The regional whiskey rocket is taking off. Blast off to booze city with the spirit of your own region. Today's flavor of home is from Arkansas, where whiskey is being distilled for the first time since prohibition.
"Young" bourbon is a particularly accurate description since it was aged just three to six months. The distillers refer to their process as "accelerated maturation techniques that includes small barrels and temperature cycling."
"Bourbon has a great southern tradition," said Phil Brandon, distillery owner and head distiller, "and we wanted to make our bourbon from native Arkansas grains and age the whiskey in small barrels coopered in Arkansas. It's the first Arkansas bourbon."
There you go. 24 bucks for a fifth of whiskey aged only a few months in oak. 24 bucks for the novelty of whiskey from Arkansas. Ehhh, maybe. I appreciate the sentiment of this regional whiskey. Maybe it will pan out in the end?
Showing posts with label the whiskey renaissance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the whiskey renaissance. Show all posts
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Are we in a whiskey bubble?
There was no doubt in my mind that vodka had become a craze. A mania. An extraordinary popular delusion. The crowds were mad for vodka. The proliferation of brands alone told me this. Crystal skull vodka. Black vodka. Quadruple distilled vodka. Expensive vodka. I mean who pays more than 40 dollars for grain neutral spirits anyways?
The whiskey renaissance, meanwhile, was producing new and interesting brands. Amrut Indian whisky is a solid entry in the new "Indian whisky" category. Rye whiskeys are coming back from near death with some solid brands. But then this caught my eye: St. George's English whisky. Sounds very exciting and promising indeed. But then to learn that the first batch that can be legally called whisky, merely 3 years old, has completely sold out. Has whiskey become a craze as well?
But there's more. There is the first whiskey produced in Chicago since prohibition, Lion's Pride. Again a very young whiskey selling for quite a lot (more than 40 dollars a fifth) for being two years old. Shouldn't your price be based on taste and not location?
I'm starting to get the impression that young men are watching Mad Men and drinking whiskey in large quantities because they want to be Don Draper. Funny digression: the Mad Men generation largely drank blended Scotch whisky and not the single malt Scotches that are popular among these pretentious young men.
So what do you think? Are these new whiskies part of the great whisky renaissance? Or is whisky starting to become a craze, a mania like vodka? A whisky bubble perhaps? And is that a bad thing?
The whiskey renaissance, meanwhile, was producing new and interesting brands. Amrut Indian whisky is a solid entry in the new "Indian whisky" category. Rye whiskeys are coming back from near death with some solid brands. But then this caught my eye: St. George's English whisky. Sounds very exciting and promising indeed. But then to learn that the first batch that can be legally called whisky, merely 3 years old, has completely sold out. Has whiskey become a craze as well?
But there's more. There is the first whiskey produced in Chicago since prohibition, Lion's Pride. Again a very young whiskey selling for quite a lot (more than 40 dollars a fifth) for being two years old. Shouldn't your price be based on taste and not location?
I'm starting to get the impression that young men are watching Mad Men and drinking whiskey in large quantities because they want to be Don Draper. Funny digression: the Mad Men generation largely drank blended Scotch whisky and not the single malt Scotches that are popular among these pretentious young men.
So what do you think? Are these new whiskies part of the great whisky renaissance? Or is whisky starting to become a craze, a mania like vodka? A whisky bubble perhaps? And is that a bad thing?
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