An American Whiskey Tasting Part 2

On to the second part of our American whiskey tasting! This time the bourbon and ryes have all more than 55 % ABV. So, it was getting a bit hard to find all the flavours hiding beneath the alcohol that evening. Yet, we managed to come up with some halfway decent tasting notes.

 

Family Reserve rye

The first whiskey in that part of the tasting was the Willett Three-Year-Old Rye Whiskey. The whiskey actually is a blend of two mash-bills, the Willett high rye (74% rye, 11% corn, 15% malted barley) and the Willett low rye mashbill (51% rye, 34% corn, 15% malted barley). We found typical rye notes in combination with some red fruits. The rye even was the favourite whiskey of some in the tasting.

Wheated cask strength bourbon

Next, was the Maker’s Mark Cask Strength. Famously, Maker’s Mark uses a wheated mash-bill with 70 % corn, 16 % wheat, and 14 % malted barley. They distill the mash first in a column still and then on a pot-still before ageing in No. 3 char barrels. All in all, you can really taste the wheat in the mash-bill. There a some sweet notes paired with a flavour reminiscent of white wine.

Powerful whiskey notes

I first tried the Knob Creek Single Barrel in Denver and was absolutely amazed by it. The mash-bill of this Jim Beam bourbon consist of 77 % corn, 13 % rye and 10 % malted barley. They distill the whiskey on their column still with a doubler to 67,5 %. During the tasting we especially liked the combination of walnuts and hints of wine. Apart from that you can also find a lot of typical bourbon notes underlined by noticeable menthol.

Almost too strong to drink

The final whiskey in the tasting was a sip of Buffalo Trace’s Stgg Jr.. The whiskey uses BuffaloTrace’s Mash-Bill No. 1 with a low amount of rye. On top of that, the whiskey spends around seven years in the barrel. Apart from a lot of menthol notes, we found some plum and dried fruit flavours. You definitely need a good dose of water to enjoy that whiskey.