5.0 | Buffalo Trace Bourbon: Age Comparison 0-15 years

[@solon8979]

Really enjoying all of your content! Question about the tanin progression shown at 18:38, is there a bottle between the raw distillate and buffalo trace that let's you estimate the high point? Or just your best guess at what the curve looks like?

[@AnOdysseyInMixology]

Thanks! Really cool question, I went back and forth on that slide for a while. This was my thinking. Sorry for the essay. There isn’t a bottle between white dog and buffalo trace that I know of. The graph is an estimate, but I did my best to try and put something realistic down. I don’t think they want to be associated with a sub 2 year bourbon haha. From researching, the barrel impact starts immediately and is not really linear. The most impact happens in the beginning kind of like a shock to the system and then the increase slows down a bit over the decades. The biggest change is from year 0 to year 2 rather than year 6 to year 8. The tannins are highest/harshest at the beginning point and then start to mellow out before the 2-4 year mark it seems. So that drives the shape of the graph. Steep start to a high point and then dropping rapidly and slowing down as the aging starts to take effect. As far as how high the high point is. I went out and grabbed a bottle of the youngest Kentucky bourbon I could find. Quarterhouss was on sale and aged for only a year. I tried the straight as well. Grainy, sharp alcohol, harsh tannin, no good barrel impact and what is there is light, etc. I just wanted a data point at the 1-2 year mark because although BT is far better quality, they very likely have a similar tannin spike. Maybe the spike is lower for BT but harsh tannin seems to be a bit separate from the quality of the distillate so I would hope that it follows a similar trend.

[@Tequilalover2020]

Really cool video! It''s a change from your normal cocktail and liqueur videos but I found it really interesting! PS please do a tequila one next lol

[@AnOdysseyInMixology]

Thanks! I needed a break from the cocktails haha. Great idea! I’d love to do that. I’ve been meaning to grab the new milagro cristalino tequila so that’ll complete my milagro set.

[@chrisdimal9869]

​@@AnOdysseyInMixology Sadly Milagro most probably have additives, and as a result, the comparison will not be as seamless compared to this video.

[@AnOdysseyInMixology]

Huh yea you’re right. Honestly I thought they were pure but I guess not. I still like them as budget bottles but I agree that for a comparison video I’ll have to go a different brand. Thanks for the heads up! That would have been embarrassing haha.

[@chrisdimal9869]

@@AnOdysseyInMixology I will say this was just for information's sake. It could still be interesting and I was not wanting to dissuade your video idea. I would just say it's helpful to notify viewers that the additive situation is unconfirmed. Sadly, we may never get good answers again after the CRT quashed Tequila Matchmaker's Additive Free certification programme.

[@AnOdysseyInMixology]

@ Nah it’s good to know! Maybe it’s 95% the same either way but It’s a lot of effort to make these videos so I’d like to be as accurate as possible. Maybe there’s another video in there for additive vs non-additive spirits haha. Who knows.

[@callyamama5156]

Forgot the benchmark 8 it’s the mash #1 aged 3+ years

[@AnOdysseyInMixology]

@@callyamama5156 Haha yea I did. Completely slipped my mind. That would have been a cool data point... Hindsight is 20/20