How long has whiskey been your hobby and....

[WhiskeyProposition]

....what brand have you not had that is common or popular?

 

What prompted this is continually seeing posts on Instagram and seeing well known and readily available brands I still have yet to try. For as long as I've been getting into the world of whiskey, I sometimes am still surprised at what I have yet to try.

 

So for me, my whiskey journey started maybe 6 years ago. I have yet to try ANY Michters or Bookers. I'm sure there are others.

 

You?

[mbroo5880i]

As noted in another thread, while I have drank whiskey off and on since the late 1970s, I really didn't get into bourbon until the early 2000s.  In the 1990s, I was focused on the emerging microbrew scene.  I changed jobs in the early 2000s and met one of my best friends who was a big fan of Woodford Reserve.  I would drink Woodford or Maker's Mark on the rocks or neat but I was hooked.  I really didn't start branching out until around 2009 or 2010.   I joined SB.com in 2013 and my journey has continued beyond what I ever thought it would.  I have enjoyed the shared interest in whiskey and camaraderie available herein.  

 

I believe I have tried a version of every major distillery's house style.  While I have had many of the older Willett WFE bottles over the years, I have not had their own distillate.  The older versions of Pot Still, Kentucky Vintage, Drum, Noah's Mill, etc. I have had were all NDP.   I have also never had a Barrell Bourbon product.  

[WhiskeyProposition]

32 minutes ago, mbroo5880i said:

As noted in another thread, while I have drank whiskey off and on since the late 1970s, I really didn't get into bourbon until the early 2000s.  In the 1990s, I was focused on the emerging microbrew scene.  I changed jobs in the early 2000s and met one of my best friends who was a big fan of Woodford Reserve.  I would drink Woodford or Maker's Mark on the rocks or neat but I was hooked.  I really didn't start branching out until around 2009 or 2010.   I joined SB.com in 2013 and my journey has continued beyond what I ever thought it would.  I have enjoyed the shared interest in whiskey and camaraderie available herein.  

 

I believe I have tried a version of every major distillery's house style.  While I have had many of the older Willett WFE bottles over the years, I have not had their own distillate.  The older versions of Pot Still, Kentucky Vintage, Drum, Noah's Mill, etc. I have had were all NDP.   I have also never had a Barrell Bourbon product.  

 

Interesting, thanks for the response. 

 

The only Barrell product I've had is Seagrass and I love it. I'd definitely recommend it. 

[Kjbarth]

I started with whiskey in the mid 70's, mostly Irish, American, Canadian, and Scotch. Never bourbon or rye. Then I got into beer. I tried to get into wine when I got married thinking that was the mature thing to do. It didn't work and I stayed with beer. After about 20 years of marriage, I finally started to appreciate wine and my palate changed. About 5 or 6 years ago, I started to get back into whiskey, first with scotch and then bourbon and rye. I missed out on the great bourbon "values" by a few years. Though, I worked in my uncles liquor store for a few years when I was younger so I know I at least touched some of those bottles.

 

There are a few major brands I've not tried but the 2 on my wish list are Weller (OWA, Full Proof) and Old Fitzgerald. The only bottle of Weller I've ever seen was a Special Reserve for $300 - no thanks - and I've never seen an Old Fitzgerald anything except in pictures. When I was in Nashville, Louisville, and Lawrenceburg last summer, a couple of the restaurants had OWA on the menu and I tried to order it but the all said they were out of it. Just my luck. Not sure what I'm missing but the Makers Mark bottles I have (101, CS) are filling that gap nicely and at a fraction of the cost. So maybe I'm not really missing anything at all.

[BigRich]

I'm a new millennium drinker.  I started down the path of deep exploration with my best friend back in the spring of 2000.  It started with Irish then to Scotch then bourbon then everything else.

 

I've been very fortunate over the last 22 years to try damn near everything.  I'm sure that there are some newer brands that I haven't tried yet but none come to mind. 

[flahute]

I was a Maker's and Woodford guy from the late 90's up until 2012. Didn't drink very regularly as like many others I was mostly a craft beer guy. At Christmas of 2012 my brother-in-law introduced me to George T Stagg and Thomas H Handy.

