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Buffalo Trace

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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@RantavahtiReview by @Rantavahti

24th Jun 2013

0

Buffalo Trace
  • Nose
    23
  • Taste
    22
  • Finish
    20
  • Balance
    21
  • Overall
    86

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Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

Buffalo Trace - Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey definitely broke barriers for me. Somehow I hadn't come across with a good bourbon before but Buffalo Trace managed to introduce me to a nice type American whiskey.

Complex, deep, rough and entertaining - full of surprises. Just like O Brother, Where Art Thou? A great movie by the Coen brothers. Though Buffalo Trace is from Kentucky and not from the deep south of Mississippi like the Coen's movie, I could still imagine the deep south in the bourbon.

As soon as I had finished my first drink of the Buffalo Trace, in my mind I had already went time traveling. I could imagine myself pouring a shot of this fine bourbon somewhere in the United States - feeling free, enjoying every drop of it.

Buffalo Trace was rich and complex like any Coen brothers film but in it's state of mind it is surely "the Homer's Odyssey of the deep south". O Brother, Where, o where have you been?

Nose: Great heavy aromas of waxy honey, oak and spices with sweet minted vanilla.

Palate: The honey wax feels in the taste as well. Rich with vanilla and oak, complemented with hints of leather and tobacco.

Finish: Finish is long and big but maybe too bitter (rye?) for me. Gets dry towards the end, giving you oak and spices.

Balance: Complex package of manly roughness and sweet spots. Richly layered and complex.

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5 comments

@maltygirl
maltygirl commented

I love your review and how you compare Buffalo Trace to O Brother, Where Art Thou the movie. Very clever.

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Rantavahti, I am glad that you enjoyed your Buffalo Trace bourbon. Many do. I like it ok, but I like all of the 20 other bourbons I have had from the same distillery more.

If you like standard BT, then my advice to you is "Get thee to a Stagg-ery!". George T. Stagg is like the Hydrogen Bomb Version of standard Buffalo Trace Bourbon...same mashbill, 15+ years of aging, and typically around 70+% ABV. This is The Bomb for the Buffalo Trace Mashbill, like Slim Pickens at the close of Dr. Strangelove.

If you get bitter, then the oak is leaving something to be desired. Rye is never bitter. It is sharp, it is spicy, but it is not bitter.

Cheers, Friend!

11 years ago 0

@Rantavahti
Rantavahti commented

Thanks for your input @maltygirl and @Victor.

@Victor George T. Stagg definitely is in my wanted list since my eye opening experience with BT. I've kinda had the elitist attitude towards bourbons. Thinking that single malts are the only great ones...

Interesting to hear about the bitterness. Actually, now that I think of it, there was also a very sharp and tangy feel in the finish that I didn't find appealing. Almost like tasting a cleanser if I may exaggerate bit (like I would know how cleanser tastes like...). Could that be the rye?

11 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

Hi @Rantavahti. The best thing to do to get the taste of rye is to sample a few ryes, especially the best ones. When I visited Thailand many years ago I saw sapphires for sale on every block, at prices from a couple of bucks to many thousands and wondered what I might buy among them. Then I saw some $ 25,000 stones and immediately knew what a gem-quality sapphire should look like.

If you want to encounter Plato's Form of Rye Whiskey, try some Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye, or the Canadian produced Masterson's Straight Rye Whiskey 10 yo.

I had to overcome a somewhat different cultural bias: Scottish malt seemed at first to me to be a product which had been in recent centuries bastardised by needing heavy peat and wine-aging because it starts from such relatively mediocre flavouring agents as the grain barley and worn-out re-used wood. Of course with experience I came to see and appreciate that there are many beautiful malt whiskies, and that Scottish malt is not just washed out and lifeless. The flavour profiles remain quite different between most American non-barley whiskies and world malt whiskies, however. Rye is never used in Scotch, and new wood rarely, because those are dominating flavours and would overwhelm the flavours of malted barley. But those two flavours are what American whiskey is all about. Barley-malt whisky and US Bourbons and Ryes are two different categories of taste experiences, like the difference between eating red meat and eating fish. If someone were to ask me, "Which tastes BETTER, meat or fish?" my truthful answer is that I like them both, very much, in their own ways, and at different times when in different moods.

It is always good to have substantial experience before developing strong opinions.

11 years ago 0

@Rantavahti
Rantavahti commented

Thanks for the recommendations. That's so true what you say about comparing bourbon and Scottish malt. Every product has it's key players and the bad ones.

Just recently had a chance to try quality rum (Ron Matusalem 15 year old Gran Reserva rum) and once again, got an great example of how different it can be compared to the average ones.

11 years ago 0