My daughter and her wife recently brought me back a bottle of single malt whiskey from Bushmills in Ireland! It’s got my name and, “Such a Wonderful Mother & Person Deserves a Wee Dram, We Love You!” on the label. Pretty frickin’ sweet!
As a drinker, I’m a plebeian. They told me they meant for me to drink it, but I hesitate to break the seal because I think it’s pretty cool.
Do you think I should drink it or put it on a shelf? If I should drink it, should I mix it with something and if so what would that be? The last time I drank whiskey I didn’t keep it long, if you know what I mean. It was cheap whiskey and coke, to be honest, and it was goal-oriented drinking.
I would not mix it. It’s a decent enough bottle and should be sipped straight or perhaps with a splash of water or an ice cube to mellow it.
If you really don’t like whiskey or scotch then have a sip every year on your birthday and put it back on the shelf till next year.
Go buy a half gallon of something cheap that you enjoy.
Try a bit of both neat, with ice, with coke, etc.
If the single malt is something you’d value and share on special occasions, save the rest. Whisky doesn’t go bad or get any age staying in the bottle. One it’s out of the barrel, that’s that.
If this turns into goal oriented drinking (you want to get shit faced) drink the half gal.
You may well find you like the single malt, at least if you take a bit of time to get used to it, even if you didn’t like cheap whiskey. It does make a difference. As zoid implied, it would be a pity to mask the single malt flavor by mixing with anything other than water or ice, or maybe soda water at the outside. (Of course, if you hate the flavor, as yo may, it doesn’t really matter what you put in to mask it. But that is just drinking to get drunk, and you would be better off getting some cheap vodka or something, and maybe saving the whiskey for guests who might appreciate it.)
Drink it or display it? I see your dilemma because you appreciate the thought combined with the personalization but after all, they did let you know they wanted you to drink it. The Holidays are here so why not bring out the bottle on a special night and share it with everyone. Once the bottle is empty (this year, next?), it can be refilled with a colored liquid and displayed once again. Cut the seal with a sharp knife before opening and the sign that it was broken will be less noticeable.
Never drink good whiskey neat. For entirely scientific reasons it should always contain a splash of water. It’s true of anything with alcohol in it. If you can’t trust Harold McGee who can you trust.
Okay, I’m going to try this one first as a Christmas and/or New Year’s toast. I think I’ve decided to go with the above suggestion to neatly cut the seal and go ahead and drink a bit at a time on special occasions.
Unless it turns out I really like it. I kinda hope that’s not the case since I’m going to have a hell of a time replacing it in the states, from what the girls have told me.
Bushmills isn’t that hard to get. Of course you wont get it in a special personalized bottle but I think this is one instance where you can pour the new bottle of the same stuff into the old personalized one just because it’s special.
That’s good news, thanks. They told me you could only get it from the distillery, where you had to go and personally pick it up. Just the travel expense would be waaaay out of my price range.
I obviously need to do some minor research on it, just in case.
Where do you buy half gallons (<1900 mL)? Do you buy your whiskey by the keg, too?
This isn’t “white bush,” which I see is $21/750mL. This is the single malt version, which if that’s the same as “Bushmills 10 Year Old Single Malt,” then it’s $34 in California (but might be a different age, OP doesn’t say).
I recently had a drunk bartender get ornery because I got a shot of Jameson’s instead. It’s a minor political issue, if you didn’t know. While it’s clear where my sympathies lie, Jameson’s just tastes better to me, compared to white bush.
You can contact a reputable shop in your area (Binny’s in Chicago comes to mind) and the just may be able to get it for you at a not insignificant cost. Your local shop will most likely have to contact a shop in the UK or Ireland and arrange shipping from them once they procure it from the distillery.
I happen to know about this very thing, and this very bottle, because I was recently in Ireland and bought this exact same bottle at the request of a connoisseur friend. What you have is “Distillery Reserve” and it is only available at Bushmills Distillery; it is not available in the States and cannot be ordered and shipped to the States. Indeed it is a very very fine whiskey and should generally be sipped straight.
When I see people drowning good spirits with cola, it makes me shudder. Only drink cheap shit with cola, the good stuff needs to be taken straight up at room temp in the first instance, then maybe play around with a little ice or water after that.
