!BIRTHDAY WHISKEY!

I started a new thing.  From now on every time one of my daughters has a birthday I'll buy a bottle of whisk(e)y as old as they are to celebrate.  First the pros - This is going to be great once they hit 10, 12, 15, 18, 21 ... years old.  But the cons - my youngest daughter just turned two.  Do you know how hard it is to find a 2 year old whisky?  Hard.  There are quite a few < 6 month old moonshines and a few that label themselves as a young whisky less than 4 years old.  But 2?  Nope.  Hardly anyone wants to advertise a TWO-year old whiskey.  Willet's did/does a two year old rye and I'm kicking myself for not picking up a bottle when I saw one on the shelf a few months ago.

Finally, after some searching while visiting relatives over the holidays, I picked up a bourbon from a rather new distillery - Wheat State Distilling.  Wheat State distilling claims to be Wichita's first legal distillery.  (My itallics.  I guess the Wheat State crew perfected their craft in someone's garage?) Each bottle is hand numbered with the batch and bottle number and if you go to their website and enter these numbers it will tell you the mash bill and where the grain came from, when it was distilled, details about the barrel it was in, etc.  But... as of this writing, they still haven't updated their website with the particulars of my bottle.  But based on the details of batches 1 and 2, I'm going to guess it is actually closer to a three year bourbon.  But that's ok... cause my daughter's a mature two... so you know, it works...

Bella Bahre Bourbon - It's a young bourbon, dominated by oak and alcohol.  When I first opened the bottle it was pretty raw - young, woody, and harsh.  Even my friend who isn't picky about her bourbon made a comment.  But as it sat there (about two weeks) it mellowed out and the oak and alcohol allowed a honey sweetness to show itself before the time-weakened oak and alcohol reasserted themselves.  By now I wish I hadn't used so much of it in mixed drinks and I'm very inclined to try their Wheat Whiskey when it comes out.  (Hint to Santa: Tell my mom it would make a great stocking stuffer.)

Rankings - Adding in Bella Bahre was odd because I ended up having some shifts in my preferences.  At first I really wasn't a fan and it was at the bottom of my current bottles, even below Tullamore DEW.  But then as it mellowed it rose up and I liked it more than Highland Earl.  Hirsch continued to climb due to its strong showing, but unfortunately it is now gone.  I'm pleasantly surprised to see no change in the Bowmore simply because it means that it's ranking and place is converging.  Highland Earl climbed 10 spots due to the wins over Old Grandad, Tullamore DEW, and the fresh Bella Bahre.  But I'm surprised that the Bella Bahre is tops over OG, TD, and HE.  Because it was below all of them, and then above all of them I thought it would have ended up somewhere in the middle, and definitely not at the top with it's low SOS.  But, I check the math and it does have a better overall record than the other three.  I guess I'll just have to try it again sometime!

Rank	Name	R	SOS Rank	Change
38	High West Campfire	0.7932	206	2
65	Bowmore 10	0.6668	201	0
82	Hirsch High-Rye Bourbon 8 Yr	0.6149	199	7
192	Wheat State Bella Bahre Bourbon	0.2994	219	NR
202	Old Grandad	0.2605	136	-5
208	Highland Earl	0.2319	120	10
236	Tullamore Dew	0.0975	146	-8