We take a look on the newest American Whiskey model combating for house in your backbar and attempt to bust some rumours and myths flying round.
It’s a primary for BarLifeUK to be supplied an American Whiskey journey and discover ourselves on a prepare to a misty Derbyshire. By no means Say Die is an Bourbon with a distinction, and we have been about to spend the day discovering out all about it.
The Reality
Let’s begin with the elephant within the distillery so we are able to transfer on. Because it was launched there was a lot of chat across the By no means Say Die tagline of England’s (or British) Bourbon. ‘It could both be British or it may be Bourbon, it might probably’t be each.’ As one irate bartender put it to me (with much more expletives) just lately. To a sure extent I needed to agree with him however as all the time it wasn’t as black and white as that.
There have been two points on this entrance. Firstly, the messaging and tagline itself from By no means Say Die was, in my view, misplaced. This can be a first foray into the booze enterprise from the folks behind the model and I believe it could be truthful to say they didn’t anticipate the response they received. To be sincere I wouldn’t be in any respect shocked if you happen to see this wording slowly fade over time.
Secondly, some folks in our trade might have barely overreacted. I do know, uncommon proper?
So what are the information behind it. Fairly easy actually. It’s made at a distillery in Kentucky, it’s aged for five years in charred new American Oak barrels (in brief it hits all of the Bourbon tick factors) after which it’s shipped to the UK. All fairly normal stuff, till you have a look at that delivery bit. You see American Whiskey, in truth all booze, is shipped in one in all two methods, already bottled or in massive stainless-steel containers to be bottled in Europe. By no means Say Die nonetheless ship it over in those self same barrels it was aged in. Straight from the rickhouse onto the ship.
It’s this time spent on the ship, the primary cargo took 6 weeks, which makes an enormous distinction to the flavour (extra on that shortly). As soon as off the ship it’s aged in a UK distillery for a couple of weeks/months which returns us again to Derbyshire and the very beautiful White Peak Distillery.
Owned by husband and spouse staff Max and Claire Vaughan within the coronary heart of the Peak District in an outdated Wire Mill, the White Peak Distillery produces a spread of English Whisky and Gin. We shall be doing one other article on them quickly however for this story they’re liable for the third ageing after which bottling By no means Say Die.
So that you see it’s positively a Bourbon however it’s aged on the ocean, then aged some extra and bottled in Britain, so you’ll be able to see the place the thought for calling it a British Bourbon comes from.
The Story
After a tour of the distillery we sat down of their tasting room in entrance of a roaring hearth to strive the whiskey however earlier than we received to that there was a narrative to inform, and what a narrative it was. To be sincere I normally name bullshit fairly shortly on model tales, however this one rang true. It additionally jogged my memory barely of Jackanory (a reference for our older readers) as founding father of By no means Say Die, David Wild sat in entrance of aforementioned hearth and regaled us with the true story of By no means Say Die.
By no means Say Die was a racehorse. A racehorse born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1951. A tough delivery because it turned out leading to poor respiration, as was the customized in these days to clear phlegm the foal had a shot of whiskey poured down his throat. By the following morning the animal had survived and was thus named By no means Say Die.
Three years later By no means Say Die was over in England racing and after some small successes was entered into the Epsom Derby. No American horse had gained the race in over 70 years so was given odds of 33/1. In entrance of the Queen, Winston Churchill and, randomly, Errol Flynn he galloped to success, ridden by an 18 12 months outdated Lester Piggott.
As if that wasn’t sufficient there was a younger girl in Liverpool who was so impressed by the story of By no means Say Die she pawned all her jewelry and put the lot on the horse to win the Derby. Together with her new discovered riches she purchased herself a big home and turned it right into a membership she known as The Casbah.
Deciding she wanted some dwell music she turned to her son Pete Greatest and his associates, Paul, John and George with their band The Quarrymen. They performed a few of their first gigs there as a band and after Pete was changed by Ringo they continued to play many gigs there underneath their new title. It has been stated that with out The Casbah there can be no Beatles, and it’s positively true that with out By no means Say Die there’d be no Casbah Membership. I’ll allow you to draw the remainder of the traces.
Good model story huh? However the place does it match into the model? Nicely the farm the place By no means Say Die was born is owned by firm founder Pat Madden. Oh and the thought for the model was conceived when Pat and David have been on the Kentucky Derby collectively.
The Liquid
So we’ve dispelled the myths, we’ve informed the stunning story, time to seek out out whether it is any good to drink.
The businesses Model Ambassador Dan Priseman (lots of you’ll know him from such American Whiskies as 4 Roses, Uncle Nearest and Whistle Pig) was available to guide the tasting. He had introduced alongside just a little deal with within the type of a pattern of the whiskey taken from a barrel earlier than it goes on the ship throughout the pond.
It was great things however nonetheless just a little tough across the edges, the group agreed it may do with one other couple of years of ageing within the barrel. From there we moved straight onto the By no means Say Die Barrel Power Whiskey, there shall be a Bourbon and a Rye coming quickly however for now every launch is a cask energy single barrel, on this case Barrell #2 (the British Bourbon Society grabbed Barrell #1).
Now while it wasn’t a barrel for barrel comparability the distinction between the non ‘sea and UK’ aged whiskey and Barrel #2 was huge. These tough edges had been mellowed and even at 54.6% it was a really easy drink. The mash invoice for all of their whiskey (besides the rye) is 75% corn, 21% rye and 4% malted barley and this excessive rye content material actually got here by means of and offers the whiskey an outstanding spine.
Now sea ageing isn’t precisely a science (but) however the principle is sensible and goes like this – because the barrel is on the ship the motion of the ocean principally forces the liquid to work together with the wooden always, think about shaking a barrel continuous for six weeks. Nevertheless, as Dan identified, the ageing time within the UK is to not be neglected both.
From there we tried the barrel #3 launch punching in at 55.4%, while it had the identical DNA because the #2 it was markedly completely different. Each would work fantastically in cocktails or as a sipper however for me #3 is the one.
To point out how completely different every barrel is Dan had randomly chosen three to open for us to strive. The color alone confirmed what a diversified choice of barrels and liquid they’ve at their disposal. Once more all shared the identical DNA however, and keep in mind all of them had the identical mash invoice, made by the identical distiller and aged for a similar period of time in the identical rickhouse, the variation in color, style and remaining liquid ranges within the barrel was enormous. When you ever occur to listen to they’ve bottled barrel quantity 650 seize it, instantly.
It was an awesome day and I walked away with a really completely different impression of the model than I had stepping into. It isn’t all methods and advertising hype, they do every part for excellent motive. Is it a British Bourbon? I don’t know and if I’m sincere I don’t actually care. What it’s, is a good tasting American Whiskey with a wonderful story made by some beautiful people. If you wish to give it a strive your self, and why wouldn’t you, you’ll be able to drop Dan an e mail to Dan@n10bourbons.com
