Bourbon aged for 6 years then finished in Good Folks Coffee Company barrels for an additional 12 months.

• 18th* Edition: 5 barrels of Malt Whiskey aged for 8 years, finished in used Mezcal barrels for 6 months.

*I’m not positive these editions aren’t reversed. Heaven Hill’s website only lists up to the 16th edition, but it seems reasonable to assume these are the next two in one order or another.

Background

I’ll be honest, I have not had a ton of experience with Old Forester’s 117 Series. The two iterations I have really sat down with, I didn’t particularly love. I do, however, appreciate that this line exists, packaged at 375s no less, and understand that an experimental line is by definition going to have a low floor, high ceiling hit or miss proposition baked in. The industry having an opportunity to recoup some R&D loss through lines like this, Beam’s Distiller’s Share, Buffalo Trace’s Experimental Series, and others is a good thing. Sometimes an experimental release really sings and then we can all clamor for more until it becomes a regular thing, or maybe it inspires the next craft distillery to try something different.

This particular release has a fairly simple concept, it takes Old Forester bourbon (no age statement but it must be over 4 years given TTB rules) and finishes it rum barrels for approximately six months. The source of the rum barrels is not disclosed, but the press release explicitly calls out that they were used to age rum for at least four years.

Background

“Peregrine changed everything.” While unsurprising, it was incredibly interesting to hear Chris Riesbeck, VP of Sales and Marketing, deep dive into how wild things have been for Found North recently. Full disclaimer, this tasting was put on by J ST Whiskey, which is a group I’m heavily involved in. It was such a riveting conversation, though, that I figured I would share some of the insights as well as review the bottles we tasted through. While there was a lot of interesting discussion around how Found North is sourced and blended, what I personally found most interesting was Chris’ sales perspective. In no particular order, here were some nuggets that stuck out to me:

Background

Back with another Binder’s review! Last time I covered three ryes, this time we’re digging into three bourbons:

• “Tommy Pitts”: an 8 year, MGP bourbon aged exclusively in Kelvin Cooperage barrels. Mashbill is 75% Corn, 21% Rye, 4% Malted Barley

• “Make it Make Sense”: conspicuously sourced 5 year bourbon from Owensboro, KY. Combine the fact that Barton Brands/Sazerac/Glenmore Distillery is there, with this wonderful Bourbon Culture article on the 75/21/4 KY mashbill and I would GUESS this is Barton source. Bill did not confirm any of that, it’s purely an educated guess.

• “Maiden Voyage”: a 15 year, hazmat MGP bourbon bottled exclusively for friends and family. It’s one of four short barrels of 15 year MGP under the Binder’s Stash label, this one comprising of only 69 bottles.

Background

There’s no question Old Forester has ramped up President’s Choice releases in the past year or so. I suspect the timing actually correlates to when Melissa Rift took over as Master Taster, but when I went looking for a list of Old Forester President’s Choice releases to build out this theory, I found no such list exists. That said, it’s worth just looking at some basic math:

Background

FINALLY! For whiskey loving DMV locals, this past weekend marked a fairly momentous occasion. After a number of barrels made it out to the market, Bill Thomas and the Jack Rose team finally hosted a launch party/tasting for their new brand: Premier Drams. There’s been a fair bit of general rumblings about the brand, so it was great to finally hear an official story from the team behind it.

Background

Ah Maker’s Wood Finish series, it’s good to have you back!Maker’s left the future of this series a bit up in the air after the 2023 edition (BEP), and it’s interesting to see that they are now referring to the 2019-2023 releases as “the first chapter” in their press release. While the chapter one releases focused on Maker’s production methods, the “second chapter” releases highlight different members of the Maker’s distillery team. This brings us to “The Heart Release”, which marks the start of the “second chapter” and is meant as an homage to the distillation team at Maker’s.

Background

Been a pretty good year for Found North! Hot off the heels of their High Altitude Collection debut, Peregrine: First Flight, last year, they rolled out the second release: Hell Diver. This release was met with rapturous demand, selling out so quickly that Found North decided to make it up to lottery entrants by giving them early access to this Batch 009. Despite an outturn over over 6,000 bottles (compared to the 2,208 of Hell Diver) this release also immediately sold out online. There’s a secondary market for virtually ever release they put out now, and it’s clear from the growing batch sizes, they are doing what they can to try to meet this demand.

