I disagree too. There is no requirement that bourbon come from Kentucky.


Well then why not go all out with your bourbon purity test and refuse to drink any bourbon that does not come from Bourbon County?

(Of all of the commercially relevant Kentucky bourbon producers today, none are in Bourbon County.)

The bourbon purity argument centers on silliness given A) the stuff is not from Bourbon County anyway; and B) "terroir" is pretty meaningless in whiskey production as opposed to say winemaking.

Do the bourbon purists really delude themselves into thinking that ol' Pappy's mashbill calls for only the rarest artisinal corn lovingly grown on the Van Winkle family estate? :rolleyes: Give me a freakin' break! Even the finest of KY bourbon producers source their grains mostly from out of state.

I'm sure the vaunted purity of Kentucky limestone-filtered water can be replicated in other places.

And by the way, bourbon, unlike Champagne or Scotch whisky, should not be capitalized.


I have never heard anyone refer to Japanese whisky as Scotch.


Well there you have it. A PA bourbon that gets rave reviews, sells for over $1000 a bottle, but gets scoffed at by bourbon purists since it isn't from KY!

^^^^ Posted already about 10 pages back.

I just picked up a bottle at a very reasonable price - $41.99. Very nice. Smoooooooth and a hint of spice. I probably won't open anything else until this one is empty.

Thanks - I bought some of their bourbon yesterday, but prefer the Port Whiskey.

Just picked up a bottle of Widow Jane's 8 Year while I was home in NYC for the holidays. It's pretty good and definitely not something you can find down here in NC

Just sampled it tonight at a friend's place (think mine was 7 year though). He got a 200ml bottle in his stocking. Definitely enjoyed it.

I won a 20 year pappy for Christmas. I drank half the bottle in the past two weeks and then a friend just told me it was like gold.

Enjoy it... I am about to finish a bottle.. it's good stuff.. it tastes better in your mouth than in the bottle....

But yes it is almost impossible to get...
FDW

Too bad you drank it before you knew. If you sold it, you could have bought a lot of excellent whiskey, a vacation, & a 60".

Eagle Rare 10 Year Old Single Barrel is my Burbon of Choice. I learned of it while touring around Kentucky. Was the best of the trip.. Great Value as well! Happy Drinking and Safe Travels

I just picked up a bottle of Lost Prophet from Diageo's Orphan Barrel limited release program. Retail at Total Wine in Edina was $125.

A friend said he thought it was superior to Pappy 20. I read a review that agreed with that assessment so I thought I'd give it a try. $125 is not exactly an everyday drinking price point for me, but it's quite a value if it compares favorably to PVW.

Let us know what you think. I briefly considered a bottle but have held off for now due to the high price and low(ish) proof. Reviews I've read have been mixed, with John Hansell of Whisky Advocate really liking it, while others found it high on price and thin on flavor.

I'm not a huge pappy fan (but do drink it from time to time) but nothing from Diaegos orphan barrel compares. I don't mean to belittle your choice in whisky because it's ok whisky for the most part. My biggest problem is how Diaego has marketed the whisky. They've ridden the coatails of both the names of Stitzel Weller and George T Stagg; two icons in bourbon which honestly aren't at all related to the Diaego products. They play up the limited release nature but some numbers I've seen for the Rhetoric place the run to almost 40k bottles (for instance I think George T stagg this year had 14k bottle run, which was the largest of the buffalo trace). Finally they have tried to make a good story up about the spirit, which is all the new rage but mostly just marketing BS. Orphan barrel? This idea that they stashed it in the back of Stitzel Weller and forgot about it? BS. All barrels have tax paid on them so nobody forgot about them. The truth of the matter is all of the honey barrels are gone at this warehouse and this is just stuff that didn't make the cut. It's still ok stuff but not anywhere what they claim it to be.

So in summary it's ok stuff but Diaego has pumped up the marketing on it so that it just turns me off. I'm fairly sick of all the marketing rhetoric that's going on these days (templeton, whistle pig, etc).

Fdw

If you ever see Dry Fly Bourbon (those words on the bottle, NOT whiskey) for sale -- RUN the other way!

Having some Basil Hayden now...it certainly is some tasty bourbon.

I ordered a manhattan made with Basil Hayden's Thursday night. It worked quite well. Local restaurants that feature top shelf bourbon in their manhattans use Bakers, Woodford and Basil Hayden's. My favorite so far has been made with Woodford Reserve.

I think the Basil is a little spicier...it says on the bottle that it's about half rye. Which goes well in an Old Fashioned (which is what I made)...they were originally made with rye, back in the day.

I might make another. :)

Late comer to this thread. I'm a prolific whisky drinker, basically a hobby for me:

1) Best bourbon I have ever had was Pappy Van Winkle 23 year old. I still dream of finding another bottle. This was before it took off (even then it was expensive, but I have not even seen it for sale since then) in 2008. Loved every drop of it. I dont even want to imagine what it would cost to get a bottle today. As good as it is, probably not worth it.

2) Worst bourbon.....that's tough. When I was in graduate school we drank some pretty nasty stuff that I wouldn't touch today (if for no other reason than I value my personal health). One that stood out was Ten High. I know some guys who swear by it, but I could not stomach it. Tasted awful. I tried pretty much everyway to drink it with no success.

3) A great cheap bourbon is Ezra Brooks. Where I live you can pick up a fifth for about $15 or so (if youre in a lower cost area Ive seen it for $12 or so). Decent drink, and can be consumed straight or on the rocks which is how I like mine.

