Ahhh Bourbon

Last night we did a Bourbon tasting with family and awesome friends. In total we tasted four Bourbons: Woodford Reserve, Basil Hayden's, Bookers, and Evan Williams. The differences between each Bourbon were amazing.

For flavor and aroma my favorite was Woodford Reserve but for everyday drinking I'd go with Basil Hayden's which is milder and has a lower alchohol content.

A brief history about Bourbon courtesy of Cyrus Restaurant in Healdsburg...

For a whiskey to be called bourbon it doesn’t have to be from Bourbon County. It doesn’t even have to be from Kentucky. Bourbon County was the launch pad for whiskey coming from the general area on its way to other places back in the early 19th century (it’s hard to believe, but the county was, and still is, dry). The legal criteria for a straight bourbon to be labeled as such necessitates that it come from the U.S. , be made from at least 51% corn, be aged for at least 2 years in brand new charred American white oak barrels, contain absolutely zero colorings and/or additives, and a few other items of lesser importance. The proportion of the other ingredients used (malted barley for roundness and depth and rye and/or wheat for spiciness), or the complete lack thereof, is what gives a bourbon its unique fingerprint. The amount of barrel aging, the water used to cut the whiskey, and the blending process also shape the final product. A quick note: blended bourbon can be as little as 20% straight bourbon and the rest neutral grain spirit along with additives and colorings. That’s the cheap stuff. Straight bourbon can be blended too but only with other straight bourbons to be called the real deal.

Going back to water, the importance of which cannot be understated, much of Kentucky sits on a massive limestone shelf that is calcium rich and iron deficient. This makes for very soft water and beautiful Kentucky bluegrass (which makes for legendary horses). No joke. If you wanted to set up a distillery anywhere 200 years ago, it was practical to do so next to a prime water source. All you needed to make whiskey was to cart the local grain in, grind it down, make beer, distill the beer, age it, and then cut it with the soft water on premises. The Scotch-Irish heritage of the Kentucky settlers meant that this method was imprinted in their DNA.

The use of white oak was an elementary choice as the native trees grew all over the area. The eventual decision to use only charred barrels can be attributed to a notoriously frugal Kentuckian named Elijah Craig who reused herring barrels to age his whiskey but only after trying to torch the smell out first. The result was a whiskey that was unusually smooth and it soon became the way bourbon had to be aged for it to sell. The aggressive charring creates a thin layer of caramelized oak just below the char. After years of exposure to the oak, the char, and this sugary layer, the mostly corn based spirit achieves its famous sweet notes.

Next up...Scotch!