by Mike » Tue Dec 14, 2010 8:46 pm
Well, bygore, I couldn't reckomember much about this whiskey when Rocky at my liquor store moved it from its inconspicuous place on the shelf to a place among the top shelf stuff. Marketing is just plain devious stuff and is pretty much in the same class as TV preachers.........never to be trusted! T'ain't your interest they ever have in mind. Howsomever, I can't say a bad word about Rocky, he has always been fair with me and it is because of him that I have been able to get my hands on bourbons that are rare in Georgia.
I picked up this here bottle of Pritchard's double barreled whiskey and read the label and thought it might be interesting bourbon..........the idea of the double barreling sounded like it might have possibilities. Paid $41 for it. A poor investment as it turns out........except that I seem to have relearned some things from trying it so maybe it was worth it in the end.........read on!
It has a nice bite and is on the dry side with its uninteresting oakiness. I throwed it in the ring with Ezra Brooks Black Label (cost less than $10) and the two are not strikingly dissimiliar with the EB nosing (and sipping) to the finish line in first place......simply becasue it is better whiskey!
Out of curiosity, I took 10 ml of Pritchard's and 15 ml of regular Maker's Mark and see if I can salvage this 750 ml of poor bought 'Tennessee' whiskey. It did no good for either.
My 'read' on Pritchard's whiskey is a lot like Cowdery's above. Pritchard took what was essentially excess whiskey from one of the distillers, Cowdery says it was probably HH, put it back in some kind of cheap barrels for a while and has attempted (successfully in my case) to foist it upon the consumer as premium whiskey. IT AIN"T!! At best it is ordinary.........and a gimmick.
It is also my opinion that not only did Pritchard take excess whiskey, he took ultra aged excess whiskey that was almost useless as it was, and tried to 'revive' it with time in new charred barrels. Seems to me to show that you can't make good whiskey from bad whiskey by messing with it. Also, I think my experiment with regular Maker's Mark proved that same point. I have put regular MM down in the past as an incomplete whiskey, which I still think it is........but it is still a very good whiskey and the favorite of many, many folks.
Any thoughts on my 'read' on Prichard's...........was it a make a buck scheme by maybe devious means? Have I been unfair to Pritchard?
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas