What are you drinking tonight, Spring '08

[RWBadley]

This evening was a good one. A buddy came over this afternoon and we started off with New Belgium 1554 beer and Barbancort 15 yo rum. Great stuff both and deserving focus of attention.

A side by side of Del Maguey Mezcal came next...

The Tobala wild agave and the Minero single village. Both excellent with the Tobala taking honors. I can't say enough about these gorgeous single village Mezcal. You really should try some.

Next up was a pairing of Gin.

Anchor Junipero and an old tax stamp vintage Burnett's. The Burnett's had this great toasted coriander, and the Potrero had an amazing high focus of juniper. The Potrero wins this one.

Next we had Handy's Sazerac rye vs Weller 12. Close call. The Rye by a nose.

At this junction I decided to go for the gold and open

A vintage Hirsch 20. So it tossed 600 ebay bucks down the tube oh well ;-) It showed the two previous samples (Rye and Weller) the door. We both commented at the same time that as good as we thought the other two (and all previous) were until that point, the Hirsch was like Pro NBA facing a college team.

So then what? I brought out the Rosebank 15yo and a Dallas Dhu 27yo. This was a match of equals. The Rosebank had this great floral lemony character, that while complex it had a large compass; the Dallas Dhu had a great focus of cedar, oak, wood and lovely Malt, the Hirsch stood tall among them with an obvious sense of purpose. Wood, vanilla, leather and lilac/mint. Tough to choose,as these were all world class.

For me, the Dallas Dhu squeaked by the Rosebank, and the Hirsch and Dallas were pretty close and really a close call. If I had to pick, it would be the Hirsch by reason of the finish. So long and full & rich. These last three were all world class and all 90+ points, so tough to pick a winner. Each deserves a medal. Full pleasure and measure. In fact, the day was perfect tasting and all were delicious in their own right. I could only hope your day went as well.

And the Celtics won ;-)

Cheers,

RW

[cigarnv]

Last evening was perfect for a Manhattan.... Rittenhouse BIB , Vya, bitters and a touch of cherry juice shaken.... served straight up with a light crust of ice slivers...

[OscarV]

90 degrees and high humidity today.

I work outside and I am home-sweet-home now,... so I am drinking ice cold Molson Golden.

[Gillman]

Ah, Molson Golden. I remember it well from the 70's in Montreal. It is still sold in Canada, in Ontario at any rate. Good beer of the commercial type. I recall well its funny tv ads from that time. Lots of scenes around pools with, well, you know (they wore something ending in an "i"). One of the males who regularly appeared in those ads was a Canadian actor and tv personality called, euphoniously, Terry David Mulligan. Some Americans who watched Much Music (our long-running version of MTV) may recall him, he was a DJ for many years on that show. Incidentally (there are lots of incidentals in this posting), Terry David Mulligan is involved currently with a winery in B.C. which is making a splash.

Where was I? Oh yes, WAYDT. It's the same bourbon blend I used last night to make that Sazerac Mark II. Except, I added whimsically (not) a dash of 20 year old vintage port I decanted some time ago in a half-pint whiskey bottle. The port has held up 100% even though stored at room temp (which is 90 degrees here, too, and you could say humid).

This quite honestly smokes any commercial bourbon to which port was added or which was finished in an ex-port barrel.

Speaking of smokes, all I need to make this perfect is a Philip Morris plain or a Chesterfield. And Live At Leeds cranked. Well, at least I've got two of them.

Gary

[voigtman]

Wow, amazing tasting! I'm having a Thomas H. Handy Sazerac rye (132.7 proof) after two warm-up Lagavulin 16 SMSs. The Handy definitely holds its own. Sort of a cross between regular Sazerac 17s and one of the Old Potreros (IIRC, essay 7) I had long ago. But a definite evocation of sawdust of all things! This will be great to mix with other potables. Cheers, Ed

This evening was a good one. A buddy came over this afternoon and we started off with New Belgium 1554 beer and Barbancort 15 yo rum. Great stuff both and deserving focus of attention.

A side by side of Del Maguey Mezcal came next...

The Tobala wild agave and the Minero single village. Both excellent with the Tobala taking honors. I can't say enough about these gorgeous single village Mezcal. You really should try some.

Next up was a pairing of Gin.

Anchor Junipero and an old tax stamp vintage Burnett's. The Burnett's had this great toasted coriander, and the Potrero had an amazing high focus of juniper. The Potrero wins this one.

