Taste will dictate what you personally consider a superior whiskey. However, knowing the options available to you when it comes to the very best small batch bourbon might give you a list of award-winning brands you'd like to try. The annual competitions that rate whiskeys entered by hopeful distilleries give bronze, silver, gold, and double gold medals to the winners.
By legal definition, bourbons are made from mashes - often sour, or infused with a 'starter' from an earlier fermentation - that are more than 50% corn, have been aged for at least two years in charred oak barrels, and be at least 80 proof. Traditionally considered an exclusively American product, the whiskey most often will come from Kentucky, where iron-free water seeps through limestone to give superior results. Some well-known whiskeys are not from Kentucky, however, like Jack Daniels, which is made in Tennessee.
Of course, corn whiskey can be and is made anywhere. It's the quality of the spirit that causes some locales to be thought superior to others. The history of bourbon in America is clouded by time. A Baptist minister is credited by many with first using a charred oak barrel to age his distillation from a corn mash. The name traces back to the royal French dynasty, but whether it comes via a Kentucky county or a famous street in New Orleans is debatable.
Just like wine descriptions, evaluations of fine bourbons are poetic. Connoisseurs speak of 'overtones of hay, caramel, and French toast', and a trace of the cigar box. Textures are smooth, even though the whiskey may be well over 100 proof. Taste comes partly from the mash, partly from aging, and partly from the charred barrel, which also deepens the color of the originally clear distillation.
Bourbons come in 80 proof varieties, but these never make the top ten list. 80 proof is the minimum, according to federal regulations, but there is no upper limit. Small batches are made using a limited number of barrels of whiskey; Maker's Mark is made in twenty-barrel lots, while many others require ten or less. Dickel Barrel Select and Four Roses Select are two other well-known, limited-edition bourbons.
People take their bourbon-drinking seriously. Although it is used in cocktails like the Manhattan and the Whiskey Sour, many drinkers prefer it neat. Others have it over ice or with a splash of 'branch water' (fresh from the creek in the old days.) The Mint Julep is famous as a summer-time highball in the Bluegrass State.
Annual competitions bring international judges together to evaluate whiskeys of all sorts. The San Francisco World Spirits Competition judges chose the Pappy Van Winkle 15-year Old (a 'wheated' variety) the best of a field of 11-year-plus bourbons, granting it a double gold award in 2013. The panel of judges at the 2014 Chicago International Competition gave top honors in the bourbons category to Knob Creek 9-year Old.
To find your favorite, try some of these award-winning bourbons and compare them with your current brand. You may agree with the judges or you may prefer your own.
By legal definition, bourbons are made from mashes - often sour, or infused with a 'starter' from an earlier fermentation - that are more than 50% corn, have been aged for at least two years in charred oak barrels, and be at least 80 proof. Traditionally considered an exclusively American product, the whiskey most often will come from Kentucky, where iron-free water seeps through limestone to give superior results. Some well-known whiskeys are not from Kentucky, however, like Jack Daniels, which is made in Tennessee.
Of course, corn whiskey can be and is made anywhere. It's the quality of the spirit that causes some locales to be thought superior to others. The history of bourbon in America is clouded by time. A Baptist minister is credited by many with first using a charred oak barrel to age his distillation from a corn mash. The name traces back to the royal French dynasty, but whether it comes via a Kentucky county or a famous street in New Orleans is debatable.
Just like wine descriptions, evaluations of fine bourbons are poetic. Connoisseurs speak of 'overtones of hay, caramel, and French toast', and a trace of the cigar box. Textures are smooth, even though the whiskey may be well over 100 proof. Taste comes partly from the mash, partly from aging, and partly from the charred barrel, which also deepens the color of the originally clear distillation.
Bourbons come in 80 proof varieties, but these never make the top ten list. 80 proof is the minimum, according to federal regulations, but there is no upper limit. Small batches are made using a limited number of barrels of whiskey; Maker's Mark is made in twenty-barrel lots, while many others require ten or less. Dickel Barrel Select and Four Roses Select are two other well-known, limited-edition bourbons.
People take their bourbon-drinking seriously. Although it is used in cocktails like the Manhattan and the Whiskey Sour, many drinkers prefer it neat. Others have it over ice or with a splash of 'branch water' (fresh from the creek in the old days.) The Mint Julep is famous as a summer-time highball in the Bluegrass State.
Annual competitions bring international judges together to evaluate whiskeys of all sorts. The San Francisco World Spirits Competition judges chose the Pappy Van Winkle 15-year Old (a 'wheated' variety) the best of a field of 11-year-plus bourbons, granting it a double gold award in 2013. The panel of judges at the 2014 Chicago International Competition gave top honors in the bourbons category to Knob Creek 9-year Old.
To find your favorite, try some of these award-winning bourbons and compare them with your current brand. You may agree with the judges or you may prefer your own.
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