Up to no good with a Gentleman and a Bird

[Mike]

Decided agin my experience to try some Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack Tennesse Whiskey. It had been looking lonely in the back of my uncle's liquor cabinet and seemed to need some attention.

So I talked it over with my uncle's dog Katy, who cannot read, write, talk, or reason like the dog who owns me can and I think I got the go-ahead from Katy to have a sip of JDGJ. It is a light colored whiskey and at 80 proof, a light tasting whiskey.

I have panned JDGJ badly in the past, but found no great fault mit der Herr this time. It is sweeter than I recomembered and did not bear down with the charcoal either.

Being of a simple mind, I wondered how it might compare to one of my favorites, an explosive spirit by the name of Rare Breed.. Rare Breed is, as one would expect, more robust and flavorful............and powerfully alcoholic compared to JDGJ. So I asked Katy if she would find it offensive if I put the two together in a 50/50 mixture, which should yield a proof of around 94. Katy did not object, so I proceeded. It is my normal way to take silence as agreement.

I found this vatting to be a quite nice whiskey, one that I could drink easily.

Life is endlessly full of opportunities to be surprised, and I was by this vatting.

Gary Gilman, give me some insight as to why this is a good whiskey..........am I slipping? If so, no need for me to buy any expensive whiskey anymore, huh?

[gillmang]

Mike, this is something I've been doing for a long time. I prefer to use regular JD or JDSB, but often I'll blend it with two or three other bourbons.

The sweet rich taste of JD will fill out a lean, powerful whiskey like Rare Breed. Some of the banana-like taste of JD is absorbed by the bigger whiskey but in turn the latter is filled out and made more complex by the JD product.

Often I'll do a three or four whiskey vatting in which the Daniel is up to a third or so, but in effect you have done that since RB is itself a combination of (same recipe of course) whiskeys at different ages.

In a nutshell, you are getting complexity by marrying something sweetish and banana-like with an austere and drying whiskey, plus you hit the right point on proof.

Recently I did all all-Jack mingling: about 2 parts regular JD to one of the JDSB. This is almost a Rare Breed style mingling because I understand the JDSB is about 2 years older than regular Jack. It brings the proof to what I like in the Jack and adds a lot to the flavor, deepens and broadens it. Had I had the Gentleman, or Green Label, I'd have added that, too.

Green Label, regular Jack and JDSD, blended in diminishing proportions, would follow the Rare Breed mingling formula more or less, i.e., using respectively lower-aged whiskeys but otherwise arrayed in a similar way. This would be a good result I think because the feisty character of the Greel Label would I think enhance a mingling if added in the right way. Possibly you would need though to reverse the proportions of the regular Jack and Green, e.g., 60% regular Jack, 30% Green, 10% JDSB. Or 60% regular, 20% Green, and 10% each Gentleman and JDSB. You would have to play with the percentages but I believe a fine Jack vatting lies in the matrix somewhere.

Gary