Dusty Thursday: Old Crow

Old Crow is one of the most storied brands of American whiskey. It was allegedly the favorite whiskey of General and President Ulysses Grant. It was eventually acquired by National Distillers which then sold the brand to Beam. At the time Crow had been a competitor to Beam's standard white label bourbon. Beam closed the Old Crow Distillery and then relegated the distinguished brand to the bottom shelf where it remains today.

Today, we will taste a National Distiller era Old Crow. The bottom of the bottle indicates "84" which gives us a 1984 date. It is a 375 ml bottle at 80 proof with no other abv listed. There is no government warning but there is a UPC code.

Old Crow, 80 proof (40% abv), 4 years old.

The nose on this is very nice with with some very light banana, lots of caramel candy and even some white wine notes. The palate has a nice balance of sweet (again caramel, bananas and wine) and some spicier notes that emerge late palate. The finish blends all of this together in a sweet caramel-banana milkshake.

This is a surprisingly nice bourbon. I wasn't expecting that much from an 80 proofer that used to compete with Beam White Label, but it has some great flavor notes and some nice nuance.

One thing I've though about with these dusty tastings is how these dusties measure up to today's whiskeys. We have an amazing wealth of great bourbon today and it seems likely that the specialty bourbon we have available to us today, (the Buffalo Trace Antiques, Van Winkles, Four Roses Single Barrels, etc.), is some of the best bourbon ever, but I wonder if the general quality of bourbon was better twenty or thirty years ago. There may not have been a super-premium category in 1984, but this bourbon knocks the socks off of the bottom shelf 80 proofers of today. Perhaps the price of all of the great bourbon we can drink today is that there are also more people are actually drinking mediocre bourbon. For my part, I'll take an 80 proof old time Old Crow any day.

Talk About Bum Cakes - Big Bottom Bourbon

It seems like hardly a day goes by without a new release of bourbon or rye sourced from Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana (LDI). Here is a list of the current products that I know of which use LDI whiskey.

• Backbone Bourbon


• Bulleit Rye


• Cougar Bourbon & Rye (export only)


• High Whiskey


• High West 12 year old (and components of their other whiskeys)


• Redemption Bourbon and Rye


• Riverboat Rye


• Smooth Ambler Old Scout Bourbon


• Templeton Rye


• Temptation Bourbon


• W.H. Harrison Bourbon


• Willett Rye (3 and 4 year old versions)

To this list we now add another LDI whiskey: Big Bottom Bourbon. Released last year, Big Bottom, based in Hillsboro, Oregon, is marketing a three year bourbon as well as two port finished bourbons at two and three years old. Today, we will taste the three year old. The mashbill is 60% corn, 36% rye, 4% barley.

Big Bottom Bourbon, 3 years old, 45.5% abv ($28)

The nose on this young, high rye bourbon is very similar to the young, LDI ryes, vegetal and spicy, though with just a bit of corn sweetness. On the palate, you get the sweetness first and then the big, spicy rye notes. The finish is long on the rye and caraway.

This is very similar to the Redemption Bourbon, which makes sense given that it's the same mashbill and a similar age (and they are similarly priced as well). Having to pick between the two of them, I'd probably pick the Redemption which melds the flavors a bit more. With the Big Bottom, the flavors tend to come in more distinct waves, like drinking a bourbon with a rye chaser. Young LDI whiskeys are many things, but subtle is not generally one of them. If you like thick sweetness and bold spice on your bourbons, this one is for you.

Trader Joe's Single Malt Irish Whiskey

I'm always on the lookout for a new Trader Joe's product, be it whiskey or cheese, since they tend to have quality products at good prices, even if I haven't liked their private label selection of single malt Scotch.

Tipped off by one of my faithful commenters, on a recent TJ's trip, I picked up a new TJ's product, an Irish single malt made by the Cooley Distillery. At $20 it's certainly a bargain compared to other Irish single malts on the market, though it is only four years old.

The Cooley distillery makes a variety of styles of whiskey, including blends, grain whiskeys and single malts. They make single malts under the Tyrconnell label and peated single malts under the Connemara label.


Trader Joe's Single Malt Irish Whiskey, 4 years old, 40% abv ($19.99)

The nose on this is fruity and malty with some sherry (though the label says this is aged in bourbon casks) and a bit of peat as well. The palate starts off with dried fruit, sherry and malt, quickly yielding to peat smoke which gradually dominates along with some salty notes that are typical of peated whiskeys. The finish has fruit on the nose but peat on the tongue.

I have to say that given my experience with Trader Joe's private label whiskeys, I wasn't expecting much, but this is a surprisingly good whiskey. It is nicely balanced with distinctive notes of fruit, malt and peat which make it wonderfully drinkable (and I don't care what the label says, there is definitely some sherry in there). I'm guessing this is a vatting of the malts that go into Tyrconnell and Connemara. In fact, I think I like it better than the standard issue of either of those malts.

TJ's deserves some kudos for going for a non-traditional flavor profile for their store label Irish Whiskey. I'm guessing they will hear some complaints from people who aren't used to this range of flavor in their Jameson.

For $20, this is a no-brainer. If you live in the vicinity of a Trader Joe's, go get some.

