A conversation with Jim Rutledge

[bourbonv]

Chuck,
I agree with what you are saying 100%. It is interesting in that you could have been sitting right next to Jim and myself as we discussed many of the same points you brought up. The one thing that Jim pointed out that I found to be the most interesting is that the increase in barrel proof actually helped create the market for older whiskey because it does take longer to mature, thus when they were stuck with a lot of whiskey due to over production, it did not hurt as bad as it would have 20 years earlier. That is not to say that all modern whiskey can age for 15 or 20 years and not be hurt by all of that wood, but a larger percentage of it could and did, thus you do have some excellent older bourbons and ryes. Unfortunately you also have some crappy older bourbon and ryes that taste like a piece of tannic charcoal.

I think the big difference is position in the warehouse. If the barrel spent time above the second floor, it probably is trannic and woody. If it was on the bottom two floors it probably aged well. I think that the Pappy 15yo is a prime example. When Van Winkle was independent he took the barrels to his warehouse and kept them on the bottom floor until ready to bottle. The Old Rip was very balanced flavor with just the right amount of wood tannins to balance the sweet caramels and vanillas. The Pappy 15yo on the other hand is bottled with whatever barrels he can find and many of them were placed on higher levels of the warehouse and the oak tannins are stronger and the bourbon more astringent. What I believe from this is that heat and increase alcohol bring tannins out of the wood whereas the cooler temperatures and decreasing alcohol of the lower levels bring out the wood sugars in a great percentage than the tannins.