Re: Best Small Distillery Bourbon
Well, I gotta hand it to the Blanton's people. They truly are a class-act. I sent off an email to their website contact, and through the 'trickle-down' I was contacted yesterday by the Manitoba rep. My Lady and I met her (the rep) in her office today. As pre-arranged, we brought in our questionable bottle, for tasting.
She started with the "sniff-test", and immediately was going back and forth between ours (1) and theirs (2). With a furrow on her brow, she repeated it quite a few times. Then stated, that it "is almost of an acetone smell". I had stated that I thought it was "like a sugar-cube, but ok, I get the acetone reference". and then in smelling -2, all I got was a vanilla/caramel hint.
(At this point, myself and my Lady were starting to wonder if we're the ones who're nuts, and this stuff actually WAS, that 'way')
She sniffed it a bit more, back and forth, as well as compared the colors. 1 was noticeably lighter in color. 2 was darker and 'richer' in color, (if anyone knows what that means. We're still new at this)
And then she tasted it.
L'ard Tumblin' JaYsus, let me tells ya' that the face made the whole excursion worth the wait.
She screwed her face up something wicked, put the glass down right away, stated "You can't drink THAT!!!" and shuddered.
Moments later, she pointed at the top of her chest and said "it stayed right here, and burned. It's not supposed to do that".
(reached for the water, and drank some)
"Oh, that's not right. That is UnDrinkable"
Her face was still 'uncomfortable', but not as bad as the first 'hit'. She then poured us some of her bottle. (remember folks, this is about to be our second, first impression of what this hootch is supposed to be like. We ain't never had it before buying that (1) bottle, and apparently, we still hadn't) So we each take a sip, and then the heavens opened up, Angels sang, and the World was a Better Place. For at least a few moments, anyways.
"THAT" was what we were looking for, to begin with.
She was happy to hang onto our bottle, for when the Blanton's salesman comes up from Kentucky. Due to laws, procedures and other red tape, we can't just ship an opened bottle of booze to the states. But she is definitely wanting further checking into what happened with 1 and hoping that it can get into the lab. Seeing as the countenance is right on the label, there is some traceability to this.
So, in the end, she sent us off with a brand new bottle of Blanton's, as well as a bottle of Buffalo Trace. Another new one, for our collection.
Very nice lady that we dealt with today. Very good customer service from the home-company themselves, and good overall conduct, therein.
Now, I'm a-gonna go tear off a label, and pour.
---forgot to add, some of our descriptor words for 1 was:
'creosote, with hints of turpentine'
'like siphoning white-gas'
'paint thinner, for cleaning brushes'
That lady rep didn't argue with any, for sure.
