Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey
This Kooper Family Texas Whiskey is an excellent Straight Bourbon distilled in Indiana and matured in Texas.
As 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. However, the whiskey isn’t named directly after the album but after Michelle Kooper, who co-produces the whiskey. She got the nickname of ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ because of her ‘sweet but potentially fiery disposition’.
It was a bold move as they both had exciting and busy lives already. Troy was a Creative Director in advertising and created advertising campaigns for such illustrious names as the NBA, Microsoft, and Nike. For him, distilling and brewing was a relaxing hobby. 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.
In 2015 Troy and Michelle brought in their first 175 gallons of unaged whiskey from the brilliant Koval Distillery in Chicago. They put it in barrels and began aging it in the hot Texas climate, then released it as their Kooper Family 100% Rye Whiskey.
Texas Blending House
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. 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.
Blending Whiskies
Blending is a whole other skill, aside from doing the distilling in the first place. See my post about Blending Like a Master. 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.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey
This Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey is bottled at 45% ABV and is a mix of 75% corn, 21% rye, and 4% malted barley. The original distillate is made by the MGP Distillery in Indiana, then taken to Texas for maturing. 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. It’s matured for four years in new American charred oak barrels, qualifying it as a straight bourbon.
While there’s nothing special about the bottle, there is something special about what’s inside. The nose is vanilla creamy, butterscotch and caramel, pepper, other spices, orange citrus, and some grassy/herbal aromas. It’s certainly a rich swirl of scents.
On the palate it’s just as rich. 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 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.
Buying Sweetheart of the Rodeo Whiskey
At the moment the whiskey is only available in Texas and California, and you can find out exactly where on the website. If it’s not available at an outlet near you, you can also buy it on Drizly. Don’t miss my review of the Kooper Family Rye.