Why Old Granddad BIB is a baseline bourbon
Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2015 4:52 pm''The Blues' is a uniquely American creation, and one of America's best. I would suggest that '"The Blues' has a whiskey counterpart, and that counterpart is 'Bourbon'. It is as American as whiskey can get.
Like 'The Blues', 'Bourbon' has an element of the seamy side, and is not without some overt challenges to the society at large. That alcoholic beverages, and, indeed, ''The Blues', in what were their native forms, were both kept in the shadows and regarded as dangerous, and unchristian by so many......... was never sufficient to suppress them. Today, both thrive as never before, although one might say that both have been, as is the American custom, somewhat 'gentrified'
Which brings me to Old Granddad. It began production in the mid 1800s, and even today is among the 10 ten best selling whiskies in America. From it, one gets the essential flavor of corn in American whiskey, its buttery sweetness, and rye with its sharp contrasting bite to prevent the corn from running rampant. At 100 proof one gets that extra zing that only higher proof can provide because the flavors suffer less from dilution.
Old Granddad bourbon is a baseline bourbon because it recognizes the corn for its value, the barrel for it soft vanilla qualities, and it recognizes that corn alone is too sweet and soft for the American character. So it calls in the rye. The Old Gentleman also recognizes that dilute whiskey (Basil Hayden) is not in the American character. Basil Hayden is the result of the gentrification of 'Bourbon', a perfect example of the power of American marketing........ make them pay more for less.
The American character is loaded with flaws, and contradictions, and Old Granddad is not America's best bourbon. But, I think it best represents the good and the bad in who we are. I go to it often. I like it, and I think it reminds me who I am.
Like 'The Blues', 'Bourbon' has an element of the seamy side, and is not without some overt challenges to the society at large. That alcoholic beverages, and, indeed, ''The Blues', in what were their native forms, were both kept in the shadows and regarded as dangerous, and unchristian by so many......... was never sufficient to suppress them. Today, both thrive as never before, although one might say that both have been, as is the American custom, somewhat 'gentrified'
Which brings me to Old Granddad. It began production in the mid 1800s, and even today is among the 10 ten best selling whiskies in America. From it, one gets the essential flavor of corn in American whiskey, its buttery sweetness, and rye with its sharp contrasting bite to prevent the corn from running rampant. At 100 proof one gets that extra zing that only higher proof can provide because the flavors suffer less from dilution.
Old Granddad bourbon is a baseline bourbon because it recognizes the corn for its value, the barrel for it soft vanilla qualities, and it recognizes that corn alone is too sweet and soft for the American character. So it calls in the rye. The Old Gentleman also recognizes that dilute whiskey (Basil Hayden) is not in the American character. Basil Hayden is the result of the gentrification of 'Bourbon', a perfect example of the power of American marketing........ make them pay more for less.
The American character is loaded with flaws, and contradictions, and Old Granddad is not America's best bourbon. But, I think it best represents the good and the bad in who we are. I go to it often. I like it, and I think it reminds me who I am.