Mind blown and I quickly went down the rabbit hole. I got in early enough that I've had pretty much everything that would be considered common or popular. There's a couple Michter's products I haven't tried because I wasn't super impressed with what I did try and they were early to the premium pricing game so I gave up on them as being worth it. Nowadays my drinking is way more focused because I know what I like and stick with it. 

[markandrex]

I drank bourbon on and off in the mid to late 70’s.  I always enjoyed it but had very few friends who shared my tastes so it was a side.thing for me.  
In 1980 I went to my cousin’s wedding in Ohio in winter.  The weather was so bad the the bartenders were running late to the reception.  My uncle, the brides father,  asked if I would fill in since I had some experience behind the bar.  About an hour later he tells me they are not coming and asks if I would mind.  I had gone stagg so, no problem.  I had a great time with everyone that night.At the end of the evening he tells me to break the bar down into three.  One for the bride, one for him and one for me.  Also handed me an envelope with what would have been the bartenders pay.  Me being a poor college boy, I was thrilled.  My portion of the bar included three handles of Old Grandad, the rest is history.

[smokinjoe]

17 minutes ago, markandrex said:

I drank bourbon on and off in the mid to late 70’s.  I always enjoyed it but had very few friends who shared my tastes so it was a side.thing for me.  
In 1980 I went to my cousin’s wedding in Ohio in winter.  The weather was so bad the the bartenders were running late to the reception.  My uncle, the brides father,  asked if I would fill in since I had some experience behind the bar.  About an hour later he tells me they are not coming and asks if I would mind.  I had gone stagg so, no problem.  I had a great time with everyone that night.At the end of the evening he tells me to break the bar down into three.  One for the bride, one for him and one for me.  Also handed me an envelope with what would have been the bartenders pay.  Me being a poor college boy, I was thrilled.  My portion of the bar included three handles of Old Grandad, the rest is history.

That’s pretty cool.  

[TBoner]

I had my first encounters with whiskey that really worked for my palate back in 2005. A buddy turned me on to Saz Jr. From there I started just trying everything, as is my tendency with most hobbies. At the time, I was able to walk into many stores in my area and buy dusties, BTAC from previous years, and a bunch of stuff that was about to disappear (Old Charter 10 & 12, BHC stuff, WTRR 101, ER 10/101, and on and on). There's not much among standard bottlings I haven't tried, plus many of the sought-after labels that existed before the boom really hit. I haven't tried some of the big hitters among the newer distilleries (Wilderness Trail, New Riff, Woodinville, etc.), and Barrell and many other NDPs remain untested for me. I enjoy the novelty of trying new things, but these days, most new stuff is too expensive for me to mess with when I can get things I really dig for $25 and under. The only things I really want to try that I haven't are ECBP - which I passed on at $65 recently, so maybe I don't feel much of a pressing need to try it, Rebel 10, and the aforementioned newer distilleries that seem to be doing things right.

 

It's just that when I see that liter of OGD BIB for $28, I wind up going for the sure thing. Perhaps in that sense some of the hobbyist aspect is in the rearview for me, although I always enjoy a taste I haven't encountered before.

[Harry in WashDC]

ASIDE - Lots of my bourbon travels have been documented in excruciating detail in previous posts.   Hence:  the high points.

 

Was a beer person after serving in the US Army in Germany in the very late 1960s.  Rode the craft beer wave until it got really weird - "aging" beer in bourbon barrels, pickel (!!!) barrels, tea barrels, etc., and experimenting with various grains and "other" things to create a wort supporting fermentation (like plums as though nobody has heard of slivovitz, I guess, and even hemp!!).  About the time I could no longer get my faves (Fuller's ESB, Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale, Wild Goose Ale out of the upper mid-west, a few Germans, etc.) without prolonged hunting, prices went nuts.  A single 12 OZ bottle of some special stout was going for $10 AND NOBODY COULD FIND IT!!

 

CONCURRENTLY with my beer fixation and frustration, one of my wife's uncles gave me a Manhattan made with ingredients he had stockpiled post-WW II.  He'd been a fighter pilot in the European Theater, and Manhattans on rocks was their basic drink, French sweet vermouth being readily available (for a price paid in stockings, food, and American cigarettes!).  This was late 1970s, and cocktails became a growing interest.  My Dad, an inveterate Old Crow and diet cola drinker, gave me his old cocktail books and talked late into many nights about cocktails he knew and loved during WW II.

