The Man Who Brought Us WhistlePig Rye Follows It Up With... 150 Year Old Armagnac?!

Image courtesy Bhakta Brandy

One of my pet peeves is being asked to taste a spirit for the first time with people who either created it or have a big financial stake in it. I mean, what am I going to say? “Look, I know you’ve spent ten years creating this bourbon and you’ve sunk your life’s savings into making it, but it has this weird aftertaste that reminds me vaguely of puke”? I can also fall prey to the charms of the distiller, who can make me think I like something when I really don’t. A few years ago, I tasted a whiskey for the first time with the distiller. I wouldn’t say he and I I are buddy-buddy, but we’re friendly, and I confess, I wanted to like it. And I thought I did… until I tasted it blind in a competition and thought it tasted like garbage.

Anyway, long story short, I got invited to taste Bhakta Brandy — a blend of armagnacs distilled between 1868-1970, finished in Islay whisky casks — with Raj Bhakta himself. I’ve chatted with Raj a couple of times before, and he is charming and persuasive, as well as a little impulsive and eccentric. He co-founded WhistlePig Rye, which pretty much spearheaded the rye whiskey revival of the 2010s, but he also nearly got kicked off his own board of directors. And that sums him up in a nutshell.

I did wind up tasting the brandy on my own after protesting to the publicist, AND I got to talk with Raj. Both the brandy and the interview were fascinating and enjoyable. Read all about it over at Robb Report!