In 1975, the former doctor, one-time Brooklyn resident, and poet of southern culture Walker Percy penned a seminal article for Esquire about bourbon. In the piece, he suggests that drinking lower proof bourbon is favorable since it allows the drinker more drinks to achieve the desired result, allowing for time to enjoy the fruits of “Kentucky U.S.A. sunshine.” Along with the Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson’s writings about intoxications of all kinds, the 1970s were a period of literate depravity, intellectual treatises on pleasures that reflected the decadence of the times, post turbulence, post scandals, when America was settling a new reality after a civil rights movement and a sexual revolution.
I was thinking of Walker Percy as we are set to release our fall allocation of Barrel Strength Bourbon, surely our most coveted offering. The culture of bourbon has basically turned the opposite direction from Mr. Percy and can’t seemingly get enough of—not just high proof bourbon—but bourbon over 140 proof, the rarified “Hazmat” barrel strength.
The burble of the internet has done stupid things to a lot of our culture, but it has given rarified and superlative things a halo of excellence. And in an era when bourbon still discloses very little for consumers to latch onto, age and proof are the salient numbers to pick from (and perhaps price). If you can do the arithmetic of finding the best mix of these numbers, you too, can be a bourbon connoisseur.
I’ve always been a little cynical about our Barrel Strength Bourbon, the third whiskey we ever released after our 90 proof bourbon and moonshine. It is simply our bourbon straight from the barrel, selected for more barrel-flavor and excellence. It’s built from a mix of age statements and barrel sizes, but favors older whiskey in smaller barrels, which tends to create a very concentrated and very beautiful oak profile. Originally, I thought, was this enough to differentiate an entirely different product? The answer has been proven by the audience. Since its release in 2014, the whiskey continued to rack up awards, and over time, bourbon consumers gradually discovered it thanks to blind tastings next to more expensive bottles from Kentucky distilleries (mostly just one of them) that tend to be overhyped and hard to find.
Now, we get emails and calls weekly for our barrel strength bourbon, which tends to sell out quickly from our distillery (it’s also allocated to New York retailers and distributors around the country). I understand why: our ester-rich fermentation and pot still distillation preserve a viscosity that holds up much better at high proof than column distillates, which taste solventy at high proof next to ours. It’s also full of barrel character that punches above its weight in terms of age, typically from 5-8 years old. This generally compares with Kentucky whiskeys 12+ years and even then, it has a heft that merely old whiskey doesn’t have. Age is not the only measure of a whiskey and ours, old for its cooperage, old for craft, but maybe middle range in the peer set of bourbon, shows surprisingly standout maturity and heft from a deliberately different distillation and maturation, both working in tandem.
The last time we released this whiskey, it sold out in a matter of minutes. We’re putting a few more bottles toward our online and local NY audiences this time around, as we want to reward our most loyal fans and those that are tracking our business most closely. We set out to make great whiskey for those who care about great whiskey, and I think maybe no bottle illustrates that commitment more than this one.
Maybe in a few years, when the turbulence of the current political moment is past, we will turn toward lower proof bourbon as a culture. But my read of the times is that we could all use a drink right now, the stiffer the better. In contrast to Mr. Percy in 1975, we are in barrel-strength times, and surely this is the whiskey for the moment.
