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The Riff Stuff

It only seems fitting to honor the anniversary of the passage of the Bottled in Bond Act (March 3, 1897) and the NCAA Basketball Tournament (occurring every March since I can remember…too lazy to look up the exact year it started). So, last week The Bourbon Fellowship held its First Annual Bottled in Bond Blind Tasting Bracket or FABIBBTB for short (or not so short, as it turned out). If you are unfamiliar with “Bottled in Bond” you can follow this link for more information.

The bracket was composed of 8 randomly selected bottled in bond (BiB) brands.  I put the names of 14 different BiBs in a box (a Booker’s box to be exact) and drew out 8 names.  Those 8 went back in the box and as I drew them out, I wrote their name on the bracket for pairings.  Each was assigned a letter (A through H) to identify them individually during the blind tastings.  The participants and the 1st Round pairings were:

These made the Big Dance!

A – 1792 Bottled in Bond (Barton)

B – E.H. Taylor Small Batch (Buffalo Trace)

C – Henry McKenna (Heaven Hill)

D – Old Bardstown (Willett)

E – Jim Beam Bonded (Jim Beam)

F – McKenzie Bottled in Bond (Finger Lakes)

G – Early Times (Brown-Forman)

H – New Riff Bottled in Bond (New Riff)

I poured the samples and counted votes as seven of our Fellowship made some tough decisions…and drank some outstanding bourbon.  As a group, they sampled one pairing at a time and voted on which bourbon moved on to the next round.  (For example, sample A and B then vote on which one they liked better.) We would proceed through each remaining pairing to complete the first round.  The semi-finals and finals followed the same pattern.

Quarter Finals

By a slim 4-3 margin, E.H. Taylor advanced over 1792.  It would be a shame if Colonel Taylor got bounced in the first round given that the Bottled in Bond Act wouldn’t have been passed without him.

In a somewhat surprising close match-up, Henry McKenna narrowly moved on over Old Bardstown by a 4-3 count.  An even greater surprise to me as I moderated the tasting was that a couple of long-devoted McKenna fans voted for Old Bardstown.  That is the beauty of a blind tasting!

Jim Beam Bonded also gained a 4-3 victory over McKenzie Bottled in Bond, but it wouldn’t be March and it wouldn’t be Madness without a buzzer beater and some hullabaloo.  After a first count of 4-3 in favor of McKenzie, Tom (known lovable trouble-maker of the group) abruptly changed his vote from F (McKenzie) to E (Beam).  Beam would move on, but in controversial fashion.

The last pairing of the Quarter Finals saw New Riff dominate 6-1 over Early Times.  Most of the guys said it was a close decision for them personally, but an overwhelming majority chose the newcomer.

Final Four

In a battle of the bottled in bond bourbon behemoths (say that five times fast), E.H. Taylor took on Henry McKenna for a right to punch a ticket to the finals.  Again, the vote was 4-3.  Again, known McKenna lovers voted against it. Again, McKenna still claimed a win and a chance at the title.

Maybe the youngster just doesn’t know it isn’t supposed to be this easy, but New Riff claims another 6-1 victory.  This time the freshman bests Beam and carries a lot of momentum into the finals.

The Bottled in Bond Finals

From one side of the bracket is Henry McKenna.  A 10-year single barrel bottled in bond that has been a daily drinker for many a bourbon enthusiast and has also been hailed as 2018 Whiskey of the Year.  McKenna is a true PTP-er (“prime time player” for those not fluent in speaking “Vitale”). Emerging from the other side is the upstart freshman, New Riff.  A four-year bottled in bond that is the very first bourbon distilled by New Riff Distillery.  This bourbon just hit the market in the fall of 2018.  It’s a diaper dandy and it’s awesome, baby!

Congratulations to New Riff.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa-oh…The Riff Stuff!

One would think that based on résumé alone Henry McKenna would be the heavy favorite.  But…the last time I checked: we don’t drink a résumé! New Riff (the New Kid on the Block) had the “right stuff” and took down the traditional favorite, Henry McKenna, by a 5-2 vote. 

Congratulations to New Riff on claiming the title of The Bourbon Fellowship 2019 Bottled in Bond Champion.  While it may not fall in the category of “coveted title” just yet, it will always be the first one ever.  And they can never take that away from you, New Riff (look for your certificate in the mail, soon)!

