Tuesday, May 31, 2016

A.H. Hirsch 16 year old vs. Bourbon X


A.H. Hirsch is one of those legendary bourbons. Distilled at the Pennco Distillery in Pennsylvania (home of the original Michter's brand) in 1974, the Hirsch bourbon was among stocks sold to Preiss Imports (now owned by Anchor) when the distillery closed in 1991. The A.H. Hirsch bottlings were released throughout the '90s and early 2000s. Even ten years ago, the 16 year old gold foil, the most common bottling, was available for $100 or less.  Now they fetch four digits on the secondary market. If you're interested in the history of this bourbon, be sure to check out Chuck Cowdery's ebook, The Best Bourbon You'll Never Taste, (and note that "Hirsch" without the A.H. is an entirely different bourbon).

I always liked the A.H. Hirsch 16, but I didn't pay four figures for it.  How does it really compare to a good off the shelf bourbon from today?  Let's find out.

I need ten volunteers who have never tasted any A.H. Hirsch bourbon who would be willing to participate in a blind tasting of A.H. Hirsch 16 year old vs. an off the shelf bourbon. If you've never had the Hirsch and you're interested in participating, send me an email with "Hirsch Challenge" as the subject line and include your location. I will pick ten folks and we'll see how it goes.


10 comments:

Kevin said...

... Raises hand...

Byndah Klipz said...

Are you gonna mail out, or do we need to be local to CA?

sku said...

Email me and send an address, and hopefully I'll figure it out.

Unknown said...

I'd like to volunteer.

Eric said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Richnimrod said...

I'd happily volunteer, if I knew your e-mail and could send you the 'volunteer' e-mail from my own e-mail account. However, my Mommy told me never to give out personal info over the 'net, so, I guess I'll have to pass. Too bad. I'd love the opportunity to participate, not to mention to sample this legendary Bourbon, that I'll likely never have a chance to taste.

sku said...

Richnimrod, if you click on "email" in the post, that should link to my email address.

Phil T said...

A couple years ago Randy brought some Hirsch to the gazebo. It was just okay, but grateful for the sample. He concurred, it was just okay

Richnimrod said...

Sadly that's not what happened Sku. When I clicked, it brought up a screen where I was asked to sign up for an account on some unfamiliar site. Thus my trepidation. I'm sure you'll receive many, many applications, though.

sku said...

It's sku2sku@yahoo.com.