whiskey

xpost Fittingly, my friend considers Maker's an "airport" brand. That is, if you're stuck in the airport, and you need a sip of bourbon, you know there's at least Maker's. But neither he nor I have ever spent money on a bottle of the stuff.

yeah makers is usually the one ok bourbon at shitty bars and rock clubs

btw my supply of knob creek rye is soooo gone. three bottles lasted fewer than three weeks :/

I usually get Wild Turkey 101 at the duty free but they had some honey version instead this time.

Wild Turkey 101 is awesome. Honey version likely not awesome, unless you are a 12-year old girl.

pretty sure the honey version is for SHOOOOTS

Found a quiet city centre bar selling powers 12 for <€5 per shot, quite the result imo

I was pretty impressed by the wonderfully redundantly named Russell's Reserve Small Batch Single Barrel bourbon. 55% ABV, but not too hot, very flavorful, enhanced by a dash of water. WT101 is such a good deal it's hard to shell out for a fancy bottle with no age statement (rumored to be 7 or 8), but I liked it a lot better than, say, Rare Breed.

completed a longstanding bourbon goal in chicago this week by scoring a bottle of very old barton. 100 proof, 6 years old, 14 bucks for a 750 ml.

it's big, dry, and minty. very in your face, but well made. crazy value for the money.

Love VOB. So many readily available bargains like that.

Just opened a bottle of Elmer T. Lee. Pretty good!

i was very, very into the last bottle of elmer i had.

http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/16/2716601/bourbon-industry-patriarch-elmer.html

RIP Elmer :(

aw :/

Shit. Hope I didn't have anything to do with that!

he made a great whiskey

Herself arrived back from london with a litre of abelour 12, very much to my taste, peppery and clear, the opposite of peat

^^ good choice. I got a bottle of that last year - definitely my kind of whisky.

yeah she accosted some fella looked like a whiskey drinker and badgered him into the least peaty decent bottle of scotch they had- she won't abide the likes of laphroaig in the house.

I just had some awesome 21-year Willett from a bottle signed by the Norwegian (married into the family) dude who runs the company. He had reason to be proud of this barrel. I had reason to be happy I was not the one who paid for the bottle, because man ....

by even or drew k.?

Even.

nice. hope he's around to enjoy the results of their in-house distillation

I got to keep the bottle. Thinking of making it into a flower vase.

Anyone with their ear to the ground have an inkling as to this year's BTAC release? It's usually early fall, isn't it?

i think i've heard october so maybe a bit earlier than usual.

Picked up a bottle of Stagg Jr. BT is saying they'll be making it available throughout the year, but in limited amounts, whatever that means. If it's anything like what happened with the squat-bottled Old Rip, its association with some of the more coveted of bourbons will ensure it's off the shelves before most people even know it's there.

'Tis the season for BTAC and PVW. In the case of the latter, with no more spring allocations, it should be "easier" to find, mitigated by the demand, of course. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I got a bottle of the Old Forester 2013 Birthday Bourbon and count me among its fans.

i saw Stagg Jr. today and may have overreacted and bought two bottles of it.

i cracked my bottle last night. need some more time with it but initial impressions are positive.

Yeah, the Stagg Jr.is seeing the same effect that sparked a run on Old Rip, which you also can no longer find on shelves.

Hah, as I posted three weeks ago!

Was anyone able to get a bottle of Elijah Craig barrel proof? The new 21 is too rich for me at $150, considering the 18 went for $50 til they killed the product.

http://www.awardrobeofwhisky.com/bottle/the-glenlivet-master-distillers-reserve-1l-main_image.jpg

one shot of this cost me more than i'd care to admit over the weekend, it was good but not great imo

i can't figure out where to get PVW from

do yourself a favor and don't try

PVW is basically a unicorn for me.

This article suggests W.L. Weller if you can't get PVW:

http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2013/10/2/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-bourbon

The most helpful Pappy hunt piece is this one:

http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/56759493121/hunting-the-elusive-pappy-van-winkle-bigfoot-of

Basically, if you put in the effort akin to a full-time job, with lots of driving and flexibility, you can get a bottle. I've managed to get a bottle each of the last two years, running the gauntlet of waitlists, networking and stalking the shops. This year should be even tougher, though, since PVW is not announcing when shipments have gone out to each state, which puts the power in the hands of the stores, who can announce - or horde, or sell off - their allotments as they see fit. And I certainly don't trust the stores, given the way they pump up prices.

It's really quite amazing, given that just two years ago and certainly three you could find the occasional bottle or two of Pappy or BTAC or other special bottlings. I really think the secondary market has messed this all up.

FWIW, the 23 year I believe is the only bottling that still features 100& Stitzel Weller juice, which at least can account if still not justify the hundreds of dollars. Scarce is scarce. The younger bottlings, however, are all Buffalo Trace, and limited primarily by design rather than scarcity.

lol "close cousin" - van winkle 10, 12, and prob 15 expressions are now 100% the same distillate as weller.

this is the last year of 100% stitzel-weller in pappy 23 if you want to drive yourself completely crazy

For fun, the nerds at the Straight Bourbon forum swear by their namesake 50/50 blend of Old Weller Antique and Weller 12. Haven't tried it yet myself.

xp Regardless, Van Winkle has never been a distillery. and has never been about single barrels. It's always been about the family's knack for picking great blends, regardless of source, so whether SW or Buffalo Trace, the tastebuds in charge remain the same.

that's not true. julian van winkle sr. owned s-w.

im an dilettante at best with this stuff but the 18yr old Jefferson's seemed comparable to PVW to me, and you can pretty much always find that.

the early run of jefferson's 18 was stitzel-weller, and it was pretty damn good. i think the general consensus is the current stuff must be from somewhere else. i have newer bottles that aren't bad but prob not worth the money.

ah i havent had it in a while--that's too bad to hear.

oops let me correct myself--my bottles from up through last year still have "aged in stitzel weller barrels" on the sticket.

the debate may have been more around the quality of some of the s-w barrels jefferson's was using.

and the 21 y.o. jefferson's label does not mention anything about its origin.

related, this bourbon truth blogger is really mad about some stuff!

that's not true. julian van winkle sr. owned s-w.

But the PVW has never been single barrel stuff, right? Always a blend?

no its never been "single barrel" but until recent years when they started filling in with bernheim and buffalo trace whiskey it was all stitzel-weller distillate.

Gotcha.