Fighting Cock

[Brewer]

I wasn't planning on opening this bottle today, but due to a slight mishap, it was opened for me. So, I figured that's a sign that I'm supposed to try this today...so I did. My first impression is that this is a pretty good pour, even though it kicks up some heat as it rumbles about in the mouth & throat. I thought there'd be more of a burn to it, based on feedback I'd gotten from others, & yeah there is some, but not as much as expected. As Mike says in his review, a bit of water does help. All in all...not bad. I'll do a review after I've gotten a bit more familiar with this bottling. I'd be interested in hearing others opinions.

[angelshare]

I have enjoyed Fighting Cock for several years. It's the perfect name - an in your face robust flavor but some heat to go with it. I'm ambivalent about the water, as it tames the heat but also tones down the mouth pretty quickly. I would say that I drink it about half the time with H20, half without.

I'm not sure when it happened, but sometime during the course of my FC consumption, it went from 8 years to six years. Recently I found an old bottle of 8 year FC but have not yet opened it to confirm my memory that the 8 year really was significantly better. I'll try to comment when I do.

Fair balance - Tina is very unimpressed with FC and rarely if ever drinks it.

[bunghole]

Props to Tina!

[Strayed]

I agree with Tina and Linn... about the 6-yr-old. The 8-yr-old with the paper label is astoundingly different. It's like comparing today's Old Taylor with the National Distillers version. I didn't know it was phased out; we got ours in Tennessee just a few years ago and it was the only version we saw there, so I thought it was a distribution thing * . We later found some in Maryland, but we've seen the plastic-label 6-yr-old there, too. I'm glad we picked up as much as we did, because it's very good bourbon (the pepperiest I've ever tasted), and it's fun to see the surprise on the faces of friends familiar with the 6-yr-old when they try it.

Fighting Cock is an old brand whose history holds some interesting tidbits. According to Sam Cecil, in the mid-'70s "Ben Ripy was operating [the bottling plant at the old Hoffman Distillery in Anderson County], and was bottling the brand Fighting Cock as well as some private brands for Julian P. Van Winkle III...". In 1983, according to Sally Campbell, Julian purchased the Hoffman Distillery and he operated its bottling plant for nearly twenty years as the Old Commonwealth Distillery (RD#112) until his recent move to Buffalo Trace. Cecil noted that, as of 1968 Hoffman (operating as Ezra Brooks then) was still distilling new whiskey, so it's interesting to speculate what became of it. It might have been the Fighting Cock being bottled (it would have been six to eight years old, depending on what Sam meant by "mid-'70s"). Julian might be able to tell us if he knows where any of the other Hoffman stock went. Or maybe not.

Whiskey made in 1968 would have been just 15 years old in 1983. Anyway, they weren't bottling Fighting Cock at Hoffman after 1978, because Heaven Hill purchased the brand that year, according to KY attorney general Trey Grayson. I'm positive that the bottles we have certainly don't date back to that time, so they're probably just an older version of the same 6-yr-old FC we don't like today. It is surprising what two more years can do to what must be the same whiskey. Linda and I brought some along to the KBF Sampler last month. We never managed to get it out to the gazebo, but some got a chance to try it in our room and everyone enjoyed it.

BTW, Koji brought us a bottle of 12-yr-old Fighting Cock from Japan which is also good, but really too old. The 8-yr is perfect.

* When the current, "frontier" version of Bulleitt was first marketed it was only available in Ohio and I think one other state. You couldn't find it in Kentucky at all. It was the only reason I can think of to buy bourbon in Ohio

[gillmang]

I don't know but that the 8 year old FC might have been made by one of the predecessor distilleries you mentioned.

The chance recently to taste older versions of whiskey (older-made) vs. newer seems to confirm in all cases that the older was better. I don't know why this is, probably it is a combination of less technology at the old shops (e.g. less stainless steel, more cypress wood and ceramic-tiled vats, more jug yeast vs. dried industrial), less marketing input, grain that was less intensively bred than today, the use of of mother wit vs. the lab, etc. The other day on a whim I bought some butter that was labelled organic. I figured this (the organic thing) is more or less a con and this is the first time I bought anything called organic but I was amazed at the difference in taste in this butter, it had a rich full taste most butter we get here never has. So I think the same thing happened with whiskey (good as much of it still is). The good news is there is the glimmer of production that can hearken back to the old ways, hopefully the Kulsveen venture will do that, maybe even Julian's work with Trace (whose bourbon is pretty fine as it is), maybe the craft distilling ventures that are popping up.

Gary

[tlsmothers]

Bob, we featured Fighting Cock at the store for Chinese New Year (year of the rooster, ya know). I liked it with OJ. Crack of the Dawn, I think it was called on the Fighting Cock web site. Nice morning drink.