Bourbon maker tests tradition BY CHUCK MARTIN | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
For more than 200 years, Kentucky distillers have been making bourbon - the whiskey that puts the jolt in those Derby mint juleps - pretty much the same way.
The bourbon is made from a mostly corn grain mixture and aged at least two years in new oak barrels. Buffalo Trace Distillery near Frankfort has abided by that tradition, yet it is exploring new territory.
For its "Twice-Barreled" bourbon, the distillery aged the whiskey more than eight years in one barrel, then poured it into another oak barrel to mature nearly five years longer. For its "Fire Pot" bourbon, Buffalo Trace dried the wood barrels before adding the whiskey. More startling, the new "French Oak" bourbon is aged in French (gulp) instead of American oak barrels.
The Experimental Whiskey Collection (about $47 per 375 ml) is available in extremely limited quantities at some Kentucky liquor stores. (It's not sold in Ohio.)
Jay Erisman, spirits specialist for the Party Source in Bellevue, tried the experimental whiskeys and says bourbon connoisseurs will be able to detect the nuances.
Unfortunately, not many people will have the opportunity to taste the differences. Erisman expects his meager experimental allotment to be sold before it hits the shelves.
But Buffalo Trace brand manager Kris Comstock promises more such releases in the future, saying Buffalo Trace has about 1,500 barrels of other experimental whiskeys tucked away in its warehouses. Not every experiment turned out well, he admits.
"But we won't release anything that's really atrocious," Comstock says.
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