Meet Your Whiskeys

By the Glass, Bottle and Barrel: Whiskeys Make On-Premise Revenue Go 'Round

    There are a lot of whiskey options out there in the wide world of on-premise, but most bars and clubs only carry a few of them. Because you are a smart manager, though, you carry the brands most people want. So, a good way to learn a little more about whiskey in general is to turn around, see what is on your back bar, and learn a little bit about each of them.The average patron in a bar is not usually aware of the –– sometimes extremely subtle –– differences between unique batches of  bourbon, scotch and whiskey. That is why you should be.

Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey
    That wasn’t hard to find, was it? The square bottle and black label are familiar to everyone. “Jack and Coke” probably is your most common bar call for a whiskey drink, and it is such an American Classic that, in a way, your bar is not truly stocked without it.  Although Old No. 7 is not a bourbon, it is the same as bourbon in every way except for the additional step of charcoal mellowing it. This involves drizzling the new whiskey through a very thick stand of charcoal made from maple wood before it goes into the barrel for aging.

Jim Beam, Old Grand-Dad and Wild Turkey
    These are your main “standard” bourbons that have been around forever. Jim, Grand-Dad and Turkey (and Jack) all are brands your grandfather would have known. Whiskey gets its color from the new, charred oak barrels in which it is aged, so the longer it ages, the darker it gets. The Jim Beam with the white label is at least four years old. The black label version is at least seven years old, so it should be noticeably darker. Old Grand-Dad is unusual because it contains about twice as much rye as the others, although it is still mostly corn like all bourbons and Tennessee whiskeys. Wild Turkey is unusual because it is distilled at a lower proof than most brands, which gives it more flavor and a slightly different flavor from bourbons that get most of their flavor from wood.

Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve, Bulleit
    These are all considered super-premium bourbons, even though they only cost a little more than “standard” brands such as Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam and Wild Turkey. Maker’s is special because it contains no rye, using wheat for flavor instead. Knob Creek is, at nine years, probably the oldest American whiskey on your bar shelf. Woodford contains two kinds of whiskey, whiskey made in a column still (like all other American brands) and whiskey made in a pot still (like single malt scotch). Bulleit, like Old Grand-Dad, goes heavy on the rye, and its mash is fermented using five different yeast strains (most use only one).

Seagram’s Seven Crown
    As an American blended whiskey, Seven Crown combines straight whiskey (in other words, bourbon) with other spirits that haven’t been aged and have very little flavor. Simply put, it is like combining bourbon and vodka. It still tastes like whiskey, but much milder. Straight whiskey such as bourbon or Tennessee whiskey cannot, by law, contain any added coloring, but blended whiskey can and does, so it looks about the same as bourbon. American blends, of which Seven Crown is the leader, tend to be very popular in certain parts of the country and absent in others. The Seven and Seven (Seven Crown and 7Up) used to be a very popular drink.

Crown Royal, Canadian Club, Black Velvet, Canadian Mist
    Canadian whisky is very similar to American blended whiskey in the way it is made and in the result, which is a flavor that is soft, mild and mellow. There tends to be a direct relationship between flavor and price, with the more expensive products containing more aged whiskey and, consequently, having more flavor. However, even the most flavorful, such as Crown Royal, tend to be easy to drink, with a lot of vanilla and hints of cherry and other bright fruit.

Dewars, Cutty Sark, Johnnie Walker, Chivas Regal, J&B
    All of these are blended scotch. That means they are a mixture of flavorful single malts (usually several of them) with nearly flavorless grain whiskey, not unlike the American and Canadian blends we just discussed. The result is the same, too. Blends have the same amount of alcohol as a single or straight whiskey, but they have a softer and milder flavor. Also as with other blends, the more expensive products contain more malt whiskey and tend to be more flavorful. This includes higher priced expressions within a particular line –– Johnnie Walker black label, for example.

Jameson, Tullamore Dew, Old Bushmills
    Finishing the set of blended whiskeys is the Irish take on it. Irish blends are made on the same principle as all the rest, but just as American and Canadian whiskey are pretty similar, so are Irish and Scotch, in that both rely on spirit made in pots stills from a malted barley mash for their distinctive flavor. The main difference is that the smokiness characteristic of many scotches is absent from Irish whiskey. Jameson and Tullamore are from the South, and Bushmills is from the North, which used to dictate who drank what, but now most people just drink the one they like best.

Balvenie, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, Laphroaig, Talisker
    The general rule in scotch is that if you can pronounce the name easily, it’s a blend. If you can’t, it’s a single malt. This is because the blends were created and named by English merchants, while most of the singles bear Scottish place names.

    “Single malt” means the whiskey is 100 percent malted barley and the product of one distillery. In other words, it is a straight malt whiskey with no grain whiskey added to soften it up. Single malts are further sub-divided according to the region in Scotland where they are made and each region has a distinctive flavor profile. Balvenie, Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich and Glenlivet are all from Speyside. Glenmorangie is from the Northern Highlands, Laphroaig is from Islay, and Talisker is from Skye. If the name begins with “Glen” (i.e., “valley”), what follows is the name of the river running through it, e.g., the glen by the River Livet. Among single malts, price climbs with age. Advanced age tends to mellow the whisky and give it greater subtlety and balance.

    So, there is a quick run-down of most of the whiskey most bars carry. To learn more about any of them, I suggest getting a glass and having a taste. There is no better way to learn than through first-hand experience. NCB