by Lew Bryson
Part 2: Defining Whiskey Classes
The next part of the standards is more particular. The final distillation must be under 160 proof. If the whiskey is aged in oak, it must go into the barrel at no more than 125 proof, or what distillers call the “entry proof.”
The lower proof, compared to the initial definition, means there’s more of the grain and fermentation flavor left. Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell explained that to me this way: “How do you like a steak?” he asked. Rare, I told him, and he nodded. “There’s more flavor of the meat in it that way. Same way, we run the spirit off at a lower proof, and put it in the barrel at a lower proof, so there’s more good flavor in there.”
In addition to those proof requirements, bourbon must be made from a mash that is at least 51 percent corn, rye from a mash that is at least 51 percent rye, and so on, similarly, for wheat, malt, and rye malt whiskeys. These types of whiskey must also be aged in “charred new oak containers.” You can age your whiskey in used barrels, but then the label must call it “whiskey distilled from bourbon mash” (or rye, wheat, etc.). It doesn’t have to be in big letters, but it has to be there.
The niche definition for corn whiskey, such as Heaven Hill’s Mellow Corn and Georgia Moon, in contrast, specifies that if the whiskey is aged — for which there’s no requirement — it be aged in “used or uncharred new oak” containers and not “subjected in any manner to treatment with charred wood.” Corn whiskey should taste like corn, not oak.
Part 3: Defining Straight Whiskey
The third part of the standards, the part about straight whiskey, talks about age. If a whiskey has conformed to the standards explained above and was stored in the oak containers for at least 2 years, it is “straight whiskey”: straight bourbon whiskey, straight rye whiskey, and so on.
The TTB labeling regulations also say that if the youngest whiskey in the bottle is under 4 years old, the label must state exactly how old it is; once it hits 4 years of age, no age statement is needed. If an age statement is used — as with Knob Creek’s “aged nine years” — all whiskey in the bottle must be at least that old.
Keep in mind that unless a straight whiskey is labeled as a “single barrel” bottling, it is a blend of at least two barrels (and usually over a thousand at the larger distilleries), though some distillers prefer to call it “mingled” or “married” rather than “blended.” They don’t want any confusion: American “blended whiskey” is not a blend of aged whiskeys like blended Scotch; it’s a blend of straight whiskey and cheap, unaged grain neutral spirit, a product aimed at the low end of the market. There aren’t many of these left.
There’s one more part to the definition, and that has to do with purity. The addition of “harmless coloring, flavoring, and blending materials,” which is allowed in other spirits, is specifically prohibited in the case of straight whiskey; no such material whatsoever is allowed. Bourbon and rye are not allowed to be colored, flavored, or adulterated with anything but enough pure water to bring them to bottling proof. The flavored whiskeys you’ve seen recently are all labeled as “bourbon flavored with . . . ,” a little bit of government-required honesty.
To Sum Up
Those are the requirements. American whiskey — bourbon, rye, and the others — is:
Distilled from a fermented grain mash of at least 51 percent corn (or rye, or wheat, etc., and most have a larger proportion of the main grain)
Distilled to a proof no higher than 159 (79.5 percent ABV)
Aged, at a starting strength no higher than 125 proof, in a charred, new oak barrel (used barrels may be used, but the labeling is different)
Bottled at no less than 80 proof, with no coloring or flavoring added
Further, if it is aged for more than 2 years in the oak, it is “straight whiskey”; if it is aged less than 4 years, it must have an age statement on the label.
It’s also interesting to consider what the regulations don’t require. Despite what people might tell you — although most of it is — bourbon does not have to be:
Made in Kentucky
Made from corn and only two other grains
Aged in white oak barrels
Aged in American oak barrels
You might also want to compare straight bourbon whiskey to single malt Scotch whisky. Consider this: A single malt is all aged malt whisky from one distiller, at least 3 years old (usually older). Straight bourbon whiskey is all aged whiskey from one distiller, at least 2 years old (almost always at least 4 years old). Neither bourbon nor single malt are blended with neutral or grain spirits. Yet while you’ll find only a couple of good single malts for less than $40 these days — Bowmore Legend and Glenmorangie Original come to mind — you can still buy a bottle of good, flavor-packed bourbon — Evan Williams, Very Old Barton, Old Heaven Hill Bonded, all around 6 years old — for under $15!
The old Wild Turkey distillery, now replaced by a much larger, modern plant, in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky
Stricter Than Single Malt
If you want to get bourbon that is held to even tighter standards of origin than single malt, track down some bottled-in-bond bourbon. It’s not that hard; the Old Grand-Dad Bottled in Bond is pretty easy to find, Very Old Barton Bond is widespread in Kentucky and surrounding states, and Heaven Hill has two bonded versions of its Heaven Hill brand (you want the white label) and also Old Fitzgerald, a rare wheated bond. They’re good whiskeys, with that 100-proof power that makes them stand out in a cocktail, but they don’t get a lot of love from their company’s marketing departments, or from bourbon drinkers in general, and that puzzles me.