I won’t spend a ton of time on the background, Found North is wonderfully transparent on their site, consistently listing the components of each release. On both the site and the back of the bottle, Found North provides a “managers proof” suggestion:

“Adding water to whisky causes an exothermic reaction that releases flavors from the whisky through evaporation. While we favor bottling at cask strength, Manager's Proof is our recommendation for how much water to add to a given Batch release. For Batch 009 we recommend adding 0.2 mls of water to a 50ml pour and letting it rest for 10 minutes. We find this releases a candied red apple note on the nose, enhances the nutmeg quality on the finish and gives the mid-palate a beautiful sticky caramel texture.”

I’m going to take them up on this and review this whiskey twice. Once at the bottled proof, and once at Manager’s Proof.

Background

Jim Beam’s 2024 Barreled and Boxed releases are officially starting back up again. It has been a curious start to a program I’ve been a big fan of so far. There was no spring release, despite past years being on a quarterly cadence. This feels like a missed opportunity to not put together a rye themed box around the new A. Overholt and Knob Creek 10 Year Rye releases. Astute watchers of the release list also noted quickly that this shipment contains Distillers’ Share 05, and the winter will contain Distillers’ Share 07… but there’s no Distillers’ Share 06 to be found (the virtual tasting would reveal it’s going to be distillery only). Little Book Chapter 8 is also already hitting shelves, but won’t come to Barreled and Boxed recipients until Fall. These are more curious observations rather than major gripes, but as a fan of this program I hope it doesn’t signal a slippage in Beam’s attention to it…

Background

I didn’t really expect to be here! My last Binder’s Stash review was highly complimentary of the bottle itself, but candidly a little skeptical of the whole positioning/marketing/branding of the line. Since then, I’ve been able to connect casually with Bill a few times and hopefully will be able to share more in the future as to his process for putting out high quality single barrels. One of the things I’ve noted though is that he seems to have an affinity for the 51% rye, 49% malted barley MGP mashbill. The same one that Smoke Wagon utilized, albeit at a younger age, to great effect.

I, candidly, have the good fortune of having excellent friends who keep letting me taste these picks. Having already enjoyed this mashbill aged to 5 & 6 years, I was excited to try these three 10 year old iterations. Given these are all the same age, (basically) the same 119 proof, same mashbill, and same distillery… this becomes a pretty pure examination of the differences in single barrels. Let’s get to the notes!

Background

My expectations were a little high heading into this tasting, I'll be honest. The last Jack Rose Willett Tasting had two banger hazmat bourbon heavy hitters. I recently had the good fortune of trying the, unconfirmed but assuredly Willett rye sourced, Premier Drams pick from Jack Rose. It was also delicious, and I’ve always been more of a Willett rye guy then their bourbons (which I think are extremely hit or miss). Jack Rose’s lead whiskey advisor, Chris Leung, started this tasting by proclaiming simply: “drink more rye.” Challenge accepted, onto the reviews:

Background

Look I write reviews from Jack Rose in DC a lot, that’s no secret. And while some of the most hyped tastings involve the releases of their Willett picks (review of their new Willett rye in the works!), my favorites tend to be the occasional marketing budget bomb that rolls into town. You show up, realize there’s an unusual amount of swag, and settle in for some passed hors d'oeuvres and hopefully some decent pours.

This particular tasting was put on by Westland and Bruichladdich, both of which are owned by Rémy Cointreau, and hosted by National Brand Ambassador Jason Cousins. This part will cover the Westland offerings, and part two will go up on r/scotch on Wednesday! I haven’t covered Westland since my visit out there almost a year ago, so I’m excited to revisit the brand.

Background

Since I wrote about the launch of the Premier Drams line two weeks ago, all that’s happened is that A CRAP TON of Premier Drams bottles have hit the market. Seelbach’s launched picks, local DMV store S&W liquors posted a counterful of them. You’d be hard pressed right now to find a DMV store that isn’t carrying them.

One place that’s still notably quiet about them… Jack Rose! I am, ironically, reviewing their rye pick from the delicious Cinder BBQ in DC. So in the interim if you’re local to the area and curious to try this, a PSA that it’s currently on the bar there. Now, it does seem that the current flooding of the market on these has killed absolutely any secondary market. As such, my initial advice to anyone looking for these is to shop around, and not panic that they are going to wildly sell out from under you. They are by no means cheap, so shop around, don’t bite on some inflated store cost, and hopefully soon we’ll get a formal Jack Rose tasting!

