Mixed: It did very well in all cocktails I tried it in. Made a good, spicy Manhattan and boulevardier but it did best in an old fashioned. The bitters and sugar brought out the spice and jam very nicely. Similar cocktails should also do well.
Parting words: Many microdistillers have released sourced whiskey products as a way to pay the bills while their own products age. Some, like Two James, actually do have distilled their their own whiskey and are actually waiting for it to age.
The only other product available to that bears much resemblance to Grass Widow that is Angel’s Envy. The latter is Kentucky bourbon finished in port wine barrels. There are big differences between Madeira and Port but both are fortified Portuguese wines. Grass Widow is much richer and spicier than AE. The Madeira wine cask influence adds a dark, grapey taste and aroma to the spirit as opposed to the bright strawberry notes of AE. Both are delicious, but Grass Widow’s finish works alongside the sweetness and spice of the bourbon to while AE’s finish takes the lead and leaves the bourbon to play a secondary role. That puts it slightly ahead of AE for me.
As with most micro-producer products price is an issue. At $60 it’s not going to be anyone’s go-to, but it’s definitely worth a place in any whiskey enthusiast’s cabinet as a weekend after-dinner sip or for a top-shelf cocktail. Grass Widow is recommended.
Appearance: Clear, with a nice thick pearl necklace.
Nose: Monster hit of juniper on the nose followed by a bit of alcohol. Citrus peel in the background along with anise and earthiness.
Palate: Full bodied and dry on entry. A fleeting taste of fruit and then burn. The fruit lingers longer with a splash of water.
Finish: Dry and spicy. Orange peel, potpourri and heat.
Mixed: Does OK with tonic or in a Tom Collins, but the sharpness of the juniper gets a little muddled. Does very well in higher end cocktails. Great in a dry martini and in a cocktail I tried called a Colony Club made with anisette (I used Herbsaint instead) and orange bitters. The Princeton was good also.
Parting words: I like this gin a lot. Never before have I gotten such a huge nose full of juniper, except for one time when I was riding my bike and crashed into a shrub. It’s not one I would be inclined to drink neat but it shines in drinks in which it’s almost neat. As strong as the juniper is, it plays very well with other strongly flavored ingredients.
The price is good for a high end, micro-distilled gin. As a martini gin, Junipero is recommended.
Maker: Smooth Ambler, Maxwelton, West Virginia, USA
Distiller: MGPI, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, USA
Batch: 3
Bottled: 5/2/2013 by Nikki.
Age: 10 y/o
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Price: $55 Michigan State Minimum (this bottle purchased in Kentucky for $50)
Appearance: Dark copper with thin, evenly spaced legs.
Nose: Almond extract, leather, alcohol, dried flowers. More leathery and herbal with water.
On the palate: Full bodied, sweet and rich. Caramel, burn, amaretto candy, cocoa powder. With water more sweetness and some lavender and tarragon.
Finish: Hot. Red pepper flakes, with a touch of oak and caramel as it fades. Less hot with water and sweeter with a touch of basil or tarragon.
Parting words: Smooth Ambler is a breath of fresh air when it comes to micro-distillers/bottlers. Unlike the smoke and mirrors that usually goes with sourced whiskey in this country, Smooth Ambler has always been very up front about the origins of their whiskeys. Their bourbons and ryes are even called “Old Scout” as a nod to the fact that they are indeed sourced, or scouted, from elsewhere. This may not seem like a lot, but even the best known NDPs (Non-Distiller Producers) are usually less than candid about their products.
At any rate, lest that sound like faint praise, their whiskey is damn good too. I’ve reviewed MGPI bourbon before with mixed results. This one is an unqualified success. It shows excellent balance and works well as a rich, creamy after-dinner, cold-weather sipper. The family resemblance to Four Roses is in evidence. Old Scout has a certain aromatic quality (yeast-driven if I were to guess) that I get in Four Roses but no other Kentucky bourbon.
This bottle proves to me once and for all that MGPI can indeed produce high quality bourbon. At $50-$55 it’s not cheap but it’s 100 proof and very tasty. That earns Old Scout Ten a recommendation.
Nose: Lemon zest, green cardamom, coriander seed, aniseed, wormwood.
On the palate: Full bodied and dry. Cinnamon, anise, horehound, tumeric.
Finish: Dry. Like sucking on a licorice throat lozenge. Fades slowly.