What’s so special about bottled-in-bond whiskey? If people know about it at all, they most likely think it means that it’s 100 proof. It’s a lot more than that; it has to meet the requirements of the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897. That means all the whiskey in the bottle has to be:
At least 4 years old
Bottled at no more or less than 100 proof
Have no additives other than pure water
Be labeled as the product of the distillery where it was made and, if different, the distillery where it was bottled
Be the product of only one distillery, and made by the same master distiller, in one distilling season of a single year
Think about that last one. All the whiskey in the bond is guaranteed to be made by the same person, at the same distillery, in one season. Makes single malt’s “all from one distillery” look a bit less exacting.
But bonds today are not exclusive whiskeys. To tell the truth, they’re usually pretty cheap; the ones I list above can mostly be had for under $20 a bottle. “A lot of the brands are older labels that maybe at some point were exclusively bonds,” Heaven Hill’s long-time communications director Larry Kass explains. “You’ll have small brands that are bonds, but not big brands. They never had marketing support, so there’s not that cost.”
Bond is a term that’s not well understood among bourbon drinkers, a little historical quirk that doesn’t really mean much. For the taster, though, these can be a bonanza, with or without a few drops of water. Old Grand-Dad’s high-rye formula sings clearest at 100 proof, a fruity, spicy bourbon with a solid body. Heaven Hill 6 Year Old is a favorite: a bold, raunchy beauty, rich with notes of warehouse reek, that sweet smell of bourbon slowly drooling from the seams of the barrels, caramelizing in the hot Kentucky summer as it oozes down over oaken staves. They’d be great whiskeys at twice the price.
It’s not just bourbon, either. You can get bottled-in-bond rye; Rittenhouse Rye bonded is spectacular stuff, and probably the hottest-selling bonded whiskey right now, thanks to critical acclaim and the love of mixologists for its classic taste in classic cocktails. Mellow Corn corn whiskey is bottled in bond and aged 4 years in used bourbon barrels; if you thought bourbon smelled like corn, Mellow Corn smells like sweet, oily-rich corn — corn eau-de-vie.
Finally, it’s not whiskey, but you can also get Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy — real New Jersey�
��style applejack, from a company whose distilling roots go back to 1780 — in a genuine bonded version, and it’s worth looking for. Made under all the same requirements as bonded whiskey, aged in charred oak barrels for at least 4 years, it’s rich with apple and vanilla aroma and has a smooth but potent punch of flavor; the apple on the finish as you breathe across the drying spirit is inspiring. I’ve been in Laird’s warehouse in New Jersey and was struck by how much it smelled and felt like a bourbon warehouse.
Bonded whiskey (and apple brandy) is still “the good stuff,” even though it’s often overlooked. Find some, and see what history tastes like.
Oak barrels at the Jack Daniel’s warehouse in Tennessee
American Whiskeys
Bourbon
At least 51% corn, plus rye/wheat and barley
New charred oak barrels
Made and aged in the u.s.
Traditional Bourbons
Made with corn, rye, and barley
Spicy (cinnamon, pepper, mint), fiery, powerful flavor
Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)
Buffalo Trace
Bulleit
Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old
Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old
Evan Williams Single Barrel
Evan Williams Black
Four Roses Yellow
Jim Beam Black
Jim Beam White
Old Forester
Old Grand-Dad 100
Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond
Wild Turkey 101
Premium Bottlings ($30–$100)
Angel’s Envy
Baker’s
Black Maple Hill
Blanton’s
Booker’s
E. H. Taylor, Jr.
Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old
Elmer T. Lee
Four Roses Single Barrel
Four Roses Small Batch
George T. Stagg
John J. Bowman
Knob Creek
Parker’s Heritage Collection
Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit
Wild Turkey Rare Breed
Woodford Reserve
Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)
A. H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old
Elijah Craig 21-Year-Old Single Barrel
Jefferson’s Presidential Select
Jim Beam Distiller’s Masterpiece
Michter’s 20-Year-Old
Wild Turkey Tradition
Willett Family Reserve
Wheated Bourbons
Made with corn, wheat, and barley
Smoother, softer, less spicy flavor; ages well
Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)
Larceny
Maker’s Mark
Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond
Old Weller Antique
Premium Bottlings ($30–$100)
Maker’s 46
William Larue Weller
Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15-Year-Old
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-Year-Old
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year-Old
Van Winkle Special Reserve
Tennessee Whiskey
Made with corn, rye, and barley; employs Lincoln County process (pre-aging charcoal “mellowing”)
Sweet, smooth flavor with big corn character
Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)
Gentleman Jack
George Dickel No. 12
George Dickel No. 8
Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7
Premium Bottlings (under $30)
George Dickel Barrel Select
Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel
Rye
Just like bourbon, but 51% rye
Spicy, herbal, grassy flavors, with a big kick; fiery when young
Good Buys (under $30, at a traditional volume)
Bulleit Rye
Jim Beam Rye
Old Overholt Rye
Rittenhouse Rye Bonded
Wild Turkey Rye 81
Premium Bottlings (under $30–$100)
(ri)1 (from Jim Beam)
Dad’s Hat
FEW Rye
Jefferson’s Rye
Knob Creek Rye
McKenzie Rye
Michter’s US1
Rendezvous Rye
Sazerac 6-Year-Old
Sazerac 18-Year-Old
Templeton
Thomas H. Handy
Wild Turkey Rye 101
Willett Family Estate Rye
Superpremium Bottlings ($100+)
Jefferson’s Presidential Select 21-Year-Old Rye
Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye
Innovations in Bourbon
The strict rules about how American whiskey can be made are a double-edged sword. They assure the consumer of a quality product, unadulterated by cheap neutral spirits, colorings, or flavors — the bane of the rectifiers banished for good — and ostensibly guarantee that bourbon and rye will maintain a consistent style.
