{"id":1307,"date":"2014-02-04T19:30:57","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T01:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2014-02-08T10:46:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T16:46:00","slug":"blind-whiskey-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/2014\/02\/blind-whiskey-tasting\/","title":{"rendered":"Blind Whiskey Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/?attachment_id=1309#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1309\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1309\" alt=\"tasting\" src=\"http:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tasting.jpg\" width=\"267\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tasting.jpg 267w, https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tasting-100x70.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><\/a>Tonight, I attended a different kind of tasting at Trinity Hall Irish Pub in Dallas. \u00a0This one included 4 pairs of similarly styled whiskey, which had to be identified as either the named flagship offering or a specific premium offering. \u00a0Here was the lineup:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<li>Bulleit Bourbon ($20) or Bulleit 10 Year Bourbon ($35) &#8211; The 10 Year is a new offering from Bulleit that was introduced in 2013 and I haven&#8217;t read any favorable reviews or received any favorable recommendations on it. \u00a0I had tasted their regular Bourbon almost 2 years ago and wasn&#8217;t impressed. \u00a0I approached the judging by expecting the flavor of the 10 year to reflect it&#8217;s age, but I was duped. The 10 Year is worse than the original and a definite waste of money.<\/li>\n<li>Crown Royal ($18) or Crown Royal XO ($45) &#8211; I&#8217;ve not had many Canadian whiskeys, so this was new for me. \u00a0The cognac influence of the XO was subdued (as was the general flavor of both whiskies), but discernable. I didn&#8217;t find either one very interesting, so I would pass on both of these.<\/li>\n<li>Bushmills Black Bush ($30) of Bushmills 1608 400th Anniversary ($100) &#8211; This was the most difficult to identify because both of these blends have sherry influence. \u00a0Black Bush is finished in sherry casks, while 1608 includes whiskies which have been aged in sherry casks. \u00a0For me, the 1608 had an added depth of flavor and richness that caught my attention more. \u00a0Both of these were good, but I prefer Jameson 12 Year ($39) or Jameson Gold Reserve ($63) over either of them.<\/li>\n<li>MacAllan 10 Year Fine Oak ($38) or MacAllan 17 Year Fine Oak ($150) \u00a0&#8211;\u00a0This was probably the easiest to identify even though both of these are good. \u00a0I had tasted both of them at a previous Trinity Hall event and this helped as well. \u00a0The 17 Year just had enhanced flavors and complexity over the 10 Year, but it&#8217;s still not worth the price difference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re keeping track, then you know that I correctly identified 3 out of 4. \u00a0I don&#8217;t know of anyone at the event who correctly identified them all (like I said, Bulleit duped everyone with their 10 Year Bourbon by making it worse than their original). \u00a0This was a good test of whether premium offerings really offer anything special and it was a fun event to attend. \u00a0In general, premium offerings need to be approached carefully. \u00a0There are those who will offer inferior products with a premium label (e.g. Bulleit), while others will price their premium offering far too high to make them worthwhile (e.g. MacAllan). \u00a0Still others, take mediocre products and enhance them to create mediocre premium products (e.g. Crown Royal). \u00a0What you&#8217;re looking for is the honest producer who will masterfully or cleverly work to create a superior product that is worthwhile. \u00a0The closest example of that tonight was Bushmills 1608&#8230; even though it&#8217;s not a whiskey that I would seek, the premium blend definitely demonstrated a richness, depth and complexity that I expect in a premium offering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tonight, I attended a different kind of tasting at Trinity Hall Irish Pub in Dallas. \u00a0This one included 4 pairs of similarly styled whiskey, which had to be identified as either the named flagship offering or a specific premium offering. \u00a0Here was the lineup: Bulleit Bourbon ($20) or Bulleit 10 Year Bourbon ($35) &#8211; The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/2014\/02\/blind-whiskey-tasting\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,151,149,150,148,71,16,34],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whiskey","tag-bourbon","tag-bulleit","tag-bushmills","tag-canadian","tag-crown-royal","tag-irish","tag-single-malt","tag-the-macallan"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p364aH-l5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1310,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mark.abear.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}