Posts Tagged ‘Woodford Reserve’

The South is rising again part 2

 

 

Lil Ol’ Morley St Botolph, Norfolk, England

 

Great whisky memories are made by people, not places. And if I had to describe what I do, I’d say it’s not tasting – Murray and Broom do that better than I ever will – it’s bringing whisky alive by introducing the people I meet in the industry back home to a whisky tasting group.

When the places are as pretty as George Dickel, Woodford Reserve and Maker’s Mark, though, the job just got all that much easier.

A few years back at the Tom Moore distillery on the edge of Bardstown, Kentucky, I met a guy named Greg Davis, a young, happy and enthusiastic new master distiller with a  product due on the market soon called Ridgemont Reserve 1792.

It was hot and Greg showed myself and Gordon Dundas, then sales manager at Whisky Magazine but now a brand ambassador for Bowmore, a tour of the site. American warehouses can be seven stories high, are made of metal, and if you want to understand bourbon you need to visit one in summer. At the bottom the temperature is about 30 degrees in summer, but at the top, it can hit 50. So we ran up the stairs, drank cask strength Barton bourbon straight from the barrel then came back down, tripping from the heat and the alcohol, and we lay on the grass in the warmth of the sun, laughing until we were choking. Greg and I have been friends ever since and one of my proudest possessions is a signed bottle with the words “you were here before the brand was even the market place and you are always welcome in my distillery.”

So meeting up with Greg on my last day was always a hope. He’s now master distiller at Maker’s Mark, anither pretty distillery only this time at Loretto, Kentucky, a Catholic community where statues of Our Lady decorate the gardens and picket fences keep the thoroughbred horses penned. And where the statues often sits in bath tubs – though my fellow journalists are cynical about my explanation why.

But it’s true because Maker’s figurehead Bill Samuels told me and he would never make stuff up or exaggerate.

The sun is shining – as it must here – and sure enough, Greg joins our party. For me, that’s job done and the trip’s complete – and time’s running out anyway.

Just time for a quick visit to Beam and a chance to say hello to Fred Noe. With several new products on the way and the distillery being expanded significantly to accommodate a full visitor experience, nowhere epitomises what’s happening in Kentucky more than this site. Much as I love visiting the State, until a couple of years back little changed here and pickings for a journalist were slim.

Not any more – with the world of whisky opening up new territories by the week the distillers here are on the move and Kentucky is as vibrant and dynamic as anywhere else. It’s a building site and it’s producing great new whiskeys, though the downside is we’re not going to see them in Europe any time soon.

I have to leave mid tour, along with my four new Israeli friends, and the one downer on the trip that they don’t make it airside to share one last beer. Turns out their Newark flight is too delayed for them to leave Louisville so they return to the trip. I love going home but sitting in a soulless airport in Louisville or on Islay when I don’t know when I’ll be back is always a tough gig for me. Hard leaving a part of your heart anywhere.

Great group, great whiskey, great times.

I’m outta here…

 

Coming next: No more smoke and mirrors! So much for the sentimental stuff, now read my problem with American whiskey and the people who try to define it. I guess I ought to do something objective!!

