Whiskey Wednesday: The Party Source Willetts

The Willett distillery was an old, fairly obscure Kentucky distillery that made Bourbon until the 1970s. The old distillery is currently owned by independent bottler Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), who, despite their name, don't actually distill anything. KBD buys whiskey from other distillers and bottles it under their own labels and for other companies. (You can see a list of their brands on our Complete List of American Whiskey Distilleries and Brands). KBD has occasionally made noises about reopening the distillery and making their own whiskey and maybe some day they will, but for now, all of their whiskey is sourced from elsewhere.

KBD uses the Willett label for their premium offering, a series of single barrel Bourbons. The Party Source in Kentucky is now offering some specialty Willett bottlings, so I thought I would sample a few. Special thanks to Mr. Atomic for the samples.

Keep in mind that since KBD is an independent bottler, all of these bottles could contain whiskey produced by different distilleries. In fact, given the wide range of flavors and styles, I would guess that there are at least a few different distilleries represented (or at least different mash bills).


Willett 3 year old, exclusive to The Party Source, Barrel 1370, 61.55% alcohol ($30)

Very light and caramelly on the nose, almost Canadian like. The flavor maintains its Canadian character; it's very sweet with caramel and fruit, a light whiskey. A bit too fruity for my tastes.


Willett 6 year old, exclusive to The Party Source, Barrel 779, 63.3% alcohol ($40)

Heavy caramel and toffee on the nose. The flavor is a nice, thick, caramel tasting Bourbon with a good, chewy texture. Very pleasant and very drinkable if not the most complex Bourbon in the world...sort of tastes like Evan Williams at barrel strength.


Willett 8 year old, exclusive to The Party Source, Barrel 374, 62.3% alcohol ($48)

Very light on the nose with a faint port wine scent. Very wine-like flavor profile, with the type of fruit you might get in a port. More similar to the three year old than the six.


Willett 13 year old, exclusive to The Party Source, Barrel 3665, 56.1% alcohol ($72)

Very nice nose on this, subtle, complex, with a nice oak to it. The flavor has some good aged Bourbon characteristics (oak and wood) without losing its complexity, sweetness comes in late in the palate. A fine, subtle Bourbon. Nicely done. I should note that The Party Source's tasting notes highly recommend water with this one, but as with most whiskeys, I preferred it neat. I found that the oak flavors dissipated too much with water, and I like some oak in my Bourbon.


Willett 13 year old, exclusive to The Party Source, Barrel 3696, 56.2% alcohol ($72)

Nose is very similar to the other 13 year old, dry and aged. The flavor shows a bit less oak on this one and lots of sweet corn flavor early on with a fair amount of rye spice as well. Very straightforward, but not as intense or complex as barrel 3665.


This was an interesting selection of Bourbons of fairly diverse styles. Overall, I preferred the six year old and Barrel 3665 of the thirteen year old.

I have one more specialty bottling from the Party Source, another Buffalo Trace Experimental, which I will review next week.

The Delicias Life: Las Delicias in Van Nuys

Las Delicias is a Costa Rican restaurant in Van Nuys. They serve a variety of traditional Costa Rican dishes, but the highlight for me was definitely the chorreadas. Described on the menu as corn fritters, the chorreadas look like flour tortillas but taste like green corn tamales. They have great texture, crispy and chewy, with a slightly sweet corn flavor. Get them con natilla and they are served with a small container of crema which is the perfect condiment. These things are addictive but also filling, a perfect snack food.

The main dish offerings were fine, but not as pleasing as the fritters. The Casado Tico seems to be the most recommended dish, a combination plate including steak fajita, pork chunks or chicken with rice, beans, a potato hash and a fried plantain. We tried both the beef and pork which were a bit bland, though the house-made hot sauce is a good, tangy accompaniment. My favorite thing on the main plates may have been the beans; they are blended until smooth like Salvadoran red beans though a bit drier, but the most fantastic thing is they have a slightly sweet taste that is charming in its unfamiliarity; I spend the last part of the dinner scraping up the remaining beans from the banana leave upon which they are served.

