Gateway into this madness.

[dSculptor]

What do you remember as being your gateway whisky into this madness/obsession of ours?

For me it was ET, I always had/ordered ET & water. After having that for awhile I moved to JBW, then went thru the JD phase, which did not last long and was actually GJ for the most part, but then I found JBB, and that stuck with me for awhile, until I started doing a vat of the JBW & JBB - 50/50 which is still one of my favs.Nowadays I don't even care for the GJ, but the JD SB is quite delicious.

Now I am all over the place trying to get as many under my belt as I can, trying to find the one…

[suntour]

jim beam white and black vatted eh? i did booker's and black vatted last night and was rather impressed with it.

my head this morning however, not so impressed.

[ThirstyinOhio]

My eyes were opened wide by a bourbon dinner a friend invited me too years back. They served 5 courses with 5 different bourbons, none of which were available in Ohio at that time. My wife and I had been on a wine kick for quite some time so I didn't think I was going to be that impressed, after all whiskey was made for shots. I was completely dumb founded by the flavors and nose of bourbon and went on a buying binge that hasn't stopped. The one bourbon that stood out from the 5 was Weller, I don't recall if it was the W12, OWA, or SR, but it was so damn good.

[393foureyedfox]

I always had/ordered ET & water

I thought ET was bourbon water...

mine started with making an old 1700's recipe of an apple liquer made with reduced apple juice with sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and EW 1783. eventually I realized i didnt need the first 4 ingredients and just started trying everything. I find myself buying mostly HH and JB products, but the cheaper HH stuff and the higher end JB stuff.

[dcbt]

The short answer: Buffalo Trace.

The longer answer:

Like many (I would presume), "Jack & Coke" was a bar staple for me when I was in college and shortly thereafter. That morphed into Gentleman Jack at home, but still mixed with Coke. Eventually I nixed the coke and drank GJ on the rocks. Then I morphed over to bourbon with Buffalo Trace, and that's where the magic happened. My liquor cabinet exploded into dozens of bottles of bourbon that I now drink exclusively neat, but I have to admit I still keep a bottle of GJ around (currently the only non-bourbon whiskey I have, but I am looking into adding a rye here soon too).

[weller_tex]

Wild Turkey 101..I had really gotten into Single Malts, but was then working out of town in a tiny place that didn't have any thing but JBW, JD, and WT 101. I had drank WT many times in the past with coke.but never thought of trying bourbon neat. I was wowed by WT 101..it isn't as good as it used to be..but the last bottle I had was better than it was in 2011-2012. Maybe it's coming back.

[kjbeggs]

Initially, it was WL Weller (when I was too young to even be drinking it). Later, it was Buffalo Trace that brought me back into the fold, but when my brother-in-law introduced me to a bottle of Buillet, I knew there'd be no turning back.

[upStomp]

Makers was the first, but I was really just testing the waters at that point. Soon after, a friend who used to work for BT turned me on to their brands - that's when the obsession part started.

[Harry in WashDC]

Hadn't thought about this in years.

I was not a whisky fan due to one (1) overindulging on CClub right after HS graduation in 1963. In late '69 I was out of the Richmond VAH and visited an Army buddy in Walter Reed AMC. Soon I was making runs for him & his wardmates (& a few docs BTW since we were all just busted up, not sick). We started w/Southern Comfort but by Christmas were splitting a fifth of JD between us. THEN, I discovered it came in quarts but didn't tell him. Took over a week for him to figure out that he did NOT have some exotic disease giving him morning headaches.

So, CC for 1 day to SC for a month to JD (which lasted for yrs). Now, if it's brown, it goes down - in moderation, of course. No more 1/2 bottle nights. I now know I'm mortal.:frown:

[TunnelTiger]

After switching from the dark side about this time a year ago the only thing I am sure of there isn't "the one" and for that reason I am very grateful.

[dSculptor]

I thought ET was bourbon water...

That's a good one, fox...

[hn4bourbon]

Mine was a really good bottle of ER10. I went back and bought a case of it immediately after tasting several pours of that bottle. I was really deep into single malts and still have many unopened bottles of single malts waiting for me ever since that bottle of ER10.

[qcityking]

I've always been a big whiskey fan, but I think the turning point was a trip to Las Vegas. I visited the Whiskey Attic, where I sampled a flight of Hudson BB, Stagg Jr, & Willet Family Estate Bourbon. Since then, I've wanted to try everything that I could get my hands on...

This is not a cheap hobby.

[Max Power]

Wild turkey Rare Breed. Big on flavor...reasonable on the wallet.

[Richnimrod]

I had a stepwise awakening; to wit.....

I started with Jim Beam waaaaay back in my youth. Found that several steps up from the Canadian whiskeys I'd tasted (it had actual flavor!). Then came Jack Daniel's, which I found a bit better. I tried several in and among the next couple dozen years; but the next real strep up (or down, depending upon how you view this obsession) was Buffalo Trace, which I found fully amazing. This was followed by several distillery tours and tastes of some really nice and really unique (to my taste buddies) Bourbons, and . . . . Well Here I am, hopeless and forlorn; but as happy as a clam. :slappin:

[fishnbowljoe]

My gateway bourbon was Maker's Mark. My gateway further into this madness was a last minute, pretty much unplanned trip to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival back in 2007. To make a long story short, (:skep:) my wife is totally at fault.

