A detour to Bourbon…

Two trips to the Bourbon Trail in the past nine months clarified the distinctive approach of each distiller to a uniquely American drink and permitted us to sample a wide variety of these corn based and oak aged whiskeys. And, like most wineries, distillers do not undercut their retail partners by selling their products at lower prices than you can find at your local shop. However, if you are lucky, the distillery does make available products that are allocated, experimental, or as occasionally noted, were recently uncovered in some ‘forgotten corner’ of the warehouse. You will not find Pappy Van Winkle or Old Weller, but we stumbled across Lux Row’s Blood Oath Pact 3 in the Spring and a some ‘found’ bottles of Blood Oath Pact 2 a few weeks ago.

The real treat, however, was a gift bottle of Orphan Barrel Rhetoric 25. A shared interest in Bourbon was only recently uncovered in a long-time friendship that began in New York and has continued for more than 30 years. We communicate largely through email and phone from her home in the Mid-West to our home in the Southeast. The opportunity to connect in person over the New Year’s weekend also resulted in the transfer of this unique Bourbon.

Orphan Barrel (owned by spirit giant Diageo) follows the model of Scotch bottler Gordon and MacPhail. Like Gordon and MacPhail, Orphan Barrel is not a distillery, but rather an agency that tracks down ‘orphaned’ barrels of whiskey that did end up in bottles carrying the original distiller’ name. Distilleries do not lose barrels of their whiskey. However, a particular barrel may have a flavor package that the master distiller finds inappropriate to include in a final blend or a distiller may have left the business with some of their aging stock lost in the transfer to another distillery.

The Orphan Barrel whiskey stock was found at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery Warehouses in Kentucky. The Stitzel-Weller Distillery, founded by Julien Van Winkle, operated until 1972. Many of the brands (including Old Weller, Pappy Van Winkle, Rebel Yell) had been sold off prior to the closing. The warehouses, however, continued to serve other distillers. Diageo reopened the facility in 2014 and today produces Bulleit Bourbon at the Shively location (just outside Louisville, Kentucky).

Orphan Barrel has released six limited edition bottlings of the Rhetoric. Aged from 20 to 25 years, with 25 the final release. Each whiskey has offered unique flavor packages. These changes in flavor would likely be a result of the location within the warehouse that each bottle was stored rather than the mash bill.

The mash bill is the percentage of each grain utilized in the distillation process. Rhetoric offers nearly 85% corn and a very low percentage (6) of rye. The remaining 8+% is barley.

While some critics argue that the oak dominates the nose, I found caramel notes on the nose, and a nice blend of sweet spices and chocolate on the palate. The finish is a little short, but the total package is very pleasing.

Unlike many long-aged Bourbons, the Rhetoric does not overwhelm the senses with oak.

There is still some of the Orphan Barrel 25 on the shelf, and the price is very attractive when compared to other 20-25-year-old whiskey.