Rice pudding fans at our table raved about the rice pudding (arroz con leche) which I did like, but I just don't get that excited about rice pudding.

The vibe at Las Delicias is nice-casual. You order at the counter and sit in the seating area to wait for your dishes. The staff is friendly and helpful.

Las Delicias
15355 Sherman Way
Van Nuys, CA 91406
(818) 988-8323

San Diego Sweets: Extraordinary Desserts

Extraordinary Desserts is sort of the San Diego equivalent of Sweet Lady Jane, an upscale dessert house that pedals sweet and luscious cakes as well as cookies, brownies and other assorted delectables. Located just west of Balboa Park, the dominant technique at Extraordinary Desserts is soaking cakes in various liquids - such as espresso or liqueurs - to keep the cake moist. Pictured are a blood orange ricotta cake and wonderful lemon cake (foreground) which had a crispy, toffee crust. The moist cake blends well with the various creams and custards used as fillings. It's just hard not to like a good cake store. Next time you're headed to the zoo or anywhere else in San Diego, check it out.

Extraordinary Desserts
2929 5th Avenue
San Diego, CA 92103-5919
(619) 294-2132

BT Experimental - Rockin' Good Rye from The Party Source

A few weeks ago I wrote about the specialty bottlings from the Party Source liquor store in Kentucky which are now available through on-line shipping (to certain states). I'll be sampling a variety of these over the coming weeks, and the first to go is the Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Rye 'n Barrel.

There are different kinds of great whiskeys. There are those that are subtle at first taste but that evolve on your tongue and in the bottle, and your relationship to them matures to the point where you see their greatness. There are others that bite you at first but that calm with a bit of water, which reveals their complex wonder. And then there is the rarest category, those whiskeys that from beginning to end, from first sniff to last breath of the finish exude power and beauty. The Party Source's Rye 'n Barrel is one of the latter.

The Party Source spirits program is run by whiskey writer and enthusiast Jay Erisman, who has been working in the industry since 1997. The Rye 'n Barrel is his baby, and as far as I know, the only rye whiskey finished in a wine cask. It was Erisman who came up with the idea as part of his quest to find a whiskey that "explodes old boundaries and expectations."

Erisman acquired a five and one half year old rye whiskey from Buffalo Trace (that is slightly younger than the standard Sazerac Rye aka Baby Saz)and aged the rye in botrytized dessert wine (i.e. Sauternes style) casks from Napa Valley's Dolce Winery for close to three months. The entire, fascinating story of the bottling, including how the whiskey evolved in the barrel, can be found on the Party Source website. The whiskey that resulted, as described in the notes below, has an interplay of sweet and spice that is unusual in rye. Erisman told me that this "sweet-spicy thing" along with the combination of sweetness in a typically dry whiskey, is what he was looking for when he dreamed up this experiment.

The Party Source Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Rye 'n Barrel is bottled at cask strength (61.2% alcohol) and non-chill filtered. The price is a very reasonable $60 for a 375 ml bottle of this whiskey available exclusively at The Party Source.


Tasting

The first whiff is a clean, clear rye, much like the standard Sazerac, which yields to just a touch of fruit mixed in to the rye spice. The flavor is what grabs you right away. There is plenty of rye, but with a sweet, fruity note from the dessert wine, very unlike the sweetness you traditionally get from the corn in rye whiskey. Each sip is a mouthful of contrasting flavors - spicy and sweet, dry and fruity, whiskey and wine in perfect balance. The party continues into the finish. It's hard to believe that the few months this whiskey spent in the wine casks is enough to have such a pronounced influence on its character, but it can't be denied.


Kudos to Erisman on this one. This is really remarkable stuff and one of the best whiskeys I've tried this year. Get some!

Coming Soon

I have a busy spring planned, with lots of tasty treats and travels.