But that’s not quite true, actually. Old-timers confirm that bourbon has changed somewhat over the past 60 years, and it is for the better. Corn is more uniformly high quality, and we’ve learned a lot about the chemistry of stills, warehouse construction, and wood management, from the science of forestry to new ways of heat-treating barrels.
“You’re probably old enough to remember tasting some musty bottles of bourbon,” Dave Scheurich mentioned to me when we were talking about this. Dave was the distillery manager at Woodford Reserve at the time. “You don’t get those any more. And you know there aren’t as many distillers around, either. The reason’s the same: it was a tough business in the 1970s and ’80s, and the guys who made bad whiskey aren’t around now.”
The flip side of the regulations is that they seem to force these whiskeys into what could be a stultifying similarity: all made with a majority of one grain, all distilled to roughly the same proof, all aged in the same new charred oak barrels, all chivvied into the same rough age groups, and no fiddling with color or flavor. That’s exactly the complaint you’ll hear from those who reject the category (usually Scotch drinkers): “Bourbons all taste the same: oaky, vanilla-sweet, hot, and rough,” or some variation of that.
The 53-Gallon Barrel
While we’re talking about strict rules, why are all American whiskey barrels 53 gallons? Like much of whiskey making, that’s a standard that came about through common usage, rather than because of a consideration of the benefits, and it’s not a legal standard. Old-timers will tell you that the barrels used to be 48 gallons and were easier to move around, and significantly, that’s what all the ricks in the warehouses were built to accommodate. During World War II a study was done to see how much bigger the barrels could be built to save seasoned oak wood without having to change the ricks: 53 gallons was the size. The change was made, and it’s become the de facto standard. Every major American distiller uses 53-gallon barrels.
Bourbon Flavor Graph
Key
Wheat
W1. Larceny
W2. Maker’s 46
W3. Maker’s Mark
W4. Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond
W5. Old Weller Antique
W6. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15-Year-Old
W7. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 20-Year-Old
W8. Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-Year-Old
W9. William Larue Weller
Traditional
1. A. H. Hirsch Reserve 16-Year-Old
2. Angel’s Envy
3. Baker’s
4. Basil Hayden
5. Blanton’s
6. Booker’s
7. Buffalo Trace
8. Bulleit
9. E. H. Taylor, Jr.
10. Eagle Rare 10-Year-Old
11. Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old
12. Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old
13. Elmer T. Lee
14. Evan Williams Black
16. Four Roses Yellow
17. George T. Stagg
18. Jefferson’s Presidential
19. Jim Beam Black
20. Jim Beam White
21. John J. Bowman
22. Knob Creek
23. Michter’s 20-Year-Old
24. Old Forester
25. Old Grand-Dad 100
26. Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond
27. Wild Turkey 101
28. Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit
29. Wild Turkey Rare Breed
30. Woodford Reserve
The Mashbill
Starting at the beginning, there are the ratios in the mash. Increase the base grain, and bourbon becomes sweeter, while rye becomes spicier, more forward. Or tweak the small grains: increase the rye, as in Bulleit, and you get a bourbon that can pass for a rye whiskey in a blind tasting (maybe that’s why Bulleit Rye is made with a 95 percent rye mashbill, for a clear difference). Use wheat instead of rye, as is done with Maker’s Mark, the Van Winkles, W. L. Weller, and Old Fitzgerald, and you get a much smoother, mellower bourbon, even when young.
A distiller may have more than one mashbill for bourbons, another for rye, maybe another for a run of wheated bourbon. Beam, for instance, uses a high-rye mashbill — at 30 percent rye, it’s quite high — for Old Grand-Dad and Basil Hayden’s, and a more traditional proportion for its other whiskeys. A bourbon drinker has to admit that there’s maybe something to it. Scotch distillers work with stills of varying geometry and construction, they can play with the cuts and redistill, they have the option of peating their malt from a bare whisper to a roar, and they can play their barrel types like a huge console organ. Irish distillers have even more options, with their combination of pot and column stills, double or triple distilling, and raw barley additions. The Canadians use any kind of still they want, about any grain they want, and blend as they see fit. American distillers, in comparison, work within a relative straitjacket of regulations, which traditional practice only pulls tighter.
