[amazon_link asins=’B0762SJV9C,B0746S5JPJ’ template=’MT-product-carousel’ store=’modernthirstc-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’24f83bb0-f0a4-11e7-a6cf-418444e76a84′] What it is: There are a few men in the bourbon industry who manage to attain the longevity needed to become universally recognized as a living legend. Elmer T. Lee was one of those. He was often credited with starting the revival of single barrel bourbons in the 1980s while Master Distiller of the George T. Stagg Distillery, now known as Buffalo Trace. Even after his retirement in 1985, he still visited the distillery weekly to select the barrels that would be bottled for his self-named Elmer T. Lee bourbon. He continued that practice…
Author: Bill
Bill
Bill is the Co-Founder, Editor-in Chief, and official Bourbon-o-Phile for ModernThirst.com, and Founder and Chief Blending Officer for Four Gate Whiskey Company. He is a native of Louisville, KY in the heart of Bourbon Country. He attended the University of Kentucky in the mid to late 1990s. He has also been published on Liquor.com. He has conducted various bourbon and whiskey tastings in cities across the country, and consulted for multiple national labels. He is married with two daughters, and lives in east Louisville. You can follow him on Facebook and Twitter @BillStraub and email him at [email protected].
[amazon_link asins=’B00H143UXW,B06Y1VGMH2′ template=’MT-product-carousel’ store=’modernthirstc-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’89cd9de4-ff80-11e7-ad0b-b3d612b3a656′] On Friday, May 1st, I was invited to attend a Blade & Bow Kentucky Oaks dinner at the legendary Stitzel-Weller distillery in Shively, KY. At the dinner, Diageo, the current owners of Stitzel-Weller, provided a tasting of its newest Kentucky Bourbons: Blade & Bow and Blade & Bow 22 year bourbon. Both are Straight Kentucky Bourbon, and differ in both their distillate and the age of the whiskey. Blade & Bow Age: Whiskey ranging from 6 years to upwards of 20+ years is blended using the Solera method. Producer: Diageo (Whiskey is blended from multiple…
#BBBR = Budget Bourbon Battle Royale What the scores mean: 95+ Epic 90-94 Excellent, Good representative of its style 85-89 Solid sipper 80-84 Drinkable, but potentially flawed. 75-79 Low quality, flawed, use as a mixer only <75 Rot Gut, avoid Whiskey Score (out of 100) 1792 Ridgemont Reserve 86 Ancient Age 80 (#BBBR) 75 Ancient Age 90 (#BBBR) 79 Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star (#BBBR) 80 Barterhouse 85 Basil Hayden’s 82 Bernheim Wheat Whiskey (private barrel selection) 83 Bernheim Wheat Whiskey Small Batch (Comparison Review) 87 Bernheim Wheat Whiskey Liquor Barn Private Selection 88 Blade & Bow NA Blade & Bow 22 Year NA…
Well, it’s finally reaching the end. Thanks to all the writers, bloggers, podcasters, and enthusiasts who contributed to “If I Had a Benjamin.” Also thanks to Gary (@GQuiz), for starting the conversation, and to all those who commented on various message boards, on the posts, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Judging from the number of page views, I’d say it has been a success. If you haven’t been following along, you can access all the If I had a Benjamin posts here. So with that, let’s look back at what we’ve learned from the whole exercise. 1. There is a very wide…
Let us know what you think! Which member of the Bourbon Brain Trust best used their $100? Vote now! [poll id=”5″]
It’s really the age old question for bourbon-lovers isn’t it? On what particular whiskey (or whiskeys) should a whiskey lover spend their hard-earned dollars? To best answer it, I decided to call in the cavalry. I contacted a number of bourbon and whiskey bloggers, podcasters, writers, and retailers and asked them to submit their own strategic allocations of a hundred bucks. The series is called “If I had a Benjamin.” (See the whole series here.) So we’re winding down the “If I had a Benjamin” series. It’s been a lot of fun to read how all these other writers would spend…
[amazon_link asins=’B00H143UXW,B06Y1VGMH2′ template=’MT-product-carousel’ store=’modernthirstc-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’89cd9de4-ff80-11e7-ad0b-b3d612b3a656′] What it is: As you might be able to deduce from the name, this is the namesake small batch bourbon from Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, KY. It is made using Buffalo Trace’s proprietary Mash Bill #1, the lower rye variant, that it shares with such stalwarts of the bourbon drinking world as George T. Stagg, Stagg Jr, Eagle Rare, Benchmark, The Colonel E.H. Taylor Lineup (excluding the rye), and Old Charter. Thought there is no age statement on the bottle, Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley has often mentioned that it is aged right around…
It’s really the age old question for bourbon-lovers isn’t it? On what particular whiskey (or whiskeys) should a whiskey lover spend their hard-earned dollars? To best answer it, I decided to call in the cavalry. I contacted a number of bourbon and whiskey bloggers, podcasters, writers, and retailers and asked them to submit their own strategic allocations of a hundred bucks. The series is called “If I had a Benjamin.” (See the whole series here.) Today’s entry comes straight from the source. Gary is regular reader of this and other whiskey related blogs and sites around the web, and posed this question…
It’s really the age old question for bourbon-lovers isn’t it? On what particular whiskey (or whiskeys) should a whiskey lover spend their hard-earned dollars? To best answer it, I decided to call in the cavalry. I contacted a number of bourbon and whiskey bloggers, podcasters, writers, and retailers and asked them to submit their own strategic allocations of a hundred bucks. The series is called “If I had a Benjamin.” (See the whole series here.) Our next installment comes from Jason Pyle of Sour Mash Manifesto. Jason has faced this question more than once, and took some time to consider his options,…