Last month, on the occasion of a friend ’shopping victoriously’ for the Sazerac 18 year old rye, a number of friends gathered at my house to blind taste a slate of rye whiskeys. Having recently attended Paul Pacult’s session at Tales of the Cocktail (How Good is your Palate) I had a fairly good idea how I wanted to conduct the tasting. First of all, it had to be blind. Everyone is influenced by the relative price and/or prestige that a bottling is held in and their judgment is definitely colored by their expectations. It is quite amazing the difference that not knowing what you are tasting makes. If you have never done a blind tasting, I encourage you to do so. All you really need is a willing partner to keep the information of what is in which glass from you, but it can be a lot of fun as a group event or even party. Additionally, I asked everyone to follow Mr. Pacult’s tasting protocol, which involves viewing and carefully smelling the spirit before tasting it twice. The first time is really just to rinse off the tongue, while the second tasting reveals the (sometimes) subtle characteristics of the distillate. Taking notes is highly encouraged, as it can sharpen the distinctions between samples and makes it much more fun when the candidates are revealed!
The Ryes tasted were:
- Michter’s US-1 (84.8 proof, 3 years) “single barrel”
- Rittenhouse Bottled-in-bond (100 proof, 4 years)
- Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye 2008 (127.5 proof, 6 years, 5 months) “uncut/unfiltered”
- Sazerac 6 year old “Baby Saz” (90 proof, 6 years)
- Sazerac 18 year old rye (90 proof, 18 years)
- Wild Turkey Rye (101 proof, no age statement, so 4 years)
- Jim Beam Black [bourbon] (86 proof, 8 years)
- Old Overholt (80 proof, 4 years)
- Russell’s Reserve Rye (90 proof, 6 years) “small batch”
- Wathen’s Bourbon (94 proof, no age statement, so 4 years)
Basically, these are all of the rye whiskeys available in Oregon’s state-run liquor system, plus a few special imports. Additionally, there were a couple of ‘ringers’ included to keep the tasters on their toes. As it turned out, the Jim Beam Black (which is a pretty rye forward bourbon) was able to fit in, while the Wathen’s was quickly identified and asked for its papers by at least 2 tasters. All of the others were labeled as ‘Straight Rye Whiskey’ and distilled in Kentucky.
The biggest concern in the glassware was actually getting matching glasses for 10 different whiskeys and 5 different tasters! We settled on passing around only 10 samples rather than arranging for (and washing!) 50 separate glasses. We all took notes on the 10, and, since this was semi-casual, there was some ‘table-talk’ with comments and exclamations about the samples.
So, results! Well, our tasting was primarily about what we liked. There was no formal grading system so an overall ranking was not the goal. However, when the actual ryes were revealed there were a number of surprises. Overall, the Wild Turkey rye did quite well with a number of people rating it as one of their favorites. The Rittenhouse bonded also was a favorite. And the Sazeracs acquitted themselves well. The Jim Beam Black was one of the least favorites, although 3 of us had enjoyed it earlier in the month as part of a bourbon flight at a bar. One taster described it colorfully as “super medicinal smelling, still lacking character. All the warmth of a German brown coat. Just punishment w/o sincerity”.
Another wrap-up conclusion was that 10 spirits is really too many to taste in one session. All of us looked at our notes and agreed that by taste 7 or so, they reflected less and less detail. Many of us thought there were two or three ryes over 101 proof when in fact there was only one.
I recommend that everyone eat beforehand, have water or crackers to cleanse palates in between tastes, and make sure to have spit cups. Hosting a tasting is really fun and a great way to get some variety into your liquor cabinet should one of your tasters, ahem, forget one of the bottles they brought.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Mmm, rye-a-riffic! Wish I could’ve been there. I did a tequila tasting a few years ago that I wish was half as organized. As it was, it just turned into “drinking too much tequila.”