[OutlawSW]

I started with Jack and Coke, a buddy introduced me to JBB and Coke. Then on a trip to Nashville, in '05 or so, that same buddy and I came in to some advance money after signing a publishing deal and he ran over to Frugal McDougls to find the best bottle of bourbon they had and came back with a PVW 15. I had no idea what is was and made fun of him for buying it until I tasted it and thought is was the greatest thing ever, I was still mixing it with coke at that point. I kind of forgot about for a while and then a couple years later on a tour stop in Lexington KY I was talking to the bar owner about burbon and he said I should try FR I asked him about Pappy and he said it was the best KY had to offer but could be tough to find. So I made it my mission to find some, I did and along the way found many others that I loved as well. Then some years later I found SB.com....

[garbanzobean]

My love for good bourbon started in my early twenties. I spent a period trying most of the small batch bourbons. For awhile I settled on alternating between bottles of Knob Creek and Woodford Reserve. I quit drinking bourbon regularly for a period of years, focusing more heavily on beer. Then I started in earnest once I purchased my first home around 18 months ago. The increased room to store alcohol coupled with a waning interest in beer caused me to look back to whiskey. I recall randomly purchasing a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 as a birthday present for a friend based totally on the bottle presentation and internet reviews I could find. Turned out to be an amazing pour, so I purchased a bottle for myself. Around the same time, I started to get into some of the more basic Single Malt Scotches, as well as Johnnie Walker Black, Green, and Gold. It all changed when I finally ponied up the cash and tried lagavulin 16. From the moment I got to know that bottle, I knew I had to learn more about all things whisk(e)y. I quickly fell for Islay whiskies, and have since tried offerings from every currently operating distillery on Islay. From there I started painting broad brush strokes into the various other Scottish regions. Eventually I ran out of basic and mid level offerings that gave me something completely new, and started to do a lot of hand-wringing about taking the plunge into the rare scotch offerings available. Given that collecting super premium single malts is a millionaires' game, I instead found myself trying some of the more limited edition bourbons, and was quickly hooked.

Since then, I've spent increasingly more time getting to know bourbon distilleries through their basic offerings, and now am feeling pretty comfortable opening up more of the limited edition offerings I squirreled away over the past year. My journey has been pretty short, and I've certainly had my share of disappointments, but there are some pours that I'll remember fondly for the rest of my life: My first taste of Eagle Rare 10, the bourbon that made me realize there was an undiscovered world to explore. Sharing a glass of Lagavulin 16 on a quiet night with my wife. Trying Eagle Rare 17 for the first time at Jack Rose with one of my best friends, followed by Black Bull 40 and George T. Stagg 2012. First pour of Redbreast 12 over an ice cube after an excessively hot and horrible day last summer. The beautiful complexity of Four Roses Single Barrel, a pour that rivals many single malts 4-5x the price in its zen-like completeness.

Here's to a good (and expensive) couple of years . . .

[qman22]

Blanton's. It was featured at a cigar event I had attended. It was the first time I had ever drank whiskey and thought "this tastes good." The experience stuck in my mind for about 6 months until my brother heard about me liking it and bought me a bottle for my birthday. I've been balls to the wall in this hobby ever since. I still have the empty bottle he bought me.

[BAO]

Makers was the first bottle I ever owned and I enjoyed it, but I had a Noahs Mill 15yo some months later that was my gateway.

[WAINWRIGHT]

Weller 12 and the exploration of other wheated bourbons is what really nabbed my interest and drew me back across the pond and also lightened the load on my wallet in one fail swoop.

[black mamba]

For at least a decade I was a complete Scotch drinker, thinking that bourbon was too sickly sweet. One night at a friends house he served me something to try, not telling me what it was. I knew immediately that it was bourbon, but much better, richer and drier on the finish than anything else I had ever tried. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of bourbon. The gateway bourbon for me was Rock Hill Farms.

[corpse_welder]

I bought a bottle of Jack shortly after my 21st birthday since my Dad drank it and I had tried it before. That was my drink of choice until I tried Jameson at a company Christmas party and loved how different it was. I moved on to Scotch and Irish after that, having only JD, Maker's Mark and Wild Turkey 101 for bourbons (I think at this point we can just shoehorn JD into bourbon for simplicity sake, no?). I was majorly into Islays and Macallan and then one day my wife bought me a bottle of OGDBiB on a whim and then I went back bourbon. My real mania for bourbon started on my first bottle of OWA. I'm working on draining the last of my Jameson bottle that has collected dust and it has no real taste anymore

[risenc]

If had a lot of Jack and Beam White in college, but it wasn't until the summer after I graduated that my grandfather introduced me to Blanton's. That changed everything, and I'll always be partial to Blanton's for it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[flahute]

Kind of a perverse way to get obsessed, but for me it was my first taste of Stagg during Christmas of 2012. Prior to that, I had been satisfied with Makers, Woodford Reserve, and Tullamore Dew (when I needed to give a nod to the Irish). I was aware that others existed, but never felt the need to branch out because I was a pretty casual bourbon drinker. Then during the aforementioned Christmas, my brother-in-law introduced me to George T. Stagg and Handy. I didn't appreciate the Handy right away, but I absolutely loved the Stagg. This set me on the hunt for BTAC (fruitless of course because by then it was sold out everywhere) so I started looking at everything else out there. I am now hooked!