In the bottom of the bottle

[Mike]

I recently compared Wild Turkey Tribute to Pappy Van Winkle 15 YO in this forum and found both to be first rate bourbons. Both are rich and robust, and different.

That was the first time I had a sip of Tribute in quite a while and found it somewhat different this time around. Still rich, still somewhat spicy, and still excellent. But I also found it a bit drier than my memory of it and also a bit more subtle than the other Wild Turkey bourbons with which I have some familiarity.

Given that it is 15 years old this is not too surprising, but it still made me wonder. Since I was sipping from a bottle that is down to the last 150 or so ml, and was over a year old, I wondered if the air in the bottle had changed the flavor. At first I thought that 150 ml was the last of my Tribute, but then remembered that I had another full bottle socked away somewhere. When I recovered it from its hiding place, my dog, Barleycorn, immediately suggested that we try Tribute agin Tribute to see if there was a difference in the taste twixt the bottles.

Barleycorn, ever the one to trick his master (the word master is used quite loosely where Barleycorn is concerned........sometimes the foot is in the other shoe), agreed to act as my second in ' l'affair de Tribute '.

Side by side, Tribute vs Tribute, one full bottle, one almost empty bottle, they confronted each other and the result was.................no difference. The bottle that had been within sight of the bottom for over a year tasted exactly the same as the freshly opened bottle. I had not expected this result. Of course it may be that my palate is just not acute enough to pick up any subtle differences, but I was certainly unable to do so.

I turned my back on Barleycorn (always a risky thing to do when bourbon is present) and told him to switch the glasses around so that I would not know which was which. He obliged me, but when I turned around there were three glasses instead of two.

He wanted to know what bourbon was in the third glass. First, I confirmed that I could not identify which Tribute was which, and then I took a sip of the third glass. It was Scotch that he had put in the third glass, but to play along with his game, I said, 'That bourbon is Pappy 20 YO.'

I thought the damn dog was going to die with laughter. He is yet on the phone calling all the dogs he knows and telling them that the man who owns the house where he is currently living doesn't know the difference between Pappy 20 YO bourbon and Scotch.

[Bucc58]

REMEMBER I ASKED THIS QUESTION A FEW MONTHS BACK ABOUT A BOTTLE OF BAKERS AND IF BREATHING WAS A FACTOR OVER TIME? I DIDN'T HAVE ANOTHER BOTTLE TO DO A SIDE BY SIDE. YOU COME UP WITH THE RESULT EVERYONE TOLD ME WAS HAPPENIN', MY TASTER WAS A CHANGIN'. GOOD WORK PUTTING THE THEORY TO THE TEST.