But no major band had gone so deep into the sound and feeling of classic country (without parody or condescension) as the Byrds did on Sweetheart at a time when most rock fans viewed country as a musical "L'il Abner" routine, the Byrds dared to declare that C&W could be hip, cool, and heartfelt. Don’t miss my review of the Kooper Family Rye.The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo was not the first important country-rock album ( Gram Parsons managed that feat with the International Submarine Band's debut Safe at Home), and the Byrds were hardly strangers to country music, dipping their toes in the twangy stuff as early as their second album. If it’s not available at an outlet near you, you can also buy it on Drizly. Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey Buying Sweetheart of the Rodeo WhiskeyĪt the moment the whiskey is only available in Texas and California, and you can find out exactly where on the website. The mix of sweet and spice carries through onto the finish for a quality straight bourbon whiskey, which not surprisingly has won a Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The caramel and vanilla are still there, on the creamy end, while spices add contrast, and there’s some orange and chocolate too… or a chocolate orange, I suppose. The nose is vanilla creamy, butterscotch and caramel, pepper, other spices, orange citrus, and some grassy/herbal aromas. While there’s nothing special about the bottle, there is something special about what’s inside.
It’s matured for four years in new American charred oak barrels, qualifying it as a straight bourbon. The Koopers are responsible for choosing the barrels, choosing the conditions, and checking the spirit constantly till it’s matured to produce what they’re looking for in this particular whiskey. The original distillate is made by the MGP Distillery in Indiana, then taken to Texas for maturing. This Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey is bottled at 45% ABV and is a mix of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. Troy Kooper Blending Whiskies Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey I’ve also spoken to a cognac blender who told me that you can actually produce a great cognac by blending two ordinary cognacs, but on the other hand you could take two quality cognacs and ruin them by blending them in the wrong proportions. See my post about Blending Like a Master. Blending Whiskiesīlending is a whole other skill, aside from doing the distilling in the first place. So what’s interesting about them is that they’re a blending house rather than a distillery, as they buy in distillates from places including Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Illinois. The couple then took some of that distillate and blended it with a Tennessee whiskey they’d found to produce their Kooper Family Rye, A Blend of Straight Rye Whiskies. Troy and Michelle Kooper, Texas Whiskey Blenders Texas Blending House They put it in barrels and began aging it in the hot Texas climate, then released it as their Kooper Family 100% Rye Whiskey. In 2015 Troy and Michelle brought in their first 175 gallons of unaged whiskey from the brilliant Koval Distillery in Chicago. Michelle had graduated from The University of California, Berkeley, then got her Master’s from Columbia University in New York, and was on her way to getting her Ph.D, in education from Columbia when her career path changed totally. For him, distilling and brewing was a relaxing hobby. Troy was a Creative Director in advertising and created advertising campaigns for such illustrious names as the NBA, Microsoft, and Nike. It was a bold move as they both had exciting and busy lives already. It was founded by the husband and wife team of Troy and Michelle Kooper in 2012, after they decided that they wanted to leave the corporate and academic worlds and pursue their dream of making whiskey. This Straight Bourbon is from the Kooper Family Distillery in Ledbetter, Texas, about an hour east of Austin. She got the nickname of ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ because of her ‘sweet but potentially fiery disposition’. However, the whiskey isn’t named directly after the album but after Michelle Kooper, who co-produces the whiskey. This Kooper Family Texas Whiskey is an excellent Straight Bourbon distilled in Indiana and matured in Texas.Īs soon as I heard the name I wanted to try it, as the Byrds’ album Sweetheart of the Rodeo is one of my favorite country-rock albums of all time.