Benchmark Vertical with ABVNetwork

How many times have you gone into a liquor store looking for a cheap, drinkable bourbon for under $15 or $20?

I know I’ve done it a few times (I skipped the college drinking and went right to the $40-$50 range…..oops). The same bottles are usually there - Evan Williams Black or White label, Jim Beam White Label, Old Grand-Dad, Early Times, JTS Brown, Heaven Hill Green Label, you get the idea. Maybe if the store is running a sale, Buffalo Trace will be down there, too.

But what about Benchmark? The Black-labeled bottle with a large, orange “8” and McAfee’s name in small lettering above the large-format “BENCHMARK” might be overlooked. Part of Buffalo Trace’s core Mashbill #1 (low-rye bourbon), it’s a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, meaning it’s at least 51% corn and aged at least 2 years in a new charred oak container (in this case, standard 53-gallon barrels). Keep in mind that this is the same mashbill as core products Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, the BTAC bourbons, and Stagg Jr., among others, showing what immense variety you can achieve from a single mashbill aged in different conditions.

Like many of these bottom-shelfers, their price and status belie a fairly long history in whiskey years. Benchmark, for example, is now distilled and put out by Buffalo Trace, having been bought from Seagram's in 1989 after ~25 years there.

It’s name was no accident - first produced in the late 1960s at Seagram’s Lawrenceburg, KY facility (now the home of Four Roses) Seagram's meant this to be the benchmark by which you’d measure your other bourbons and whiskies. This was a premier product, not the bottom-shelfer it is today. I haven’t had a chance to try the “old” Benchmark product (brownie points if you have a sample!), so I can’t speak to that.

Sadly, though, the current product had been relegated to the college party category. For $10/750ml or a liter, you pretty much couldn’t go wrong. Not a drain pour, but not your go-to either.

Then, earlier this year, Benchmark’s 80 proof “Rye Recipe” was joined by FIVE (5!!) new editions: Top Floor (from the top floor of BT’s warehouses), Small Batch (batch size undisclosed), Single Barrel (barrel information undisclosed), Bottled-in-Bond, and Full Proof (125 Proof). As Benchmark is at least 36 months/3 years old (except for the Bottled-in-Bond offering, which must be at least four years), Buffalo Trace’s decision here makes sense - quick turnaround, no 4, 8, 12, or more years to wait - if people like these, the very longest it would take to make more is three years. While distribution is nationwide, not everywhere is seeing every version yet, though in this case being in NY has its advantages.

So, the big question: how do these taste!?!?

Thanks to ABVNetwork and its fearless leader, Col. Steve Akley, now I know. On October 12th, I joined Steve and around 15 other tasters - including Buffalo Trace guide and taster Fred Mozenter - to taste the ENTIRE 6-part Benchmark vertical. Fred had the night’s best quote: paraphrasing, he said that for BT, low rye (mashbill #1) is low rye, high rye (mashbill #2) is medium rye, and high rye is Barton (another Sazerac brand and facility).

All six reviews are linked below, and the theme is simple: surprise. Call me a bourbon snob, but it’s rare that a young bourbon tickles my fancy. Either it’s too oaky, too thin, or just generally too young-tasting. I’m also a hardcore proof hound: ECBP is my jam and Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel is my favorite whiskey bar none. Each of these also had an intriguing note to them that in my opinion set them apart (even if, as in the case of Benchmark original, it tastes more like a young cognac than a bourbon or even a whiskey at all).

This is a flight worth doing and one that you could do with friends likely for under $100 all bottles included. Consider it at your next group tasting - among our group, Top Floor, BiB, and Full Proof were the consensus winners, but who knows, maybe your group will have different results.