Tasting Notes reviews will now be returning to The Bottle Opener blog! Or rather, articles in general will be returning to the blog. After a somewhat lengthy hiatus and launch of another blog (*cough* The Social Y), we're come back, in a big way! We're starting our return off with a review of Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
Those of you who don't know how exciting this is for me, probably aren't huge fans of either bourbon or whiskey. Let's put it this way: it's been a good week, tasting this stuff, and preparing for this review.
Starting out with a bit of backstory; Buffalo Trace gets it's name from the days of American western frontier pioneerism. Pioneerism isn't a word really, but you get my drift. The first Americans to travel westward, and stake their claim on resettled land (note, my care to say resettled, rather than the explicitly untrue unsuttled!) As they helped their nation grow into an empire of manifest destiny, they had to find fertile land in order to sustain their population and growth. The answer, was to trace out
Buffalo Trace distillery has branded themselves quite successfully as an establishment which aims to make the world's best bourbon. A claim which they say they have not yet achieved. Part of this process is a lot of experimentation in their small batch bourbons. While that is an interesting topic (indeed, perhaps even more interesting than the generic Buffalo Trace), it is a topic for another day!
On to the tasting then!
On first nosing, Buffalo Trace smells strongly of oak. Not so surprising, I suppose. Hints of sherry and vanilla are apparent at every level of nosing, popping through more as the spirit is diluted with water. Along with the dilution comes stronger notes of demerara and molasses, which leak through the oak with growing intensity as the glass decants. Nosing an empty glass reveals stronger scents of molasses and honey.
The body is pleasantly sweet, and not too rough, despite the 45 % ABV. It's oily in texture, with a
The finish is possessed by oak. BIG, dry and sour oak, with light smoke. As the finish diminishes, a sense of mint julep becomes apparent, before settling out.
As a cocktail, I recommend keeping it fairly simple. Old fashioneds, and mint juleps are probably the way to go, but for those who can't palate the high proof, I'm sure a bourbon sour would work fine as well. My preferred mode of drinking would be with a few drops of water, as with most whiskeys.
As for food pairings, steak and burgers with fries or potatoes would do fine. And let's not forget corn boils! Ah yes! Corn bo ---- okay okay. While I have been to a few corn boils, I'm totally not that folksy. I can however say, that my own folks would do this sort of thing from time to time, and their preferred beverage was usually Budweiser. I think they were gravely ignorant to the quality of bourbon available at the time!
In any case, moving on from that, I would also recommend this as a gift to your boyfriend for Valentine's Day. That's right ladies (or gents, depending on your batting cage of choice... is that even a saying?) This bourbon would make a great gift for your whiskey enthusiast significant other, if you aren't willing to shell out for the higher priced Eagle Rare, which I also quite enjoy, and which is also a brand own by Sazerac.
How does it rate on the Tasting Notes scale?!
86/100
/Voidroid
@voidmoney
No comments:
Post a Comment