One Bourbon, Two Bourbons, Three Bourbons

A wide psychological gulf extends between Chicago and Kentucky, though the distance is less than from SF to LA (less than a six hour drive from north Chicago suburbs to Kentucky's cultural capital, Louisville). The goal was to tour Bourbon country and tasting, much like wine tasting in California, though with bluegrass music and thoroughbred horses running around the countryside.

So off I went, to visit America's only native spirit, the bourbon country of central Kentucky. Kentucky still is shrugging off a century of propaganda of it being a hillbilly state. I found nothing of the sort. Everyone I met on the road was friendly, smart, knew a lot about bourbon, and was proud of Kentucky. The Kentucky accent was pleasant mid-southern, heavier than Virginia and Tennessee though less than deep South Georgia or Alabama. It's also pretty neat that the state capitol rotunda has a side-by-side statue of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, Presidents of the Union and Confederacy, as both are native Kentuckians.

I was also struck by the heavy Jewish presence in this area; the main hospital of Louisville is simply called "Jewish hospital". The largest nature reserve was set aside by a turn-of-the century bourbon magnate Isaac Bernheim (the cafeteria in the LEED-certified gorgeous visitor center is called "Isaac's cafe"), and the family owning the last major family-run distillery of Heaven's Hill - as well as making an awesome pomegranate liquor (Pama) , is the Shapiro family. People could, and did, make their fortunes with bourbon.

And this stuff is good. Not all whiskeys are bourbons, but all bourbons are whiskey, mandated to be at least 51% corn, the rest rye, wheat, and yeast. All of the flavor comes from the barrels it sits in, for 5 to about 25 years. The barrels cannot be re-used, so they are then sold, mostly to Scotland for their scotch, but also to the Caribbean for dark rum and Mexico for dark tequila.

This area is also known for the quality of the water, the main ingredient of bourbon. It sits on a limestone shelf, which leeches away the iron, a bad thing if you want to distill liquor, which makes the water black and bitter, and adds calcium for healthy bones when sipping the morning shot. The water was indeed tasty, but I came to drink heavier stuff.

I needed to stop at all six distilleries on the trail and get a "passport" stamped to get a free t-shirt. So the first stop was at Jim Beam, a mega distillery, but "guarded" by two of the cutest dogs. All around, the bourbon stills were evident. Eventually, Heaven's Hill, Four Roses, Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve were all visited.

The distillers have some pretty ingenious methods of stacking these 500 pound barrels, and these places can withstand tornadoes by simple wooden cross beams.

In any event, the average age for most bourbons is about 7 years. From then on, evaporation becomes a serious problem. That's why an 18-25 year bourbon is so expensive (100-200 dollars per bottle), because nearly 60% of it's gone, or as known in around here "the angel's share", since they are the only ones to enjoy the evaporated spirit.

It's time to start the tasting. Bourbon has four qualities to it: sight, smell, taste, and throat feel. Sight: it should be a nice, caramel color. Smell, with an open mouth, should be pleasant. If the master distiller goes through a batch, and test #1 and #2 don't pass muster, then he won't even bother to taste, it goes back to sit in for another 1 or 2 hot summers and cold winters in the barrel. Finally, the taste should be bursting with caramel, butterscotch, barrel flavors, and the warmth going down the throat to the stomach should be pleasant, not harsh.





My favorite bourbon? It's not hard to spend $100-$200 for phenomenal stuff, rich caramel flavor, heavy mouth feel, smooth going down. Four Roses special reserve or Pappy Van Winkle will do, but it's not cheap. My wife still couldn't believe I spent $100 on Four Roses last year, I don't think that she'll be down with spending twice that on some Pappy, though even if I wanted to spend $250 on the bottle, this stuff flies off the shelf so fast I couldn't find it in stock in any town. So that leaves the mid-range. Woodford Reserve is the favorite of all the taste tests, and it is the official beverage of the Kentucky Derby. And yes, it's quite good, smooth, no harshness, perfect for a day at the races. But it lacked an oomph, or some character to it. Sorry Elijah Pepper, resident Woodford kitty.




So now what? After I polish off the "best value" bourbon I have at home (and winner of a blind taste test - surprise - Jim Beam "Black"), the next taste I'm angling for is the bourbon flight I had at the excellent Lilly's restaurant: Willet's Single Barrel Bourbon:

http://www.bevmo.com/Shop/ProductDetail.aspx?D=bourbon&Ntx=mode%2bmatchall&Dx=mode%2bmatchall&Ntk=All&Nty=1&Ntt=bourbon&N=4294967139&ProductID=25452