Letter from the Editor
“I see, I see,” said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.
A hammer can be a wonderful tool. Whether building a bar, removing a wayward nail, or simply trying to knock some sense into Old Pee-rog, sometimes a hammer is just what you need. Other times, like when opening a bottle of bourbon, the use of a hammer would be quite flawed. Hindsight, like a hammer, can also be a wonderful tool when used appropriately. After a time of thought and reflection, hindsight can help to provide understanding and reason, but unfortunately this wisdom can never time-travel back to help make that initial decision. Hindsight bias, however, can be damning when it creates a false confidence or an “I told you so mentality” that only surfaces after a truth has been revealed.
For me, joining the Bourbon Society of Baton Rouge (BSoBR) late May 2019 was one of the easiest things I have done. I attended the 2018 Christmas party only knowing one person, but quickly started to meet some wonderful people and make some great friends in Bourbon. Reflecting back on that decision provides all the justification I needed as I have seen this wonderful community grow from it’s first twenty-five members last spring to now over four hundred men and women strong. I did not have this knowledge sixteen months ago when making this decision, but I sure am glad I trusted my gut. The point of this story is not to sing the praises of our beloved band of BSoBR misfits, but to remind you that the benefits of hindsight are not available when making that first decision to join a group or even when buying a bottle of bourbon. Instead, trust your gut and trust your taste buds as you dive into the delicious world of bourbon with us.
In an attempt to remove all forms of bias when tasting bourbon and bring out the inherent goodness in all of us, I have collected a group of five individuals from the BSoBR ranks with differing palates, years of experience with bourbon, and spoken preferences of bottles and brands. We will focus on doing independent and group blind tastings with the hopes of providing honest descriptions and tasting notes to some of the bourbons many of you have (or want to have) on your shelves. We will be honest, opinionated, and, most hopefully, unswayed by popular norms. While not every bottle review may be blind, the author’s name will never be published, leaving the reviewer blind to you, the reader. We want the write-ups to be interesting, interactive, and engaging and we plan to deliver content each month in the following formats:
1. “Blind the Gap” – this will be our most common format and is meant to reduce the distance between “what people like” and “what people are supposed to like.” The bottle is known by the reviewer(s), but the author will not be credited. Too many times people read what they “should taste” and then immediately convince themselves they are tasting it. This often comes from a trusted source or respected reviewer, but leaves little to no wiggle room for self-discovery. By eliminating author bias, we will hopefully challenge this notion and invite you to cordially discuss your agreements or differing tasting notes.
2. “BlindSight” – this format will further the blind scale by having a single bottle/sample unknown to the reviewer. The author will still not be credited to maintain the elimination of reviewer bias, but this format will allow the reviewer to eliminate any preconceived brand bias. The hope here is to find some diamonds in the rough as well as start the conversation of many bourbons who may not live up to their labelled hype.
3. “Blinded by the Flight” – this format will be done once per month and will include all 5 reviewers being given one blind sample or a small grouping of blind samples. We hope this format will incorporate the most involvement by having other BSoBR members offer a blind sampling to the group and other times having members joining us in the blind tasting.
We are very excited to unveil this component of the website and thoroughly look forward to you all joining in with us. As a “spoiler alert,” all links will include the name of the bottle in the title and we encourage you all to try the bourbon before reading the review! Come up with your own tasting analysis and post in the #reviews section of the Discord. Remember to be honest, be brave, be kind, and always #BSoBR.
-Brad Jones, Editor-in-Chief