Posted on 05/06/2010 5:51:52 AM PDT by Palter
In early April, Kris Comstock, a representative for the Buffalo Trace distillery in Kentucky, conducted a seminar on bourbon at Char No. 4, a bar in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, that offers 150 kinds of American whiskey.
Among the bourbons he poured were Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare and Blanton’s. But his students weren’t interested in those.
“The first thing that everyone wanted to taste was the white dog,” he said. “We make products that win amazing awards all around the world, and they want to taste the white dog.”
White dog, or white whiskey, is, basically, moonshine. It’s newborn whiskey, crystal-clear grain distillate, as yet unkissed by the barrel, the vessel that lends whiskey some or all of its color and much of its flavor. And white dog is currently having its day.
“Aging in wood has many beautiful effects on a spirit,” said Tad Carducci, half of the cocktail consulting duo known as the Tippling Brothers. “But it does tend to disguise whatever the base spirit is. When you strip that away, you’re getting a real sense of what wheat offers, or rye or corn.”
Unlike vodka, in which the source grain is often purposefully purified to a vanishing point, white dogs are pungently fragrant, with a chewy sweetness to them.
This spring, Buffalo Trace began a limited commercial release of its white dog, which until now was available only as a much-coveted souvenir from the distillery’s gift shop. The bottles took their place on store shelves next to a growing line of colorless whiskeys.
Most are the work of young micro-distilleries like Death’s Door, in Wisconsin; Finger Lakes Distilling, in upstate New York; Tuthilltown, in the Hudson Valley; the Copper Fox Distillery, in northern Virginia; and House Spirits, in Portland, Ore.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Let me make sure I understand clearly what you’re saying before I attempt to answer you.
Do you really mean it when you say that the geographic area in which I live has anything to do with what I know?
Please, continue to enlighten me with your pseudo-intellectual musings.
Bump for later
Well, no sense in being insulting, so I’ll not return your attitude.
What I am saying is: I have enjoyed the company of white whiskey drinkers in my native South. For the most part, those I have known who drink ‘shine do so in moderation. However, if one has not been in the company of such folk then one would not know that. So, yes, where a person is from and who they’ve known can have an impact on their perceptions and even their knowledge.
Yep I knew Popcorn personaly used to live right down the road from him believe it or not Ole Hank came to his funeral. He made some good shine but you had to tell him you wanted drinking liquor not selling liquor you might know what I’m talking about.
Ok, maybe it was a bit presumptive on my part that one would drink this stuff just to get blind drunk.
IMHO, it doesn’t have much flavor. But that’s just my opinion.
I’m from L.A.
That’s Lower Alabama... local reference to this part of Northwest Florida.
I loves me some too. I like to fill a fresh watermelon with a quart, let it sit for a couple of days, then make some hunch punch with it. Gotta be careful, it will sneak up on ya quicker than a snake.
Hank did attend the funeral. I’m very envious that you knew him, he was a living legend, a link to a forgotten past.
My only claim to fame is that my wife’s parents went to school with and grew up down the road from Loretta Lynn.
I’ve spent some time in the L.A. that you speak of...and lived for 5 years in Wakulla CO. Great part of the world.
As far as flavor goes, I’ll have a Lagavulin as my first choice.
The whiskey tax imposed by the late G Washington was later repealed. Today’s tax on distilled spirits dates to the tyrannical reign of one Abraham Lincoln.
That hasn't seemed to have hurt vodka sales much.
Good point!
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