gauze wrote:to throw this out there could the differences in favor between the 81 and watered down 101 WTRs be due to the kind of water that it was cut with? The tap water at your home or from a bottle is sure to have a different trace mineral content than what the Austin Nichols distillery has.
Good question, gauze, but I always used filtered water when I cut whiskey. Still, curiosity prompted me to go back and do another comparison this evening. The two still seem slightly different to me, but, on the other hand, is does seem unlikely that WT would do anything other than just add filtered water to the distillate to make it 81 proof rather than 101 proof.
As it happens, I have a 200 ml bottle of the 80 proof WT bourbon on hand in addition to the 81 proofer rye and the 101 proof rye. So, here goes that comparison. They are different (as you would expect, one being bourbon the other rye) to me. Again, like Gary Gillman, I find a bit more 'winy' sweetness in the 81 proof, and I think, as a result, it is better than the 80 proof bourbon.
Of course, anyone who is honest knows that the mind, not just the mouth, participates in tasting and can influence what one tastes. Has the power of suggestion interfered here? The 81 and the 80 taste different to me.
More curiosity drove me to compare the 81 agin the 90 proof 10 YO Russell's Reserve. Strange to say, these two seem closer in taste than do the 81 agin the 101 rye diluted to about 81 proof. The 81 proof rye is a mingling of 4 and 5 year old rye whiskies. I have read (anyone who knows correct me please) that all WT bourbons use the same recipe (high rye) and go into the barrel at the same relatively low proof. Differences would be the result of aging and mingling, neither of which is (as Gary Gillman noted in his review) insignificant as to the outcome of a whiskey. In fact, they are primary. The skills that Jimmy Russell (and his son) have mastered at WT are not the same skills (my opinion) that Chris Morris at Brown Foreman have mastered.
To continue this 'rye' game I took some 100 proof Bottle in Bond (at least four years old) Rittenhouse Rye, diluted to 80 proof and compared it to the WT 81. In color the Rittenhouse is considerably darker, four years represents the YOUNGEST rye used in this mingling, it may well, and probably does, contain much older whiskey. The color alone suggests that it contains older rye whiskey.
At 80 proof the Rittenhouse, like its source 100 proof whiskey, is good whiskey, but without any really distinguishing characteristics to set it apart. It is not the equal of the WT 81 proof rye because of the rounded 'winy' cast of the WT.
Another rye whiskey I will throw at the 81 proof WT is the Hirsch Selection 86 proof 10 Year Old Canadian Rye Whiskey (a ripoff of the Hirsch name, I am afraid). The other Canadian Rye whiskies I have are 100% rye whiskies of a completely different character than the WT (my opinion) and do not belong in this comparison. Neither does this Hirsch Selection Rye. The very light color of this ten year old reveals that it was aged in used barrels, or mingled with other grain spirits (possibly barely aged). This Hirsch Selection Rye is distinctive (my opinion) only because it contains some malted barley which gives it a nice rounded sweetness that I do like.
Conclusion: WT 81 proof rye, in my opinion, is a well balanced whiskey that offers excellent flavor (with some interesting round sweet 'winy' components), especially for the 80 proof category so often disparaged by many whiskey drinkers. Taking my cue from Gary Gillman (as I often have in the past), I explored this whiskey from the vantage point of my palate (not the equal of Gary's more experienced and refined palate). While you may consider it completely worthless to you, to me it was fun and entertaining............ and revealing. I would like to know more about how WT 81 rye is actually made, knowing full well that to know that secret might reveal more about my tasting procedures than about the whiskey.
Ask me do I care............ not one whit (the same not one whit I care for the opinion of those who care not for my long windedness, for they are under no obligation to read what I write, they have been repeatedly warned, and sometimes seem to forget that this is an ENTHUSIAST site). Whiskey drinking, and rating, is best thought of as a game. A game in which, if you play it well, you are always the winner. If you play it poorly, you are always the loser.