Where to start with bourbon
What separates one bourbon from the next, and how to pick a first bottle without guessing.
Bourbon is the easiest brown spirit to start with and the easiest one to overthink. A few rules settle almost every decision at the shelf.
What makes a bourbon a bourbon
By law, bourbon is made in the United States from a grain mix that is at least 51 percent corn, distilled below 160 proof, and aged in new charred oak barrels. Nothing can be added but water. Corn is what makes bourbon taste sweet, and new oak is where the vanilla, caramel and baking spice come from. Every bottle on the shelf, whatever the label looks like, starts from those same rules.
The grain after the corn decides the personality
The rest of the mash bill is usually rye or wheat, and that one choice does more for flavour than anything else on the label.
Rye in the mash gives you pepper, clove, mint and a dry finish. These are the bourbons people call spicy, and they are the ones that hold their shape in a cocktail.
Wheat in the mash gives you soft caramel, vanilla and baked bread with very little bite. Wheated bourbon is what we hand anyone who says bourbon burns.
If a label does not say, ask at the counter. We can usually tell you.
Proof matters more than age
Most bourbon is bottled between 80 and 100 proof. Eighty proof is gentle and easy to drink neat. Ninety to 100 proof carries more flavour and stands up to ice, sugar and bitters without disappearing. Anything labelled barrel proof or cask strength is bottled straight from the barrel, often over 120 proof, and is meant to be cut with water.
Age is not a quality score. Four to six years is the sweet spot for most everyday bourbon. Longer in the barrel means more oak, more tannin and a drier finish, which some people love and some find woody. Bottled in Bond on a label means one distillery, one season, at least four years old, at exactly 100 proof.
Single barrel, small batch and straight
Straight bourbon means at least two years in the barrel with no added colour or flavour. Small batch means a limited number of barrels were blended together, though no law defines how many. Single barrel means the whole bottle came from one barrel, so bottles vary a little from each other. None of these terms guarantee better whiskey; they tell you how it was put together.
Neat, on a rock, or in a cocktail
If you are drinking it neat, start around 90 proof and pick a wheated bourbon if you want it soft, a rye-forward one if you want spice. Add a few drops of water before you decide you do not like something; it opens up quickly.
If you are building an old fashioned, buy proof rather than age. Sugar and bitters flatten a low-proof whiskey. A 100 proof bourbon or a bonded rye will still taste like whiskey after the ice melts.
For a whiskey sour or anything with citrus, a softer wheated bourbon works well. For a Manhattan, rye is the traditional and better answer.
Allocated bottles
Some bourbons are allocated, which means the distillery decides how much any store receives and no store receives much. We do get them. Selection changes week to week, so call us, or join the TJ's List and hear when a shipment lands.