It’s readily available in Kentucky… not that the BSDs of this forum would ever travel to ol’Kentucky. I did the bourbon trail down there this summer. Had a great time. Was able to tour Buffalo Trace, Four Roses, and Woodford Reserve.
Blanton’s has become a new favorite for me.
Is Jack Daniels a good whiskey? How does it compare to the stuff S2000 names?
My mother-in-law lived just outside of Lexington for a few years. I was down there a few times and did the Four Roses and the Woodford tours. They really are fun trips. I’ve done lots of brewery/vineyard/distillery tours and they have all been kid friendly, relatively inexpensive/free, and a really good time.
Jack is a perfectly fine American whiskey, but it doesn’t compare to anything S2000 named because he listed a bunch of Scotch whisky. It’s like asking how Becks compares to Modelo. They’re both beers, but they’re different by design.
yeah brah, cause im sure you have $150 to throw away.
makers mark tastes like crap to me I can’t explain it.
Bulliet is nice.
as dumb as it sounds, jim beam isn’t that bad at all, it actually has a nice taste
I’ve been impressed with Green Spot. Not as expensive as the top names, but damn good.
I agree on Beam. It’s the cheapest entrant into the “can be drunk straight without indicating you have a drinking problem” category. I don’t typically drink it straight, but Beam is pretty much the benchmark against which all other bourbons should be compared.
I had Four Roses - Small Batch as my celebratory drink of choice in hospital for my daughter’s birth. Woodford Reserve, MM 46 and Knob Creek are usually found in stock at my house. Looks like I have to try some of the others on this list.
i like me some Jameson while im shouting out lyrics to Body of an American.
You struck me as a Shake it Off kind of guy
I’d rather spend $150 on a bottle of scotch than 2 nights at a bar getting sh*tfaced.
high quality stuff. have you tried yellow spot yet?
BevMo must love S2000 
Most of his selections are > $3.75 per shot (1.5 oz) or > $5 per 60 ml for Metric people. On the other hand, you’d easily pay that in a bar for really crappy tequila shots.
I’m no Wall Street BSD, so no.
I had one in a restaurant in Vancouver about 1½ years ago that was great, but I don’t recall what it was. I’ll have to do some reconnaissance.
Laphroaig, but not a big Scotch/Whiskey or hard liquor drinker, just reminds me of a good small cask mezcal.
Bumping this because tomorrow is a big night. For Christmas I got several bottles of great bourbon, my brother did as well, and we’re cracking the top on a couple for NYE. There is a nice Pritchard’s double barreled, a Four Roses Cask Strength, and the one I’m unbelievably pumped about, a 23* year old Elijah Craig.
If a guy wants a $200 bottle of scotch, he has hundreds to choose from in any big city. To find even a single $200 bottle of bourbon involves lotteries, lots of driving around/calling/begging, etc. Grabbing a box of my favorite Nick Perdomo cigars and not planning on leaving the porch.
*This product didn’t release until late-Summer 2014, but the bottle I just got was barrelled in November 1989, so either this was bottled 2 years ago, or it’s pushing 25 years. Either way I’m super pumped.
What are some good readily available bourbons to get started with? Do you take it neat or ?
2nd question first. I take it with a cube or 2 when I’m just having a 3 or 4 ounce glass of bourbon in the evening. If I’m sampling, I will take it neat, then perhaps add a splash of water after 10 or 15 minutes just to see how it changes the flavor. I’m not a snob about it, so put it in the freezer and then jam the cup full of ice if that’s how you like it.
As far as “good” bourbon that is readily available, there are a ton. I listed some of my favorites on page 1, but I’ll go a different direction here. Among a few other rules, bourbon has to be 51% corn in the mash bill, so that means 49% of the grain can be something else. Typically, it’s rye and barley, but there are also wheated bourbons where wheat takes the 2nd position instead of rye. The Pappy Van Winkle lines that people go crazy for are wheat bourbons. Wheat typically brings a sweeter, smoother taste and rye often brings more spice.
Common wheat bourbons include Maker’s Mark, W.L Weller and Old Fitzgerald. Maker’s Mark and Maker’s Mark 46 are probably the most common wheat whiskey expressions, they’re widely available at bars if you wanted to sample before buying, and they’re a solid mid-shelf product. The W.L Weller line is sort of a cousin to the Pappy Van WInkle bourbons, so depending on where you live, people might be buying up the 12 year and the 107 proof antique like mad. They’re both solid products if you can find them. If you find you really like wheated bourbon, there is actually a 51% wheat whiskey called Bernheim that is a very smooth drinker, though not a bourbon.
In the rye bourbons, you’ve got Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, the Beam products, Bulleit and Wild Turkey as your common brands, but 90% of bourbon on the shelf is going to use rye instead of wheat, and 80% is also going to come from 4 main distillers: Buffalo Trace(technically Sazerac is the owner here, but it’s the Buffalo Trace distillery putting out the bulk of their product), Beam, Brown Forman and Heaven Hill.
The other 20% comes from dozens of places, but that consolidation at the top allows you to get a pretty wide range of flavors through just 4 to 8 bottles. For example, a $25 bottle of Buffalo Trace, a $25 bottle of Knob Creek, a $25 bottle of Woodford and a $25 bottle of Evan Williams Single Barrel puts you into $100 of bourbon, gets you a bourbon from each of the 4 biggest distillers and allows you to see a pair of 4-6 year old products, a 9 year old product, a 12 year old single barrel product and as a bonus, you get a wheated bourbon in the MM.