Read it here this afternoon…

The South is rising again! – Part one

Louisville Kentucky, Tuesday April 24
The last two days of out trip to America is spent on a whirlwind journey through the Northern part of Kentucky and to the distilleries around Louisville and Bardstown.
Woodford Resrve is one of the prettiest distilleries in the world and with Spring sprunging and the fields rich green, the geldings shiny chestnut brown and the sky clear and blue, this is when you lose your heart in this wonderful part of the world.
At Woodford we are treated to a tour de force from master distiler Chris Morris. I’ve known Chris since he was assistant to Lincoln Henderson here, and by his own admission he can be cranky ( token example: “so this guy rings me and asks me for another unique single barrel exactly the same as the last one, and I say to him, which bit of unique don’t you understand? Guess I shouldn’t have said that.”)
Today, though, he’s on fire, and we get the perfect Woodford Reserve experience – like seeing you favourite band at their very best.
Let me say straightaway that I love Woodford Reserve. I am proud to have done promotional work with them, I love the rye-infused flavour of the bourbon, and I am fascinated by the history of the site. I am proud that my name appears on a brass plaque on the single barrel wall of fame, giving me a backseat ride on the distillery’s history.
And history here is everything – this is the site where the likes of Oscar Pepper and James Crow brought science and consistency to bourbon, where modern bourbon was shaped and perfected.
Which is great, but what makes the Woodford experience so important is Chris Morris himself. He’s put noses out of joint in the past because he challenges the smoke and mirrors aspect of bourbon history and has questioned some of the misconceptions that were left unchallenged for so long.
And in this modern era he was ahead of his time when he started experimenting with bourbon’s ingredients just like Pepper and Crow once did. Who said that limestone water had to be used for bourbon making? Or that the oak had to be American? And today Chris gives us a very brief history of bourbon that questions the vey name itself and how the barrels ended up being charred, no doubt upsetting the purists further.
It makes for a fascinating visit – and the new Double Oaked Woodford Reserve – which we won’t see in the United Kingdom for some time to come unless our md can pull off a major coup – is a stunner.
If Chris Morris is fighting misinformation with bourbon he’s no doubt having a field day with our next port of call. Described as the Bulleit distillery, it’s nothing of the sort. Bulleit has no distillery.
I’m going to blog about this later today but let me make one thing. I have no problem with Bulleit bourbon, or with Tom Bulleit, or with Diageo wanting to tell a good story. Great people all of them.
But Bulleit has no distillery and I don’t feel at ease going to somewhere with so much history and listening as the Bulleit story is merged and mingled in to the history of what is a bourbon institution.
The Stitzel Weller distillery at Shively in the heart of Louisville is draped in the ghosts of three great bourbon families – the Stitzels, Wellers, and Van Winkles. God only knows what Julian and Preston Van Winkle think of their grand and great grand-daddy’s legacy.
The distillery is a storage facility for Diageo these days and the main house has become the offices for Tom Bulleit and team. It’s smoke and mirrors, sure, but it’s well done and our hospitality experience is outstanding. We make cocktails and then we’re give a glimpse of the archive material stored in one huge warehouses. Truly amazing.
Our accommodation is 21 Musuem Hotel, and this is my fourth stay. It’s the bizarrest hotel I’ve every stayed in, with scores of quirky features, its own museum and art gallery, and a number of 1.5 high plastic coloured penguins which you’re encouraged to move around the hotel.
And yes I drank too many of the fabulous cocktails at Proof, the hotel’s bourbon bar; yes, I failed to make it out in to the city because the company I was with was too good to leave; yes, I ended up drinking large glasses of neat bourbon with a small group in a hotel room, putting the world to rights; yes, I was woken by a phone call from reception saying the bus was leaving and I’d overslept; and yes there was a penguin in my room. Fully dressed.
Don’t ask, but it’s a while since I was able to say that I picked up a bird and spent the night with her…
Louisville does that to you. But sadly while in the city I was told the world’s best cd shop Ear Xstasy had closed down the same day as Levon Helm died.
That’s dreadful and a sign of the times.
 Please keep Louisville weird, America…
To be continued. Read my final American blog later today.

Whisky trending – what I liked this week

 

 

 

What I liked this week

 

The next issue of Whiskeria

We’ve been working hard on a new issue of Whiskeria and it’ll be hitting the stores some time around mid May – and it’s shaping up to be a cracker.

There’s a feature on our trip to Islay with international photographer Colin Prior, an interview with the whisky-loving lead singer of Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, fatherly advice and whisky picks for Father’s Day and what to do in  Britain if you’re not interested in The Olympics. There’s also a review of Ken Loach’s whisky-basd film The Angel’s Share.

 

The Angel’s Share

I was invited to a press screening of Ken Loach’s new film and attended with national journalists from the likes of Heat, Empire, The Telegraph. Reviews are embargoed at this point – it comes out in June – but suffice to say it will do the whisky industry no harm and it’s a delight seeing a whisky colleague in action – in this case Charlie MacLean. A review will appear here once a date is green-lighted.

 

New Glenkeir Treasures

One of the great aspects of The Whisky Shop offering is the opportunity to taste exclusive whiskies in store before purchasing and then buy samples in 10cl, 20cl or 50cl bottles, making quite rare whisky accessible to even the modest pocket.

The whiskies are specially selected for us and are filled in to casks in the shop, and they are uniformly excellent. The arrival of a new Treasure is always a special event and doesn’t happen that often.

The latest additions are an Isle of Jura 19 year old and a Highland Park 17 year old. The former is an oddball whisky,a subtle mix of rapier fresh and clean citrus flavours and a surprisingly subtle and sophisticated taste. The Highland Park is a treat but takes there malt in to new territory, dispensing with the balanced all rounder characteristics normally associated with the whisky  and focusing on a gritty Highland taste with grape and gooseberry in the mix.

 

BenRiach samples

BenRiach continues to delight and amaze and the latest batch of samples are a mix of sherry casks offerings from the mid 70s and light bourbon fresh ones from the 80s. There are a couple of peaty ones there and one or two of the very oldest have a delicious rich menthol flavour …stunning.

 

And finally…

I’m off to Tennessee and Kentucky for six days to interview the master distillers about American whiskey for a new video W Club series starting in May. The idea is to ask the people who make it to talk about one aspect of Tennessee whiskey and bourbon. I’ll be visiting Jack Daniel’s, Woodford Reserve, and Maker’s Mark, seeing the new facilities at Beam and the new distillery at Wild Turkey, visiting George Dickel for the first time, and going to what is described as the Bulleit Distillery even though there isn’t one.

All will no doubt be revealed. I am flying on the day the great Southern musician Levon Helm of The Band has died. I was a big fan and his death will throw a dark cloud over the visit.

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