whiskey

Ed, Old Portrero is really good, it's very unique. It's not like bourbon or scotch at all, hard to describe. its definitely worth finding.

I am off to SF next month, I shall make a beeline for the distillery.

Enjoy. If you ever find yourself up in Massachusetts, that is where i have had the best luck in finding Pappy Van Winkle. Their website also has a state by state list of their retailers:

http://www.oldripvanwinkle.com/newbs/vw/website3.nsf/wProducts?readform&t=Products

bought a bottle of george dickel last night, was very pleased. sipped it neat

Only had a pull or two of the dickel and I liked.

(ilx quoted out of context)

at $18, dickel used to be a go-to of mine, felt like a steal. now it's like $24. still tasty tho.

found it for $20 in western MA

at a place that sells maker's mark for $24

ye olde Chicopee Chiseller

Dickel is pretty decent, I think I paid $18 in DC.

i used some to make a sazerac last night (OK not orthdox and I had no peychaud and had to do a twist of lime), but I have a bottle of HB pastis and it had to be done.

http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/tales-of-a-cocktail-sampling-sazeracs-in-new-orleans/

ok if you paid $18 in dc (where i live) and tracer is calling marker's for $24 chiseling, i really need to stop going to the neighborhood corner liquor store.

PA state liquor (not known for its cheapness) lists it for $19.99.

there's a real nice liquor store less than a minute from my place but everything costs a fortune there. i think a bottle of laphroaig was like 60 bucks, i got one for 40 in new hampshire two weeks ago.

$24 for maker's is chiseling? wow i thought i was getting a deal.

yea i feel like it's hard tho to find out if you're getting ripped off - most of the liquor stores around here sell stuff for similar prices. guess u find out by traveling a bit. i didn't buy any liquor really until i moved to western MA so i'm not sure what stuff would cost in, say, cleveland, where i grew up

i think tho that my liquor store is moderately priced then - they had laphroaig for like $48

damnit what was the single malt i had the other night that had a lovely treacley finish?

Beer seems really expensive here which is a bummer, I' just drink wine these days.

Ah twas Isle of Jura it was. xp.

Ed do you recall where you bought dickel for $18 in dc

laphroaig under 50 in mass is generally indicative of good prices imo. 24 for maker's seems like a deal tho i don't really like maker's at all.

i've never even heard of dickel--are ppl recommending it?

Somewhere around 16th and P/Q, bought whilst walking from Dupont circle to the Doubletree.

i like it! xp

think it's a really good value too

also here's what merle haggard has to say about dickel:

"I think George Dickel is absolutely the best Tennessee mash whiskey. It's my understanding that Jack Daniel's was an attempt to try to take the recipe of George Dickel to a commercial state of reproducing it. Whereas they couldn't do that with George Dickel, because in order to make it the way they make it, they would have had to repeat too many different formulas. It would have been impossible. They did certain things at certain temperatures in a certain kind of water. So I went down there and looked at their distilleries and saw what they were doing, saw the difference between that and Jack Daniel's, and I couldn't believe it. You take George Dickel and you pour it over ice and hold it up to the light, and it won't separate. But if you take Jack Daniel's and do that, hold it up to the light, you'll notice that the corn oil starts separating from the whiskey, because it hasn't been married at the correct temperature. When you go down and have this education thrown upon you, and then you drink it—everybody got drunk when we was taking pictures. It was about 20 girls and about 20 guys, and we're all down in this creek drunk with two fists of George Dickel apiece, and we all stayed over and had breakfast together, and not a one of us had a hangover."

I would recommend dickel, decent cheapish whiskey, quite light compared to Makers, Woodford and the like. It mixes nicely, makes a great old fashioned.

merle haggard reccomends it
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h75/gridw/grid_dickel.jpg
xxp

haha, I juuust opened this thread to bring up that Merle Haggard endorsement.

cool, i will check that out--i want to trade an amount of my beer drinking for whiskey sipping so something tasty and cheap will help that process.

hahahah awesome ad!

that is pretty much why i bought dickel xp

Somewhere around 16th and P/Q, bought whilst walking from Dupont circle to the Doubletree.

was probably Cairo at 17th & Corcoran - good little shop, especially great beer selection.

mark i will confess that it's been a while since i've bought a fifth of bourbon but i always thought of maker's as really not much better than jim beam if at all

and i prefer evan williams to either, which is (i believe) cheaper

they def aren't cheap and they may seem trendy but these hudson river valley whiskies are really really good
http://tuthilltown.com/QUALITY/gif/ryetrans.gif http://tuthilltown.com/QUALITY/gif/babytrans.gif

nice-looking bottles

yea def

can anyone recommend a good, affordable sipping rye? is old overholt any good? jim beam rye? looking for something in the $15-$30 range that won't give me a hangover. will likely be sipping it neat

will def not be mixing

sazerac is good - not sure how much that is in the US but i would have thought it would be in that price range.
rittenhouse is also good but prob not for just sipping

funny, i didn't even know sazerac is a co., thought it was a cocktail until i just went to their website

Beam Rye is actually pretty tasty. I would recommend it neat or on the rocks.

how does it compare to old overholt? (which i've never tried, but i'm just really loving its bottle:)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/RyeWhiskey.jpg/200px-RyeWhiskey.jpg

rittenhouse 100 proof is good in that price range, old overhold & beam rye are both excellent for the money (should be $12-15/bottle)

I have never had overholt, actually.

But I would take I DIED's advice on matters of alcohol and cocktails.

this is inspiring me to hunt down some dickel. i've had it before but didn't pay much attention.

tonight i am drinking fighting cock, which i bought because it was like $18.95 and the name is funny. it's not bad. 103 proof though woah.

i always wanted to try those hudson whiskeys, but i never felt flush enough to spring for them.

have you guys had black maple hill?

so the overholt, didn't work out so well as a sippin' drink. i think i just need to get used to the rye, though, it seems a bit harsher than bourbon. will definitely give it another chance.

this weekend i visited some friends in NY, one of whom gets all kinds of complimentary spirits through his job. got to business around 1pm on saturday, mostly mid-range stuff with a few 'entry-level' whiskies like jameson

(should mention that i'm a whiskey n00b so 80% of these were my first tastes, the rest probably just 2nd or 3rd)

1pm - highland park 12 (friend has these awesome riedel single malt glasses that he also got through his job, suited this perfectly) this was awesome
2pm - jameson original - liked it a lot. was obviously a step down from the highland park but i think this could work well as a kind of standard 'house whiskey' to have around the apartment
3 pm - johnnie walker black, also sipped a little bit of the red since i've never had it

took break for falafel, walk around neighborhood, checked out whiskey selections in local liquor stores

5pm - crown royal, not too much of a fan. too sweet? tasted kind of syrupy. will probably not bother with this again, tho i guess it could be worth a second chance. also, kind of laughed at the fancy bottle/purple pouch thing matched up with a plastic cap. you'd think they'd throw a nicer cap on it
6pm - sampled some rums that he also got for free. can't totally remember them, abuelo something?

took break for dinner, drank some wine

8pm - woodford reserve, favorite of the day for sure, followed closely by the highland park. gave myself a big pour
9:30pm - highland park in the fancy single malt glasses again, finish like we started

highland park was my first favorite whisky

it has the added bonus of making a very good gravity bong if you remove the bottom of the bottle

for that real smoky flavor

haha