Thought I'd share this with you guys....
Our Bourbon Tastings continued this weekend, with special focus on narrowing down the very best bourbons out there for the perfect Bourbon & Coke.
With all due respect to the bourbon afficianados who consider this sacrilege, I'll confess it's one of my favorite drinks, and about the only time I drink colas. It was the first mixer I ever used for Canadian OR American whiskies, that's probably why it's stuck with me for at least 25 years...
Anyway, the bourbons tested were all those "winners" that participated in Round 4 plus a few others: Jack Daniels Gentleman (a "soft" category winner from Round 1, and I know, not a true bourbon), Ancient Ancient Age (came in 4th in one of the previous tastings)...
SO, there were 11 whiskies in all, here are the final ratings, after 6 rounds of BLIND TASTINGS.... the mix was 50% cola- 50% bourbon.... drumroll please...
In first place, a 3-way tie for first, in no particular order:
1st (tie): W.L. WELLER SPEC. RESERVE 7 Yr. OLD. Just a perennial Top 3 whisky in our blind tastings. Tonite we had comments such as: "Lovely balance". There was no drama to this whisky, it just tasted real good overall
1st (tie): VIRGINIA GENTLEMAN SMALL BATCH (Fox Chase bottle): "Vibrant nice flavors", "Spicy", "very nice, rich". A very pleasant discovery of late, this whisky.
1st (tie): W.L. WELLER 12 YEAR OLD: This bourbon had not fared so well in our "straight" tasting, but really held up in this mixer competition. "Smooth, balanced", "nice, good tastenotes", "delicious, on the sweet side"
4th: EAGLE RARE 10 YEAR OLD, SINGLE BARREL: Overall scored very well, just slightly under the top 3 above. "more on the bitter side", "good flavors, burn emphasis noted", "not as inspiring"
THE ABOVE 4 BOURBON & COKE MIXTURES WERE ALL NOTED TO BE AS A GROUP BETTER THAN THE FOLLOWING 7....
5th: BUFFALO TRACE. "Fair, just not that interesting", "Flavors not as developed, warm", "less interesting"
THE ABOVE 5 BOURBON & COKE MIXTURES WERE ALL NOTED TO BE AS A GROUP DECIDEDLY BETTER THAN THOSE BELOW
6th: MAKERS MARK: "Not bad, but unbalanced flavors", "a bit bitter"
7th: WILD TURKEY RARE BREED: "Shivvery quality, weird taste" "initially nice, a bit on sweet side".
THE ABOVE 7 WHISKIES ALL PASSED THE FIRST ROUND OF TASTINGS. The following did not:
No particular order, out in 8-9-10-11 place:
JACK DANIELS GENTLEMAN: "Dull"
WOODFORD RESERVE: "Unimpressive", "Yech, it's gone"
W. L. WELLER 107: "Strange taste" "so-so, musty"
ANCIENT ANCIENT AGE: "not great"
This was a tremendous showing by one of the perennial favorites of this tasting, the simple 7-year old W.L. Weller Special Reserve, and by Eagle Rare 10 Year and Virginia Gentleman which both performed very well in the straight blind tasting a few days ago...
NOW.... for the Advil please.....