Basil Hayden's

Basil Hayden's
Type Bourbon whiskey
Manufacturer Beam Suntory
Country of origin Kentucky, United States
Introduced 1992
Alcohol by volume 40.00%
Proof (US) 80
Related products Jim Beam
Website basilhaydens.com

Basil Hayden's is the lightest bodied bourbon whiskey in the family of Jim Beam small batch bourbons produced by Beam Suntory. It is 80 proof, in contrast with its three sibling brands of higher alcohol concentration (Knob Creek, Booker's, and Baker's).

The Basil Hayden's bourbon brand was introduced in 1992 and is named in honor of Meredith Basil Hayden Sr. Hayden was a distiller, and he used a larger amount of rye in his mash than in some other bourbons. Later, Hayden's grandson Raymond B. Hayden founded a distillery in Nelson County and named his label "Old Grand-Dad", in honor of his grandfather, [1] which bears a rendering of Basil Sr.'s likeness. When Beam Industries introduced their "small batch" collection, among the four was "Basil Hayden's," which the company says uses a mash similar to that originally utilized by Hayden in 1792.

The brand expression was originally labeled as "Aged 8 Years", but in 2014, the age statement was replaced by "Artfully Aged", indicating that the brand no longer carries an age guarantee.

Meredith Basil Hayden Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey bottle bearing the "Artfully Aged" nomenclature as of 2015

History of the Haydens

Basil Hayden Sr. was a Maryland Catholic who led a group of twenty-five Catholic families from Maryland into what is now Nelson County, Kentucky (near Bardstown) in 1785. There Hayden donated the land for the first Catholic church west of the Alleghenies and the first Catholic church in what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The Heydons (original spelling) emigrated to the Virginia Colony in the 1660s, when much of Britain became inhospitable to Catholics. Francis Hayden, Basil Sr.'s great-grandfather and the first Heydon (then switching to Hayden), moved from Virginia to Maryland in 1678, settling in St. Mary's County on St. Clement's Bay, where the family remained until Basil led his band of Catholic families into present-day Nelson County, Kentucky. During the American Revolution, Basil Sr. supplied provisions to the Colonial Army.

Hayden's family can be traced back to England (Norfolk) to the period shortly after the Norman Conquest. One ancestor, Simon de Heydon, was knighted by Richard the Lionheart in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade in the 1190s. His son, Thomas de Heydon, was made Justice Itinerant of Norfolk by Henry III. Around 1400, another ancestor, John Heydon, appears to have been associated with "The Grove"[2] – a large estate in Watford (Hertfordshire), located about twenty miles northwest of London. Some researchers have speculated that John Heydon was given the estate for his father Sir Richard de Heydon's services in the French Wars, where Sir Richard perished.[3] Others are less sure. But Heydons definitely lived in Watford from the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries.

Reviews

Food critic Morgan Murphy said "The rye-heavy whiskey is aged 8 years and carries a buttery flavor and smooth, tannic finish."[4]

  • In the Friends episode "The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie", a co-worker says he will give Chandler some Basil Hayden's if he will set him up with Rachel, and Chandler has no idea what it is.
  • The Fountains of Wayne song "Red Dragon Tattoo" from the album Utopia Parkway features the line "Drink down a lot of Basil Hayden/Get kicked out when I can't see straight."
  • Basil Hayden's whiskey—presumably the Old Grand-Dad variety first bottled in 1840—is mentioned at various times on the HBO series Deadwood as a high-class brand of bourbon served at Le Chez Amis and the preferred drink of Francis Wolcott. The madam Joanie Stubbs breaks a bottle over his head during the episode "Childish Things".
  • In the 2011 James Bond novel by Jeffery Deaver, Carte Blanche, Bond's bourbon of choice at his flat is Basil Hayden's.
  • In Season 5 Episode 3 of the Netflix series House of Cards, Chief of Staff Doug Stamper enters a dive bar and asks the bartender for "Basil Hayden's, double, neat" on Election Day Eve. The bartender responds that he doesn't carry such high-end liquor.

References

  1. ↑ Beam Suntory: Old Grand-Dad History
  2. ↑ Lovett, Dennis; Robert Heasman; David Wild (1984). The Grove Story. British Railways Board (Double Arrow Club). ISBN 0-9509320-0-0.
  3. ↑ Hayden Family History: The Watford/Hertfordshire Branch
  4. ↑ Murphy, Morgan; Editors of Southern Living magazine (2014). Southern Living Bourbon & Bacon: The Ultimate Guide to the South's Favorite Foods. Oxmoor House. ISBN 978-0848743161.
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