I'll be heading to New York for business, but I plan to grab some good bites while I'm there. It's been a full three years since I hit New York City so I'm already planning my map of doughnut shops, espresso bars and hot dog stands and seeing if I can squeeze in a trip to the Brandy Library.

May is my birthday month (and it's a big one; like ends in a zero type) so along with my typical May doughnut adventures, I'll be heading out to Vegas to celebrate with a massive and carefully designed chow-plan which I will dutifully report on.

And of course, more of the usual, cheese, whiskey and chocolate, including extensive reviews of the newly available specialty bottlings from The Party Source starting this Whiskey Wednesday.

Oh, and I should send out a special thanks to Tony from SinoSoul (our man in Monterey Park) for setting up the excellent blogger dinner at Hunan Restaurant in San Gabriel. Thanks Tony!

Stay tuned...

Happy Easter Candy!

Living in a bi-religious household, I often find myself hiding Easter candy for the kids around the same time I'm baking coconut macaroonss. The truth is, I love the pork and candy centric food traditions of Easter, and unlike Halloween, there are many candies that can only be found on the shelves during the Easter season. Here then, are three of my favorite Easter candies, and I'm not talking about fancy-schmancy stuff made by artisanal chocolatiers either. Easter, like Halloween, is for mass produced kids' candy.

3. Hershey's Marshmallow Egg

It looks like the Reese's Peanut Butter Egg, but it uses darker chocolate and it's filled with marshmallow, lots of chewy-gooey marshmallow. And unlike some marshmallow candies, the marshmallow tastes good and not like an odd chemical compound. Unfortunately, I've had some trouble finding these this year, and no, the new chocolate covered peeps, with the aforementioned chemically taste and the bright yellow die, are not a suitable substitute.


2. Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs

I've always been a big fan of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but unlike the Easter offerings from many other candy bars, these aren't just the regular candy in a pink and blue pastel wrapper decorated with bunnies. The Reese's Egg is a fundamentally different candy than the traditional cup in that it alters not only the shape but the proportions. There is a far higher proportion of peanut butter to chocolate in the Egg than in the Cup. I like this version which really gives you a full bite of peanut butter with just a hint of chocolate. Hey, you got your egg in my peanut butter cup!

1. Cadbury Creme Eggs

I remember when these things first appeared on the shelves; they were a revelation. Long suspicious of the subpar chocolate eggs and the hollow monstrosities that haunt the aisles, it was with great fervor that I embraced a chocolate egg with a yolk. They're messy, they're so sweet you might enter a diabetic coma if you have more than one, and they have a certain gross out quality of pretending to eat a raw egg, but they are tasty and unique, even if there are millions of inferior copies now crowding the shelves each spring.



Oh, and what about Peeps you ask? Peeps are evil!!

(W)hiskey Thursd(a)y: Whisk(e)y of the Year - The Macallan Ridiculique

Welcome to the first edition of Sku's Whisk(e)y Awards! In an effort to help our readers select from the best whisk(i)e(y)s, we will be giving an annual award to the best whis(k)ey of the year, chosen from among all of the free samples we have received, because remember, the best whiskey is the one you didn't have to pay for.

And this year's winner is: The Macallan Ridiculique!

The Macallan Ridiculique is an 80 year old Macallan presented in a beautiful crystal decanter, hand blown by trained monkeys. Macallan Ridiculique is cask strength at 44% abv and non-chill filtered. It uses only vintage caramel colo(u)ring.

The world's rarest whisky, the sole Macallan Ridiculique in existence was sold for an undisclosed sum to an anonymous petroleum tycoon, but I was lucky enough to get a sample.

Tasting

The Macallan Ridiculique has a lovely nose of exclusivity and elitism, followed up with a flavor of self-promotion, self-satisfaction and speculation. The finish though, is tinged with regret, decreased expectations and a solemnity that borders on melancholy.

Sku rating: 10 million!