Like the Derby, There’s No Clear Winner in This Kentucky Bourbon Taste Test

An estimated 120,000 mint juleps were served to the 150,000 spectators at Churchill Downs on Saturday—requiring a half-ton of mint and 60,000 pounds of ice—to accompany half a million cans of beer and 142,000 hotdogs. But 700 miles away, in a less-rainy New York, the Race Day experience on the rooftop of the Empire Hotel proved to be a more modest affair, despite the valiant attempts by an advertised “live Dixieland band.” (Though there was a complimentary mint julep with a takeaway copper mug included with your $50 ticket to attend.)

But an unadvertised feature at this inaugural event was our very own inaugural Kentucky Derby Triple Crown Tasting, conducted at various intervals that afternoon by a panel of three battle-weary, seasoned tasting veterans I had enlisted as guinea pigs. The cause? To determine the finest of three esteemed, Derby-themed Kentucky bourbons: Blade and Bow 22-Year-Old, a $300 limited release that honors the 84th anniversary of the opening of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery; Calumet Farm Single Rack Black, a $50 whiskey produced by a successful horse breeding and training farm; and the Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby 145, the “official” bourbon of the Kentucky Derby that runs about $44 per bottle.