All whisky or whiskey is made from three basic ingredients: water, grain, and yeast. But there is a very wide range of products. They depend on where they’re made, the legal and tradition-required differences in the water and grain used, how the distilling is done, and what the aging process involves.
American bourbon, for example, must be made from American corn or rye, and it must be distilled and bottled in the United States. Single Malt Scotch, by law, must be created using only a malted barley mash at a single distillery and has to be bottled in Scotland.
But these days, there are producers that combine tradition and legal requirements with innovative practices to create a uniquely tasting spirit.
Normally, I’m an Islay whisky fan who loves the deep, smoky flavors of Islay single malts, but the three producers that I recently discovered, 2 Americans and an Irish, make quite different spirits that in my opinion should be tasted. They are quite dissimilar from other products in the whiskey or whisky family and could be considered a very good addition to your whiskey repertory.
The American bourbons are: the Samuel Maverick, Texas Straight Bourbon Private Reserve Whiskey, and Milam & Greene’s Whiskey Unabridged, Volume 3 Bourbon. The Irish one is the Triple Dog Irish Whiskey.
The Samuel Maverick is dated and numbered. My bottle is dated 11-94 with bottle number 405. This bottle has a Samuel Maverick signature embossed on the attractive, clear glass that allows viewing the contents. Seven barrels of the four-year-old bourbon were bottled for this limited small-batch release. It’s a hand-crafted, premium, straight bourbon.
Rich amber in color, it boasts aromas of scented honey, barbecue, and roasted nuts. I consider it a full-bodied bourbon with velvety texture and warm vanilla, as well as a subdued caramel flavor from Texas sweet corn.
Another exceptional American tipple is the beautifully packaged bottle of Milam & Greene’s Bourbon Whiskey, Unabridged Volume 3. It’s at cask-strength and non-chill filtered. It’s a blend of six different whiskeys. A total of 49 barrels distilled in the three states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas were used to create Unabridged Volume 3.
This bourbon is the color of mahogany and has aromas of caramelized brown sugar with subtle notes of honeysuckle, almond, cigar box, and old leather. On the palate, it’s smooth with notes of sweet crème brûlée, vanilla, roasted nuts, and a hint of malted chocolate.
The Triple Dog bottle is stamped with an “establishment” date of 1916, though I don’t understand why the date is stamped on the label and not just printed the same way other information is printed on that label. The establishment date doesn’t change!
The bottle is graded from black at the top until about 3/4 down to transparent at the bottom, where you can see the color of the liquid inside. It has a miniature studded dog collar around the neck, which reminds me of the forensic scientist “Abby Sciuto” character on the TV show NCIS.
But enough about appearances. What’s important is the taste of the contents!
I tasted all the whiskeys with just a small splash of very cold water to bring up the aroma and taste, and I also tried them neat.
The Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Bourbon is a bottled-in-bond whiskey, distilled in small batches using select Texas-grown corn, rye, and barley, and aged on-site in the historic vaults below the Maverick distillery which is located steps away from the Alamo.
Our tasters thought the whiskey was very notable with an intense amber color, profound aromas of clover, nutmeg, and honey, Texas barbecue, and a hint of roasted walnuts. There are also bittersweet chocolate flavors hiding at the long finish, and we considered it to be a quite attractive drink!
The Milam & Greene’s Bourbon Whiskey, Unabridged Volume 3 is at cask-strength. It’s bottled at 59% ABV, which translates to 118 proof! In both 2022 and 2023, it was recognized as a Double Platinum winner in the Ascot Awards. It was very smooth when I tasted it, and the notes of honeysuckle, almond, marzipan, and baking spice came through to make it a remarkable drink. The bottle is clear, which showcases the bourbon’s clarity and color.
Then, from across the ocean, there is Triple Dog, an unconventional Irish whiskey, which is an eccentrically styled, true-tasting spirit. It’s different from other more traditional Irish brands I had tried in the past because of its individuality.
The Triple Dog Irish Whiskey is an extremely smooth, golden-colored, new Irish triple-distilled tipple created in traditional copper pots and copper column stills, using both malted and unmalted Irish grain and water from the Cooley Mountains.
It has a rather modern taste profile. Crafted on the east coast of Ireland, each bottle contains spirit aged for a minimum of four years in French oak casks. There is a distinct aroma of toasted caramel, oak, crème brûlée, rich honey, and light vanilla, plus hints of baking spices and baked apples, followed by a citrusy finish.
All were very enjoyable, but to be honest, I did like the Triple Dog’s considerable smoothness a little more. The prices for these whiskeys are logical for the quality they represent. The Samuel Maverick Private Reserve Bourbon is around $72 per bottle depending on location, the Milam & Greene varies between $93 to $101 per bottle, and the Triple Dog is around $40, also depending on location.
To your health . . . and since the Triple Dog comes from the Verdant Isle, Sláinte!
Manos Angelakis is one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the current Managing Editor Emeritus, and Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He is an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he has written extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos has also been certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and has traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. In the past year, he has visited and written multiple articles about Morocco, Turkey, Quebec City, Switzerland, Antarctica, and most recently the South of France. Articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
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