Yup, its been a while since we posted anything here. We did have our September and November tastings and I am just now getting around to posting about them. Sorry for the delay. I have several excuses (and some are really good) but I wont bore you with them.
For the September tasting Brad Duncan with MGP came in and did a tasting. It was viewed by those in attendance as one of the best tastings we have had. Brad presented eight non-descript bottles of juice produced by MGP but not on the market. Each one was very high proof and, as a testament to their products, they each drank like a much lower proof. Smooth and with a bunch of flavor.
Brad followed that up with a tasting of the Remus Repeal Reserve Series IV. Now that is great bourbon. One thing I appreciate about how they handle these releases is that they actually put the contents, the mash bill, on the label for all to see. No one else does that.
Brad always does a great job with the tastings and is a fantastic ambassador for MGP! Thanks, Brad.
In November we held another tasting. This was a blind tasting with four scotches and two bourbons. We then had the tasters rank the scotch and then rank the bourbon. We started with the scotch. Here they are in order of least favorite to most favorite:
4) Glenfarclas 17 years old, Speyside Single Malt, 43% ALC, $85
3) Glenfarclas 10 years old, Speyside Single Malt, 40% ALC, $43
2) Alexander Murray & Co, Highland Single Malt, 40% ALC, $25
1) Glenfarclas 25 years old, Speyside Single Malt, 43% ALC, $130
It always amazes me that folks with equate price to taste. In this case the $85 bottle ranked behind a $43 and $25 bottles. I will say that the Highland Single Malt was very good. It was smooth and had a simple yet great taste. It was actually purchased from Costco so if you see it, buy it!
Of the bourbons, these were a great comparison. The mash bills and proof are close. The big differences are the age and the batch size. Here they are, ranked:
2) Very Old Barton 100, 4 to 6 years old, Bourbon, 50% ALC, $16
Mash bill: 75% Corn, 15% Rye, and 10% Barley.
1) Sam Houston 14 yr old, Small Batch Bourbon (3 Barrels), 49% ALC, $105
#4 char, Mash bill: 74% corn, 18% rye, and 8% malted barley.
Several years ago Whisky Advocate named the Very Old Barton 100 as one of the Best Bangs for Your Buck. And we did find that to be true. It has a ton of flavor. And, after all these years, we are starting to get it in Missouri. Our tasters did select the Sam Houston over the VOB but not by much. The tasters gave one point to their favorite and two points to the other. Sam Houston got 26 points and VOB got 23 points. So it was close. If you really want to try Sam Houston, go for it. But for the same price I can get six bottles of the VOB.hhhmmm.
Thanks again to our tasters and to Brad.
Cheers,
Doug