About 40 miles east of the famed high security vaults of Fort Knox is another repository that whiskey enthusiasts will find much more compelling than the national reserves of gold bullion. A door at the end of a narrow hallway opens into a windowless room lined on all sides with floor to ceiling shelves of whiskey. It is not whiskey one encounters in retail stores or even distillery shops. More than 400 bottles and decanters dating from as early as the 1890s include Prohibition era pints bottled and sold as medicinal whiskeys, as well as limited expressions from current distilleries, such as Old Forester Birthday Bourbons and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection.
This is the Whiskey Library at Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBC), a distillery which itself is less than a decade old, but that now offers guests the chance to sample from its historic collection with a twice-monthly experience entitled A Taste of Whiskey History. It’s presided over by Dan Barrett who on a recent Saturday morning led a tasting that I had the pleasure of participating in, along with a couple from Ohio and one from Tennessee.
Upon taking your seat at a polished hardwood table, everyone’s eyes are immediately drawn to the foot-tall ceramic chess pieces on the far wall. These were the famous Old Crow chess set decanters.
Barrett explained that several distilleries, including Jim Beam and Wild Turkey, sold their whiskey in collectible decanters to encourage sales during the great bourbon slump of the 1960s and 1970s. The strategy didn’t result in a big sales boost at the time, but the decanters are very much prized by collectors today. “The chess decanters, a 1968 release, was a Christmas exclusive, and they only made 2,000 sets of it, 32 pieces. For those 2,000 sets, there were 6,400 decanters. Once those 6,400 decanters were made, they smashed the castings for them and so that’s all that’s ever going to be made.”
Barrett also noted that at one time, BBC’s set was one of only three complete ones, but now a few other collectors have amassed all 32 pieces. People who acquired all 32 when they were released, received a bonus: a to-scale chess board made out of black and white squares of shag carpeting. Neither any of the Old Crow chess bourbon, nor the oldest whiskey in the collection, a bottle of Cedar Brook from 1892, were tasted. But the trio of bourbons on offer that morning was certainly special.
First up was Rose Hill, a 1983 release from the Hoffman Distillery, near Lawrenceburg. Its post-Prohibition brands had included Old Hoffman, Kentucky Burley, and Old Spring. It also created the Ezra Books brand, which is now a Lux Row product. Later renamed the Commonwealth Distillery when he bought it in August 1983, this was the distillery where Julian Van Winkle III bottled his very first Old Rip Van Winkle bourbon.
The Rose Hill had been aged “130 months” according to the label and was bottled at 90 proof. It had a dark cherry note, which Barrett identified as a signature of old whiskey, along with what he called “old funk flavor.” One of the others at the table dubbed the flavor “old library.”
Next came a gem from Wild Turkey, a 10-year-old, 101 proof Russell’s Reserve bottled in 1968 when the distillery was led by the legendary Jimmy Russell. Barrett explained that the age statement was somewhat deceptive. Russell had included some 13, 15, and 17 year bourbons in the bottling. (By law, the age statement on a bourbon has to be of the youngest whiskey in the bottle.) The mash bill was 75 per cent corn, 13 per cent rye, and 12 per cent malted barley. It too had that dark cherry flavor but also some pepper, chocolate, and a bit of smoky tobacco.
The third bourbon was especially intriguing — Elijah Craig 18, released in 2013. Anyone familiar with the history of its producer, Heaven Hill, will recall that the Bardstown distillery was destroyed by a fire in 1996. One of the rickhouses, which was situated on a hilltop, was very probably struck by lightning during a fierce thunderstorm. The very combustible combination of high proof alcohol and wood instantly produced a conflagration that spread to six other rickhouses. Then flaming rivers of bourbon flowed downhill and into the distillery.
Heaven Hill’s yeast strain was rescued from the smoldering ruins and with that and Heaven Hill’s mash bills, other distillers, including Brown-Forman and Jim Beam, made the company’s whiskeys until it acquired the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville in 1999. Doing the date math means that the 18-year-old Elijah Craig in front of us had been distilled in 1995, the year before the devastating fire.
At 90 proof, and the most recently bottled, it was the smoothest of the three tasted. In Barrett’s words, it was “a caramel bomb” with the signature peach or apricot note that comes from Heaven Hill’s yeast. The spice was cinnamon, rather than the somewhat more peppery note that crops up in some post-fire Elijah Craig.
Before finishing up the historic tasting, Barrett had one more pour. BBC’s most recent release is included with A Taste of History and today it was the latest in the distillery’s Collaborative Series: Amrut.
A blend of five different whiskeys — four bourbons and one rye — ranging in age from eight to 14 years, finished in Amrut Indian Single Malt barrels. Vanilla, cherry, ginger, and cinnamon were the dominant flavors.
Barrett explained that at their prices per pour, anyone was welcome to sample any of the other whiskeys in the room. This included such treasures as Old Fitzgerald and Old Weller from the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, a shelf of Parker’s Heritage releases from Heaven Hill, and several bottles of JW Dant from the 1950s. There were even several export-only expressions such as Four Roses Platinum. A tempting and most extraordinary collection.
