A couple of weeks ago the Southern California Whiskey Club digitally gathered to taste and rate 20 blind bourbons. Split into 2 different nights, one week apart, the members voted on a selection of bourbons that covered everything from mega distilleries like MGP and Beam down to small craft producers like Laws Whiskey House. The idea for this event was planted back in 2017 when we did our first 8 Blind Bourbons tasting which spawned all the others we’ve done since.
Like the 20 Blind Ryes, the whiskeys in this massive tasting were ordered by proof. We did this to keep a cask strength whiskey from overpowering and killing the subtleties of lower proofed whiskey in the lineup. Outside of that knowledge, and that the whiskey was all going to be bourbon, the members had no other clues about what they were drinking.
Also like with the 20 Blind Ryes event we had a full house for voting in round 1, but 3 members couldn’t make it for round 2 so I had to normalize the scores for the final-final results which I’ll include at the bottom. But first, let’s go round by round to see how the members ranked the different sets of 10.
SCWC 20 Blind Bourbons Round 1
(23 min, 115 Max)
- 46 Heaven’s Door Tennessee Bourbon
- 47 High West American Prairie
- 48 A.D. Laws Four Grain
- 52 Balcones Pot Still Bourbon
- 53 Clyde May’s Bourbon
- 63 Daviess County Bourbon
- 73 Daviess County Bourbon Cab Sauv Finish
- 74 Daviess County Bourbon French Oak Finish
- 75 Still Austin The Musician
- 79 Kentucky Owl Confiscated
SCWC 20 Blind Bourbons Round 2
(20 min, 100 Max)
- 49 Wilderness Wheated
- 50 Wild Turkey Master’s Keep BiB 17 Years
- 50 Willett 4 yo
- 54 New Riff SiB
- 55 Old Tub Bonded
- 56 Archives Heaven Hill 10 Years
- 59 Bardstown Fusion 2
- 61 Barrell Batch 24
- 65 Booker’s Noe Secret
- 71 Wilderness Trail High Rye
Remember, the below totals are not normalized to account for the difference between Round 1 where 23 people voted and Round 2 where 20 voted. They’re just the same numbers as above listed numerically to see the lists combined.
SCWC 20 Blind Bourbons Raw Totals
- 46 Heaven’s Door Tennessee Bourbon
- 47 High West American Prairie
- 48 A.D. Laws Four Grain
- 49 Wilderness Wheated
- 50 Wild Turkey Master’s Keep BiB 17 Years
- 50 Willett 4 yo
- 52 Balcones Pot Still Bourbon
- 53 Clyde May’s Bourbon
- 54 New Riff SiB
- 55 Old Tub Bonded
- 56 Archives Heaven Hill 10 Years
- 59 Bardstown Fusion 2
- 61 Barrell Batch 24
- 63 Daviess County Bourbon
- 65 Booker’s Noe Secret
- 71 Wilderness Trail High Rye
- 73 Daviess County Bourbon Cab Sauv Finish
- 74 Daviess County Bourbon French Oak Finish
- 75 Still Austin The Musician
- 79 Kentucky Owl Confiscated
And now for my favorite part, seeing how everything looks once we normalize the votes and account for the 3 missing. To me, these are the official rankings by the SoCcal Whiskey Club members.
SCWC 20 Blind Bourbons Adjusted Totals
(20 min, 100 max)
- 40 Heaven’s Door Tennessee Bourbon
- 41 High West American Prairie
- 42 A.D. Laws Four Grain
- 46 Balcones Pot Still Bourbon
- 47 Clyde May’s Bourbon
- 49 Wilderness Trail Wheated
- 50 Wild Turkey Master’s Keep BiB 17 Years
- 50 Willett 4 yo
- 54 Daviess County Bourbon
- 54 New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon
- 55 Old Tub Bonded
- 56 Archives Heaven Hill 10 Years
- 59 Bardstown Fusion 2
- 61 Barrell Batch 24
- 64 Daviess County Bourbon Cab Sauv Finish
- 65 Daviess County Bourbon French Oak Finish
- 65 Booker’s Noe Secret
- 66 Still Austin The Musician
- 67 Kentucky Owl Confiscated
- 71 Wilderness Trail High Rye
And there ya have it. The overall quality rankings of 20 different off-the-shelf bourbons by 20-23 whiskey drinkers. So what do you think? Any surprises in here for you when reading this?
Till next time, cheers!