Like most Kentucky transplants, I began my affair with
bourbon with the likes of Makers Mark and Woodford Reserve. I was fortunate that I quickly befriended
other lovers of the brown water and let me in on the industry secrets. In the early 2000s, when I set down roots in
this great state, it was not at all uncommon to find shelves littered with
cherished bottles like Pappy, AAA, Antique Collection (all of them – even the
Weller 19) and all the age-stamped favorites that are now only found on the
secondary market. I count my lucky stars
that I was introduced to bourbon back then.
The passion of Kentuckians about their native spirit led me to roam the
aisles of Liquor Barn just to read the labels and understand their
stories. I was fortunate to rub shoulders
with historic master distillers and tour distilleries before they were
mega-complexes. (one time I went on a
self-guided tour of Buffalo Trace!)
Times have changed and the availability of these gems are
fewer and farther between. So has the
development and production of these bourbons.
The demand has forced a number of producers to remove the age stamp on
their bottles. Though they tell us that
the quality and the contents are not changing, I think we all feel differently.
My dad, a fellow bourbon enthusiast (and soon-to-be Kentucky
transplant) was along for the ride when I received my bourbon education. He led the way and helped develop my palate
for the spirit. We shared many nights
going over tasting notes and hints of this-or-that. Fortunately, my dad is a collector. I have benefited from his well-stocked and
procured whiskey collection. Because of
this, I am able to write about some older bottlings that are now just
overpriced offerings on the black market.
With all of this in mind, I wanted to do a retrospective (vertical
tasting?) of how certain lines have changed over the years. Impacts of the bourbon boom have changed the
way we taste this liquid gold and I wanted to put my thoughts to paper. Today, we discuss Elmer T Lee and the variation
over the years.
We all know there are no finite definitions for “small
batch” or “single barrel” in this industry.
For all we know, they mean the same thing. I like to think that I have enjoyed enough of
ETL to know that their definition is truly “single”. Although always delicious, there is variation
in the flavor profile from bottle to bottle.
We all know the Elmer himself selected these bottles once he felt they
were ready for the public and then we were able to taste perfection. Since his passing in July of 2013, this all
changed. Although we are not exactly
sure how, we can certainly describe how his namesake spirit drinks.
For this tasting, I sent out a message to a number of my
bourbon collecting friends and we were able to scrape together a number of
different eras of ETL. We were not lucky
enough to have a bottle of the old wax sealed gold bottles but we were able to
collect 2011, 2013, 2014 and the black label bottle commemorating the life of
this bourbon icon. We blind tasted them
and among the 5 of us, we shot out our thoughts and eventually ranked them at
the end of the tasting.
2011
Nose – Banana with traditional aromas of oak, brown sugar
and caramel
Palate – Astringent flavors of citrus oil with a bit of
metallic influence. It was not easy to
tell that this was aged bourbon as we could not really taste the influences of
the 6-8 years the juice spent in oak. Flavors
were balanced. Nothing truly overtook
the other flavors. We got flavors of
stone fruits such as nectarine and unripe peach without significant
sweetness. Finish was brief but definitely
asked you to take another sip.
2013
Nose – Wet oak. Again
traditional aromas.
Palate – Flat. Oddly
sweet. No complexity. The palate was short with very little
notes. It was hardly possible to
identify this as an ETL bottling. The
juice seemed a bit watered down with little memorable features. There was but a small bitter finish to speak
of.
2014
Nose – Great amounts of citrus – orange peel along with
lemon zest. Someone described it as
“dusty old wood brightened by fruit”.
Palate – This is truly the epitome of delicious and classic
ETL. The palate expressed beautiful
refined flavor of cocoa, toffee, maple and had been perfectly married to the
barrel for just the right amount of flavor and balance. The finish, although brief, reminded you of
the first time you had an epic whiskey and couldn’t wait to try another.
Commemorative Black Label Bottle (2013)
Nose – Lots of freeze dried red berry. Hints of strawberry but dominated by
raspberry and traditional caramel and maple.
Palate – The soft and sophisticated start gave way to an
explosion of flavors of soft baked spices, apples, caramel and even a bit if
baked plum. The 93 proof bourbon was
dominated by memories of the best apple pie you ever had. There was a beautiful soft finish with a nice
spicy refinement to complete the tasting.
In the end, we voted on our favorites before revealing which
glass was which. All of us agreed that
the black label was far superior to the rest.
Surprisingly, second place was the 2014 followed by the 2011. Rounding out the group was the 2013.
Going into this tasting, I honestly expected to find a
massive difference in bottles picked before Mr. Lee’s passing and those of
today’s era. There was s significant
drop off of the 2013 edition that we drank but that was more than made up for
with the 2014. In short, this bottle is
still worth the roughly $35 retail price on the shelf – if you even see it any
longer. It is beautiful, refined and has
a great story behind it.
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