Mixed: Adequate with tonic, but a little too sharp. Excellent in a dry martini with a relatively sweet vermouth. Very good in an old cocktail I found called a Princeton (1 part Port [Fronseca Bin 27 in this case], 2 parts gin, orange bitters and a twist of lemon peel). Old Cockney’s sharp dryness perfectly cuts through the sweetness of the Port. It does the same in a perfect martini.
Parting words: Old Cockney is a pretty aggressive gin compared to most that are in the London Dry style, or at least aiming in that direction. The mainstream gin it most reminds me of is Tanqueray with its trademark sharp edge, but Old Cockney goes beyond that. It teeters on the edge of being too sharp for me. That puts it in the realm of cocktail gins (as opposed to neat sipping or G & T gins) but it’s price pretty much puts it there anyway. Not that it’s unreasonably priced, it’s quite fair. At any rate, sweet cocktails are the way to go with this one. Try the Princeton or something similar, you won’t be disappointed. Old Cockney is recommended.
On the palate: Full bodied and spicy. Black pepper, cardamom, cassia, alcohol. A splash of water brings out more sweetness and a lot more cinnamon.
Finish: Cinnamon disk and alcohol burn. Fades very slowly.
Mixed: Does surprisingly well in cocktails that are traditionally better suited to unaged gin. Makes a spicy dry martini and a respectable gin and tonic. It is really fantastic in a perfect martini (half dry and half sweet vermouth) and adds a great spicy aspect to a negroni.
Parting words: Like its unaged sibling, this gin is a wild ride. When I tasted it neat (how Rifino Valentine says he drinks it) it changed in the glass substantially from first sip to last. At first it was all citrus. Then it shifted to more traditional Old Tom Gin flavors, then it became a cinnamon bomb.
As noted above it is available only at the distillery in Ferndale, for a bit more than the standard version. It’s over the top, but it’s delicious. Barrel-aged Liberator is highly recommended.
1) Unpleasant. The aroma of pot-distilled rye spirit melds with the aroma of juniper to create something that smells like wood varnish, only worse.
2) Spicy and exotic. Fennel seed, mango, lemon grass, bay leaf, sage.
3) More conventional and balanced but still very good. Citrus peel, anise, grains of paradise, coriander, juniper.
On the palate
1) Tastes worse than it smells. Thick and varnishy. Brings back memories of varnishing a birdhouse on a hot, humid day. The rye white dog and juniper tastes are like mustard and ice cream. Mustard is good and ice cream is good, but together they are disgusting.
2) Medium-bodied and spicy. A brightness comes through on the palate that is not as prominent in the nose, but a very welcome addition. Aniseed candy, sugarcane, papaya, fig, lemon thyme
3) Medium-bodied and sophisticated. Sweet cassia dominates in a very pleasant way with the other botanicals harmonizing nicely.
Finish
1) Finish is no better, but at least it doesn’t get any worse. More varnish. Mercifully short.
2) Bright, juniper/herbal finish that lingers for a long, long time.
3) Fairly dry and spicy. More coriander and a hint of cumin as it very slowly fades.
Mixed
The dry rye did very poorly with tonic and in a martini, essentially ruining both drinks. The bottom of the package containing the three bottles recommended using the dry rye in a Negroni which I did. It fared much better in that drink, but I’m not interested in buying a gin that only tastes good in one particular drink. I don’t think many other people are either. Others gin drinking friends who tried it, even in the Negroni, also disliked it. One said it tasted like white dog. The other two did great in everything they I tried them in. They were excellent team players but also brought their own distinctives to the table.
Parting Words
Out of the three, the Terroir Gin was my favorite. It was unlike any other gin I have tasted but still recognizable as gin. It’s a delight from beginning to end, and it’s the sort of experience I look for from a micro-gin. The Botanivore was very good too. It lost a little in comparison to the Terroir, but on its own it’s a wonderful product. Where Terroir is a bit garish, Botanivore is elegant. My friends were split between these two. Both were enjoyed but one favored the Botanivore while the other agreed with me.
It probably goes without saying but Dry Rye is not recommended. Botanivore is recommended and Terroir is highly recommended. All have a minimum price of $37 per 750 ml bottle in Michigan. For this tasting, I purchased a set of three 200 ml bottles for $30 or thereabouts.
In lieu of a whiskey review this Friday, I’d like to share some of the results of a fun outing with a friend to hear a veteran of the American whiskey industry.
