The Rare Bourbon project was one of the last projects I worked on while I was archivist at United Distillers. The Bourbon was bottled in December of 1996 just before I was laid off and I was happy to get a bottle of the Bourbon later after it hit the market. This bottle was actually a gift from Howard Stoops.
The Rare Bourbon collection was originally intended to be bottles of Bourbon from distilleries that no longer existed, but then marketing got a hold of the project and they became simply revived old labels. The whiskey for the Henry Clay was some Stitzel-Weller Bourbon made in 1980 and bottled at 16 years old. It is very good Bourbon and you will occasionally see a bottle at Jack Rose Dining Saloon or some other bar that sells pours from old bottles. Be prepared to pay a lot for a pour because there was a very limited supply of these bottles.
Today I am joined in my tasting by two of my future nephews-in-law Matt Kohorst and Peter Reinert. These two are fairly new to the Bourbon experience and want to learn more and I am happy to help them learn. They saw this bottle in my collection and wanted to taste it. I happily agreed.
Henry Clay Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Proof: 90.6
Age 16 Years Old
Nose:
- Mike: Crème Brule’, apples and fine old leather with a hint of baking spices. As it sits chocolate notes start to come out.
- Peter: Rich caramel and honeysuckle flowers.
- Matt: Werther’s Original candies, apples and honeysuckle flowers.
Taste:
- Mike: Rich caramel, milk chocolate, ripe apples and a hint of nutmeg and oak. A dried cranberry brings out the apple and turns the spice to cinnamon. A pecan brings out some citrus notes and vanilla.
- Peter: Red apple and caramel. The cranberry took all of the taste out of the Bourbon except oak. The pecan brought out cinnamon.
- Matt: Sweet butter and Honeycrisp apple with baking spices – nutmeg and cinnamon. The cranberry brought out smoke and oak tannins. The pecan made it very oak forward with apples, cinnamon and cocoa.
Finish:
- Mike: Very long, starts sweet but dries out with some smoky oak. The cranberry made the finish shorter and drier with lots of oak. The pecan also made the oak come forward.
- Peter: The finish was dry with oak and cinnamon. The cranberry enhanced the oak and lessened the cinnamon. The pecan made it very spicy with baking spices.
- Matt: The finish was dry with oak, leather and cocoa. The cranberry added a little leather and smoke. The pecan finish was oak, pepper and shoe polish.
I paired this with a My Father “The Judge” cigar. The smoke brought out the chocolate fudge flavors in the Bourbon while the Bourbon added nice vanilla and spice to the smoke. As an added bonus we tried this bourbon with some semi-sweet chocolate chips. We all found it paired very well with chocolate bringing out a lot of caramel flavors and a hint of sweet spices.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller