Best (pour) you've ever had...Why?

[bourbon4all]

Shooting for more of a moment in life that you celebrated/paid tribute to!

[bourbon4all]

Drank a bottle of Elmer T with all my best friends even those I never get to see on my Wedding night. It was out of plastic cups and it couldn't have tasted any better

[emr454]

A pour of dusty ND Old Taylor, shared by Tom McKenzie at FLD. Smooth, sweet butterscotch candy in a glass. Sadly, I know I'll never come across it again but glad I had the opportunity to taste it. It's a shame they don't make whiskey like this anymore.

[smokinjoe]

Nice thread.  I can't just say there was just "one" best pour, as I think I've had many, and for many reasons.  But, just like your example B4A, one of my best involved a plastic cup.  Troyce and I went to our first KBF in 2004, and upon checking into our room at the General Nelson, we were greeted with a couple of minis of Jim Beam White that the hotel staff left on the bureau.  Poured those babies into their clear plastic cups from the bathroom and toasted our first visit to the Motherland and KBF.  One of best whiskies I ever had.  

Edited March 6, 2017 by smokinjoe
Missed by a decade. Meant 2004, not 2014...

[bourbon4all]

2 minutes ago, smokinjoe said:

Nice thread.  I can't just say there was just "one" best pour, as I think I've had many, and for many reasons.  But, just like your example B4A, one of my best involved a plastic cup.  Troyce and I went to our first KBF in 2014, and upon checking into our room at the General Nelson, we were greeted with a couple of minis of Jim Beam White that the hotel staff left on the bureau.  Poured those babies into their clear plastic cups from the bathroom and toasted our first visit to the Motherland and KBF.  One of best whiskies I ever had.  

I can't wait to visit "The Motherland". Might get to this fall...

[JTaylor]

3 minutes ago, bourbon4all said:

I can't wait to visit "The Motherland". Might get to this fall...

How can you justify that?

 sorry... had to do it!

Nice thread tho! Mine kind of mimics Joe's. Went to KBF for the first time in 2010, already half looped we looked out and spotted a bunch of guys in the gazebo and decided to go see what it was all about. Don't remember what I was poured, but the hospitality and generosity we experienced was amazing!

[bourbon4all]

4 minutes ago, JTaylor said:

How can you justify that?

 sorry... had to do it!

Nice thread tho! Mine kind of mimics Joe's. Went to KBF for the first time in 2010, already half looped we looked out and spotted a bunch of guys in the gazebo and decided to go see what it was all about. Don't remember what I was poured, but the hospitality and generosity we experienced was amazing!

Hence the might... Wifey gets her choice trip (beach) at the beginning of next month. Plans on daughter to Disneyland..... Hmm who does that leave?

[JTaylor]

1 minute ago, bourbon4all said:

Hence the might... Wifey gets her choice trip (beach) at the beginning of next month. Plans on daughter to Disneyland..... Hmm who does that leave?

Good luck with that! My son is out of the Navy this May so I was thinking of planning a father/son/and SIL trip down this year. 

[sblanton83]

Had my first pour of Blanton's SFTB the night my son was born. Couldn't think of a better time to crack it since that is also our last name. Absolutely love that pour and wish it was distributed here in the States.

Edited March 5, 2017 by sblanton83

[bourbon4all]

5 minutes ago, sblanton83 said:

Had my first pour of Blanton's SFTB the night my son was born. Couldn't think of a better time to crack it since that is also our last name. Absolutely love that pour and wish it was distributed here in the States.

If ever there was something to celebrate!

[No_Reception]

Willet Family Estate 11yr "Short Stack Lightning"


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[marshbound]

Top pour ever was a Bowman Limited Release but don't ask me any more, it was beyond awesome but a gift and I didn't really absorb any lessons I could use in the future.  

 

Honorable mention was my delight at tasting my first rye - a WT101 taken at the Jones Mountain Cabin in Shenandoah National Park.  I hiked in with it after learning the cabin had been owned by a rye moonshiner and thought "what the hell, why not?"  It was way better than I was expecting.  

[Kyjd75]

Best night of my life drinking bourbon.  On our back porch with my wife, her brother and his wife (visiting us from Florida).  Started with a bottle of PVW15 and finished with a bottle of Baker's.  We all drank more than we should have, and ended up in conversations I never imagined possible prior to that night.  My sister-in-law became a different person that night that we all enjoyed immensely (except maybe for my brother-in-law).  The bourbon was great that night, and the companionship ever better.

[0895]

2014 George T Stagg

 

First time I ever tried GTS (at a bar).  My life was changed forever.  Nothing has ever tasted like that to me again.  Still have the empty bottle the bartender gave me......lost its aroma though

[Harry in WashDC]

"Best pour" is not necessarily "Most memorable pour" or even "Best tasting pour" in my experience - just saying.  "Best" was probably after I'd graduated from college and was home from the Army, and my Dad offered me an Old Crow and Tab which is what he drank.  We'd NEVER indulged in whiskey together - I always drank beer and never too much- and I passed in favor of a beer; bummer looking back, but he was my DAD, you know . . .  Most memorable was CanClub @ Rehoboth Beach just after HS graduation - underage for Delaware and the first time I'd OVEiRndulged; couldn't face brown spirits for five years.  "Best tasting" was the 2014 GTS neat after lunch at a restaurant in lieu of dessert.  A fellow SBer in the retail business (Thanks, Joe) subsequently sold me a 750 at MSRP after I'd posted about that shot.  In keeping with the thread, however, I am hard pressed to come with  a "Best pour" commemorating an event.  A couple funerals where we drank in remembrance, etc., but the bourbon always took a back seat to the people around me.  Almost didn't post this, but it really is not meant to be a downer - just an "is".  

