In response to my post about Hochatown Distilling Company on Facebook, someone posted a bottle of Old Alker six year old bourbon and commented that they wanted to visit this distillery. My wife decided I needed a New Orleans trip for my birthday because I have been under a lot of stress at work, so we planned it and it included a trip to Old Alker on Oak Street in uptown New Orleans. On the tour was Catherine, me, and a wonderful lady who is a regular at their bar but had never taken the distiller’s tour.
The story of Old Alker distillery begins with Bobet Barrel and Stave founded by the Bobet/Alker family around 1848 in New Orleans. At the time, it was the largest producer of oak barrels and staves in the United States. Additionally, Alker Hall was a speak easy in New Orleans during prohibition.
Seven or eight years ago, Kevin Alker decided to build a distillery in New Orleans to build on that family heritage. The project began with distilling his own mashbill of 70% corn, 20% rye, and 10% barley at Peerless Distilling in Kentucky, and then bringing the barrels back to Louisiana to age. While the distillery is on Oak Street in New Orleans, the main barrel house is an old warehouse on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The have been known to freeze barrels to get them to release the devils cut of their barrels but they didn’t have any when I went. The have a very unique distillation setup; they have a custom made rig for initial distilling that is not from Vendome, and then two copper pot stills made by Al-Ambiq in Portugal.
Of course, the primary question I had for them was about water. Louisiana water tends to be iron rich which can often make whiskey very very dark, almost black, and can adversely affect the flavor. The water in New Orleans is particularly hard. Old Alker uses a process called reverse osmosis to make the water extremely clear and pure and therefore perfect for distilling. The use non-GMO grains and well made barrels.
My tour guide, who is also the co-production manager and creator of Old Alker’s cocktail program is Ryan Guillory who is originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, which I visit often for both business and pleasure. He was very knowledgeable and informative, and conducted a wonderful tasting session of two different batches of Old Alker Black and White label bourbon.
After the tasting, I bought both the white (100 proof) and black (116.5 proof) labels from Batch 9. Currently, Old Alker is handling their own distribution so distribution is fairly limited, but as they grow their aging stocks hopefully it will see wider distribution, as their bourbon is very good.
Old Alker Collection Batch 9 100 proof (white label): The color on this is a solid amber typical for a 100 proof bourbon of this age. On the swirl is a thick film and legs; this is a nice oily bourbon. On the nose, there are wonderful vanilla notes, cereal notes, and some nice oak. On the palate is an old school bourbon, with tons of caramel and vanilla, but also some citrus notes, and hints of cinnamon and clove. On the finish, the cinnamon and clove notes really come to the fore, along with burnt orange. The distillery claims that the finish tastes like Cafe Brulot (or Cafe Diable, depending on the restaurant), and I don’t disagree – burnt brandy and oranage curacao with coffee and cinnamon. On the palate and on the finish are also hints of Peychaud bitters, harkening to New Orleans’ cocktail tradition that started with the Sazerac. The flavors in this bourbon certainly could stand up to the herbsaint and bitters in a Sazerac, I think this is best enjoyed neat. The complex flavors are very enjoyable. The only downsides are there is a bit of youthful bitterness that detract from the flavor in my newly opened bottle. But, I didn’t detect this at my tasting at the distillery, so I bet these notes fade with a little oxygen in the bottle.
Old Alker Collection Batch 9 Cask Strength (black label): There are only 60 bottles of this cask strength bourbon. This bourbon is a little darker than its white label brother, obviously to be attributed to the water they had to add to lower the proof from 116.5 to 100. On the swirl is a super thick film with big thick long legs revealing the oily quality of this bourbon straight from the barrel. The nose is luscious with caramel and vanilla with hints of black pepper, with some nice oak in the background. On the palate, the caramel and vanilla notes are very enhanced compared to its 100 proof brother; there are also notes of red hots, clove, cocktail bitters, citrus fruit, dark fruits, and cardamom. The flavors eclipse the youthful bitterness so I don’t notice it on this bourbon. This is a New Orleans second line band of flavor in your mouth. This bourbon definitely has a sense of place.
I do highly recommend the distiller’s tour and tasting at Old Alker in New Orleans, and bringing some borubon home. But what is also really cool about the distillery is that it has become the neighborhood bar in that part of uptown New Orleans. We left to go out to eat as folks were showing up for the LSU game.