Wednesday afternoon I received a text message from Amy of Bonne Amie Knits reminding me that Dave Pickerell (Maker’s Mark Master Distiller for 14 years) was making an appearance at The Sugar House, a cocktail bar in Detroit, that evening. If I ever knew about it I had completely forgotten, so I stuffed my mouth full of my dinner and we made our way down as soon as we could. The drink special that night was $3 shots of Maker’s and $4 shots of Maker’s 46 which was a damn good deal so I had a few.
Dave spoke and took questions for about two hours. He told stories and talked about his time at Maker’s and his time since 2008 acting as a consultant and Master Distiller at Whistle Pig, George Washington’s Distillery at Mt. Vernon and Hillrock Estate. Amy scored points when she asked what it was like working with George Washington. I tried to get Dave to reveal the source of WhistlePig but he didn’t fall for it (I’m still going with Alberta). I also asked him if he had thoughts on the Maker’s Mark proof reduction fiasco, and he did. He was in town doing some work with the Two James distillery in the Corktown area of Detroit (near where Tiger Stadium used to be, and a few blocks from the bar).
Instead of trying to recount everything he said as he said it, here are some highlights by topic:
Miscellaneous Information
-Dave won the Kentucky Bourbon Festival cocktail contest three years in a row, but the first cocktail he invented turned out to be an old cocktail that already had its own name, The Ward Eight. The third one he invented was supposed to be a cross between an Old Fashioned and a Manhattan. When Gary Regan tasted it, he said it wasn’t an old fashioned or a Manhattan but it was good anyway. He named it the Pickerell, but Dave had nothing to do with that since he doesn’t like to put his name on things.
-The bulk whiskey market (excess aged whiskey distillers will sell when they need to have it) is the tightest he’s even seen. The oldest whiskey available on the bulk/spot market is 15 months old. Basically, there is none to be had.
-Dave used to be a big stickler on drinking his bourbon neat but while working at Maker’s he came to the conclusion nobody has the right to tell anybody how they should drink their bourbon.
-He slowly sipped on a Maker’s sour while he was talking.
Microdistilling
-Dave on microdistillers making whiskey: “Eventually, it’s going to have to taste good.”
-Dave thinks the microdistillers are driving innovation right now. This is because they aren’t as constrained by the need to sell thousands of cases of a product to make it successful like the big producers are. For many micros, 100 cases sold of any product counts as a success. This means the costs of experimentation are much lower.
-He had never worked with rye before working at Mt. Vernon. The first time he made a batch there he noticed a little foam was forming on top while the rye was fermenting. So he put a sheet of plastic over the top of the fermenter and put a couple pieces of wood and a brick on top before he left the distillery for the day. The next morning when he walked into the room where the fermenter was the brick and wood were on the floor as was a two foot layer of foam. They lost that batch.
-The mix of whiskey from all the Kentucky distilleries Mt. Vernon released tasted terrible.
-The Mt. Vernon Rye currently being released is distilled at Hillrock in New York because it’s easier to do it in a more modern facility. The working conditions are pretty primitive at Mt. Vernon.
-Hillrock is currently making the world’s first ever Solera aged bourbon.
Other Master Distillers
-He didn’t know Elmer T. Lee well but said he was a gentleman and active at BT practically until the day he died. He had a greater impact on the bourbon industry than anybody else in his lifetime.
-He thinks BT should change the proof of ETL to 93 in honor of Elmer’s age when he passed away.
-Jimmy Russell is a good friend of Dave’s and has been a mentor to him throughout his career.
-Jimmy taught him the importance of pausing for a photo op (see below).
-Once Dave and Jimmy were at tasting. A guy got up and made a big show of swirling his bourbon in his glass, sipping it slowly and announcing that he tasted blackberries, winter fruit, leather and many other obscure flavors. Jimmy leaned over to Dave and said, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t put any of that shit in my bourbon!” Both then starting laughing hysterically, disrupting the tasting. [This story has made the rounds for a long time]
Maker’s Mark
-Bill Samuels Jr. is one of the most brilliant men he’s ever met.
-Bill knows next to nothing about making bourbon but is a masterful marketer.
-Before Dave worked at Maker’s he worked at an engineering firm that did some work for Maker’s. Dave didn’t like the way the way the company handled the business with Maker’s and told Maker’s about what happened. Later when Dave was in Loretto, Bill came up to him and said, “Did you know we are currently looking for a new Master Distiller?” Dave said, “No.” Bill said, “We are plum out of candidates and we didn’t like any of them. We like you, though. The job is yours if you want it.” He accepted and the next day told his former boss he was quitting and also that Maker’s was no longer going to be using that company’s services.
