In addition to being my good friend, Lew has been the Managing Editor of Malt Advocate almost as long as there’s been a Malt Advocate. Lew and I have a lot in common. We both started from the beer world, similar to the way Michael Jackson did.  He’s still very much involved in beer. (More than whiskey, actually.)

In addition to his writings and editorial input in Malt Advocate, he’s authored several very nice books on beer, and has a great blog, Seen Through a Glass.

I asked Lew if he would be kind enough to be this month’s guest blogger, and he accepted. He’s got a nice rant on young spirits (rye, bourbon, rum, etc.). Have a read. Tell us what you think. Do you agree with him?

A Bad Hat DayHi, John’s readers!

John invited me to throw something on his blog – much appreciated; thanks, John – and the first idea I came up with was the one we decided would be a good one, something I’ve been thinking about a lot in the past few years: young spirits. I keep thinking of something Fritz Maytag said at the rye whiskey roundtable Malt Advocate hosted a few years ago:

“Broadly speaking, the whiskey world thinks that older whiskey’s better. It’s like the wine world used to think that older wine was better. And I submit to you that older whiskey is different. Wonderfully different. And many older red wines are wonderfully different. They’re not better, they’re old. And that’s wonderful. But I submit to you that, especially because we have a big shortage of rye whiskey, you are all going to discover the beauty of young rye whiskey.”

It seemed prophetic, and it was, at least for me. I participated in a New York Times rye whiskey tasting panel three years ago, along with David Wondrich, and the difference between the young ryes in the group and the old ones was striking. The older ones were almost austere: dry, spicy, complex. The young ones were alive, grassy, so much so that you could almost feel the sunlight in them.

Young bourbons, even good ones, mostly strike me as hot, spicy, brash, and need ice or a mixer to smooth them out. But a good young rye is grassy, sweet, vibrant, and usually interesting enough to sip. I recently had a pre-release sample of 13 month old rye from Finger Lakes Distilling, and it was sweet, brittle, and water-of-life fresh, with a grassiness and mint character that brought a smile to my lips.

Why are some young whiskeys good and others, well, not so? I’m starting to suspect it’s because some spirits are just naturally suitable for drinking in the first flush of birth. Rum, for instance, is rich and broad-shouldered when aged, but it can be absolutely beguiling when young, too. Gin’s crispness sings with the intensity of being fresh-forged. A good vodka – and they’re out there, you just rarely see them in their unpolluted form – has an Arctic freshness tempered by the dry crease of good bond paper (a strange analogy, maybe, but that’s what my senses tell me).

But young brandy? It makes a good fire-starter. Poteen, mythology aside, is the kind of spirit you only drink when you have to. Grappa, pisco…don’t tell me I’ve “never had the good stuff,” I know I haven’t; no one ever has. Yeesh. Young Scotch whisky? Tons of promise, but subject to feinting spells.

And, as I said, bourbon. Young bourbon will scorch you. I remember the first time I had new make off the third still at Woodford: like a shot of Novocaine. Hot Novocaine. Some’s better than others: I’ve had new make at Maker’s Mark, and it was like a slightly sweet vodka, but not anything that would stand well on its own.

Why? Gin benefits from being flavored vodka: the botanicals are the drink, and the fresher the better. Rum gets more character from its cane or molasses than grain-based spirits get from their starchy source.

But rye? I don’t know. There’s rye in most bourbons, after all. Maybe a preponderance of rye makes a difference. If distillers can keep the price down on young rye, I intend to keep up the research.