If you’re not familiar with Willett XCF here’s a brief summary. Willett has taken a 7 year old rye whiskey from MGPI and aged it in Curacao Casks. Curacao Casks are just old bourbon barrels with an orange peel distillate that was aged for 2 years. After the the aged orange peel distilate is mixed with Congac and sweetener to create Grand Marnier.
Not sure what to buy the bourbon/whiskey drinker in your life? We’ve got you covered.
PSA: Some, not all, of these links are affiliate and I will make a small percentage off of the purchase. The links are to make it easier for you to find and buy. The affiliate part is so that I can buy myself more bourbon :)
Last week I had a chance to participate in a bourbon dinner/tasting with Jim Beam Master Distiller, Fred Noe. Beam ran a competition that let people submit toasts or statements and the winner would be on their new Single Barrel release.The new Beam Single Barrel will be released soon and will be around the 6-8 year mark. Per Fred, they will be pulling barrels from all around the warehouse to show off the diversity that aging in different portions provides. Each bottle has a winning toast on the back inside of the bottle.
Admittedly, this is probably the most sensationalized titles I’ve used for a post on Bourbonr but there’s a reason. With the Pappy Van Winkle release in full swing there have been multiple Bourbonr’s that noticed the laser code on their bottles were 2013. In fact, there have been several states releases composed only of laser codes reflecting 2013. This led to speculations and accusations of Pappy hoarding (a felony in the bourbon world) aimed at retailers, distributors and Buffalo Trace (BT) themselves. Questions began to fly! Was Illuminati involved? Does Skull & Bones control the Pappy distribution? Did Dick Cheney have anything to do with this? All valid (sarcasm) questions so I decided to hunt for answers.
If you didn’t read the original post you can check it out here: How to Age Whiskey at Home
Over the past year I changed the location of the whiskey several time. I started by leaving it outside in the elements but this caused some rust on the lid of the jar. I then moved it to the screen porch and subsequently to it’s final resting place in the garage. The change in temperature helps with the aging process.
Thanksgiving is a great time to eat, drink and be merry with friends and family. For bourbon drinkers it also caps off some of the best bourbon releases of the year (unless you’re in FL or some other unlucky states like me). But, how do you work bourbon in to your Thanksgiving? This post is not about bourbon recipes but rather bourbon/whiskey pairings to enjoy with your Thanksgiving feast.
The craft movement is on the rise in the US and one of the biggest problems some of these small distilleries face is distribution. We’ve seen several online retailers pop up to try and bridge the gap between consumer and craft distiller however most have transitioned from “sell craft” to “this whiskey beat Pappy in a blind tasting”. Recently, I came across Ezras.com which is dedicated to actually selling craft whiskey. Now there are a few whiskies that have slipped through the “craft” filter (Templeton, Tincup, Barterhouse) but the majority of the whiskies they sell are from small distilleries.
I’ve covered Smooth Ambler multiple times on this blog and have given nothing but praise for their products. With the release the new Stillhouse Collection Smooth Ambler continues to prove that they’re listening to bourbon and whiskey enthusiast and doing things the right way.
Notice several different pieces of information on the new SA label:
First, this post is completely from the perspective of a consumer. I’m not a retailer nor have I worked for a retailer. However, I do talk with a lot of Bourbonr’s across the country and have come to realize what works and what doesn’t work for liquor stores.
Second, a word to the consumer, an understanding of the odds is imperative when hunting Pappy Van Winkle. Most estimate the Van Winkle release to be between 22k-24k bottles. My estimate would say that there’s about 15-20 times the amount of people looking for a bottle. That means for every twenty calls a stores gets only one of those customers will get a bottle.
There’s no doubt WhistlePig has had some bumps in the road however I’ve always liked their whiskey. It appears that they’ve finally coming clean about their Canadian whiskey roots which is a good thing. I hope they’ve figured out that today’s bourbon/whiskey drinker would take transparency and good whiskey over a magical fairy tale and good whiskey. Pretty expensive at $189 but that’s the new normal. Read the press release below. The bold highlights have been added by me and are the important parts if you’re looking to skim.