Trader Joe's Bourbon?!?

TRADER JOE’S Straight KENTUCKY BOURBON Whiskey

My boss brought this back from a recent trip to California, so I promised him I’d give it the ole write-up.  I’ve tried Trader Joe’s 18-year Speyside Single malt before, and found that likewise to be a product of surprising quality.  This is a more than decent little bourbon, one to which our fair southern neighbors should be glad to have access. Trader Joe’s excel in offering values like this.

N:  light nose of cinnamon, banana peel, and clove; cherry flesh and supple, salty leather

P:  Spicy, peppery, and lean, but with good breadth.  Medium-long, with a smoky, herbal finish not dissimilar to Tennessee whiskey.

This well-knit, characterful bourbon whiskey, presumably bought in bulk by Trader Joe’s, was distilled in Louisville by Bourbon Square Distilling Co.  Of indeterminate age, it’s a nicely-balanced product that falls somewhere between Makers Mark and Bulleit in terms of quality and flavor. 

Kilchoman "Machir Bay" Islay Single Malt

Kilchoman “Machir Bay” Islay Single Malt

Kilchoman- circa 1995-  are, according to the company literature, the first new distillery founded on Islay in over a century.  They grow a portion of their own barley on-site at Rockside Farm, and as such also append the designation “farmer-distillery” to their label.  They are, in effect, "grower scotch." The Machir Bay is a blend of 3, 4, and 5-year old single-malts, with the 4-year finished in oloroso butts for eight weeks before assemblage… err, blending.  Though young, this whisky has loads of character and flavor; I look very forward to the black-label 5-year.

N:  Mossy, high-toned sugary smoke: lime jolly rancher and cedar ash… The cereal purity of young barley malt is here, like the flesh of an underripe nut and fresh-mown lawn, all swathed in a fine-grained, sexy smoke, a smoke redolent of supple leather and dry, golden, late-summer grass.

P:  Mellow cinnamon stick and apple compote, with a long, broad finish of incense ash and pine needles.  This is clearly a young whisky, but one of great finesse and impeccable balance; it’s exciting to taste a baby Islay of this quality.  The brief few weeks of sherry cask finish that the 4-year saw add a certain pithy sweetness mid-palate that also rings on the finish, where starfruit and driftwood fire echo and fade.

Particularly with our local distilleries releasing 2-year-old homegrown whiskeys for the whopping price of $50/ 375/mL (ahem), this little charmer seems well worth the just-south-of-$60 price tag…  It’s really, really well made, and a wonderful glimpse of a young whisky of great distinction and complexity… It makes you wonder how good their longer-aged bottlings eventually will be!

Tyrconnell Madeira Cask (Irish Single malt)

TYRCONNELL 10-YR MADEIRA CASK

If you’ve read any H&T, you’ll know I loves me some Irish; you’ll also know it’s a category i find to be much undervalued, at least here in the PDX, my bailiwick.  For my birthday, I decided to explore the top shelf… Tyrconnell, a wonderful single-malt distilled at Cooley, comes in three ‘extra-aged’ versions, finished in port, sherry, and madeira casks, respectively.  Having previously tried whisk(e)y finished in the first two media, and a fan of the fortified wine in question that initially seasoned these barrels, I went with the Madeira cask.

N:  Fleshy tropical flavors (papaya, liliko’i) hung on a wide swath of funk, much like the animality underlying the bright citrus of a calamansi; calvados and lemon candies

P:  Chamomile tea, papayas, and white peppercorns; whiskey’s answer to torrontes; cookie dough and fine vanilla bean-infused creme fraiche…

Tropical and dense, almost excessively so; kinda like a version of Slieve Foy on steroids.  This is delicious and interesting, but in the end perhaps a bit overwrought.  It may well be ‘worth’ the $80 price tag, but there are other Irish single malts on which I would probably spend my money next time.  The aforementioned Slieve Foy, weighing in at $30 less, comes immediately to mind…

Notes, unvarnished

Here are some raw tasting notes, that I will polish a bit and hammer into discrete postings later... Unitl then, my take on these whisk(i)(e)(y)s...

BULLEIT 10-yr

N: Seawater, grape bubble-yum, green coconut flesh, cinnamon, and hot pavement; bananas, spearmint, and lemon candies.  Allspicy rye notes and fresh-turned soil.

P: White peppercorn and juniper, sweet stonefruit vinous notes, calvados, smoky cherryskins and hickory stems; orange pekoe tea and lemon zest.  Big airy rye hit on the foretongue slides into more tropical notes before a crispy, herbal/bitter finish

ARDBEG GALILEO 1999

N: Delicate woodsmoke; glossy 1960s-era paper; Easter lily, juniper, and orange compôte.  Mossy wet sandstone, peppercorn, allspice, and brine.  Fleshy, funky, low-tide undertone. 

P: Cheesy (e.g. Grenouille) Chablislike terroir over roasted Meyer lemons; black, then red, licorice sticks; a gorgeous bloodsmoky hit that lingers in the mouth,  ringing with iron and braised fennel;  sexy and rough in the best way… pistachios, salt, smoke, and blood.  Superlong oceanside incense ash campfire finish, almond-bitter, all ‘round salted butter cookies.  A mouthful of seawater and sex.    Bloody and intimate while somehow maintaining impeccable propriety; titillating w/o being prurient…very long indeed… It is expressive both of its provenance and the brilliance of its home distillery.

    

     Flaunting the trademark savory complexity (read: briny and sexy and hugely compelling) of its house’s higher-end bottlings,  this precocious 12-year old,  finished in Bourbon and Marsala casks, displays fantastic complexity and character… this is fuckin NICE.  Galileo  is well worth the coin.