Next we had Handy's Sazerac rye vs Weller 12. Close call. The Rye by a nose.

At this junction I decided to go for the gold and open

A vintage Hirsch 20. So it tossed 600 ebay bucks down the tube oh well ;-) It showed the two previous samples (Rye and Weller) the door. We both commented at the same time that as good as we thought the other two (and all previous) were until that point, the Hirsch was like Pro NBA facing a college team.

So then what? I brought out the Rosebank 15yo and a Dallas Dhu 27yo. This was a match of equals. The Rosebank had this great floral lemony character, that while complex it had a large compass; the Dallas Dhu had a great focus of cedar, oak, wood and lovely Malt, the Hirsch stood tall among them with an obvious sense of purpose. Wood, vanilla, leather and lilac/mint. Tough to choose,as these were all world class.

For me, the Dallas Dhu squeaked by the Rosebank, and the Hirsch and Dallas were pretty close and really a close call. If I had to pick, it would be the Hirsch by reason of the finish. So long and full & rich. These last three were all world class and all 90+ points, so tough to pick a winner. Each deserves a medal. Full pleasure and measure. In fact, the day was perfect tasting and all were delicious in their own right. I could only hope your day went as well.

And the Celtics won ;-)

Cheers,

RW

[bigtoys]

Last night it was Knob Creek on the rocks with grilled blackened tilapia and assorted appetizers.

[ILLfarmboy]

I wanted something easy drinking in this heat, well, mugginess more than heat, so I made a WT RB old fashioned with Fee Brothers Old Fashion and a drop of their West Indian Orange bitters. I had one while grilling the pork shoulder steaks and brushing them with BBQ sauce and one while eating. They didn't turn out so well (the drinks). I would have switched to another bourbon or rye for the second drink but instead I tried to tweak the proportion of the ingredients.

[mgilbertva]

Some Old Forester 86pf from 1983. Went great with a cigar on a hot night.

[spun_cookie]

Tonight is WL Weller Cent... yummy

[TNbourbon]

Didn't go to the grocery today, so I'm down to some diet ginger ale and club soda as mixer.

Started with a Manhattan made with last month's BOTM, Ten High. Not bad, really.

Then, suffocated some too-dear-for-the-taste Hirsch gold-foil, 16yo in some of the ginger ale.

Now am discouraging some 1992-dumped, pre-horsey-letter Blanton's likewise.

It's nice to be able to improve both ginger ale AND bourbon at the same time:skep:. Isn't it? (yeah, that's right -- my principle is that it has NO VALUE after it's opened.)

[OscarV]

My last 1.5 oz of Parker's Heritage Collection 122.6 proof.

I sipped a half ounce down to to get the final "taste memory", then I added a quarter ounce water.

I spoke of this cut before.

It works extremely well.

Now I am finishing up a bottle of Charter 101, over cracked ice.

This was a freebie and I split it with ACDetroit.

The most positive thing I can say about this paricular bottle is that it was free.

Should I have posted this in the "empty bottle support group" thread?

[PhilsFan]

Having ETL and watching the Cubs vs Braves on WGN.

-Joe

[JamesW]

Had 2 nice Weller Special Reserve whiskey sours and now capping it with a nice smooth pour of RVWFR Lot B.

[callmeox]

A Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA with some Baby Saz on the side.

[razerburnt]

Bookers and Old Fitz BIB.

[chilidawg7]

OGD 114, then a little bit of Weller Centennial

[OscarV]

Old Weller Antique 107 over cracked ice.

Still spring and I am tired of the heat already.

[JamesW]

A whiskey sour and now Centennial (Julios)! Great whiskey!!!

[bigtoys]

4R small batch watching Stephanie Izard win Top Chef on Bravo TV. We used to love her restaurant, Scylla, in Bucktown before she changed the style and eventually closed it. Now, hopefully she'll open another restaurant in Chicago and go baack to her original style. Her cooking is the most creative and tasty we've ever had.

She deserved the win and the title. :bowdown:

Me, I'm still awaiting the 4R 120th to hit the Chicago stores.

[TNbourbon]

Was gifted earlier today some miscellaneous liquors from the distaff half of the couple who'd originally employed me in their liquor store almost 6 years ago (they sold the store, where I still work part-time, last November). She had inherited it from a great-uncle.

