Blind Tasting for Black Girls CODE Recap
As the weeks go on, I’ve been increasingly impressed with how everyone’s palates have been evolving! This was especially evident during this weekend’s blind tasting. Through the tasting, we not only opened up the conversation about the need for diversity in the whiskey industry, but we also raised a little over $1200 that was donated to Black Girls CODE, an organization dedicated to increasing diversity in STEM fields by empowering girls of color ages 7-17 to pursue computer sciences. I am so grateful for all of the NEAT Whiskey Club members contributions!
All three whiskeys we tasted have stories that align with the idea of increasing diversity in the whiskey industry. There’s only a small number of black-owned whiskey distilleries in the US (see Whisky Advocate’s article on current black-owned whiskey distilleries and companies here). And we tried two of them: Du Nord Craft Spirits and Uncle Nearest. Blanton’s single barrel bourbon from Buffalo Trace Distillery was the third tasting. Although Buffalo Trace is not black-owned, the release of Blanton’s was greatly influenced by two black warehouse managers, Jimmy Johnson, Sr. and his son Jimmy, Jr.
This tasting was challenging, as the whiskeys had similar flavor profiles. Let me tell you a little about them.
Blanton’s Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Blanton’s was released in 1984 by Elmer T. Lee, the master distiller at the time, in honor of Colonel Albert Bacon Blanton, who Elmer worked under for his first few years at the distillery. Col. Blanton was known for bringing out really delicious barrels of bourbon that he deemed “honey barrels” when entertaining important guests. They were pulled from the center of his favorite warehouse, Warehouse H, which was quickly constructed out of metal after the repeal of Prohibition. Because it’s made of metal, it is greatly impacted by the varying outside temperature in KY. These temperature fluctuations result in a lot more breathing of the barrel, meaning more oxidation reactions and evaporation. The warehouse manager, James “Jimmy” Johnson, Sr., took note of how Warehouse H aged the bourbon differently, and he is the reason Col. Blanton was aware of these barrels. When his son, Jimmy, Jr. started working at the distillery, he passed on this knowledge to him. So when it came time for Elmer to release a special bourbon before his retirement, he turned to Jimmy, Jr. to show him where these barrels were located.
Blanton’s is produced from Buffalo Trace’s Mash Bill #2 (high-rye bourbon mash) and is aged for 6-8 years in new charred American oak barrels in Warehouse H. The notes that stood out most for everyone when tasting Blanton’s were cherries, rye spice, oak, cinnamon and vanilla.
Uncle Nearest 1884 Small Batch Whiskey
In 2017, Fawn Weaver founded Uncle Nearest Whiskey to commemorate Nathan “Nearest” Green, who was the slave who taught Jack Daniel how to distill. Up until 2016, the story was that Jack learned to distill from Reverend Daniel Call, who took him in when he ran away from home. However, Reverend Call’s distilling operations were actually run by one of his slaves, Nearest. After emancipation, Nearest, a free man, chose to continue working for Call and is the one who actually taught Jack how to make whiskey. It’s said that when Jack started his distillery, Nearest was the master distiller until he retired around 1884. His son, George was not only a friend of Jack, but also worked at the distillery along with his brother, Eli and their sons.
Nearest is credited with creating the Lincoln County Process, which sets Tennessee whiskey apart from all other bourbon. After distillation the white whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal, where there are chemical changes (mainly amongst the branched alcohols and esters) resulting in a smoother tasting spirit.
What we tasted was the first batch of Uncle Nearest 1884 curated by one of Nearest’s descendants, Victoria Eady Butler. It’s a blend of 7- and 11-year-old Tenn. whiskeys, meaning it's fermented with 51+% corn mash, put through the LCP and aged in new charred oak for a minimum of 7 and 11 years, respectively. For most during the tasting, Uncle Nearest had notes of sugar cookie, cinnamon, tobacco, clove, dried fruit and pepper.
Du Nord Mixed Blood Blended Whiskey
Chris Montana founded Du Nord, the first black-owned microdistillery, in 2013. He grew up in Minneapolis and went to school to become a lawyer. A few years after graduating he decided to pivot into the spirits industry, so that he could start a business in a field that interested him and would challenge him to learn daily. He chose the distillery’s location in the southside of the city near where he went to high school, which happens to be on the same street as the 3rd precinct: the epicenter of George Floyd’s murder. Unfortunately, the distillery was severely damaged during riots despite being marked as “black-owned”. Their response was to start a fund to help rebuild all businesses owned by people of color in the area that were damaged by the riots, not just their distillery. The distillery has done so much to support their community. Du Nord is dedicated to diversifying the spirits industry and they employ underrepresented communities to do so.
Mixed Blood is their blended whiskey made from their in-house high-rye bourbon combined with other sourced whiskeys. The distillery sources the grains for their high-rye bourbon from Chris’s father-in-law’s farm just outside Minneapolis. The blended whiskey is aged 2 years in new charred Minnesota oak barrels. Du Nord prides themselves in transparency, so I believe that there isn’t any neutral grain spirit, flavoring or coloring blended into their whiskey. The regulations for blended whiskey in the US require that it be comprised of only 20+% straight whiskey, the remaining 80% can be neutral grain spirit with flavoring and coloring. Because of this, blended whiskey has a bad rap and is often called “whiskey flavored vodka.” However, the craft spirits industry has been raising the bar and blended whiskey has become much higher quality. Du Nord’s blended whiskey tasted of notes of herbs, leather and tobacco, flowers, chocolate covered raisins, cherry chapstick and cinnamon.
You can see how each whiskey has overlapping flavors, which made this tasting challenging. And still, I was so impressed in the abundance of notes each person was able to pick up on. About a quarter of the participants guessed all three whiskeys correctly!