Introducing Toe Stubbin' Whiskey

The Buffalo Fiddich Distillery has introduced a new, limited edition super-premium whiskey known as Toe Stubbin' Whiskey to commemorate the Great Toe Stubbing of 2010. Master Distiller Harlen Miller explains:

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was walking through the warehouse, and someone had left a barrel right in the walkway. Well, I didn't see it and I just banged my big toe against it. I tell you, I've stubbed my toe before but this hurt something fierce. There was blood, the nail was broken, and worst of all, I thought we'd lost the whole cask. Well, after I put on a band aid, I sampled the whiskey, and it was terrific; I think the toe stubbing might have made the whiskey even better. That made me think of that old saying, "When life gives you lemons...make an expensive, limited edition whiskey." So that's exactly what we did. We thought about calling it the Toe Phoenix or Toe-r-nado, but in the end, we settled on Toe Stubbin' Whiskey. I really feel good about this. We took something that was a real tragedy and made something positive come out of it.

Toe Stubbin' Whiskey, a vatting of different barrels in the warehouse the day of the toe stubbing, will be available for $95 per bottle. As Miller says, "You're not only buying an expensive, limited edition whiskey, you're buying a piece of history."

Luscious Lamb "Fried with Meat" at Beijing Restaurant

I've been meaning to write up Beijing Restaurant for a while as it's one of my new favorite destinations in the San Gabriel Valley. Occupying the second floor of a strip mall on Valley Boulevard just west of Del Mar Street in San Gabriel, Beijing is a momentous house of bold flavors.

The menu has some similarities with the Northern Chinese restaurants in the SGV, which makes sense geographically. It includes a fair amount of offal and lots of lamb dishes, but the spicing here seems much more aggressive than the relatively mild north/northwestern Chinese style restaurants. I should note that English used on the menu here is pretty unhelpful (even by SGV standards), but it does have pictures which are helpful.

I have to start with these little sandwiches pictured above, because they were just phenomenal. The one on the left is lamb in a sesame-wheat bun. The lamb is crisply fried on the outside, fall apart soft in the middle. It's like lamb carnitas. The fat from the lamb soaks into the soft bun making for a huge flavor bomb. This thing was just amazingly good. The menu name for this dish is "Fried with Meat."

The sandwich on the right was similar but with pork, including lots of little fat globules, cilantro and chilis on a white bun. On the menu, this one is "Pork with Cooked Pie."

Another excellent dish was "Lamb Pot" which was a lamb stir fry brimming with whole fried cumin seeds, which gave it a huge flavor punch of gamy lamb and cumin. We also had a lamb noodle soup with a thick, rich broth, tender lamb slices, cilantro and noodles.

Among the non-lamb dishes, sauteed green beans were great, full of garlic and chili. Fried pork dumplings were the size and shape of blintzes and bursting with juice almost like xiao long bao. Lamb dumplings were similar though less juicy and much more gamy. I preferred the pork fried dumplings.

Also very good was the dish called "Out of a Pot," which consisted of braised beef, green beans, potatoes, cellophane noodles and large, flat noodles, all served "out of a pot" with a thick, rich braising sauce. This was a real stick to your ribs dish with great flavor, especially when you dug down into the center of the pot where the braising liquid pooled with the noodles and potatoes.

Another good noodle dish is Fried Ge Da, tiny, pan fried rice cakes with carrots, zucchini and plenty of garlic and ginger. I didn't care as much for the menu item described as "Chinese Pizza," a corn meal crust with scallions. The scallions were fine, but the crust was stiff and bland.

This is a great place and the "Lamb Pot" and "Fried with Meat" lamb sandwiches are quickly becoming two of my favorite dishes anywhere.

Beijing Restaurant
250 W. Valley Blvd., #B2
San Gabriel, CA 91776
(626) 570-8598

Dusty Thursday: Daviess County Bourbon (Medley Distillery)

The Charles Medley Distillery in Owensboro Kentucky has a long and rich history, but like Stitzel-Weller, it was purchased by United Distillers (now Diageo) and closed in the early 1990s. Angostura had purchased the distillery with plans to reopen it but then ran into financial problems and is now looking to sell. Daviess County Bourbon was, from what I gather, a mid-level Medley brand. The label is now owned by independent bottler Luxco out of St. Louis.

The bottle I'm tasting today is 500 ml (metric measurement used) and 86 proof (with no abv listed). The bottom of the bottle indicates "82" which makes 1982 a likely time period. It contains no government warning but does have a UPC code.

Daviess County Bourbon, 4 years old, 86 proof (43% abv)

The nose on this is very nice, sweet bourbon with wood polish and oak. Based on the nose, I was expecting big woody/chewy complexity from the palate, but it's actually more of the light and smooth variety with sweet candy flavors and just a bit of oak. The finish goes back to the woody qualities of the nose.

This is a decent Bourbon but not overly complex, certainly not particularly special or better than anything on the market today.

Don't be Outraged, be Happy: Clix Vodka

The whiskey community reacted in predictably indignant fashion when news came out that Buffalo Trace was marketing a new vodka. This was not just any vodka. Clix Vodka is, according to BT, distilled a whopping 159 times, and it will retail for $300.

Now, I admit, the only thing sillier than paying $50 for a spirit that, by legal definition, must have no "distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color," is paying $300 for it, and the 159 distillations almost seems like a parody of vodka marketing. This was one of those press releases that I had to double check to make sure it wasn't originally from The Onion.

That being said, we in the whiskey loving community should rejoice at this news. Buffalo Trace has done an admirable job keeping prices reasonable on its excellent bourbons and ryes. There are other companies that would easily be demanding three figures for something like the Antique Collection, but BT doesn't do that. I'm hoping that things like Clix Vodka help them keep our prices low. For every imbecile that buys a $300 bottle of Clix, that's more money that BT isn't charging me for bourbon. All hail the cash cow!

In fact, from now on, I'm going to make Clix my standard recommendation for anyone who is dumb enough to ask me what super-premium vodka is the best (and I get asked this a few times a year). Of course you should buy Clix, it's distilled 159 times!