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Comments on gillmang`s review of Heaven Hill

Unread postPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:31 pm
by forumadmin
This is an automatically created topic for discussion about gillmang's review of Heaven Hill.

Unread postPosted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:31 pm
by gillmang
To comment on my own review, I'd say when I first got this, it had a noticeable corn oil element - all the other tastes I described were there but that too. Now, with the bottle almost finished, the corn oil has largely disappeared. It must have volatilized off. The same might happen with corn whiskey aged for a time - some years I would think - in reused or uncharred new wood. This may explain this particular aging method for corn whiskey. True, something similar happens to bourbon. But in corn whiskey, you don't want the red layer effect. Similarly, in my sample of the '82 HH, I think it increased its maturity in this sense (in the glass bottle) without becoming sweeter and more charred in flavour. I am convinced this may be a way to improve a bourbon (not that this HH wasn't very nice as is): pour it into an empty handle and lay it away for two years. However, do remember to open and swirl the bottle periodically to encourage what may be a further maturing of the spirit. I think the whole question of the effect of keeping certain spirits in a partly filled bottle for a time is an interesting one.

Gary

Re: Comments on gillmang`s review of Heaven Hill

Unread postPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:56 pm
by Mike
Mr Gillman, whether or not your idea about how to improve a whiskey is good, I appreciate your expressing it.

Are there other bourbons, that in your opinion, would benefit from the Gillman half full methodology?

For my part, I confess, I have not been able to discern any noticable effects from half full (or less) bottles either because; (1) I do not have that discriminating a palate or (2) the conditions are just different enough when I go back to a bottle that even if there were a difference, I could not reasonably attribute it to air in the bottle given the large number of other variables in tasting (mood, what I recently ate, what I recently drank, and various and sundry other things).

Re: Comments on gillmang`s review of Heaven Hill

Unread postPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:21 pm
by gillmang
Well, Mike, I'd say choose a 3 year old bourbon that has a strong flavor of young whiskey (most at that age do). Something "bottom shelf". Pour into a handle. Then keep for a year or two and open and close periodically. I think this might improve some of them.

Gary