Among the interesting items are:

• Muirhead's Blended Scotch Whisky, a 4/5-quart bottle apparently from the mid-'60s, stamped as from the U.S. Air Force Open Mess. In both nose and palate, it is very malty, with virtually no peat displayed. The label describes it as 'extra light', which is accurate, with all sweetness and a warm-glowing, medium-long finish, despite its being only 80 proof. The bottle is about half-gone, and has likely been open a long time -- so is not at its best -- but there seems to be nothing at all wrong with the whisky, which is quite pleasant, if simple.
  
• Seagram's Crown Royal Canadian whisky, also from the '60s, noting Waterloo on the label. The palate sense is as soft as that velvet bag these things come in (this one was pretty ratty, so I threw it out, along with what appeared to be the original box). The lack of any sense of alcohol makes this (and so many Canadians) easy to drink, but unremarkable. I haven't had a modern Crown Royal in some time, so am hard-pressed to compare it -- but if today's are this innocuous, or even moreso, I wonder why people bother. I was really hoping to be wowed by this older CR, but am disappointed to find it's just another nondescript Canadian blend.
  
• There are a couple of more full/sealed Canadian blends: a 1970 Canadian Club pint from Walkerville; and a 1963 Seagram's VO pint from Waterloo that I will open at a later date. They're packaged in fake-book, gift-type boxes. But, I have enough (with several past bottles also opened) northern whisky unsealed at present that I think I'll just let these sit awhile.
  

There also are a series of minis of what apparently are Spanish fortified wines from Bodegas de Quitapenas, Malaga, Spain, which also intrigue, and might be my next explorations from this box of 'goodies'.

[fishnbowljoe]

Visiting Elmer tonight. Joe

[Gillman]

Interesting finds there, Tim. Crown can be odd that way. Some modern samples are quite good though. Probably the 60's with its preoccupation or looming preoccupation with lightness and that great find of the era, smoothness, was the high water mark of lack of character in Canadian whisky. Samples from earlier decades have more oomph IMO and those since are pretty good especially brand extensions such as Limited Edition and Special Reserve. The VO of the time though might be quite worthy, partly due to being younger (6 yrs I believe), therefore the straight whisky element might be more noticeable than in Crown.

Gary

[TNbourbon]

I really have a hard time -- too hard, frankly; it's NOT brain surgery:rolleyes: -- figuring out how to drink my whiskey.

Just because I hadn't done so before, I just went and re-arranged my open bottles chronologically by distillation date (as best as can be determined). I figure my method will change next week, but...

So, now I'm pouring a 1:1 vatting of my oldest whiskey open -- 1942 distilled W.L. Weller Special Reserve 7yo BIB -- with some current Weller SR/90 proof. The older bottling was just too much affected by the menthol of (you pick) old, first-growth oak or long years in the bottle. The modern whiskey tames it, without overwhelming it. It's a good marriage.

Did anyone ever mention that Stitzel-Weller made some good bourbon? No? Well, don't know how we missed it, but this old stuff adds a backbone of substance we seldom see in anything outside of barrel-proof modern bottlings. The flavors are in-your-face, and you can like 'em or not. Here, aside from the menthol, there's cherry, burnt caramel, brown sugar, red taffy -- and, mind you, this is a half-and-halfer! Where do I find that today? Jim Beam Black? Pullleeeaasseee!

How much you figure this 4/5-quart bottle cost back in 1949/1950 when it was first on a shelf? Buck-and-a-half, two dollars? In 1950, that would have been a coupla hours' pay. Like, say, Lot B today.

That's part of my attraction to bourbon: the historiocity, the direct connection to folks who came before me. Somebody -- lots of somebodys -- drank bottles of this same whiskey in 1950! Who were they, why did they chose it? How did they drink it, what did they think of it?

Hmmm?...I guess I'm enjoying this, or someone from a previous era who has invaded my tastebuds is...:cool:

[Gillman]

They didn't know what they had. Or, they did, but it wasn't sanctioned/acknowledged by the larger culture. It was felt necessary to seek validation in Cognac, scotch, etc. There were a very few who did know the value of these great domestic drinks (e.g. H.L. Mencken, Bernard De Voto) but these were voices in the wilderness.

Through voices such as yours, Tim, and that of Scratchline regarding his amazing 1917-era Old Crow, we can appreciate what our ancestors had; and unlike most of our forbears we are not embarrassed to vaunt the best from then - or now.

Gary

[angelshare]

EC 12 on the rocks (not hoarding yet!).