![]() ![]() ![]() He ran the distillery until his retirement in the 1890s, and it was renamed in his honour in 1904. Stagg stepped in to rescue it, becoming its owner in 1878. So much so in fact that he declared himself bankrupt after just seven years, and George T. It was then purchased by the legendary Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr in 1870, who named it OFC (Old Fashioned Copper) and invested heavily in its modernisation. Handy rye was bottled in 2006 as part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, a selection of whiskies collated and in some cases created to pay homage to the history of the company and its brands.Ī historic distillery, Buffalo Trace was built in 1812 Harrison Blanton. They began distilling it for the first time in 1998, and the modern version of the Sazerac Rye was introduced in 2006. When the Sazerac Company acquired what is now called Buafflo Trace distillery in 1992, one of their long-term intentions was to see the eponymous rye brand return. O’Reilly who promptly marketed the first Sazerac branded rye. He died in 1893, leaving the company in the hand of C.J. When the Phylloxera epidemic gripped mainland Europe in 1870, the brandy supplies in France dried up and Handy turned to rye whiskey as the alternative base for the classic Sazerac cocktail. He acquired it in 1869, having previously run Taylor Sewell’s importing business, which had exclusive distribution of Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils brandy in the US. Handy is a rye whiskey named after the bartender and former owner of the Sazerac Coffee House. A D is one star and a D- one-half of a star.Thomas H. A C- is two stars.ĭ+ to D-: Below average whiskey. A B- is three stars.Ĭ+ to C-: Average whiskey. The best of the mass market whiskeys fit in this category, as do the bulk of the premium brands. Five stars.Ī-: A fine bottle of whiskey, representing the top end of the conventional, premium range.ī and B-: Good and above average. ![]() Above five stars.Ī: An outstanding bottle of whiskey, but lacking that special something which makes for a true masterpiece. ![]() A+: A masterpiece and one of the ten best whiskeys of its type. Some "premium" whiskeys really are quite terrible, while some mass market products are good enough to pour into a decanter and serve to the Duke of Edinburgh. The following indicators should be taken as only a guide and not a set of hard and fast rules. The Whiskey Reviewer uses a letter-based rating system, instead of the numerical 100-grade rating system. If your liquor store charges more, they are probably gouging you. The finish follows that outsized character, being big, warm, and prolonged. Toffee and vanilla blend with cloves and allspice, followed by a peppery bite at the end. That brought things under control, revealing a still bold, kicky, but more pleasant whiskey. It didn’t bite me, but it was certainly too big and bold, so I added my customary drops of water. The surprise came to me when I took a sip, because the nose didn’t offer any hint of the whiskey being too strong, but the flavor certainly did. THOMAS H HANDY SAZERAC PLUSThe nose is floral, smacking of dried plums and sweet tobacco, seasoned with allspice and vanilla, plus a strong presence of earthy wood. In the glass, Handy 2013 has a bright orange coloring, a little too vibrant and too orange to be called amber. Last year’s Handy was a whopping 66.2% abv! 2013’s Handy is 128.4 proof (64.2% abv), which while strong, is a little lower on the alcohol than what sometimes comes out of the Antique Collection’s barrel proof whiskeys. Handy’s standard is to be a barrel strength, unfiltered rye whiskey, but not an especially old one (that is reserved for the Sazerac 18 Year Old) This year’s expression is, like last year’s, a six year old, but what came out of the barrel was a bit lighter this time. Some years bring winners that become so overloaded with medals and plaudits as to risk tipping the bottle over, while others are merely very good. However, as limited editions, every installment is at least a little different from the expressions before it. It is one of two ryes in the Antique Collection, which after Pappy Van Winkle is arguably the most chased-after set of limited edition expressions in American whiskey. This particular part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is named for the proprietor of the Sazerac House in New Orleans, the place where the Sazerac Cocktail was “Americanized” by the replacement of the cognac with rye whiskey. ![]()
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