 

Circa 2003, I was searching the internet, which was then sort of a teenager rather than its robust self we know today, looking for info on a bourbon I had discovered - Van Winkle Lot B.  It was about $55 a 750 (AN OUTRAGEOUS SUM!!) and was getting harder to find with each passing bottle.  I printed out a few pages from some website I stumbled on - www.straightbourbon.com - on which some guys were speaking a language I'd never heard about mash bills, barrel age, etc.  It wasn't until 2014 before I found that site again and  joined.  ASIDE - I still  have those pages.

 

I look back now at the crap I drank (Seagram's 7 in cocktails!!) and also missed (all that Weller stuff I thought was overpriced) or ignored ("bonded" vs. 80 proof).  HECK!  I was still in a cocktail and "Jack Daniels rocks" phase at least until JD started dropping its proof.

 

I credit a friend of my wife's for my move into bourbon for its own sake.  The only bourbon/American whiskey I drank regularly pre-1990 was JD.  That friend introduced me to Makers Mark in the late 1970, and slowly encroached on that JD jones.  She was the daughter of Christian missionaries who had to leave China in 1949, and her parents were fans of wheated whiskey, one of the few US of A spirits they could get in China in the late 1930s-1940s (Weller fans??).  MM fit that profile.. 

[PaulO]

I started with whiskey back in the 1980s, doing shots, boom down the hatch.  It was Jim or Jack, chased with a soft drink.

Later I got into imported beer, then craft beer and home brewing.

I got interested in the classic cocktails, and took a bartending class.  Also read all the books I could find.  As a child, I wondered about the mystique of the Martini, watching all the old James Bond movies.  I eventually figured that out.

Tasting ingredients by themselves, and learning how to read labels lead me down the road to better Bourbon.  Probably the epiphany was trying DSP 31 distilled JW Dant B.I.B.  Compare that to Jim or Jack 80 - ha.

Back in the 1990s - early 2000s, all the LE stuff sat on shelves a MSRP.  I remember buying OFBB (two different years side by side) and ORVW for $39.99 each.  I passed Lot B at $49.99 and BTAC Stagg at $69.99.  OWA 7 year was the same price as MM.  I actually bought OWA and W 12 quite a bit, just regular pours at the time.  Basically, I worked my way through trying almost everything.  I used to visit Louisville on occasion too.  Back then it was really worth it, what you could buy and the prices, nowadays far less so.  Indiana and Kentucky stores very similar today.

[BigRich]

22 hours ago, BigRich said:

I'm a new millennium drinker.  I started down the path of deep exploration with my best friend back in the spring of 2000.  It started with Irish then to Scotch then bourbon then everything else.

 

I've been very fortunate over the last 22 years to try damn near everything.  I'm sure that there are some newer brands that I haven't tried yet but none come to mind. 

Peerless.  I haven't had that one yet.  I just can't get past the price of admission. 

[fishnbowljoe]

My bourbon/whiskey journey is a very long and abstract one.
 

In a nutshell, I had Rebel Yell and Yellowstone in the early 1970’s before I was of legal drinking age. Our vacation to KY in 1991 included an unscheduled visit to MM. I bought a bottle as soon as we got home. In 2007, on an absolute whim, I made my first trip to the KBF. Because of that, I became even more enamored and interested in bourbon. Also because of that, I found Straightbourbon. I joined Straightbourbon in 2008, and haven’t looked back since. 
 

After really getting into bourbon in 2008, I found a decent liquor store near me. The manager helped me out with some information and samples/tastings. My intuition told me that my preferences were with wheaters/Weller’s. For better or worse, I ignored my intuition. I went through several phases. At first I tried anything and everything. New bourbon, cool bottle, recommendations from others here, etc. It didn’t take too long for that to get old. I then tried to get a little more specific with things. I went through periods where I concentrated mainly on Wild Turkey products. Then it was Four Roses. I eventually came back around to wheaters and Weller’s. These along with most BT products are where my preferences now lie.

