Leopold Bros. American Whiskey 750ml

So the problem with my job, is that I taste about 100 wines, spirits, and beers a week. Yeah, I know, poor me. But what this means is that in addition to me bringing home wines that my curiosity and thirst compel me to, I also feel the need to take home the bottles that have stood out to me within the week. Which means...I can't close the door to my bar and my recycling bin is causing the arms on our local collecting trucks to be repaired more often than before I started working here. On a more taxing day than usual I suggested that we needed to taste something stiff and fantastic. After listening to David's podcast with Todd Leopold I've been suggesting his whiskey like crazy, but had not tasted it. Happily David offered to open it for a staff sampling. Needless to say the corny caramel cinnamon and grassy notes led to me add yet another bottle to my collection. Thanks David.

This whiskey is an act of historical imagination. It joins a small number of commercially available whiskeys, such as Anchor Distilling's Old Potrero bottlings, that attempt to replicate the American whiskeys of an era long gone. I say imagination because, from what records have come down to us, the heterogeneity of whiskey in olden days, even from within a given time and place, is its chief feature, so some selectivity is naturally required. That said, you really can immediately taste and smell how different the Leopold Bros. whiskey is from the vast main of modern American whiskey making. The nose comes across like an eau-de-vie of grain. The grain shows prominently on nose and palate, somewhere between fresh corn meal and a toastier, popped corn note. The rye in the mash seems mainly to keep that from becoming overwhelming, giving it a little dimension, without showing up prominently itself. A sweet fruit component plays counterpoint and in the background are soft vanilla and caramel notes. Texturally, this feels closer to cognac than bourbon. It has the softness of cool silk being drawn over your skin and this in a younger whiskey(while there is no age statement, but I don't reckon this spent too many years in barrel). Most young whiskeys only wish they were this smooth; heck, so do some older whiskeys. What to do with it beyond sipping might require a little experimentation. A mint julep worked brilliantly, a manhattan less so. TKO by Carpano Antica in the first round; I think the vermouth has more vanilla than the whiskey does. All said, this does not simply carve itself a niche within an existing distilling tradition but re-invigorates and enlarges the possibilities inherent in American whiskey making by harkening back to the methods employed in the industries youth. As such, it makes interesting drinking for that reason alone. Of course, history aside, it doesn't hurt that it tastes great, too.