{"id":2635,"date":"2015-03-19T10:10:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T14:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/?p=2635"},"modified":"2021-06-12T10:09:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-12T14:09:39","slug":"bourbon-tasting-in-west-roxbury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/2015\/03\/19\/bourbon-tasting-in-west-roxbury\/","title":{"rendered":"Bourbon Tasting in West Roxbury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BourbonAll\"<\/p>\n

The RainyDayKitchen folks (OK, just\u00a0the editors,\u00a0the interns weren’t invited) were\u00a0at Blanchard’s Wine & Spirits<\/a> for a fun evening\u00a0of learning, tasting, and fashioning cocktails with Bourbon. The tasting featured Breckenridge<\/a>, Hirsh, Barrell<\/a>,\u00a0and Widow Jane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tasting\"<\/p>\n

We learned that we should not put our noses directly into the glass to smell as that would just overwhelm the senses. Instead, we should swirl the spirit in the glass and wave the scent toward our nose. We also learned that we should open our mouths when smelling as the flavor will also be picked up by our taste buds. Cool!!! While we were not experienced enough to be able to distinguish the various flavors tasted by some, we did find bourbon to be a lot “sweeter” whiskey than that from other parts of the world. There wasn’t\u00a0the “burn” we had\u00a0come to expect. We were told\u00a0that this was because bourbon is\u00a0made primarily from corn and is thus less harsh in that respect.<\/p>\n

The “special guest” of the evening was Angel’s Envy<\/a>.\u00a0Angel\u2019s Envy is the culmination of the life\u2019s work of Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson.\u00a0As a small company, they\u00a0are very particular about their\u00a0finished spirits.<\/p>\n

\"ThePour\"<\/p>\n

\"AngelsEnvy_bottle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Each batch is tracked through the side label on each\u00a0bottle. Every batch is finished in ruby port wine casks. The ruby port wine finish adds subtle nuance to\u00a0the bourbon. The brand is finished and bottled in Kentucky. There\u2019s no set time for the process. It\u2019s only Angel\u2019s Envy when they\u00a0say it is. Due to the scarcity of the special barrels and the intricacies involved in the finishing process, they\u00a0only issue a small, limited release twice a year.<\/p>\n

\"LocalBlend\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Angel’s Envy we tasted was Blanchard’s own hand selected creation<\/a>\u00a0specifically bottled for their store! \u00a0Suffice to say, after a few “samples,” our Contributing Editor\u00a0was very chatty\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"DoneTasting\"<\/p>\n

We learned a LOT about bourbon, whiskey distillation, and the background of the small makers that created them…much\u00a0of which we\u00a0struggled to\u00a0remember after the “tastings,” especially with the generous pours!<\/a> \u00a0Still, an excellent evening and a very “productive” outing!!!<\/p>\n

Here is what we managed to recall after tasting all six bourbons:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Bourbon whiskey is an American creation and is the official spirit of the United States, by act of Congress.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0To be “bourbon,” it must be: from a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn; aged in new, charred oak barrels; and bottled at 80 proof or more.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0The water used in diluting the “juice” is as important as anything else. Some distillers use Rocky Mountain water, some use lime-filtered water from caves, some keep their water info close to the vest. BTW, no distillers have\u00a0as yet admitted to using Charles River water in their bourbon…<\/p>\n

\"TheCrowd\"<\/p>\n

BTW, you\u00a0know you have had enough when you mistaked the bourbon glass for the water glass.\u00a0Light food (wings, cheeses, bread, etc) where available\u00a0with all the\u00a0exquisite and delicious bourbon. A good thing too as the few dozen wings and potato wedges we had enabled us to make the two-mile trip\u00a0back to the office incident-free \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"ChickenWings\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The RainyDayKitchen folks (OK, just\u00a0the editors,\u00a0the interns weren’t invited) were\u00a0at Blanchard’s Wine & Spirits for a fun evening\u00a0of learning, tasting, and fashioning cocktails with Bourbon. The tasting featured Breckenridge, Hirsh, Barrell,\u00a0and Widow Jane. We learned that we should not put our noses directly into the glass to smell as that would just overwhelm the senses. Instead, we should swirl the spirit in the glass and wave the scent toward our nose. We also learned that we should open our mouths when smelling as the flavor will also be picked up by our taste buds. Cool!!! While we were not experienced enough to be able to distinguish the various flavors tasted by some, we did find bourbon to be a lot “sweeter” whiskey than that from other parts of the world. There wasn’t\u00a0the “burn” we had\u00a0come to expect. We were told\u00a0that this was because bourbon is\u00a0made primarily from corn and is thus less harsh in that respect. The “special guest” of the evening was Angel’s Envy.\u00a0Angel\u2019s Envy is the culmination of the life\u2019s work of Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson.\u00a0As a small company, they\u00a0are very particular about their\u00a0finished spirits. Each batch is tracked through the side label on each\u00a0bottle. Every batch is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1920,244,261],"tags":[914,1005,916,908,910,1693,911,912,915,909,913],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rainydaycocktails","category-rainydaydestinations","category-rainydaykitchen","tag-angels-envy","tag-barrell","tag-blanchards","tag-bourbon","tag-breckenridge","tag-cocktails","tag-hirsh","tag-prichards","tag-spirits","tag-whiskey","tag-widow-jane"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/BourbonAll.jpg?fit=1029%2C686","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7F1GW-Gv","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2635"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2657,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions\/2657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rainydaymagazine.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}