Sourcing Whiskey: Good or Homogenizing?

However after tasting tons of of bourbon iterations in my profession, the consistency of them many is changing into as regarding as comforting. Some days, I ponder if too many are simply too related, particularly once I see so many parallels in my tasting notes (and others’) for opinions and barrel picks.

U.S. distillers and shoppers are rightfully happy with the strictness of our nation’s guidelines governing bourbon. They clarify the place and the way it may be made, aged and bottled like no different nation on the planet.

However after tasting tons of of bourbon iterations in my profession, the consistency of them many is changing into as regarding as comforting. Some days, I ponder if too many are simply too related, particularly once I see so many parallels in my tasting notes (and others’) for opinions and barrel picks. That consistency is born of at the very least just a few issues:

• The sensory limits of my (and others’) palate(s)
• Traditionally tight guardrails round bourbon manufacturing
• The sheer quantity of the identical whiskeys sourced by non-distilling producers (NDPs)

Let’s handle every individually.

1. After I see many repeats in my tasting notes, I’ve to ask, “Am I not capable of discern the nuances of each bourbon I style?” Frankly, I don’t suppose so, however I’m, in spite of everything, a survey panel of 1. Even at 59, I’m studying and discerning extra about every little thing I odor and style, whether or not it’s the limitless array of flowers and crops I odor on lengthy walks, the big selection of meals I prepare dinner and purchase or the massive variety of alcoholic drinks I drink. The journey stays contemporary to me.
2. The guardrails round bourbon guarantee consistency through the rule-bound combo of corn, malted barley and primarily rye or wheat. In fact, yeast performs an enormous position, as do cask selections and rickhouse places and rick placements. However in the event you can think about giving cooks such a restricted market basket from which to create a complete menu, you possibly can see how narrowly restricted American whiskeys are.
3. Now, to sourcing. It’s all the time existed and all the time will. However I consider more and more homogenous whiskey is an actual and regarding affect. Certain, expert blenders enhance on and decrease these fundamentals, but it surely’s actually tough to mix your strategy to a radically completely different product when your supply supplies are shared by others. Even when it’s effectively blended and also you get a greater bourbon, it’s nonetheless a bourbon like many others.

Do I feel secondary cask getting old can create differentiation? Completely for some. Glorious and nuanced examples are Tumblin’ Cube, Angel’s Envy’s 2023 Cask Power Bourbon, its Cask Power Rye completed in Sauternes and Toasted Oak Barrels, and Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s Amrut-Completed Cask bourbon, to call only some. However some others that resort to merely double oaking or a brief relaxation in a Cabernet cask do not all the time match up.

There’s additionally a rising downside of a typical age of a lot sourced whiskey in the marketplace: 4 to six years previous. Many single barrels I’ve helped choose over the previous a number of years are at that age and bearing similarities so simply discerned that there is little distinctive about that choose.

I get it: Sourcing works to get a number of manufacturers launched. There’s undoubtedly a spot for it. However have we reached the tipping level at which there’s an excessive amount of of it?

My palate is leaning towards sure.