Last November (or should I say Movember) a few of us at UV had the pleasure of heading down to the south shore of Lake Erie, in my home town of Erie Pennsylvania where we did American thanksgiving properly. We stayed in a house on the lake that was built in the late 19th century, and was used as a booze running point during prohibition. The story goes that the owner of the house had no problem with the rum-runners using his dock on the lake as long as they left him some bottles for his private stock. When the current owner bought the house in the early 1980s, he attended an estate auction and bought the contents of the wine cellar, which included several bottles of this prohibition era alcohol. We were lucky enough to get the green light to open a bottle of Rye that had been corked since the 1930’s at the latest.
The tasting crew included Bradley Wiffen, Lauren Heuser, Akosua Matthews, Dr. Dale Wiebe (Akosua’s fiancée), Andrew Robertson, Matt Brown, Maggie Fish and yours truly. Thanks to the delicate touch of Dr. Wiebe’s surgical hands, we were able to get a cork screw into the cork without it dissolving. Once uncorked the Rye was very fragrant. The taste was very smooth and very flavorful. Here are the tasting notes:
Brad, a regular rye drinker said, “relative to other ryes, it’s very sweet. A vanilla aftertaste” Dr. Wiebe, a regular Lord Byron, said the smell was “throwing caramel up my nose”. The taste was “a pad of butter melting on my tongue.” Lauren felt it had a bit of a smoky flavor, which Robertson felt was somewhat dusty. We all agreed it was incredibly smooth.
My take was very similar to Brad’s in that it was very sweet, almost like a bourbon, which leads me to believe it probably had a high proportion of corn spirits in it, much like modern Canadian whiskies. It almost tasted syrupy, and was unbelievably smooth, like some of the alcohol had evaporated out over time. Unlike some of the other really old booze that can taste like chemicals, it still had a very palatable flavor, which was sweet and fragrant.
Tasting this 80+ year old whisky was a real treat. Thanks to all who came out and shared in tasting a bit of history.
