Bourbon: How A $25 Total Wine Private Label Won An Amateur Blind Tasting

When I learned of fantasy football guru and radio personality Paul Charchian’s “Whiskey Weekend,” I immediately realized this is one of the coolest amateur blind taste offs around.

Since 2013, Charchian, who’s appeared on the Steven Czaban podcast with me, and his fellow Minnesota friends (10 guys) rent a luxury cabin in Central Minnesota and sip until the greatest of the day is chosen. Each person brings a secret bottle that’s never made a Whiskey Weekend appearance.

“Over the course of four days, we conduct a double-elimination, blind A-B taste test,” Charchian says. “It’s like March Madness for whiskeys.”

The male bonding experience does not allow political speak, job discussion or phones. Well, phones are “begrudgingly accepted,” but it is February. In Minnesota.

“Since it’s a blind taste test, we’re evaluating each whiskey without the effect of marketing, name recognition, bottling or anything else that could influence us beyond the nose, taste and finish,” he says. “One guy is the contest administrator, and only he knows the identity of the bottles. He does not participate in the voting. At the top of each hour, he pours two whiskeys into shot glasses marked A and B. The group votes on a winner and a loser. Once a bottle has lost two times, it is eliminated from the competition and its identity is revealed—and we can start polishing off that bottle!”

 Even though, these are not the times for gatherings like this, Charchian’s methods and insights could still be used via Zoom or for planning down the road. I caught up with Charchian to learn the secrets to the Whiskey Weekend sauce.

Are all 10 guys whiskey fanatics?

As a group, our appreciation for whiskey runs from casual to rabid. The casual drinkers tend to skew our results toward low-proof, milder whiskeys—often bourbons. I find their voting increasingly frustrating as my tastes are developing into an appreciation for spicier, proofier whiskeys.

Some of the ten guys are very serious about winning our tasting competition and they often choose “crowd pleasers”, like Crown XO, a very sweet Canadian that nobody will find offensive. It’s a winning strategy. And, often it doesn’t take much money to win Whiskey Weekend. The average price point of our winning bottles is around $35.

 Out of our ten guys, only two enjoy peaty scotches, so most years, there’s only one or two bottles of scotch, and they’re pretty mild. One year, someone put Peat Monster into the competition. It tasted like hobo ass and lost quickly.

 Who are the past winners?

2020: Wolcott Special Release (a Total Wine exclusive)

2019: Crown Royal “Bourbon Mash”

2018: Old Tom Horan

2017: McKenna BiB

2016: Redbreast 15

2015: High West Bourye

2014: Crown XO

2013: Balvenie Doublewood

What do ten guys do when they’re not drinking?

We’re all gamers of various sorts. Our cabin comes with a pool table and foosball table. We play video games, board games, card games, and poker. 

What’s a brand that surprised you that stunk to high heavens?

I enjoy Woodford Reserve as a smooth, balanced whiskey I can serve to almost anyone. When I purchased Woodford Double Oaked, I remember thinking, “Double! I’ll like it twice as much!” I put the Double Oaked into the competition without having actually tasted it myself—a mistake I’ll never make again. 

 What a huge mistake. Double Oaked is not in my wheelhouse at all. To my palate, it’s pungent, smokey and bitter. After swallowing, the aftertaste made me wonder if there were still shards of barrel in my mouth.

And I wasn’t alone. It was the first whiskey eliminated that year.

 I know there are plenty of people reading this who adore an oaky flavor profile. Feel free to stop by my house and pickup a nearly full bottle of Woodford Double Oaked.

 Do you think you’ll ever have a whiskey weekend again?

Every February until I die, Fred. 

 And what did you think about this year’s winner, Wolcott? 

Wolcott was surprise win, even for the guy who brought it, Ace. Stopping at Total Wine to pick up his real whiskey entry into our competition, an employee urged Ace to add Wolcott to the event in addition to his other entry. At barely $20, Ace bought Wolcott on impulse and mostly forgot about it until about halfway through the weekend when it hadn’t yet been eliminated.

In our March Madness-style format, by the time a bottle gets to the “finals”, there’s not much left to drink. So, even after the Wolcott was revealed as the winner, it was tapped out, and I didn’t have it again for about a month, when I next visited Total Wine and picked up a bottle. 

After getting my bottle of Wolcott home and tasting it again, it turns out, we were right! Wolcott is damn good at any price, and when viewed through the lens of its meager $20 price tag, it’s an exceptional bourbon. It’s punchy and spicy, yet has sweet caramel and fruity tones to balance the flavor.

Although I don’t drink every day, Wolcott has become my “everyday” whiskey. 

Fred Minnick is a longtime whiskey writer and author of seven books. Follow him on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and sign up for his free drinks newsletter.