4) Quick thing about scotch (this is a bit anal I know). There is no such thing as any other kind of scotch but SCOTCH. The phrase I have heard often is "Japanese Scotch" which I guess is used because many of the flavor profiles and the distillation process of Japanese WHISKEY is similar to scotch. To be scotch, the whiskey must be produced from 100% malted barley and spring water and distilled in Scotland.

I haven't gone out looking for a bad/worst bourbon. No good reason to do that. I will say that the worst I've even spent money on was Wild Turkey. And that may have had more to do with the higher proof than anything else.

I opened a bottle of Basil Hayden a few days ago. It's been quite some time since I had it. It is quite a tasty beverage. A colleague says he doesn't drink it because it's slightly lower proof (80) and he has to drink too much to get the same effect as his usual 85-90 proof tipples.

A Fifth! You're showing your age. I haven't heard anyone use that term in a long time. I wonder if the youngsters here even know what that is. :)

Ha ha! Believe it or not I am 28 years old. I guess I heard that from an older person and just adopted it.....I suppose you're right I haven't heard anyone else use it in a while.

Yep the US went metric with booze a looooong time ago, like the 70's. A fifth is a fifth of a US gallon.

1979 to be more precise, but still technically part of the 70's I suppose. A fifth of a gallon is 757 ml which is still awfully close to the standard 750 ml bottle sold in the US today.

I also persist in the archaic practice of referring to this bottle size as "a fifth". Please excuse me if I sound like a broken record. Just my two bits...

My wife got me a bottle in 2009 for my 30th birthday. It had sat in the case at my local for months, and I would visit it but at that point it was $200 and I thought too expensive to buy. Fortunately for me she bought it for me. I had saved it for a special occassion to open but then some random Thursday I just opened it. It's good; not my favorite expression of the line but I'm glad that I have it. I prefer the 20. I must say that I was lucky to get another bottle this year though.

If you ever see a bottle of Cleveland. Run away; far far far away. It's apparently "pressurized" or something through barrel chunks to age it quicker. Which is not true. There is no substitute for time in a barrel. I'm pretty sure paint thinner tastes better.

Solid drink. One of my favorite cheap bourbons is Old Weller Antique 107. It's about $23 a fifth where I am. It's actually the same mash bill that they use in the Pappy line, so if you like those you'll like this wheated bourbon....

I agree with your assesment. I think that the correct term would be single malt.

Basil Hayden's is my summer bourbon. Pint glass, full of ice, fill with Basil's.... I tend to prefer barrel proof offerrings- I've got this year's William Larue Weller open and it's great at 140.2.....

FDW

I'm on the wagon this year, mainly because I developed too much of a taste for Booker's last year. That is a lovely drink: rich, sweet, and packs a punch. JFK Duty Free was selling it for $35 last time I looked. An absolute bargain.

<mock horror> Brown liquor between Memorial Day and Labor Day?! It just isn't done!

:D

Trader Joe's is out of their regular bourbon these days. Clerk was recommending Rebel Yell as a substitute, although I wasn't sure? I did, however, immediately think of the bottle as a "fifth" when I saw it.

Only if you're wearing a Madras or Seersucker jacket with matching white patent leather belt & loafers :D

White spirits are for sissies 12 months of the year!

Ahh didn't realize you were Baltimore based... it was $250. The Wolff Foreman group does do a solid job on food but yeah that was a little pricey. One bottle that is even more rare is the Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye. I've seen one bottle of it in my life. But apparently some comes out every year. I heard that Maryland got about 50 bottles.

Rebel Yell is a wheated bourbon. From what I understand, the Trader Joes Bourbon comes out of the 1792 Ridgemont Distillery- so maybe try VEry Old Barton?

Yep... though I have had some white dog that I'll drink as well.. I wear flip flops and shorts year round as well... I like to push the envelope...

FDW

Ahh didn't realize you were Baltimore based... it was $250. The Wolff Foreman group does do a solid job on food but yeah that was a little pricey. One bottle that is even more rare is the Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye. I've seen one bottle of it in my life. But apparently some comes out every year. I heard that Maryland got about 50 bottles.

Yep chilling here in Baltimore. I have never even heard of the Family Reserve Rye. Never seen a bottle. Do you remember how much it cost?

I have been into Willet bourbon lately. Their reserve rye is also damn good. Since youre in Baltimore you can pick some up, Ive been seeing it around lately. Should run about $40 or so.

The family reserve rye is labeled as a 13 yo product but it's closer to 19 yrs from what I've heard. Retail isn't too much, something like $70 but it's true value is more than 10x on the secondary.

The Willet folks put out solid stuff. Bear in mind that only the 2 yo rye is their own product. There is some 7 yo rye in the market and the grand marnier finished rye as well. The Willet Family Estate Bourbon (not the pot still bong shaped bottle) is much harder to find but can be amazing, depending on the barrel.

The four roses private barrels are excellent. Check out perfect pour who have had a couple excellent picks.

Fdw

Shawan liquors has had good 4r picks too.

Did Schawan ever do a barrel proof pick? I have a bottle of their single barrel, 100 proof pick, which was quite good....

FDW

CNN just went to Buffalo Trace and did a report on bourbon popularity overseas. Nice little video...

http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/03/news...rts/index.html

My local store has it in stock for the bargain price of $599.99.

Thats actually not terrible. I've been seeing it anywhere from $650-750 on the secondary market. But still a lot of $$$$.


Fdw