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 Which goes well in an Old Fashioned (which is what I made)...they were originally made with rye, back in the day.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.