BourbonEnthusiast.com

A cousin (by marriage) and his wife were visiting over the holidays and wanted to try some bourbons. Some time back they bought a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel on my recommendation and are enjoying it. However, they wanted to try some others, especially some 'wheat' bourbons, including the Pappy 20, about which they had heard much. So we sat down with Pappy 20, A.H. Hirsch 16 (not a wheater but of high reputation), Black Maple Hills 16, Pappy 15, and Parker's Heritage 10 YO Wheat bourbon (reduced to about 90 proof). They like all of them, but preferred them in this order: Parker's Heritage, Black Maple Hills, Pappy 20 and Pappy 15. They also thought the FRSB was as good as any of them. I could hardly disagree but could only say that the FRSB was quite different from the wheat bourbons. They were surprised to learn that FRSB was a high rye bourbon since they thought they did not care for the bite in many bourbons which they had heard was because of a high rye content.

I am learning that I am a fan of bourbons, not the extremes. I have yet to try a full rye that I like, and from the 'wheaters' Ive had, I cant say I really look forward to trying a full wheat whiskey. I like the mix of mashbills, and think it has more to do with the barrel, barrel location, age, and selection than it does with any particular mashbill ratios

Mike that underscores the value of blind tasting. What we like may turn out to be different from what we thought we might like.

Right. But also, the range of tastes in bourbons of equivalent quality is not that wide, even wheat vs. rye. The range is wider in single malts, say, or rums.

Gary

Interesting. I tend to think price of a bottle and advertising influence peoples' tastebuds at times. Why else would Johnnie Walker Blue be so successful? Thanks for sharing the results

I agree, FRSB is as good as it gets, at least that is the about most I'm willing to spend. Its only $28 bucks here. That's some high end stuff you have, I may try that stuff eventually, bucket list.

The boss served Maker's at the Xmas party, I had a couple and it was better than I remembered. Free makes stuff taste better. Cheers!

I agree cw, I believe price and label (image) factor highly in what taste sensations we expect to experience. It's just human nature, something expensive and well known is expected to be better and we recognize that whether or not we actually like how it tastes.

Squire wrote:I agree cw, I believe price and label (image) factor highly in what taste sensations we expect to experience. It's just human nature, something expensive and well known is expected to be better and we recognize that whether or not we actually like how it tastes.

I think for some it's the status as well. My problem is I am overly intrigued to try new things, as if I'm missing out on The Fountain of Youth. I am looking forward to doing a blind tasting as well

I agree with both Squire and with cw. Blind tastings often reveal that not knowing what you are tasting often leads to a surprise. As Squire says, much of that is just human nature. And, like cw, I have as many bourbons as I do mostly out of curiosity and rather foolishly looking for the holy grail of bourbon. But, I do like to experiment with new tastes, as I often have with the, not cheap, products coming from Chris Morris at Brown Foreman. They can surprise the palate, and to me that is almost always enjoyable. Besides, there is that part of me that just wants to experience as many bourbons as I can to improve my ability to distinguish and enjoy them. I drink a different bourbon just about every day, there are virtually none to which I say, ugh, when sipping.

Mike wrote:I agree with both Squire and with cw. Blind tastings often reveal that not knowing what you are tasting often leads to a surprise. As Squire says, much of that is just human nature. And, like cw, I have as many bourbons as I do mostly out of curiosity and rather foolishly looking for the holy grail of bourbon. But, I do like to experiment with new tastes, as I often have with the, not cheap, products coming from Chris Morris at Brown Foreman. They can surprise the palate, and to me that is almost always enjoyable. Besides, there is that part of me that just wants to experience as many bourbons as I can to improve my ability to distinguish and enjoy them. I drink a different bourbon just about every day, there are virtually none to which I say, ugh, when sipping.

Ive experimented with countless bourbons as well, looking to try them all. I think i am at the point now though, that I would be happy keeping just the following on hand, in this order:

Dickel 9 year, 103 proof (first choice by a considerable margin)
Booker's, about 125 proof
KCSB, 9 year, 120 proof
HH 6 year, both the 100 proof BIB and the green label 90 proof versions


and that is my plan. I plan to keep those on hand and just try new things when I am at parties, restaurants and bars, versus buying bottles to try them