FIghting cock
Fighting Cock Bourbon. To many people, this is the dusty bottom shelf turd Bourbon bottle that one sees on the way to pick up their handle of Kessler or Ten High. This incredibly difficult to photograph bottle is terribly under-appreciated not just by Heaven Hill (who have neglected this bottle and barely acknowledge its existence (no seriously, check the website, I dare you to find it), but by the whiskey community at large.
64 words of sludge, yes I counted, so you don’t have to.. I want to know what “award” they won for the packaging and what clown shoe organization awarded it. “FC appeals to both MALE Gen X-ers and serious bourbon lovers alike.” A caveman with crayons wrote this, probably.
This delightfully inexpensive yet tragic bottom shelfer has a drab label that doesn’t grab anyone’s attention. Please allow me to explain why it should interest you. Fighting Cock is now practically six years old (used to be 6, 8, and 15 years old), 103 proof, and under $20 for chrissakes. The nose features a knockout bouquet of butterscotch and cinnamon and it just tastes like the perfect Bourbon should taste. It shouldn’t surprise you that it can be enjoyed neat, and it packs just enough heat to stand up to mixers. It’s about as unpretentious a whiskey as you can find.
Pound for pound, dollar for dollar, this is the people’s Bourbon, even though the people don’t yet know it. Folks rightly lament the loss of the stupidly under-priced Heaven Hill White Label Bottled-in-Bond, or they proclaim their undying love for Evan Williams White Label. Both of these are very good Bourbons. I feel justified in stating that Fighting Cock is superior to both.
Fighting Cock typically fills my flask when walking through the French Quarter, and it stands up to the experience better than most. It has so much flavor that even without a Denver and Liely glass, it’s still enjoyable. A flask is admittedly underwhelming compared to proper glassware but since go-cups aren’t glass, one has to have a proper flask on a walk from bar to bar (especially with the crumbling infrastructure here in New Orleans. Don’t believe me? Check out this sadly hilarious IG page). Drinking it straight out the flask, or using it to refill an empty cup, it just works in all the right ways. If you share it with someone they aren’t offended, often believing you brought the really good stuff with you.
Yes, Sunday Night Fights featured Wild Turkey 101 being defeated by Fighting Cock.
Fighting Cock was a surprise champion on an episode of Sunday Night Fights, defeating Wild Turkey 101! It shocked us, and it startled the fight fans who had been expecting a rout by the ubiquitous Bourbon from Wild Turkey. Many people’s eyes were opened that evening, and it knighted more than a few promoters of the brand.
Fighting Cock handily overcame all of Wild Turkey’s strengths. The butterscotch nose was a judge’s favorite and Turkey was overmatched from then on. Of all the fights we have done, this was likely my absolute favorite episode. It really set the tone for SNF going forward and solidified series’ intention to change minds and alter perceptions.
Tell us this isn’t better than the current design, go on, tell us. Joey2spikes is a genius.
The Fighting Cock brand has a long history. Sadly most of it is lost as it predated the internet, yet some of the older bottles still exist, and can occasionally be found on the secondary market (the 8 year is sublime). Heaven Hill treats the Fighting Cock barbecue sauce with more reverence (it holding a large place in the gift shop) than it does the Bourbon itself. It’s got a dreadful bottle with a visible seam in the glass, a twist top, and a clear plastic sticker which makes it damn near impossible to get a good picture of (a cardinal sin in the social media age!). Joey 2 Spikes has been a hardcore advocate for a label redesign, and has done several wonderful mockups, Come on HH, hire the man! He loves the brand more than you do!
This heavily filtered picture is about the best we can do. It’s a hateful experience trying to get a good shot of this bottle.
I have long championed the refreshing and expanding of the brand itself, much like Beam has done with the Old Overholt line. Some easy moves to make begin with adding back the 6-year age statement, redesigning the label and bottle (honor the current label if you want but give it a proper white background), and keeping the screw cap. Then, add an 8-year, with a retro 8-year label (click the link, it’s gorgeous). Lastly, release an ultra-premium 15-year (yes, it existed) with a cork, a retro-tax strip, and maybe a silly box with actual chicken wire on the front. These changes could make it a vibrant segment of the portfolio, not just the current placeholder pigeon shit magnet that doesn’t even warrant merch on the merch page.
I think Heaven Hill is sitting on the next Elijah Craig or Evan Williams here, but only if the Fighting Cock fans (cockers?) raise holy hell and bring the Elijah Craig grenades just in case the need for spilling blood emerges. I think we can bring FC to it’s proper place in the whiskey world, but only if more people try it out, and embrace the people’s Bourbon. I’ve done all this work royalty free for you HH, get it done.
We knew you’d be too lazy to click the link, so we give you this for free. You farging Lazy heads.
Lastly, I wish more bars carried it here in New Orleans. It really is better than the Evan Williams Green Label that is ubiquitous here (I call it NOLA’s Aftershave, found empty on streets everywhere). Barrel Proof and Pal’s Lounge do, and since those are my joints, I always start with a glass of it. I love when they put it in a Glencairn because it makes me feel so fancy, but it shows up just fine in a rocks glass too. Fighting Cock doesn’t care, it just shows up. Perhaps that’s the idea for a new ad campaign to replace the outdated “the bad boy of Bourbon” moniker - FIGHTING COCK, “it just shows up, and maybe women like it too.”
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, and thank you for visiting.
- Mickey Pinstripe