The results…

The blind tasting aspect of this was fascinating to watch unfold. In a day or two, I’ll blog about that and what my personal bracket looked like. I’ll also post reviews from our Bourbon Fellowship of the two finalists.

Kevin

It Isn’t Brain Surgery

It isn’t brain surgery.

That’s what people like to say when they want to define a certain task as being simple to perform.  Not just simple to perform, mind you, but simple to perform expertly.  You don’t want your neurosurgeon patting himself on the back because he did a slightly better than average job fixing what’s wrong with your medulla oblongata. You want that doc getting an award for the work he did on you.  After all…it is, in fact, brain surgery. 

What isn’t brain surgery is hosting a new bourbon group.  However, if you’ve never led a bourbon group before (or even BEEN to one before) then getting it right can feel a little more intimidating than it really is.  I made notes on several different ideas for that first Bourbon Fellowship going back and forth on what would be an appropriate way to launch this group.  In the process, I developed a few “Do’s and Don’ts” that may come in handy for your own bourbon group:

  • Do…offer pours of interesting bourbon in traditional whiskey glassware.
  • Don’t…open a bottle of Benchmark telling guests to “take a swig and pass it around”.
  • Do…ask your friends to share their thoughts on the bourbon they taste.
  • Don’t…scream at them they are WRONG! (a la John McGloughlin) and then subject them to lengthy personal tasting notes.
  • Do…provide light snacks such as pretzels, crackers, cheese, etc.
  • Don’t…dump leftover Halloween candy on the table and say “Trick or Treat, suckers”.

Fortunately, on that first night I think we were closer to the “Do” end of the Do-Don’t Spectrum.  I decided I wanted each Fellowship to have a few distinctions.  One was to have a theme.  Something more memorable than just filling a table with as many different bottles as possible every time you meet. In future blog posts I’ll go into more detail on some of the themes, but some examples are a specific brand (Knob Creek, Blanton’s, Booker’s) or a different style (rye, bottled in bond, barrel proof) or…well you get the idea.  The theme for Meeting One was Ten Year Whiskey.  The lineup consisted of Michter’s, Rebel Yell, Henry McKenna, Eagle Rare and Whistle Pig Rye.  Most people wouldn’t turn down a pour of any of those, so it seemed like a safe and successful way to start and everyone seemed to like it (they’ve kept coming back, at least).

A re-enactment of the Ten Year lineup. Doesn’t it look Wonderful Tonight.

I also thought having a specific playlist as background music during the evening would be another distinction for the group.  That first night the soundtrack was live versions of Eric Clapton songs.  Why Eric Clapton? Probably because I had just been listening to a lot of Clapton at that time.  Why live?  Why not? It’s in the way that you use it, anyway.

The final and most important question was: who to invite?
The short answer is “Friends you didn’t mind drinking some of your best bourbon”.  Also, guys that you wouldn’t mind if they stayed After Midnight. It didn’t really concern me how “into bourbon” someone was.  In the first e-mail invitation I sent out I actually said: “I want to start hosting, on a semi-regular basis, a bourbon fellowship.  Where a few guys come over, slow down for an hour or two and sip some bourbon (or rye or rum or Kool Aid or whatever you prefer).”  Nobody had any Kool-Aid, but I don’t think everyone drank bourbon that night.  I think my oldest son (who is of legal drinking age and yes I am old) just drank a Dr. Pepper and joined in the conversation. He’s come a long way in his bourbon journey since then, by the way.

We’ve got eleven of us in The Bourbon Fellowship now.  The rules for membership were simple:

1. No Knuckleheads.

2. Membership is limited to how many people I can fit in my basement.

While we are currently at capacity, we try to have a guest in from time to time if a “regular” can’t make it.  A couple of the guys are very knowledgeable about bourbon, a couple are relative novices and the rest of us are somewhere in between.  We are all, however, learning more and more as we go.  Nobody has ever said you have to be an expert about bourbon in order to enjoy bourbon.  After all…bourbon, in fact, is not brain surgery. 

This week, we are having the First Annual Bourbon Fellowship Bottled-in-Bond Bracket Challenge. It will be a blind tasting of eight different bottled-in-bond bourbons. Next week, I’ll let you know how it went and we’ll have some reviews of the Final Four by a few of the guys in the group.

Kevin

In the beginning…

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty…

Genesis (the book of the Bible not the rock band)

In the beginning?  Well, there are numerous legends, tall tales and far-fetched fables about who (in the beginning) created bourbon. Regardless of who started it, my beginnings in bourbon can only be traced back to six or seven years ago.  Before then my bourbon cabinet was “formless and empty”.  It’s only been in the past three or four years that my bourbon stash has been fruitful and multiplied. 

