Despite the talk of whiskey shortages from distilleries over the past few years, there continues to be no shortage of new products hitting local liquor store and bar shelves lately. With so much competition in the market, distilleries are trying all sorts of novel ways to differentiate their products, some of which actually make for better whiskey, but many of which are just marketing ploys. Three new offerings from George Dickel, Ole Smoky and Happenstance trade on reputation and other factors to try to separate your dollars from your wallet, so let’s see what’s actually in the bottle.
The most notable new whiskey on the market is a sort of unique product from George Dickel. They have recently released a new permanent offering, which is a pretty big deal from a large distillery like Dickel. Their new product is George Dickel Bourbon, a 90-proof whiskey that has been aged at least eight years.
Here’s where it gets a little confusing. You might say, “But I thought Dickel made Tennessee whiskey?” That is indeed true, but all Tennessee whiskey is technically bourbon, having satisfied all the parameters of grain bill, aging in new charred oak barrels, barrel entry and bottling proof, and American provenance required of all bourbons. Tennessee whiskeys add the additional regulations that the spirit must be distilled in the state and undergo an additional step of mellowing through charcoal filtration.
All Tennessee whiskeys are technically bourbons, even though almost all of them prefer to take advantage of the more restrictive labeling to set themselves apart from bourbons. However, Dickel has been known to produce some whiskey in the past that doesn't run through the “Lincoln County Process” of charcoal mellowing, primarily for sale to other companies to sell through private labels.
So what's in the bottle of George Dickel Bourbon? I did a little sleuthing to find out that it is indeed Tennessee whiskey, the same product that you find in a regular bottle of Dickel. That doesn’t mean, however, that it can’t be an exceptional product or that it is being mislabeled.
I’ve written in the past how much I admire Dickel’s head distiller, Nicole Austin, and her talent for tasting, selecting and blending interesting barrels from Cascade Hollow’s thousands of barrels aging in rickhouses, while she waits for her own distillate to mature long enough for release. In the past she has selected bottles that reminded her of gose beer and chosen barrels for breweries to age beers that are evocative of fruity cocktails. This time she has tasted through literally thousands of barrels from the distillery to select those that exhibit the most bourbon-y characteristics.
So while this new product is Tennessee whiskey and has been through the Lincoln County Process, it definitely leans toward the flavors of toffee, vanilla and oak that characterize what you’d expect from a bourbon. The toasty toffee is a highlight of the long, complex finish, which surprisingly ended up with a hint of sawdust on the palate imparted by those eight years in oak. Considering it’s a higher proof than many whiskeys, it’s a great snifter pour, especially for a bourbon that retails at just $33. In fact, this would be a great bourbon at a much higher price, so it’s definitely worth seeking out for something fun and different.
Speaking of fun, Ole Smoky Distillery has never taken itself too seriously, trading on a broad line of flavored moonshines best drunk quickly among friends at a social event. Their tasting rooms in East Tennessee and downtown Nashville at 6th & Peabody are basically party palaces, with tourists sampling multiple flavors and getting sufficiently lubricated to want to buy a few jars to take home as a souvenir. Those jars often get opened at parties, tailgates or often near some body of water like a lake, river or pool. This is all to say that not many of them get poured into Glencairn glasses for serious analysis.
And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. As a friend of mine once told me, “Fun wants us to have it!” It was a bit of a surprise to hear that Ole Smoky owner Joe Baker was releasing a serious new small-batch bourbon in honor of his fifth-generation great-grandfather. James Ownby Reserve Tennessee Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a 94-proof whiskey that has been sourced from another distillery (see above, just a guess) and bottled in limited quantities with just 200 barrels making up the initial release.
Although they call it a bourbon, it has also run through the Lincoln County Process (see above, just a guess) making it technically a Tennessee whiskey. Now that all the technical info and marketing analysis is out of the way, how does it taste? Quite good, actually!
Retailing at around $40 per bottle, James Ownby is a pretty good value considering the proof premium. While it’s not the most complex bourbon I’ve tasted this year (or even this week, see above), I found it pretty delightful as a casual sipper. A cinnamon taste leads the dance on the palate, but it comes by it naturally as opposed to the liqueurs and minty whiskeys that are the preferred shot of the bachelorette industrial complex downtown. There’s also a nice hint of black pepper on the palate, and it’s surprisingly smooth for a 94-proof whiskey. It's very likeable and not too complicated. In other words, perfect for someone who stumbles into a moonshine tasting room but might be swayed into trying something different. If a tourist takes home a bottle of James Ownby to share with his or her buddies after a trip to Nashville, that would be a much better portrayal of the history of great whiskey from Tennessee, and I think that is something both Baker and his ancestor should be proud of.
The third new bottle that I sampled this year is Happenstance Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a premium whiskey from beverage industry veteran Paige Parker. Distributed locally by Lipman Brothers, Happenstance is a product sourced from an Indiana distillery, probably the same distillery that has produced the juice in a lot of your favorite whiskeys. I’m certainly not one who obsesses about where the chemical reaction that turns grain into alcohol actually takes place, and the fact that Parker blends and bottles Happenstance in Nashville does add an important local angle to the product.
Female brand owners and blenders are still, unfortunately, rare in the spirits industry, and it’s admirable that Parker has brought her business to Music City. I wanted to show as much support as I could for her efforts and to like this whiskey a lot, and I came back to the bottle several times in hopes that it gained more of my favor over time. Unfortunately, I can’t say that it did.
It’s not that Happenstance is horrible by any means, but as a premium product retailing at more than $55 for a 90-proof bottle, I had higher expectations. Let me start by accentuating the positive. It’s a lovely bottle with a dramatic contemporary design featuring a large “X” that could represent the markings on an old 'shine jug or the angel wings mural of Parker’s adopted hometown. Parker has demonstrated some real commitment to the product by buying enough barrels to create an initial run of 3,000 cases, and taking on the selection and blending of multiple barrels is not a small undertaking.
I was told that these barrels are around four years old, and I’ve had some really good whiskey that ages from the same source where I imagine that these barrels came from. Unfortunately, these are not my favorite barrels. On the nose, I found Happenstance to be very corn-forward, almost doughy, but the nose was pretty muted. That corn also dominated the first taste on the tongue, a sweet and floral character that I hoped would develop into something special. In the glass and on the palate, the whiskey exhibited a slightly metallic character, and the grain definitely overpowered the oak, a danger in younger whiskeys. The finish was also short and not extremely complex.
I give props to a young entrepreneur who is trying to make it in an industry that is male-dominated and which favors huge corporations. This iteration of Happenstance isn’t something I’ll hunt down at this premium price. The good news is that Parker’s initial purchase was probably fewer than 20 barrels. I hope that she’ll get access to even more barrels, better barrels and the support to develop her talents further as a blender. We need more dedicated new blood in the business, not less, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. As always, your mileage may vary, so feel free to share your opinions of any of these whiskeys in the comments below.