Biba! Joe

 

 

[steven s]

got into whiskey around 2008 in an effort to cut back on sugars and calories of beer, wine, mixed drinks. Started w handles at home of Jameson and Dewers 12 on the rocks. Delved deeper into Irish and (more so) scotch for a number of years. Argued with my childhood friends who still lived in the southeast about scotch vs. bourbon (I had limited experience w bourbon at this point), saying I liked the malt and smoke more than the "corn-burn" of bourbon. Then one of those friends had a 50th bday trip to KY in 2018 to bike and drink bourbon.  I happened to have a local connection to a family member of a major whiskey family in KY, and he set up some amazing tours for us. At Haymarket I drank Redbreast 15 while they freaked out over their Bourbon options. I dove in after that trip, and at this point I drink waaaayyy more Bourbon than Japanese, Scotch, or Irish, usually over a little ice. I know what I like, and can keep happy with inexpensive bottles. Over the last few years I have tried a lot of what I was interested in, except some of the really limited stuff. I recently acquired a PVW 15, a milestone in this journey. 

[Kepler]

I was a fan of Jim Beam and JD with coke while I was in college at the end of the 80's and early 90's and into my young adult years. 

 

But it wasn't until I happened to tour the Jack Daniel's distillery during a road trip to a football game at U of Tennessee in 2008 that I really started getting into whiskey. 

 

From there it was a slow and gradual progression for me exploring bourbon offerings at the liquor store (with no internet or social media influence whatsoever at the time) or a Christmas gift bottle from my family.  I fondly recall a 2008 JD SiB and then Blanton's the next year as Christmas gifts under the tree.  

 

My bourbon "journey" really crystallizesd with a Kentucky Bourbon Trail trip with Mint Julip Tours as a birthday gift from my girlfriend (now wife -- yes she was a keeper) in 2012 or 2013.  That trip included a VIP tour of Wild Turkey distillery with Eddie Russell as our tour guide.  I've been literally hooked ever since and I found SB and joined in 2016.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2022 by Kepler

[geclbxf]

On 1/13/2022 at 2:50 PM, BigRich said:

Peerless.  I haven't had that one yet.  I just can't get past the price of admission. 

I continue to get on the peerless bandwagon.   I agree the pricing is a barrier to point of entry, but I like the fact they have priced it to eliminate the secondary = which means you can actually find it when you want it.    They are producing incredible bourbon and rye.   I have done multiple picks, and I like the people, the process, and the juice.   Come on in - the water is warm!

[smokinjoe]

So, they’ve priced it very high to eliminate the secondary and thus allow that I can actually find it…

Golly!  What swell folks, going to those lengths for my protection!  Haven’t seen that type of care since…well…Judge Smails!

 

[PJMac]

First got into Whiskies in the late 90's while I still lived in the Midwest. One of my wife's bridesmaids husbands was pretty high up at Maker's. I remember we went for a trip to visit them in Louisville for the weekend, and that was all she wrote. Early 2000's we moved to the Seattle area, and like a few others reading their stories in this thread, I got into the big microbrew beer scene out there. It wasn't until a few years ago that we moved our family back to Northern Indiana that I got really back into bourbon. 

 

Over the year's, I've been lucky to at least taste, if not own, all of the big hitters, the last one being Michter's, if memory serves me right. Like everyone, I have my own preferences, but always try to keep a few on hand for guests, or my regular bourbon crew - of the ones that aren't my favorites. 

 

Outside of that, I do have a few of the newer players, like Bardstown, New Riff, Barrell, Peerless, Horse Soldier, etc. I'm really like the blends coming out of Bardstown and Barrell recently. Personally, I don't think Peerless is priced all "that" high, I think I picked up my last bottle for $58? On the other hand, both Bardstown and Barrell can get salty quick.

Edited January 16, 2022 by PJMac

[berto]

Drinker since the early 90s, don't tell mom.  Hobby since the late 90s.  There are times I've thought I would have been just as happy if I'd stuck to Makers and Turkey.  The friends made and the good times sharing wonderful horizon expanding pours tell me otherwise.

 

I've yet to dive into the Barrell offerings.  Their rise coincided with my taking a step back from grabbing everything that even sort of grabbed my interest.  My purchases far exceeded my consumption.  I'm much pickier now.  

