What bourbon are you drinking now? Part deux

[jeff]

Tonight, instead of that hour on the treadmill I promised myself I would spend this morning while looking in the mirror, I'm enjoying an after-work relaxer of Eagle Rare 17yo. I enjoy this bourbon just as much as Stagg and go figure, this year it's harder to find!

So what are you indulging in right now?

[gr8erdane]

I'm sipping on some Evan Williams White Label BIB. No year statement so I guess it's 4yo. Not bad, got that EW taste with a little more zip.

[matthew0715]

In the last week I finished off my EC12 and my EC18, so my only open bottles of whiskey aren't bourbon: Tullamore Dew (Irish) and VWFR rye. I have my first bottle of Buffalo Trace which I'll open next week to celebrate my new apartment. Moving this weekend is going to be quite a chore so I'm looking forward to trying a new bourbon.

Matt

[RedVette]

Buffalo Trace and See's candies. The wife ordered a 5 pound box of See's for my Valentines day present and I ordered a bunch of BT from Binny's, just cause. Pretty tasty combination, chocolate and Bourbon, but I guess you all knew that already.

[TNbourbon]

I'm enjoying Evan Williams 1783, which I think of as EWSB Jr. -- not quite as deep or complex, but with at least hints of all the notes that make the latter a go-to bottle.

Probably will chase it with a couple of fingers of my favorite 'dessert' bourbon, ORVW 15yo.

[bluesbassdad]

Tonight I wanted to pick up where I left off last night -- with Wild Turkey 101, which was so tasty last night that I finished off a bottle. When I looked for my spare bottle, I found that the one I had finished was my spare bottle, which I hadn't gotten around to replacing. (Here in Arizona WT101 goes for over $20, compared to the frequent $13 special price at Rite-Aid and an everyday price of $14 at Trader Joe's back in California.)

I took that as a sign that I should attempt to answer Chuck's recent post regarding a certain non-bourbon whiskey. After a few sips I found it too cloyingly sweet to finish.

Then I encountered Gary's post regarding blending. I added an equal amount of Jim Beam. It helped some, but I couldn't face finishing a double of a concoction I didn't really enjoy.

Eagle Rare 101 has saved the day. To my taste it has more wood than WT101 but not as much char. I've commented before on its slight sweetness. Tonight it seems almost crisp and dry compared to my earlier pour.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[Ken Weber]

Matt,

I noticed your comments and realized I have not seen your name before - Welcome to SB.com! Anyway, I am pleased to see that you have come into some Buffalo Trace. After your move, I look forward to reading your comments, good and bad.

Ken

[Dave_in_Canada]

I've had a cold for about three weeks now. For about a week I had absolutely no smell or taste, so I wasn't wasting any of my good bourbons. Finally the tastebuds are starting to work. Last night I had some Jim Beam Black. I like this stuff. It's young and old all at the same time.

[Ken Weber]

Dave,

If you were from Kentucky you would have known to treat a cold by taking some of the bourbon you have in your collection that you are less fond of, mix in some honey and lemon, gently warm the concoction, and consume it while sitting in an easy chair and watching TV. You feel better (or at least you get sleepy) and you get rid of some of that stuff you have been holding on to for years.

Ken

[Dave_in_Canada]

Ken, thanks for the tip, and you're close! That's the same recipe I use except I don't waste bourbon on a cold. But, I usually use cheap tequila, or other spirits that have been brought to the house by un-educated guests. There isn't a bourbon I 've tasted yet that I would consider bad enough to mix with lemon. LOL

"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others." (William Faulkner).

[idpa2000]

Today I picked up two 50ml bottles of Wild Turkey Rare Breed. I wanted to try a small amount before sinking $32 into a bottle. I must say that it is most tasty. Drinking it over 2 large cubes in a tumbler. As with other high proofs (108) I prefer to let the bourbon sit for a while to let the ice cube cool it and to let the aromas release.

The more bourbons I try the more convinced I am that the WT brands are my favorites.

[ratcheer]

If you had asked me, I would have told you.

Tim

[TNbourbon]

Kinda of a Wild Turkey day for me, too -- nothing wrong with it exactly, but what started out as a gorgeous 55-degree February Saturday has cooled and there is talk of snow (flurries, at least) by Monday p.m. So I'm sitting here with a pour of warming WT 12yo. (My bottle's down by about 40% already -- how can that be? I think I musta gotten a 'short' bottle ) I'm feeling better about tomorrow already.

[ej178]

I just picked up my first bottle of EC12 and a bottle of Weller 12. I found a liquor store with a fantastic selection and decided to give em' a go.

I enjoy both, although they are totally different from one another. I'm resisting reading the EC12 thread until I can come up with my own tasting notes/ideas.

[mobourbon]

I am drinking ORVW 15 for the first time. Wonderful! That's all I can say. Spicy upfront and then it mellows out. The taste stays with you. It coats the tongue. Which is wonderful. I have to thank Tim ( TNbourbon ) for turning me on to this.

[cowdery]

I just finished off a bottle of Weller 12 and started a bottle of Rittenhouse Rye BIB. Also hit a little Tullamore Dew to get a sense of what barley, malted and unmalted, but without peat (i.e., not a scotch) is about. That (and the rye) was prompted by drinking and thinking about Forty Creek.