A year ago in February I decided the best way to celebrate my birthday was to invite a few friends over and open a newly-acquired bottle of Elijah Craig 18.  I don’t know where an EC18 ranks in your collection, but it was pretty near the top of mine and I couldn’t think of a better time to open it than with the best of company. 

This Elijah Craig 18 was outstanding. The Reverend Craig would be proud.

As we talked of legends, tall tales and far-fetched fables about each other, we sipped away about half of the delicious whiskey in that bottle. Before calling it a night, we might have sampled a bit of Blanton’s and a splash of Booker’s, too.  The guys enjoyed and appreciated the bourbon, but everyone seemed to also enjoy just being together.  Even though we didn’t have Birthday Bourbon, this birthday bourbon tasting was a great way to celebrate.

For a group of guys, however, what else would you do? Have your buddies over for birthday cake?  Most normal people like cake, but are we drinking Capri Sun and playing pin-the-tail on the donkey, too?  Probably not.  Getting together to watch a ball game is always fun, but the focus is always on the game and not the fellowship.  You could go watch a movie, but unless it’s “Die Hard 8” or “Rocky 47” or the highly-anticipated “Die Hard vs. Rocky”, then going to the movies just seems a little too date night-ish. Now you could talk me into a steakhouse and a really nice, medium-rare rib eye but, other than that, getting together to share some bourbon with friends is tough to beat.  Of course, any rib eye would likely be paired with a double pour of Kentucky Spirit anyway.

After everyone left and I was putting away glasses and bottles, I thought about how well the evening went.  It wasn’t just drinking good bourbon.  It was a few hours of laughs and conversation with friends that I just haven’t seen as often as I should. 

So, the very obvious thought occurred to me: we should do this more often.  And so, we did.

The next blog post will be about the first meeting of The Bourbon Fellowship. Many of the future posts will be about our group which will, hopefully, give you some ideas on what to do in your own group.

Kevin

When It’s Not All About the Bourbon

A wise man once told me for every situation there is a Seinfeld quote, an 80’s rock lyric and a Bible verse.  Challenge accepted.

If you love bourbon (and you likely do or else you wouldn’t be reading this) you may have a favorite way to drink it.  You may like it neat.  You may like it on the rocks.  You may like it in a cocktail.  You may even like it mixed with Coke…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

All of those are great ways to enjoy bourbon.  OK.  Almost all of those are great ways to enjoy bourbon.  Personally, my favorite way to drink bourbon is with friends.  George Thorogood may sing “when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself”, but even he had the Delaware Destroyers.  Plus, it is a terrible song anyway.

Booker’s Kathleen’s Batch is a Bourbon Fellowship favorite.

I’d bet a Michter’s 20 to your Kentucky Gentleman that most every bourbon story you have is one you’ve enjoyed with friends.  Maybe it’s the time you celebrated a son’s wedding with friends by opening that elusive bottle of Pappy.  Or it could be the time you shared an Elijah Craig 18 with the guys on your birthday.  Or the time you had a pour of a newly acquired George T. Stagg with a friend simply because you hadn’t seen each other for a long time.  I am blessed to have done all of these (and more).  These were truly great times with great bourbon.

Not every story, mind you, may be with friends. I’ve got a Booker’s story between me and a bartender named Randy with cameo appearances by former NFL quarterback Marc Bulger and pro golfer J.B. Holmes. We’ll leave the details of that tale for another day, however.

However, the point of life isn’t the stories or (gasp!) even the bourbon.  The point is the relationships.  What I’ll explore in this blog is that relationship side of bourbon.  In future posts I’ll share the formation of my own bourbon group, The Bourbon Fellowship.  I’ll give you some ideas you can use to start your own group, including some of the themes we’ve had for our meetings.   There’ll be some of the traditional bourbon blog fare: reviews, tasting notes, commentary on bourbon news, etc.   The main focus, however, will be the goings-on of The Bourbon Fellowship and how bourbon is the “connector”.  It is the excuse to gather with friends as a respite from the stresses of life and share a few good pours and a few good times.  Because it is true: “a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for a time of adversity” (Proverbs 17:17).  The best friends I have in this world – the guys I share my life with – are the same guys I get to share my bourbon with.