Time for another drinking for science post.  This time it’s a blind tasting conducted with members in the Houston Bourbon Society, HBS, with 15 tasters of 16 high proof American whiskies.  While I previously led 5 blind tastings in this group, this time I was a participant.  Kevin Wyze organized this blind tasting and ran it well.  It was a blast being a participant and sometimes very humbling when you see the reveals .  Are these folks expert tasters? Well they do all have their HBS elite cards. The scoring system was on a 0-5 scale, with 5 points being the best whisk ..read more

This is a guest post written by a local bourbon enthusiast friend Kevin Wyss. It also draws on some earlier research done by Mike Jasinski. (If you’re just here for the results and not a history and science lesson, scroll to the bottom) The allure of “dusty” bourbon is seemingly universal in the current whiskey landscape, and while there’s no definition for what makes a true “dusty” bottle, many would argue that to qualify, the bottle must be at least 25 years old. Indeed this liquid from another century is held in such high regard that bottles which retailed for $10 in 1990 can now fetch well ..read more

Today’s post is a drinking for science twofer.  First, I’ve added to my testing projects on “Do spirits change in the bottle once opened?”, but this time with rum.  Second, is a blind tasting of modern era Wild Turkey with bottles from 2010, 2015 and 2020. I’ve tackled the question of “Does bourbon change once the bottle is opened?” 3 different times.  My conclusions are that it does not change enough to be perceivable when stored up to 1 year with a good seal, out of bright light, normal room temp, and a fill level at around 50%.  You can read about this info here – https ..read more

During this ongoing bourbon boom, somehow retail prices of $80 to $200 per bottle of bourbon became normalized.  The masses that jumped into Bourbon over the past 3 to 4 years have bought into the fallacy that price equates to quality or rarity.  This is a result of masterful manipulation by spirits companies.  The chairman of Diageo, Javier Ferrán, said it best, “A key driver of perception of quality is price”. One factor driving this is the influence from online whiskey reviews via bloggers, youtubers, tik tok, instagrammers, etc.  Those new to the game errantly give the ..read more

George Dickel, which is owned by Diageo, recently cleared a new label for George Dickel and for the first time called the product Bourbon instead of TN Whisky.  Both Jack Daniels and George Dickel have always met the legal requirements to be called Bourbon although they elected to designate themselves as TN Whisk(e)y.  Nothing about the Lincoln County Process prevents a whiskey from being bourbon. Now what surprised me was that George Dickel used a Diageo address in New York in the Produced By statement on the back label. But since this was now labeled as Bourbon and not TN Whiskey ..read more

In my local bourbon group, Houston Bourbon Society, I have run 5 group blind tastings.  Each time it has included between 18 to 21 whiskies with 15 tasters.  Why 15?  Because a 750ml bottle breaks down neatly into 15 samples of 50ml each.  Each taster paid the actual cost for the samples. Most of the bottles were obtained at a store for normal SRP.  I sometimes included a dusty bottle from my bunker.  Each tasting had a loose theme as described below.  Beyond the theme, the tastings were completely blind, meaning the tasters had no clue which bottles were inc ..read more

Brown Sugar Bourbon?  We all know that Bourbon by code can’t have any coloring or flavorings, so how does this grotesque whiskey exist?  The answer is ‘Brown Sugar Bourbon’ is not Bourbon but a Whiskey Specialty; it’s listed in this product’s COLA application as a fanciful name.  When a spirit type does not fall under any one clear class/type designation, the TTB encourages the producer to use a fanciful name to describe it.  Most products marketed as ‘Moonshine’ use that word on their label as a fanciful name; it does not exist anywhere in federal code as a class/type.&n ..read more

I stumbled upon a word document that I saved from a 2012 road trip report to KY. My have times changed. Kentucky Bourbon Trip Last week, Randy Blank & I left Houston on Tuesday morning for our road trip to KY.  We stopped Tuesday night in Memphis and we ate some above average BBQ at Cozy Corner (had been on Food Network’s D.D.D.) and drank some good beer at the Flying Saucer.  The next day on our way to Bardstown, KY, we toured the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY.  The factory where GM makes all Corvettes is right next door. We arrived in Bardstown and had a group din ..read more

Without a doubt, in every whiskey group I’m in, someone will eventually ask for advice on a ‘really good’ tequila.  These posts are heavily commented on and often with some questionable advice.  In the bourbon world equivalent advice would be along the lines of ‘Kentucky Owl Confiscated is the best’.   So I’m writing this brief high level overview on Tequila.  As in bourbon, the price of Tequila is often more a function of marketing than of quality.  Fancy bottles and ties to celebrities are hallmarks of tequila companies which typically pitch subpar products. Tequila ..read more

The TTB proposed several new rules and solicited input under a proposal titled “Modernization of the Labeling and Advertising Regulations for Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages” last year.  Today they published their response along with which code change is occurring and its effective date of May 4, 2020. Here is my summary on how it affects spirits: -All spirits other than neutral spirits, which is vodka, can now have age statements so long as once they are dumped from the barrel no altercations are made.  Yes Gin can now officially be aged. In addition they removed the lin ..read more