Favorite scotch or whisky?
At the moment I’d say Bushmills 21 or Highland Park 18
The horseman cometh…
favourite whisky is Bowmore 12, the 18 is also good if you want to push the boat out.
laphroaig quarter cask
I like my whiskey easily available, but not breaking the bank and fine quality.
Maker’s Mark.
I like Bulleit, and I’d give it a slightly higher quality level than MM. MM is good though.
Macallan 25
…but only because it’s the only good whiskey i’ve tried once.
Well . . . alphabetically:
- Aberlour A’bunadh
- Ardbeg Uigeadail
- Bruichladdich
- Lagavulin
- Laphroaig (the quarter cask is good; the cask-strength is better)
- Macallan (they have a cask-strength that they’re not bottling any more; get some: when it’s gone, it’s gone)
- Oban
- Talisker
- Tormore
Macallan ain’t whisk_ e _y.
It’s whisky.
Heathen!
you are a lucky man
The Macallan 12 Sherry Oak. - Very balanced, not expensive. My “everyday” choice.
I haven’t stumbled across anything from Macallan that I didn’t particularly enjoy (aside from the inconsistency in ABV in the now discontinued “Cask Strength”). To the dismay of my wallet I have begin amassing a Macallan collection. Currently at 15 or so seaparate distilations (Basically the standard “years” in Fine and Sherry Oak, the Duty Free exclusives, and The “Colors”, with some overseas discontinued bottles I found online and while aborad this year). It’s about as big a collection as it will get… paying for the 30yr I actually had buyers remorse and I wondered for a while if I had my priorites in order. I couldn’t imagine paying for the Rares… basically a Honda Civic in a bottle.
Any bruichladdich in specific?
I was gifted a bottle a couple years ago and it was fantastic. I’ve tried many since then which were sub-par in my opinion.
Still trying to track it down.
yea the guy supplying it said as much. i just chugged it and said “smooooth”. felt a little bad that i was partaking in something that i couldn’t fully appreciate.
beat me to it.
In the winter months, I’m a big bourbon drinker. My every day drinker is Maker’s Mark, but I usually rotate a few things through my cabinet at all times. My brother, father and I typically exchange bottles for birthdays, christmas, father’s day, etc. Just trying to find something different each time is part of the challenge. My personal favorite, although one that I haven’t seen in 18 months or so, and was rumored to be suspended for the time being, was Elijah Craig’s 18 year single barrel. A $45 price tag and a flavor profile that stood up against the very best bourbons in the world in my opinion. What might some of those “very best” bourbons be? Glad you asked.
Bourbons for when your life has turned into a country song:
Old Fitzgerald 100- There are probably other options here, they likely have “old” in the name, but I grew up on old fitz. Quite literally, my grandparents drank the stuff by the case and I developed a taste for it by my late teens. It’s drinkable, it’s cheap, it’s 100 proof, and due to a heavy wheat mash bill, it’s remarkably smooth for a segment that typically tastes like pure gasoline.
Bourbons one of your A-hole friends is just going to pour coke into:
W. L. Weller Special Reserve, Jim Beam White, Jim Beam Black - All can be had for under $20 a liter and make for great mixing whiskeys. You won’t feel guilty mixing it, and you won’t feel cheap drinking it. It tells your guests you care about their palette, but not too much.
Bourbons that you’re going to sip neat, but dammit, there are still bills to pay here:
Evan Williams Single Barrel, Bulleit, Maker’s Mark, Elijah Craig 12- These move into the mid 20’s in price, but the drinkability goes up considerably. All of these can be sipped and provide a fairly robust flavor with multiple layers from nose to finish. This is the one you pour when you’re concerned someone might want you to share.
Bourbons to be enjoyed while being thankful you aren’t a scotch drinker:
Four Roses Single Barrel, Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, Eagle Rare 17 year old - North of $40 a bottle, it’s tough to go wrong* with a single barrel or high aged product, but these are among my favorites. If you aren’t a consistent drinker of straight whiskey, you’ll likely not find the value in this segment, as the alcohol can often overhwelm the subtleties that separate these premium products from their lesser aged or blended namesakes. That’s not meant to be any sort of snobbery, just the reality of the situation. You’re paying double for a product that isn’t often all that different from the “lesser” offerings from the same distilleries. In fact, there are times where the mash bill is identical, and you’re just paying for an extra 2-5 years of storage of a barrel, that simply wasn’t ready at 10 or 12 years.
* I said it’s tough to go wrong, but you do need to watch out for NDP’s(non-distiller products). These are limited edition bottlings from companies that aren’t themselves distillers. So they’ll purchase aged stock from Beam or Brown Forman or Heaven Hill and they’ll do something, perhaps a finish in a different barrel type, perhaps a blend with some other mash bill from another supplier, or perhaps they’ll just throw it in a limited edition, numbered bottle, but regardless, these are typically a bad value. They can make a good gift as they often sound fancy and look nice, but isntead of buying a $45 bottle of Calumet Farms, buy a $45 bottle of Woodford and you’re way ahead.
One final note before you all ignore my wall of text. If you’ve got a group of friends and significant others, throw a tasting party. The wives bring a bottle or two of wine, the husbands each buy a bottle of a specific type of whiskey and everyone samples a little, takes notes and gains exposure to a wider variety of spirits. If you do a little research before hand, you’ll be able to tell as you taste if there are specific profiles that suit your palette. More or less char, rye heavy, wheat heavy, etc. It’s a great fall or winter get together and everyoe usually ends up with something to bring home.
Can someone explain the facination with Pappy Van Winkle. I like bourbon, not a connoisseur yet. My friend was able to get a couple bottles was generous enough to let me try a glass. After all the hype I had heard I felt like we were drinking nectar from the garden of Eden. We really enjoyed it but i’d like to know why the cult-like following and extreme exclusivity.
I had heard about it prior to that movie coming out but yes Im sure that increased its profile amongst the millenial crowd.
It’s tasty, it’s expensive, it’s impossible to find.
On that first point, it’s good, but it’s not truly an better than many of the other offerings north of $40 a bottle. But, as we know with wine and organic/artisinal food, people are sort of dumb and think things taste better when they know it was more expensive. Now, is it a good product? Certainly. But if you told them it was Blanton’s and cost $47 a bottle, nobody would be getting wet panties about it.
If you can find a bar that has it, I’d recommend spending the $20 or $30 for a taste, because being a whiskey or wine or cigar connoisseur should be about collecting experiences, but if you find that taste to be just OK, you should be free to express that without some guy with rolled jeans and a flannel shirt telling you that it’s the spilled seed of Jesus Christ himself.