The Measure of the Moment: Private Selections at Spirits of French Lick
The Measure of the Moment
There are milestones that are meaningful to any craft distiller. Laying down the first barrel, or selling that first bottle, or having their whiskey maturing to qualify as “straight” are all important markers in a distillery’s infancy.
Another significant accomplishment is having produced enough aged stock that a private selection program can be launched. This shows maturity of both the distillery itself and the whiskey it has produced. Head distiller Alan Bishop had raised up Spirits of French Lick and its Lee W. Sinclair 4-Grain Bourbon to this moment as the calendar was turning to 2020. 2020…heavy sigh.
Jolee Kasprzak, Marketing Director at Spirits of French Lick
Good work is the key to good fortune, 2020 or not. “We expected all single barrel sales to stop when the pandemic hit. Instead they tripled!”, says Jolee Kasprzak, marketing director for Spirits of French Lick.
The good work has been years in the making at Spirits of French Lick. From the beginning, the distillery has been faithful to its “Respect the Grain” mantra while making uniquely flavorful spirits that the Bourbon community was starting to take note of. Jolee and Alan were also working to connect with as many whiskey fans as they could. It’s not unusual to see them several nights a week doing live interviews on You Tube or Facebook or holding court on their own Instagram Live accounts.
“We’ve been able to make direct connections with stores in several states for private barrel picks”, Jolee added. “But, one of the keys to the success we’ve had in 2020 is through the relationship we developed with Seelbach’s.”
Seelbach’s
Blake Riber, founder of the popular whiskey blog and Facebook group called Bourbonr, started Seelbach’s two years ago as a way to bring true craft spirits to curious drinkers. As an on-line retailer, Seelbach’s carries “off the shelf” expressions of the brands they sell and also has a growing selection of single barrel offerings (such as Driftless Glen, Pinhook, Traverse City, and Wilderness Trail). This year, Seelbach’s has picked two barrels of Lee W. Sinclair to sell through their virtual liquor store. The first pick was universally praised. Even critics who had historically been very dismissive of craft whiskey had to offer admiration for this Lee W. Sinclair selection.
Seelbach’s is discriminating about the spirits they carry. I asked Blake what drew him to Spirits of French Lick: “Alan is one of the most knowledgeable and accessible guys in the industry. The motto at Spirits of French Lick is ‘Respect the Grain’ and Alan very much takes that to heart”.
Just as the final bottles from the first barrel were selling out, Blake and Seelbach’s selected a second barrel which has just been released on their website. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to be a part of Blake’s selection team for this second barrel.
A Difference of Degrees
We had six samples from which to select and the diversity of profiles that Alan can elicit from Lee W. Sinclair was on display. Herbal, floral, baking spices, chocolate, and vanilla were distinctive notes in different samples. It is common knowledge that barrels from the same run stored right next to each other can vary significantly in taste as they mature. What causes that? A subtle difference of degrees in longitude? Imprecise barrel charring? The fickle nature of Bourbon fairies sprinkling barrels with their magic dust?
An example of this was barrels #46 and #47. These barrels rested next to each other in the SoFL chai cellar. One, barrel #46, was the first Seelbach’s pick. It had notes of chocolate and pancake syrup with a bit of pepper on the long finish. The other, barrel #47, was one of the samples tasted for the second pick. #47 had a profile full of vanilla and cinnamon. Maybe in this case the variance could be attributed to a couple of extra months in the barrel for #47. However, these were rather significant differences in flavor and these differences are part of the magic of Bourbon and partly why Alan considers himself to be more of an alchemist than a distiller.
Alan (left) in the chai cellar with a customer.
Barrel #52
Blake’s selection team met with Alan via Skype. After the first round of tasting, we narrowed six options down to three, including #47 mentioned above. Ultimately it came down to barrel #52 and #56. I thought that #56 was “Lee W. Sinclair on steroids”. The flavors seemed almost identical to the off-the-shelf expression, only at barrel proof (certainly not a bad thing). Barrel #52 was also a standout and unique among the six sampled. At one point, I thought the selection team would pick #56 and I was running through my mind which friends I could get to go in with me to buy barrel #52! In the end, however, Blake selected #52 because of its outstanding and unique taste profile.
As bottled, barrel #52 is at 107 proof and is the standard Lee W. Sinclair mashbill of 60% corn, 13% wheat, 17% oat and 10% caramel malt. When tasting, I get notes of toasted hazelnut, vanilla, and orange-floral (I guess you could call it “orange blossom”) on the nose. The palate is full and round adding caramel and tobacco. The finish lingers with a passing hint of chocolate then tobacco, a bit of pepper and some subtle oak. At 3 years, 11 months it is extraordinarily complex. Get one before they’re gone: regret is the worst of tasting notes.
A Spirit Breaking Free
Even in a year of pandemic and riots and way too much politics, people still need to live their lives the best they can. Despite all the distractions and obstacles, 2020 defiantly remains what I’ve called “the year of Spirits of French Lick”. The launch of the private selection program is just one little victory preceding a cavalcade of others.
Last month saw the surprise release of Unpretentious. It is a gift-shop-only offering of the SoFL high rye Bourbon finished in port casks. The Instagram posts from Alan (@thealchemistcabinet) on this release are well worth your time to look up. This Bourbon is also very much worth the time and effort to obtain, too
Within the next month we will see the release of Mattie Gladden (this is a bottled-in-bond, high rye Bourbon) and also a bottled-in-bond version of Lee W. Sinclair. Later in the year, Spirits of French Lick will bottle their first rye whiskey called Solomon Scott followed by a buckwheat Bourbon (yes, Buckwheat) offering named The Morning Glory. All whiskies from Spirits of French Lick are named after notable and infamous people or places in the history of the French Lick region and all are available as part of the distillery’s private selection program.
If you are not yet familiar with Alan Bishop and what he and his team at Spirits of French Lick has been doing, now is the time to start paying careful attention. Because they have trusted their intuitions and dared to take a different course in what whiskey they make and how they make it, this southern Indiana distillery is on the verge of hitting milestone after milestone and gaining more momentum through 2020 and beyond.
A spirit breaking free.
