I’ve got all sorts of whiskey info for you this week, and despite the tribulations that the industry writ large is currently experiencing, the news is all good today.
First, earlier this year when I reintroduced you all to Andy and Charlie Nelson’s relaunch of Belle Meade Bourbon, they shared that they had plans to collaborate with more than 25 restaurants and bars to share a portion of the proceeds from a specialty cocktail made using BMB to help finance a scholarship to the Belle Meade Spirits Fermentation Science Scholarship at Middle Tennessee State University, supporting the next generation of local distilling talent. During February, local bars and Belle Meade Bourbon managed to raise $3,500 to assist a lucky student in the upcoming semester. Cheers to all involved!
Secondly, when I shared the news earlier this week that Jack Daniel’s had released the latest editions of their Aged Series, I promised I would share my impressions after I had cracked my sample bottles. This is some precious stuff, with the 10-year retailing for $89.99, the 12-year for $99.99 and the Jack 14 for $149.99, so I treated my small sample bottles like liquid gold. Fortunately, these extra-aged Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskeys exhibit so much character that it was easy to evaluate them from just a tiny snifter.
I went through them in order of age, starting with the 10-year. This is the fifth edition of the decade series, and I’ve been lucky enough to try them all. Considering that every single bottle of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey has the exact same mash bill recipe of 80 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley and 8 percent rye, it’s astonishing how different they can taste based on how wood, heat and time affect the liquid inside the barrel.
Bottled at 97-proof, this particular whiskey does come across as a little more aggressive than traditional Old No. 7, but not in a bad way. Ten years in barrel amplifies the common baked, banana, crème brûlée, molasses and baking spice notes that you’d expect from Jack, but the extra time in oak is revealed in a long, complex finish of woody vanilla that sets this above Old No. 7. Please do not mix this with Coke at a tailgater!
The first year that Jack Daniel’s released a 12-year-old Tennessee Whiskey was 2022, and I remember remarking back then that it was amazing how that extra two years of repose revealed so much more of the confectionery notes that were hidden inside the mash bill, much more than in No. 7 and even more than 10 years discovered. This year’s edition is marvelous! On the first taste, I got cocoa, maple, cinnamon and caramel. Then it popped in my head that this was like drinking a chocolate chip pancake, something that I would never complain about. They should hand this stuff out to people waiting in line at Pancake Pantry to make the queue a treat!
After the initial pleasure, things became a little more serious as the lengthy finish reminded me that this whiskey had spent more than a decade in barrels. The dry oak finish started to lean a little tannic, but not unpleasantly so. For only $10 more than the 10-year-old, I would choose this 107-proof whiskey every time.
This is only the second release of a 14-year-old whiskey from Jack Daniel’s, just the second time a whiskey that old has been sold since Mr. Jack himself walked the floors of the distillery in his tiny little size 4 boots. These bottles are released at 117.6 proof, and that extra oak is very noticeable on the nose. Aromas of wood and pipe tobacco dominated the first sniff, but after it opened up a little bit, I got a lot more vanilla. It reminded me of a Biscoff cookie, and they are the main reason I fly Delta.
On the palate, more cinnamon spice showed up, and it was surprisingly not as tannic as its younger brother. The magic of where the distillery stores those barrels can make a huge difference in how they end up, and my guess is these didn’t come from the highest floors of the rickhouse. It finished with a nice element of leather and tobacco, like sitting in an English library. I quite liked it, but the 12-year is still my personal favorite. Your mileage may vary. If you’re interested in scoring a bottle, don’t forget to enter the sweepstakes for the chance to visit the distillery to pick one up!
While I was tasting through extraordinary whiskey samples, I figured it would be a good time to crack the latest bourbon I had received from Louisville-based master blenders Barrell Craft Spirits. (No, that extra L is not a typo. When you’re as good at sourcing and blending whiskey as these guys are, idiosyncrasies are tolerated.)
“Cigar blends” are specifically designed to complement the flavors of a fine stogie, and they’ve been around since the 1980s in Scotland, and for more than a decade here in the States. Barrell Craft Spirits would seem to be an ideal candidate for creating their own version of a cigar blend because they have so much experience blending barrels from different distilleries and finishing them in different types of casks to add desired nuances and flavors to the end product.
I can only begin to imagine how they selected and tested these barrels to create Barrell Cigar Blend Bourbon, because the number of variables they chose to include in the process is overwhelming. This whiskey was made using different straight bourbon whiskeys that were created in separate distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee. The whiskeys ranged in age from 7-and-a-half to 18 years, and then they were finished in a mix of Madeira, Armagnac, rum and Hungarian oak casks.
The end product was blended, and the final product came out at a proof level of 111.2. Barrell has released it at that cask strength with a standard retail price of $84.99. So how did it turn out?
In a word, stupendous! It’s hard to speak to the effects of the different distillates, because we don’t know exactly what they were and what each contributed to the end product. This juice is all about the finish, and it’s a whirlwind of a ride. Serious fruit comes across on the nose, almost certainly from the Armagnac and the rum casks. On the tongue, this was an Everlasting Gobstopper, offering an initial rush of jammy, plummy dark fruits before revealing a little bit of citrusy sweetness. Then the Madeira and the Hungarian oak took charge for the finish with a salty, briny savoriness unlike anything I have ever experienced.
I’m not sure everyone would love this bourbon, and I rarely smoke cigars. But I’m going to make it a point to score a few good sticks now that the weather is nice enough to smoke outside with a snifter of whiskey. And the Barrell Cigar Blend Bourbon is definitely what will be in my glass!
