News Release - Angel's Envy Opens Doors to Their Full Production Distillery

ANGEL'S ENVY™ PUBLICLY UNVEILS FIRST

FULL-PRODUCTION DISTILLERY AND VISITOR CENTER

IN DOWNTOWN LOUISVILLE ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Reservations for Guided Tours Now Being Accepted Online

 

Louisville, Kentucky (November 16, 2016) - Angel's Envy™, the super-premium Kentucky Straight bourbon whiskey of uncompromising character and quality, will officially open its new distillery and visitor center to the public for guided tours beginning Saturday, November 19. Online reservations, which are required, are now being accepted at www.angelsenvy.com. Admission is $15 per person and includes a tasting.

 

Located at 500 E. Main Street at Jackson, (the former Vermont American and Baer Fabrics Warehouse), the new state-of-the-art facility is the first full-production whiskey distillery in downtown Louisville. Having completed a $27 million renovation since breaking ground in 2013, the brand home center houses the Angel’s Envy distillery operations (including everything from milling of grains to blending and bottling on site), as well as a visitor center and gift shop. From the exterior walls to the vaulted ceilings and arched windows, their architects worked diligently to preserve every possible feature of the original building. Their breathtaking, one-of-a-kind 35-foot-tall column still, pot still and doubler were sourced locally from Vendome Copper & Brass Works—just four blocks away. 

 

The small batch artisan bourbon is the culmination of the late Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson's storied career. Each of the brand’s three current expressions (flagship Angel’s Envy Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey finished in Port Wine Barrels, Angel’s Envy Cask Strength and Angel’s Envy Rye finished in hand-selected Caribbean rum casks), exhibit his passion for experimenting outside of conventional norms by producing unique whiskey steeped in tradition, but finished with a twist.

 

“Opening the Angel’s Envy distillery and visitor’s center in downtown Louisville was a dream Dad (Lincoln Henderson) and I had,” said Wes Henderson, Co-founder/Chief Innovation Officer, Louisville Distilling Company. “He would be so proud of what we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time. My sons and I proudly carry on his legacy. The distillery is a must-see experience.”

“We are delighted that Angel’s Envy chose downtown Louisville for its new distillery and visitor center,” said Louisville Mayor, Greg Fischer. “It is evident that Angel’s Envy is not only committed to quality craftsmanship, but also the greater Louisville community.”

The Angel’s Envy distillery and visitor center will be open for tours every Monday and Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00am – 5:00pm, and every Sunday, from 1:00 – 5:00pm. Tours will not be available on Tuesdays.

 

For more information, please visit us at www.angelsenvy.com or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AngelsEnvyBourbon and twitter https://twitter.com/Angels_Envy (@angels_envy).

 

The ANGEL’S ENVY™ brand is part of the portfolio of Bacardi Limited, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited.

 

Angel’s Envy™ is a proud member of the Kentucky Distiller’s Association (KDA)

 

Angel’s Envy™ 2016. Heaven Can Wait. Please Drink Responsibly.

Review of the Corbin Cash Merced Rye Whiskey - A Whiskey from Down on the Farm

Corbin Cash is a distillery hailing from California in the San Joaquin Valley.  Their primary spirit is vodka – produced from the farm’s specialty of sweet potatoes.  They also make a tasty rye using “ultra-rare, 100 percent California native Merced Rye” per the website.  Wrapped in beautiful packaging, CC Rye boasts a whiskey aged roughly 3.5 years.

The nose is typical of 3-4 year rye with bold notes of caramel, tobacco and toffee.  Compared to the myriad of ryes on the market, I think this whiskey has a greater note of caramelization - maybe the unique Merced rye makes the difference.  

The initial palate is sharp with flavors of unripe bananas with a nice balance – neither sweet nor savory.  I got hints of almonds and typical flavors you may find in beer such as yeast. 

We first tried the product neat.  We found a very different experience when we added a small piece of ice.  

Adding ice really accentuated the nose with pronounced aromas of grass and peat.  The front of the palate was no longer as spicy as when we drank it neat – the bite was gone.  However, the flavor still enveloped the tongue.  We still found the notes of almond but now this drank more like a young scotch.  

The finish is brief, short and focused.  There was a bit of residual sweetness on the back of the palate.  

This is certainly a unique product.  I am a huge fan of Rye and to find a product that differentiates itself in so many ways to be a great surprise. 

Corbin Cash also produces gin and a blended vodka/rye bottling of individually aged sweet potato spirit and rye – described by the distillery as “bourbon-esque”.  We will gladly share more on this product shortly.  

Website: http://www.corbincash.com/home/ 

Expected Retail Price - $46 - $55 

Review of Elmer T. Lee - A Vertical Blind Tasting for the Ages

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. 

FOUR SPIRITS FROM BUFFALO TRACE DISTILLERY AWARDED “BEST OF CATEGORY”

FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (June 28, 2016) Four spirits from Buffalo Trace Distillery were awarded “Best of Category” at the 2016 Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition, including Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Stagg Jr. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, E.H. Taylor, Jr. Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey. An additional 12 medals were awarded to spirits from Buffalo Trace Distillery, seven of which were Gold Medals.

These spirits were ranked among 401 spirits that were submitted from a total of 29 countries.

