The Cult of Sazerac

Sazerac is cool because its hard to get. Sazerac is also a very good rye. Sazerac also makes me think of whiskey they had in the westerns on TV.

The Topic
I feel like a good writer, the opposite of me, never gets unsure or struggles to find a topic. From week to week the chore of coming up with a topic seems to be my personal dragon. I resorted to asking people on my Twitter account (@MacmillanWhiskey) for suggestions. Don’t take this the wrong way Twitter followers, but when I say resorted it’s not your fault but mine for having to ask. On the upside I got lots of great ideas for future articles. in the end maybe I can make it a few more weeks without having to ask for a topic suggestion again, but one can only hope.

The Cult
Now to this week’s review. The number one spirit I was asked to review was Sazerac Rye or Baby Saz. This does not seem that shocking to me due to its underground cult following. Many people who have tasted Sazerac Rye have already become unofficial ambassadors of Buffalo Trace. This cult has sprung up in the American whiskey boom we are in right now. To understand what I mean by cult you need to look at what is going on in the premium bourbon category. For many years the idea of premium bourbon was very funny, kind of like a premium work truck. Marketing or just dumb luck took over at Buffalo Trace and they invented premium bourbon not on price but on demand. This idea would become the mission to all the followers in the cult of Trace. This Mission has one general rule: if a product only comes out once a year then it must be superior to normal product. This act of scarcity has built a premium category that once did not exist, and it only compounded by it being affordable to the general consumer. The people at Trace are not dumb, and this pullback of Van Winkle and Sazerac could give whiskey conspiracy theorist something to yam about for years. In the end we need to understand that Sazerac Rye is part of the brands that Buffalo Trace followers are talking about at golf games, cards, or a nice dinner. This act of spreading the message of Trace has up the demand, as the factory keeps production at the same level. This one act has built desirability, collectability, and fuels the cult of Trace. I don’t look at fans of Sazerac rye or Van Winkle as nut jobs. To tell you the truth I’ve got my black robes hanging in the closet just like everybody else. I don’t see anything wrong with being fanatical about a product. Just remember to keep an eye on the quality of the product so you don’t get taken for a ride. To look deeper into that we need to look at the juice

The Juice
Sazerac is good rye, and has desirability and collectability going for it. The Rye in baby saz makes me think of a bygone era in a cowtown saloon. Something about the bottle and the flavour of the rye makes me think, maybe this one bottle survived and I’m going to be the one person in the world to drink it. I’m sure all the hard work I did to get the bottle does not hurt in my mental image of cracking the seal on the last real saloon whiskey left in the world. Maybe my overactive imagination and youth of growing up in Northern Colorado adds to it. A youth forced to a Sunday full of Westerns thanks to my dad.

To sum this up Sazerac is cool because its hard to get. Sazerac is also a very good rye. Sazerac also makes me think of whiskey they had in the westerns on TV. You can use that information however you like. I find I enjoy daydreaming about tossing back a shot of Sazerac rye and robbing a stagecoach. You can find whatever daydream works best for you.

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