-He said the MM shortage is very real. He thinks the proof change was the right move to make and he is disappointed that they caved to public pressure. In his opinion the problem is not capacity but the surprising growth of the brand in the midst of a deep recession. Nobody expected that and so nobody planned on increasing production to meet that growth.
-He predicts that since the proof change was rolled back there will be “rolling shortages” of MM around the world.
After the formal talk was over he milled around for a while, chatting with the bar patrons and a couple old friends who showed up from Allied Domecq, former owner of Maker’s Mark (the company was acquired by Pernod-Ricard in 2005 with Maker’s being sold off to Beam).
Amy and I stayed at the bar and had a nice chat with Pete from Two James. They have a lot of exciting things planned including a vodka, gin and a Madeira finished bourbon. After we were done at the bar we took a stroll down Michigan Avenue and took a look at Two James.
Some photos from the evening:
Dave and his tattoo of George Washington’s stillDave and me. (Photo by Amy)Two James at dusk.
On the palate: Sweet but not cloying. Maple syrup (the real stuff), caramel, wood, alcohol.
Finish: Pleasant and drying. Touches of maple linger on as the wood (mostly maple) takes hold and then gently fades away.
Parting words: I’ve been sitting on this review for a while now because of the video reviews but also because I had a lot of questions about Valentine’s operation. Since it’s only a few miles from Sipology Blog HQ, I decided to check the place out for myself before finishing my review. I’m glad I did.
It is distilled and aged in Ferndale in a small building that also serves as tasting room and a cocktail bar. They also make a vodka, an elderflower flavored vodka, Liberator Gin, and a barrel-aged version of Liberator Gin (review coming soon). We also had a sample of their bourbon (presumably with the same mashbill as Woodward Limited) which they sell right out of the barrel at barrel proof from behind the bar. It comes it at 114° and is quite good for its age. The bartender said they also sell it by the barrel which prompted several questions from my friend and me about distribution and the three tier system, none of which the bartender was capable of answering. So if you would like the try the bourbon, I would suggest stopping by the distillery yourself.
At any rate, Woodward Limited Whiskey (named after Woodward Avenue, the historic Michigan highway that runs from downtown Detroit through Ferndale and Royal Oak and on to Pontiac) is a winner. The maple flavoring (syrup according to our bartender) doesn’t overwhelm, but it balances out the youthful edges of the whiskey nicely creating a pleasant after supper sipping whiskey. Where it excels is in cocktails. It makes a very good Manhattan and fantastic Old Fashioneds and Boulevardiers. I’m sure it would work very well in other cocktails as well. As for the price, it’s reasonable for a microdistilled whiskey at just under $40. Woodward Limited Whiskey is recommended.
Maker: Black Star Farms, Traverse City, Michigan, USA
ABV: 40%
Note: Made using white wine leftovers (skins, pulp, seeds, stems).
Appearance: Clear with big thick legs.
Nose: Fruity and pungent, but not unpleasant. Like a fruity perfume. Ripe pear, table grapes, a hint of fresh cut cedar and lemon grass.
On the palate: Mild but full bodied. Sweet and mildly grapey.
Finish: delicately fruity and woody with more of that cut cedar aroma rolling around the mouth.
Parting words: For those who may not know, grappa is a brandy distilled from a fermentation of the left over byproducts of the wine making process collectively called pomace or marc. Grappa is the Italian word for such a beverage. Other versions of the same thing include marc (French), orujo (Spanish) and tescovină (Romanian). The name grappa is restricted by the European Union to beverages of this type made in Italy, but has no such protection here in the U.S., hence this American grappa.
I haven’t had much grappa (or marc or the like) so the mental sample to which I am comparing this spirit is small. That said, this is very, very good. It’s not nearly as rough and raw tasting as the other grappas I have tasted and has a very pleasant nose that really shines in a Glencairn or Riedel Single Malt glass (I don’t own a grappa glass). It’s delicious chilled or at room temperature before or after a meal or on a hot afternoon.
Black Star Farms makes a wide variety of eaux-de-vie and brandies including a “red grappa” which is not actually red but made from red wine leftovers. It is also quite good, but the white has a very appealing perfumed nose, no doubt a reflection of the Riesling, Pinot Gris and other aromatic white wine grape varieties that lent their unused bits to the this spirit.
Spirit of the Vineyard Michigan White Grappa is highly recommended.
Our Walloon Lake tasting panel returns with a review of two newish whiskeys from Grand Traverse Distillery. Featuring a cameo from Tober the Wonder Dog.
Sipology 