whiskey

The fact that Old Overholt is generally available for $11-13 a bottle (around here at least) is a godsend that means people have no excuse not to drink well.

― spiced with KNOWING THAT YOU'VE PAID YOUR BILLS (I DIED), Saturday, January 7, 2012 3:03 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

$9.15 at Montgomery County liquor stores. Which ALMOST reconciles me to MoCo's and Maryland's liquor distribution laws.

($8.65 for Pikesville Supreme, $20 for Bulleit Rye, $16 for Rittenhouse BiB...if it hasn't all sold out.)

ian, let us know how you like the redemption! i am very fond of it.

I like Redemption too. I'll take Overholt over Pikesville any day. Last weekend I had Hudson Rye which maybe has been my favorite, next to Hirsch.

But I can't bring myself to pay $50 for this small bottle
http://tuthilltown.com/wp-content/products/man-rye-whsk-300x300.jpg

yeah it's a decent young rye but the price is stupid

Even at the bar it was $18 dollars for a shot and a half with one big cube of ice.

i've always wanted to try it but also can't bear paying for it.

they need to do the 375ml bottles because at $100 for a 750 people would realize they can get much better ryes at the same or lower price.

You're paying for the bottle shape w/ those. I don't think any of them are that hot.

josh raises an important point, and i encourage you all to scope this post:

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showpost.php?p=259267&postcount=73

^^ this is super interesting, and makes it v frustrating when you read about e.g templeton and they lump it in with microdistillers

yeah there's a depressing amount of misinformation out there; templeton is one of the worst offenders

Kelly gets a couple of bottles of Manhattan Rye every time she goes back to NY. I like it a lot, it's much smoother than any of the ryes I can find down here, but 4x the cost of Bulleit rye is crazy.

Another quirky thing about the distilleries is that in some cases a distillery or brand goes out of business but there's a ton of bourbon still aging that later gets bought and bottled. To make things really confusing, by this time the brand name may also have been sold and resurrected so that the older bottles that are newly available may not be coming from the same place as the new production.

Templeton is pretty hilariously vague and I don't think they spread misinformation per se, they just talk a lot about what they actually do in their "factory" in flowery terms and talk about their recipe and bottling while conveniently leaving out the distilling and aging bits.

I read a pretty great interview with the Van Winkle who's currently running that brand in Lucky Peach magazine. I guess their selection process has always been to have the current scion of the family walk through a warehouse tasking from different barrels and then selecting the ones to be blended and sold as Pappy Van Winkle. Used to be the Stitzel-Weller warehouse, but since they've been bought it's a different location.

yeah i read that too, even got me to buy a bottle

i'll have to check that--both julian and preston seem like cool dudes

I was cracking up because in the interview he cracked some political remark that made him sound very much like he's from bourbon country (or county, even) but he pulled up in a Van Winkle-branded Smart car!

hahahah

lest we get too cheerful here's a dire prediction about the state of older bourbon from one retailer:

"If you thought we were finally coming out of the great American whiskey shortage, I’m sorry to inform you otherwise. We’ve only reached the tip of the iceberg from what I can see. Black Maple Hill 16 is now gone forever from what I can tell. We won’t be seeing that one again. Even the Black Maple Hill Small Batch is in jeopardy, it seems. I’ve been hearing that Elijah Craig 18 is running on thin ice as well. Vintage 17 doesn’t appear to be coming back and we’ve already seen how difficult getting aged expressions from Buffalo Trace has become. I have a feeling that 2012 is only going to get worse for older Bourbon and rye expressions. Both Elmer T Lee and Eagle Rare are currently out of stock, and we’ve heard rumors that Eagle Rare may not be coming back this year. If you’re a fan of older Bourbon, now might be the time to start hoarding. It’s only a matter of time before they all start hurting."

I like Redemption too. I'll take Overholt over Pikesville any day. Last weekend I had Hudson Rye which maybe has been my favorite, next to Hirsch.

― JacobSanders, Tuesday, January 10, 2012 10:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Hirsch rules.

My brother, who lives in Iowa, sent me a bottle of Templeton Rye. Havent tried it yet, but Im looking forward to it. Any good?

