
Originally Posted by
ErichPryde
I spent a lot of time with a bottle of ER101 last night. This whiskey is new to me, smokinjoe was nice enough to send me some several weeks ago. My first couple of drinks when I first got it were good, but let me down. This stuff is kinda the father to GTS, BT, and ERSB- I was hoping for more. Yeah, I could detect the leaping corn that GTS has, the smokiness that both buffalo trace and GTS share, the same leather notes (saddle leather, to me- I'm put back in a barn with an old girlfriend from highschool when I drink these whiskeys sometimes) that all three seem to have. But I just wasn't getting it.
last week I was sick for a couple of days, and absolutely nothing tasted right, so I laid off of the bourbon for a week. I bought some sazerac rye this weekend (best bottle of this stuff I've ever had- it is amazing!), and then last night, decided to revisit the ER101.
I understand, really understand, why some people call this baby stagg. but that's not exactly right- that charred, somewhat smoky beautiful leather leaping corn sweet but tempered (and angry!) beast is in there, but it's subdued... yet it isn't. It's a different critter. a twin (sister? brother? sexy either way) to GTS, almost more slight in stature yet, you might not catch it if you didn't know what to look for. and then, I'm so strongly reminded of ERSB. the corn first, and then rye tingle at then end that I almost always get from ERSB is there, but it's different.
All three rolled into one, yet not a single one of them. This is sunlight, the hole in the barn roof, the used, oiled, cleaned sweet saddle on a brown horse. blue smiling eyes and dimples. Yet... none of the above. It's a phantasmal bird of prey, diving relentlessly towards prey, yet shearing off at the last second, those talons inches from your face and you gasping.
I don't know why I didn't get this whiskey at first. a lot of times, it takes a drink or two, maybe a little bit of air, to help a whiskey, or perhaps me, on the way. This one was that way- Like getting to know the person you might marry and love. It's unfortunate that I encountered it now, so late in the game.
Joe, thanks. you're a standup guy for sending me this.