Under the definition of American Blended Whiskey, white dog and GNS are permitted, but they're not required. What John Hall is doing at his distillery, and Gary Gillman is doing in his kitchen, is pretty interesting stuff. Is America ready for a premium blend? The typical American blend is designed to deliver alcohol with very mild whiskey flavor. What if you created a blend intended to deliver a lot of flavor, but a flavor different from what can be achieved under the definition of bourbon?

[Gillman]

I think for anyone interested (producers included) to produce a blend of straight whiskies, a review of the methods of Joseph Fleischman from 1885 is instructive although the distilleries have plenty savvy to do this on their own, of course. To give an example, Fleischman's best bourbon blend is a combination of two bourbons and one rye whiskey. I find a good blend can work wonders for a Manhattan but it can stand on its own, too, as something closely related to a straight whiskey yet something not quite that exactly.

Putting this another way, the definition and subsequent wide availability of straight whiskey was a MINIMUM guarantee to the consumer of quality. It meant that if you bought a bourbon this would assure the buyer that he got a well-flavored, naturally made product, untampered with by blenders or middlemen. Blends until then (and after) acquired a dubious reputation. I believe this was because producers and middlemen were tempted increasingly to make cheaper blends to increase their margin. So straight whiskey meant you got all-genuine whiskey, no fillers or imitation products. But that did not mean all bourbon and rye were the acme of whiskey drinking; if it did, why did ads of the time (say from the early mid-20th century until the 1960's) focus so much on cocktails? Most of these ads show bourbon consumed in some kind of mixed drink (even if only mixed with water or ice). In other words, it was not so much that straight whiskey shouldn't be used in a mixture, but that the consumer should do the mixing ("mixology") himself or order classic whiskey cocktails in bars, to be assured of getting a well-made "blend", that is.

There WERE quality American whiskey blends produced until relatively recently but these have have withered as a category; the wide availablity of straight whiskey and the other polarity of vodka made them, "unnecesary"; there was a centre position but it became filled mostly by Canadian whisky. But the fact remains American-style blending is an art and it was, and remains, possible to make very good blends which in many cases exceed the whiskeys used as their base.

Regarding rye: New York is always hipped to the trends and it is no surprise that rye rumblings are afoot in the Big Apple. This was premier straight rye territory for a long time, from the 1800's until the 1950's. When a place has a history of connection to a particular food or drink, it often comes back, there is a folk memory almost of these things and the old habit gets picked up.

Even the growth of vodka from the 1950's on can be viewed that way, it really was the return of, well, double-rectified Monongahela.

Gary

[clayton]

I've opened a bottle of OFBB Spring 90. It's the first OFBB that I've tasted, and I find it quite good indeed. Different from what I've been drinking lately. Not so sweet, with lots of char and pepper.

[BrbnBorderline]

I've been alternating between Weller Antique and Ridgemont Reserve.

[TNbourbon]

Well, I'm running a $50+ bar tab tonight. Fortunately, it's my own bar/shelf. Once in a while I just decide to ignore frugality and taste what I want -- tonight was one of those nights. I started with my typical (1-1/2 oz.) pour of Eagle Rare 17yo ('04, 90 proof), followed with a Wild Turkey 12yo (split label, 101 proof) and chased it with some ORVW 15yo ("A" series, 107 proof). I don't smoke, so I'm not fogging up the place with an after-dinner cigar, but am enjoying some chocolate along with Randy Blank's single-barrel Van Winkle 12yo Lot B (90.4 proof) as the 'cognac' course.

You know, a man can live pretty well on good bourbon.

I'm gonna leave the bartender a good tip!

[Dave_in_Canada]

Tim, and how are you feeling today

[bluesbassdad]

DNOB,

In that same vein, last night after doing an inventory of my closet-floor bunker, I decided to open one of my eight bottles (what was I thinking?) of Hirsch 16 y/o (gold foil). I set out to try to pinpoint what it is that keeps me from enjoying it as much as the gold wax version, which is now down to less than half of my one and only bottle.

One drink didn't do it. The second, a double, started to taste quite good after a while. I began to doubt my earlier complaint that this bottling is inferior to the previous one. I barely remember the fourth.

This morning I awoke earlier than usual to greet my landscaper. I kept wondering why I had a headache. Then I remembered. Of course there was once a time when I would have shrugged off the effect of four drinks the night before, if I felt anything at all. I suppose it's another of those annoying, age-related phenomena.

It's back to a two-drink limit for . . .

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

(DSOB)

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[TNbourbon]

Tim, and how are you feeling today

Well, Dave -- I felt pretty good about my enjoyment of them. Think of it quality over quantity. Four pours X 1.5 oz = 6 oz. enjoyed over about a 2-1/2-hour time period after having eaten. Even government charts say it takes about that much in a single hour's time of 80-proof alcohol (on an empty stomach) to reach the .08 DUI limit of most states. Granted, this was all higher than 80 proof -- but it wasn't really that much, except maybe to a teetotaler, and I wasn't going anywhere but to bed afterward. Your aren't a teetotaler , are you , Dave?

[jeff]

In celebration of the birth of our newest child, spring Stagg that is , I am enjoying a pour of the '04, 129 proof edition cut 75:25 Stagg to water. I'm getting the typical chocolate and vanilla frosting notes that I usually pick up from this expression, but also a bit of menthol and wood. I can't wait to pick up the next release

[Dave_in_Canada]

Your aren't a teetotaler , are you , Dave?

Far from it Tim. I was willing to share your pain. I got into some Wild Turkey myself on Sunday night. Worked through a couple of different bottlings and ended up loosing my glass. Still haven't found it.