Redemption is fine. It's a bit harsher than Overholt, which is what i've been drinking since it's become more difficult to find Rittenhouse, but if how quickly i've been drkinking it is any indication then i seem to like it quite a lot.

also don't want to pay $$ for a small bottle of hudson whiskey, or a shot of it, to the point where i am kind of like "fuck those guys."

they are, uh, not real popular with either bourbon drinkers or other small distillers from what i've seen.

you can make a pretty good manhattan with the rye though.

guys, i am fully signing off on jim beam devil's cut, it is a wonderful product imo

Really? i gotta try that. ive been tempted.

It's really not that hard to find Rittenhouse, is it? It was for a few weeks, I guess. I read that rye is I guess a particularly ... sticky spirit to make, which is why so few make it and why it's sometimes hard to find.

i heard it would be back in new england two months ago and it still isn't. luckily i have a stash of about 2.5 bottles.

i don't think the supply issues have as much to do with actual mashing/distilling challenges (though yes rye is a bit more annoying) than sales and demand. despite the cocktail revival and whatnot, rye sales numbers remain miniscule when compared to bourbon, so they used to only spend like four days a year distilling rye for rittenhouse. they're distilling more than that now, but what they were doing 4 years ago can't match the modest increase in demand that's been happening.

I just moved to Atlanta, and there is a liquor store called Total Wine that is better than anything in NJ (where i lived for 15 years). Im going to use this thread as a checklist for everytime i go in there.

They have about 4 different grades of George Dickel, going up to 16 (i believe), relatively ceheap too.

Really? i gotta try that. ive been tempted.

― You're a notch, I'm a legend (Bill Magill), Friday, January 13, 2012 9:12 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

btw on this, yeah. it's a fun, characterful bourbon with good spice and woodiness and it's just a little rough around the edges. not "smooth" but not firewater at all. way more interesting than either beam regular or beam black.

Thanks,i'll try it. And I misspoke above, it's Dickel 12

Bought my first bottle of Prichard's Rye and it's not bad, not bad at all. On my second old fashion now.

I just moved to Atlanta, and there is a liquor store called Total Wine that is better than anything in NJ (where i lived for 15 years). Im going to use this thread as a checklist for everytime i go in there.

― You're a notch, I'm a legend (Bill Magill), Friday, January 13, 2012 12:07 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

p sure this is a nat'l chain (there's at least one in NJ iirc and a few in CA). been wanting to try it but the nearest one to me is deep in the valley.

hey guys got any suggestions as to what may be a good bottle of single malt for around £100?

i just found £100 in my offshore account so thought I'd blow it on a bottle of single malt

sure this is a nat'l chain (there's at least one in NJ iirc and a few in CA). been wanting to try it but the nearest one to me is deep in the valley.

^it is. ive been to the one in West Orange, NJ, and it's nowhere near as good as the one down here. it's like being a kid in a candy store for me.

Id still love to find a bottle of Old Portero somewhere.

i just found £100 in my offshore account so thought I'd blow it on a bottle of single malt

― Rosie 47 (ken c), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 9:16 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And there I was, pondering what to treat myself to after getting my DC tax refund. I will neither spend it on a single-malt whisky nor spend it all on an artisanal rye, but thanks for the inspiration!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/drinking-ernest-shackletons-whisky.html

I'm just sort of in awe of all this, Shackleton is p fascinating to me as it stood already.

hey guys got any suggestions as to what may be a good bottle of single malt for around £100?

― Rosie 47 (ken c), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 9:15 AM

http://whiskeysecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Laphroaig-whisky.jpg

the 18 yr rather

i'm skipping over thousands of posts straight to the end, but, have you guys had the bulleit rye? it is nice. i am on a rye kick.

not yet. closest i've come is one of the willett cask strength ryes.

btw if for any reason an ilxor just happened to be in the central kentucky area i would be more than willing to take them to tour one or more of the many distilleries in the area (off the top of my head buffalo trace, four roses, makers mark, woodford reserve, wild turkey all within 30 minutes of here)

awww man every year i say i'm going to do the bourbon trail and every year something comes up. but we should kick it if i ever get my act together.

insider tip on bourbon trail: you have to start EARLY, all distillery tours shut down at 3pm.

one of our future vacations is going to be a bourbon trail/horses thing. who knows when. but some day.

i love bulleit, but i'm not a fan of their rye ;(

Rittenhouse 100 FTW.

I got a bottle of Jefferson Presidential Select for my birthday. Never heard of it but can't wait to try!

nice gift! 17 or 18 years old?