Background

18 barrels, 2982 bottles. The public sale of this release apparently sold out in 59 seconds. Some days I think the bourbon hype train is slowing down, and others a fairly indie producer sells out a nearly 3,000 bottle collaboration essentially instantaneously. But, credit where credit is due, Ben Holladay put together quite the alluring process for this release. They tapped into some of their oldest stocks, and then had a notable crew of bourbon aficionados handle the blending. Mason Walker, Clay Risen, Emerson Shotwell, David Jennings, and Ryan Alves, in collaboration with Holladay Master Distiller Kyle Merklein.

I’m not super familiar with the entirety of that crew, but Dave Jennings is a whiskey writer legend and Clay Risen’s book Bourbon: The Story of Kentucky Whiskey has been cited in more of my reviews than I can count. So, I decided to dip my toe in the water, and that’s a fairly apt metaphor as I didn’t even buy this whole bottle but rather split it with a few friends. That’s the short story on the process, now to judge the end result.

Background

Over the past week in the DMV, a long rumored brand has finally arrived. Rumblings of a Bill Thomas, the owner of Jack Rose in DC and fairly legendary whiskey figure, owned whiskey brand have percolated through various Jack Rose tastings over the course of the last ~year. Casually referenced offhand by Bill, then we all would collectively move on to whatever tasting was front and center. Come early May, a label suddenly appeared on Coming Whiskey for Premier Drams, eponymous with the yearly whiskey bacchanalia hosted by Jack Rose. When the Imperial, Jack Rose’s sister restaurant, converted part of their space to a bottle shop and sandwich shop also named Premier Drams, a coordinated launch seemed destined to happen…

And then these bottles just arrived on the market. As of yet, no overview of the brand tasting at Jack Rose. No major instagram post from Jack Rose or Bill, nor the Premier Drams (bottle shop) account. We get a fairly vague post from distributor Prestige Ledroit and then a series of ~$200+ single barrels. Now, the word of mouth is starting to ramp up and is fairly unsurprising. Bill Thomas has a famously good relationship with Willett, and the prevailing information on the market is covered in my dear friend’s review here, but the long and short of it is this is supposedly contract distilled Willett aged at Castle and Key. Hopefully a Jack Rose tasting will soon emerge to confirm this, but until then we will operate under that assumption as multiple local-and-in-the-know bar/restaurant owners have said as much to me. This review will cover three barrels selected by a trio of legendary DMV institutions: Drug City, Allview Liquors, and again Jack Rose.

Background

This is, admittedly, a copycat exercise! I recently worked with a local group, the Neckpour Boyz, in their quest to do a blind Bowman Cask Strength breakdown by providing them with some samples. What followed was an immediate sense of envy and curiosity. Would my personal blind rankings be the same? I have previously reviewed each of these three batches (links at the bottom for those curious), but never at the same time. How would a blind ranking match or not match my past scores?

Well there is only one way to find out! I dialed up my neighbor and frequent tasting partner/collaborator and we did our own blind. Here’s how things shook out:

Background

Just two months ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing a new Cigar Blend batch from Joseph Magnus. In that review, I noted how one of the hallmarks of the brand is Nancy Fraley’s transparency into her blending process. This new Murray Hill Club Special Release is no exception. From the press release, we know this is a blend of 8 and 17 year bourbons, both of which having a 75/21/4 mashbill. Nancy is wonderfully responsive on social media so I reached out to her on Instagram and she confirmed both bourbons are Indiana sourced (so MGP).

Once blended, the bourbon is then finished in Normandy region sourced Calvados casks for four months and bottled at cask strength. One last detail that I thought was super cool, apparently this was deliberately set to rest 4 to 5 weeks before bottling. I am sure this happens with other producer’s blends accidentally, but I’ve never heard of this being done deliberately. Enough book learning, let’s drink!

Background

It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this, almost 2 years in fact. In that ode to the omitted, my initial positioning was much harsher. I’ll be honest, these I just kind of… forgot about. So this will be my fable to the forgotten, the cleansing of my closet consciousness. One of these bottles, the King’s County, was even regifted to me by a friend to drink at my leisure. This poor bottle is now twice neglected! There is one, primary connection between these three bottles- they all have OBNOXIOUSLY long names, especially when you include the pick names, which of course I now must in order to hammer this point home. Other than that, there’s a bit of a vendiagram-esque link between bottles. The Wilderness Trail and King’s are both wheated. The High Wire and Wilderness Trail are both Jack Rose picks. Other than that the main reason I’m doing this is that I totally forgot they existed, so I’ll get to reviewing.