Catching up on whisk(e)y posts

[emelbe]

Woodford Reserve Bourbon Barrel Aged Spiced Cherry Bitters

I received this as a gift recently. It makes a killer Manhattan. It’s also, as shown, devastatingly good on chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. And it totally doesn’t count toward my whiskey count but it fits in nicely here since it’s sort of a second cousin to bourbon.
 

Peter Dawson Special Blended Scotch Whisky (94)

To be honest, I wasn’t looking for whisky when I was on vacation in the Caribbean (rums, on the other hand, were a different story) but when I saw this at my hotel bar and realized I’d never even heard of it before, I had to give it a shot. It was alright. Smooth, a little sweet, not terribly smokey or peaty. Just a sort of good, generic-tasting scotch.
 

Bowen’s Whiskey (95)

A little sweet. A little bitter at the back of the tongue. A little smokey. My lovely hand model loved it. I was less enamored but it was good and it will forever be the whiskey that got me to actually look up the legal requirements around naming.

See, it also sparked a conversation with one of my regular bartenders. At 100% corn in the mash, why was it calling itself a whiskey instead of a bourbon? 

So I looked up the CFR.

27 CFR 5.22(b)(1)(i) states: “Bourbon whisky”, “rye whisky”, “wheat whisky”, “malt whisky”, or “rye malt whisky” is whisky produced at not exceeding 160° proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored at not more than 125° proof in charred new oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type.*

Bowen’s website says, …we start with a 100% corn base, cut it with proprietary structured water for purity and consistency, and age it to perfection in reclaimed, fire ravaged oak sourced from forests on central California’s Piute moutain range.

My best guess is the “reclaimed, fire ravaged oak” versus “charred new oak containers”, reclaimed instead of new, but I suppose it could also/instead have something to do with the proof going into to the aging vessel.

* While we’re on naming, if you were wondering what makes a whiskey “straight”: 5.22(b)(1)(iii) addresses that specifies that such spirits as described in the rest of the section may further be designated as “straight” if they have been aged as prescribed for at least two years.

And Bonus:

To hell with robbing banks, here's an article about 65 cases of stolen Pappy Van Winkle. 

Comments

[nanila]

You're inching toward 100!

Blended Scottish whiskies make really good hot toddies.

[emelbe]

So close. Soclosesoclose. I would've barreled right past it but I noticed and started decided to slow it down so my barkeep and I could celebrate 100 together. I'm actually up to 97 (they just haven't posted yet. I've warned her, however, that I'll be spending time with some hard-drinking, whiskey-loving friends from Thanksgiving to Christmas so we need to get on that.

[emelbe]

Also! re: blended scotch - YES. I imagine they would. Unfortunately, it's still a bit warm here. I'm looking forward to some chilly nights and some hot toddies.