[GeeTen]

43 minutes ago, berto said:

Drinker since the early 90s, don't tell mom.  Hobby since the late 90s.  There are times I've thought I would have been just as happy if I'd stuck to Makers and Turkey.  The friends made and the good times sharing wonderful horizon expanding pours tell me otherwise.

 

I've yet to dive into the Barrell offerings.  Their rise coincided with my taking a step back from grabbing everything that even sort of grabbed my interest.  My purchases far exceeded my consumption.  I'm much pickier now.  

 

Ah, achieving Bourbon Zen at an early age?  Well done, grasshopper.  

[PhantomLamb]

On 1/16/2022 at 9:42 AM, smokinjoe said:

So, they’ve priced it very high to eliminate the secondary and thus allow that I can actually find it…

Golly!  What swell folks, going to those lengths for my protection!  Haven’t seen that type of care since…well…Judge Smails!

 

First of all, legendary video.  "Gambling is illegal at Bushwood sir and I NEVER slice!"

 

Back on topic; this is my qualm as well.  I trust in what Peerless is doing in terms of distilling and wanting to make a quality product.  @Rhettro has told me that they are going to keep that pricing structure (i.e. expensive) untouched even when they start to get older stock.  I don't know...part of me wants to get behind them but there are so many solid picks that you can find and not have to shell out $60+ for something that is X years old.  I haven't taken the leap yet.

[BigRich]

On 1/16/2022 at 9:42 AM, smokinjoe said:

So, they’ve priced it very high to eliminate the secondary and thus allow that I can actually find it…

Golly!  What swell folks, going to those lengths for my protection!  Haven’t seen that type of care since…well…Judge Smails!

 

That’s wonderful!  I was laid up sick all weekend and did some earlier Chevy Chase to make myself feel better.  Caddyshack was right after Fletch on the list Sunday.  It’s a miraculous recovery!

[DeepCover]

I mixed JD and MM with Coke in the 90’s. I didn’t really come back to whiskey until 2013 when I started drinking scotch - Macallan 18, Glenmorangie Nectar D’Or, and Balvenie 14 Caribbean Cask got me hooked.
 

At a restaurant in Vegas in 2015 one of our distributors ordered me a glass of PVW20. It was all over for me at that point. I’ve been chasing that high ever since. I wish I would’ve started at the bottom shelf and worked my way up. Starting at the top and working your way down is a frustrating and expensive journey. Lessons have been learned.
 

I’m still mainly a bourbon drinker, though my tastes have pushed me into rye, rum, and brandy in the last 3 years or so.

[FlounderinDC]

Interesting thread. I drank whiskey in college in the mid to late 90's, but it was mostly very cheap stuff like Ten High mixed with copious amounts of Coke or Pepsi. When we wanted to "go fancy" we'd get some Wild Turkey. I remember sometime my super senior year ordering a bourbon and water at the bar and thought "that isn't bad." But my few post college jobs were in DC and I didn't make very much $$$ so I stuck to cheap beer for several years. Finally around 2011 a friend gave me a house warming gift that was a bottle of Blanton's. The whole concept of whiskey sucked me in and now its a full blown hobby, but the craziness of everything has made me scale back. I joined a local whiskey club about 6-7 years ago and that opened me to rye, scotch, Irish and all kinds of stuff. I've been fortunate to try quite a bit of stuff via the club.  I've actually been drinking more scotch than anything else lately. 

 

Ironically the friends that gave me that Blanton's now live in Lexington, KY. So I'm chomping at the bit to go see them and experience some distillery tours. 

[River Hills]

Thanks for the topic. Interesting!  My drink of choice, for many years, starting in the mid seventies was Crown and water.

Between that and Budweiser not much else was consumed.  In the late eighties I dropped the water and drink Crown on the rocks.  The water made me pee too much.  Around the turn of the century I started exploring with other whiskeys. Soon after that I decided that I definitely didn’t like scotch and did really have a taste for Bourbon.  I have been hooked ever since.  Seldom drink anything else except for margaritas with Mexican, etc.

 

Whistle Pig is a Bourbon/Rye that I haven’t tried.