Spirits earning medals include:

Gold Medal

·         Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Eagle Rare Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Stagg Jr. Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Blanton’s Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey

·         E.H. Taylor, Jr. Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream

            Silver Medal

·         Benchmark Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

·         Wheatley Vodka

·         Platinum 7X Vodka

·         Rain Cucumber Vodka

            Bronze Medal

·         E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

            The Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition was formed in 2007, with an esteemed panel of judges using a blind-tasting method to award medals to the best distilled spirits from around the world.  The award-winning entries will be displayed during the Los Angeles County Fair, Sept. 2 – 25, in “The Wine, Beer & Spirits Marketplace.” 

            Complete results of the 2016 LAIWSC are available at www.laspiritscomp.com

News from Buffalo Trace - Second Year of Corn – A New Variety – Planted

FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (June 23, 2016) A little over a year ago, Buffalo Trace Distillery quietly purchased an additional 293 acres of farm land adjacent to the Distillery, with the intention of building more barrel warehouses to meet the growing demands of bourbon. In the meantime while permits were being secured for the new construction, Buffalo Trace decided it would be “fun” to plant its own corn, with an idea of creating its own farm to table “single estate” bourbon experience. 

But it couldn’t be just any corn that was planted, the Distillery wanted to plant something that had historical meaning to this 243-year-old National Historic Landmark. Research began, and soon a strain was identified that dated back to 1876, around the same time E. H. Taylor, Jr. was making his mark on Buffalo Trace. The strain originated from a White Mastodon variety and through selection techniques in isolation it became “Boone County White,” after a farmer named James Riley coined the name. Coincidentally, Harlen Wheatley, Master Distiller at Buffalo Trace, was born in Boone County, Ky., making that strain even more fitting. 

After planting 18 acres of the non-GMO white corn in the summer of 2015, Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley and his team eagerly watched the corn sprout up and begin to grow, and grow, and grow!  And harvest time, the stalks were well over 12 feet tall! The corn was harvested in August of last year and the grain was processed to be dried. After drying all winter, the corn was fermented and distilled at Buffalo Trace on May 31, 2016. All told, 117 barrels of the Boone County White Corn variety were distilled and are now aging in Buffalo Trace’s warehouses, to be taste tested periodically over the next few years to check on progress, and then eventually released, provided the taste profile is up to Buffalo Trace’s rigorous standards.

Now, in 2016, the cycle is beginning again, with Buffalo Trace planting its second year of non-GMO corn, this time Japonica Striped Corn, a strain originally from Japan and dating back to the 1890s. This variety will have variegated leaves of green, white, yellow and pink stripes with dark purple tassels and burgundy kernels. Typically used as an ornamental corn, this variety will be a true experiment to see how it tastes once fermented and distilled next year!  In addition to both the Boone County and Japonica Striped corn being from E. H. Taylor, Jr.’s era, both are dent corn varieties, which have a high starch content and are ideal for distilling, unlike traditional sweet corn one might see in the grocery store.  Buffalo Trace uses a different variety of dent corn in the distillation of the rest of the bourbons in its portfolio.

            Buffalo Trace Distillery intends to plant a different variety of corn each year at its farm so each year in the future there will be a unique release.  Name, age or price of this future bourbon has not yet been determined.

About Buffalo Trace Distillery

Buffalo Trace Distillery is an American family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery's rich tradition dates back to 1786 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational Distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is a National Historic Landmark as well as is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won seven distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It was named Whisky Magazine 2010 World Icons of Whisky “Whisky Visitor Attraction of the Year.” Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 200 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit www.buffalotracedistillery.com

Tales from the Bottom Shelf - Review of Old Grand Dad 114

The title of this post, “Tales from the Bottom Shelf” may be perceived as a negative connotation.  Trust me when I say that this is only referring to the spot that the liquor stores choose to place this hidden gem of the bourbon world.  In an age where some enthusiasts are only seeking the latest limited edition offering from one of the big boys, there are missed opportunities for great tasting from these same distilleries.

One such offering is the classic 114 proof sipper from Jim Beam – Old Grand Dad.  Since this bottle spends its life on the bottom shelf of almost every liquor store, it doesn’t get too much attention.  My first introduction to this beauty was in a cocktail paired with a cinnamon syrup, ginger and soda.  A fine cocktail but once I realized how great this was on its own, I quickly changed my ways.

There is a ton of flavor packed into to OGD 114.  Much like its brethren, the more mature Basil Hayden, the lower proof 100 edition and the 86 (or 80 depending on how old the bottle is) it presents in a deep amber color with nose of orange among the classic caramel notes.   My favorite way to drink bourbon is to find the sweet spot around 108 proof.  At 57% ABV, This can be a bit spicy.  I suggest letting your dram breath for a few minutes, take a sip and add a small piece of ice to further soften.  

The palate brings more orange with hints of fresh pepper, cinnamon, herbal notes of sage and mint with a classic vanilla tone.  Though it does not offer an age stamp, OGD 114 drinks like 4-year-old bourbon.  The hints of oak and deep color validate this assumption.  

My favorite part of this $24 bourbon is the finish.  Long, rich, delicious without a hint of bitterness.  Even at this proof, it is dangerously smooth and easy to drink.  One warning - don’t enjoy it too much – it will make you swear off those 80 proof “watered down” bourbons! 

Where to find OGD - Any liquor store....

Price - $19 - $30.00