Once again, bourbon drinkers will need to overlook a dubious brand personality to experience a very good whiskey.
In the case of Bulleit Bourbon, this is the second time such forbearance has been required. In 1995, Tom Bulleit released two bourbons, Bulleit and Thoroughbred, made at what is now the Buffalo Trace Distillery. That time around, the Kentucky tax attorney talked about growing up in Louisville and working at the old Bernheim Distillery on summer vacations. From that experience, making his own bourbon became a lifetime ambition.
Those products were billed as ‘re-engineered’ bourbon because a ‘secret process’ allowed them to gain the equivalent of 8 to 10 years of age in just 4 to 6 years. Since Buffalo Trace has a couple of masonry warehouses that can be heated in the winter, the secret was not too difficult to crack.
The current incarnation of Bulleit, which actually debuted in 1999, is made at the Four Roses Distillery and positioned as ‘Frontier Whiskey.’ Diageo, the world’s largest drinks company, has gotten behind the brand in a big way and is positioning it to compete against Brown-Forman’s Woodford Reserve and Jim Beam’s Knob Creek, leaders in the booming luxury bourbon segment.
The Bulleit biography now has the family immigrating from France in the 18th century. We are given an Augustus Bulleit, who relocates to Louisville from New Orleans, opens a tavern and uses his knowledge of brandy-making to develop a bourbon recipe. He dies in 1860 while transporting a shipment of his whiskey to New Orleans.
The Bulleit Bourbon being sold today is supposedly a revival of that 150-year-old recipe. The problem with all claims about ancient family bourbon recipes is that the whiskey made back then wasn’t very good. It was raw and harsh, inconsistent, and young if aged at all. Happily, Bulleit Bourbon is nothing like the raw frontier whiskey of 150 years ago. As a product of the Four Roses Distillery, it bears many hallmarks of that brand and of the better blends formerly made by Seagrams. Its true point of difference and distinction is a high rye content. Fully 30 percent of the mash bill is rye, the highest of any bourbon currently made. Such high rye content certainly was more common before Prohibition than it is today. This gives Bulleit a legitimate claim to being an old-fashioned bourbon, but calling it frontier bourbon is neither legitimate nor desirable.
Bulleit’s color is on the orange side of amber, with a hint of soot. It coats the glass richly. The nose carries some heat along with smoke and violets. The high rye content is immediately apparent in the first sip. Not for nothing is rye considered the definitive flavor grain for bourbons. As much as I like wheaters, rye-recipe bourbons are always more interesting.
With Bulleit, the rye flavor is so pronounced it almost could pass as a straight rye. One hallmark of any product from Four Roses is balance, all the more remarkable in Bulleit because it is a symmetry of some very strong flavors. The rye provides an earthy sharpness on top of a smooth, silky corn base. The flavor is robust and bread-like. Smoke is apparent mostly on the back of the tongue and in the finish, which is ‘long and lingering,’ as promised by the press release.
Tom Bulleit himself, dressed in a business suit, doesn’t exactly embody the brand’s ‘frontier’ imagery.
His presentation is peppered with references to organoleptic analysis, alcohol bloom, and the quality management theories of Edward Deming. There ultimately is nothing wrong with having a fun brand image, unless it gets in the way of appreciating a very good whiskey.
Bulleit Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 90 proof, no age statement. ($15.49/750 ml at Liquor Barn in Louisville in April, 2004.)
© 2004, Charles Kendrick Cowdery, All Rights Reserved.
From The Bourbon Country Reader, Vol.8, No. 1; April, 2004.