On April 11, 2024, the first meeting of the new San Antonio Bourbon Club is held. We have 6 members: Daniel, David, Bradley, Chris, Dan, and Peter. Some of us have been drinking bourbon or whiskey for years, and some are pretty new to the brown stuff. My goal in putting the club together was to 1) learn about bourbon and whiskey, and 2) to enjoy my education with others.
One of the things that pushed this to happen was a Facebook post that I saw that characterized bourbon into 4 quadrants: Spicy, Sweet, Rich and Delicate. In looking at the chart, I recognized several of the bourbons either from their names or because I had tasted them previously. In looking at the list, I decided that we would taste 4 different bourbons: one from each quadrant. I decided to sample: Buffalo Trace (Sweet/Delicate), Angel’s Envy (Sweet/Rich), Elijah Craig (Rich/Spicy), and Basil Hayden (Spicy/Delicate).
I purchased bottles of the 4, and we were ready to start. Oh, wait. I needed glasses! So, I went online and bought 8 Glencairn glasses, as I figured we each needed 1 for our tasting. Peter came prepared, and brought several more glasses, so that if one wanted to sample 1 bourbon against another, they could.
So, we sat down to tasting. We learned about nose (aroma), palette (taste), and finish. All of the bourbons we tried were between 80 and 94 proof (40% to 47% alcohol). We liked all of them with the exception of Elijah Craig, which to a man, we did not like. I believe it was mostly the finish that we didn’t like. We also thought that the Angel’s Envy was good, but did not have a complex flavor profile. So, the winner of the night was Basil Hayden.
Everyone enjoyed the evening, and so we decided to go forward with another meeting in 2 months.
Cheers!