 

EDIT: UPON REFLECTION - Well, there was that period of time after the Army and before grad school when I made booze runs for Army buddies who were inpatients at Walter Reed after the Cambodian Invasion.  I was out of the Army by then.  THAT is when I learned to drink brown spirits again.  (Thanks, Cotton.)

Edited March 6, 2017 by Harry in WashDC
Darn Old Ezra 101 made me forgit.

[Phil T]

A couple years ago in Bardstown, hanging out at the west wing, our good friend Joe had was sharing  a 1950s Dant that was a complete butterscotch bomb. It is the only time that had I experienced that flavoring with a rye based bourbon. Later on, our good friend Eric was sharing a Stitzel Weller Old Fitz that is wheater heaven. I can't remember the year, but obviously vintage and dusty also. And, of course, our admin Joe brings some Weller concoction that will knock your socks of. And the list goes on.

 

 Bardstown is bourbon nirvana for the SB community, both in comradery and drinking. Everyone should partake at least once because it will surely be the most memorable bourbon drinking experience of your life.

 

[flahute]

Like others, it's hard to pick just one.

I hate to go with an obvious highly regarded bourbon, but the first time I ever had Stagg come to mind. It was Christmas 2012, staying with the in-laws, my brother-in-law brought over '12 Stagg and Handy. These are the pours that started me hard on the enthusiast journey. Sharing those pours with family at Christmas is a great memory.

Another is a pour of Four Roses SiB I had while sitting in the hot tub after a hard day XC skiing. It was over the Thanksgiving holiday and it was snowing as I sat there. The glass was sitting off to the side in the snow so it was like drinking it on the rocks without the rocks. That's a moment I'd like to be able to recreate at will.

Back in November of last year I participated in a barrel pick of Elijah Craig. We tasted from three barrels, two of them from Deatsville (Parker Beam's favorite rickhouse where many of the PHC barrels have come from). There's just something special about tasting bourbon straight from the barrel in a rickhouse with friends.

Lastly, and this is perhaps the best bourbon I've tasted, a pour of the 17yr 4R OBSV with the magic mutant yeast while listening to Jim Rutledge tell the story about it. One of a kind experience that will never happen again.

[Bourserker]

My favorite pour was a GTS, but the most memorable was tipping one (Stagg Jr. I think) back sometime after I got back from watching my tigers win the college football national championship a couple of months ago.  I had some heinous stuff going on at work back then.  Think I'm gonna have to watch the game again on the DVR one of these weekends and crack a GTS to celebrate properly.

[Vosgar]

18 minutes ago, Phil T said:

A couple years ago in Bardstown, hanging out at the west wing, our good friend Joe had was sharing  a 1950s Dant that was a complete butterscotch bomb. 

 

I remember that one very well Phil, bottled in 1951 and it was amazing.

 

BourbonJoe was also responsible for my first "best pour ever". It was my maiden trip to Bardstown, either 2009 or 2010, and I was in heaven at the gazebo. I'd never seen such a selection of whiskey and was truly blown away. There was a handle of ND Old Taylor that Joe had brought and it was unlike anything I'd ever had in my short time of drinking bourbon. In spite of everything on the tables, I found myself going back to that bottle multiple times every night. And to top it off, on the last night when the gazebo was winding down, there was about 3" left in the bottle and Joe told me to take it home!

[Grain Belt]

A few years back my elderly father had many large branches down due to an ice storm. I got home (4 hours away) and worked my tail off for two days straight cutting all kinds of oak and maple. I am a cheap SOB just like the old man so we cut using vintage chainsaws we had picked up at various auctions over the years. The was a lot of smoke from our 30 year old saws. But we got the job done on all the wood.  Usually I sip on low shelf BIB's and apologize to no one for this trait.  However, just before this trip I snagged a bottle of early 90's WT12 for 40 bills. (Thought that the world was going to stop spinning after the expense ????.  Dad and I shared that bottle of Turkey and I'll be damned if it didn't get my old man pretty excited.  It was without a doubt, the best sippin' I have ever had, but seeing the old guy wax poetic about it was priceless.  He taught me everything,including bourbon drinking.  I'm so glad we were able to share that magnificent bottle. 

[CardsandBourbon]

Best one, so far, was a decent bourbon (Bulliet 10) but more so because it was at the rehearsal dinner for my daughter's wedding October 2015 in Hilton Head.  My future (at that time) son-in-law and a bunch of his buddy's were all having a pour of it and we all toasted him and my daughter.  Guy's if you've ever had a daughter get married then everything will be the most memorable whatever those few special days.

[Bbstout]

Not bourbon but I always remember pulling a cold Belikin beer out of a barrel of ice in Belize on a fishing trip with my old man who died shortly after our trip.

[DeepCover]

My dad was never a big whiskey drinker, but about 2.5 years ago he and I drank some Weller 12 together. That's the only time we ever drank whiskey together. I lost my dad a year ago this month. I wish I'd enjoyed that glass a bit more at the time, but I'll always have that moment. That's my best, most memorable pour.

 

[Ravensfire]

Long, long drive from Louisville to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Unpleasant weather through a lot including fairly dense fog in the mountains. Got there late evening, last of the family to arrive. Unpacked our stuff and my wife and I just sat in chairs on the front porch, exhaustex. Brother in law comes out with a nice pour of Blantons for each of us - just heavenly.

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[b1gcountry]

My best pour is always my next one. Sometimes I just have to deal with the kids at home, and the babies at my job, and it's a nice feeling to know that once I get the kids in bed, I can sit down and take some time or for myself before I have to do it all over again tomorrow.

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