It is time now to
give a full and frank appraisal of
another of the special bottles I procured over there in the USA. This is
a single barrel expression of the Four Roses bourbon brand and it set me back
like, $42.99 plus tax for 75cl and 50 lovely ABVs. Let’s get categorical.
Presentation
Bit spesh this, int
it? No box, but the bottle is a shape that frankly, I don’t know how to
describe… vase-like, we’ll say. It has a leather collar (that has proved to be
a bit of a hindrance, all told), a label with cask details handwritten on and
it is sealed with a particularly tight and tidy wooden stopper – the result of
which is a commendable squeeeeeeeak…
squeak-pop on opening.
Visuals
All present and
correct. It looks good, dark and mysterious.
Nose
Yep, that’s what I
was expecting: rich and bourbonny.
Preshes
My first thoughts
were that it was sharp and bitter without water, and sweet but disappointing
with, but soon the oxidation began to work its magic and open this spiky beauty
up. It took a few tastings for me to realise there was a technique involved.
The bitterness had vanished andat first I fooled myself into thinking that
adding water was a waste of time and spirit. Wrong. There is a lot of good flavour there on entry but as you
work your way down the glass those extra ABVs start to take their toll and the
burn comes to the fore. You don’t want to bypass the undiluted product entirely
though, so first, enjoy the lusciousness untainted, but have that water on
standby. There are no unpleasant flavours to excise, but that burn just niggles
away until a few drops of water start to be a good idea. Then just add enough
to soothe, and continue.
Conclusion
As ever with your
stronger whiskies, it has proved to be a very fine line that is easily
overstepped in trying to take the edge off that burn. I have sadly ruined far
too many glasses by adding just a little too
much and occasionally caused myself (wrongly) to question the overall quality of the
product. If you’re careful, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to enjoy
this bottle to the full.
So now that we’ve
discussed all three of the bourbons I picked up last summer, we can arrange
them in a definitive ranking and provide some help for you, should you be
heading over there and thinking about picking something up. Obviously there are
many, many more brands and varieties available than I have tried or can even
dream of, but here’s the benefit of my experiences.
In third place it
might surprise you to hear that I’m placing the Four Roses. While it may not be
the product’s fault, I have to count the fact that I wasn’t able to enjoy it as
much as I wanted to against it. That means the 8 year old Jim Beam Black can be
runner-up. Working in that bottle’s
favour was that it was so damn cheap and – surprisingly – that it was presented
in so uncomplicated a fashion. It generally meant that I was able to be
surprised at how tasty it was, and enjoy it without thinking I should be
enjoying it more. On such arbitrary things are my conclusions based.
The overall winner
then, as if there could be any doubt is the double oaked Woodford Reserve. I
don’t want to repeat myself, so if you want to learn what made that so special,
check last week’s post.
That represents the
last time I’ll be focusing on bourbon for a while but there are plenty more
reasons for you to come back – next week I’ll be taking you on a short booze
finding expedition to to two major European cities; Amsterdam and Berlin. I
know you’ll be back.
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