It’s been a while since we had a bourbon thread. What new wonderbooze have you found?
My current (as in “in my glass right now”) tipple is Buffalo Trace, which I remember Tuckerfan waxing rhapsodic about about a year ago. Definitely a keeper. Very smooth. Currently, the drinks cabinet holds, bourbon-wise:
Buffalo Trace
Maker’s Mark
Old Weller Antique
Old Granddad Bonded
Wild Turkey Russell’s Reserve
Wild Turkey Rare Breed
Bulliet
Woodford Reserve
The Wild Turkey expressions are the wife’s favorites. Superior bourbons, they are.
I have to say that bourbon is one of the few types of alcohol – possibly the only type – that I will not touch. I love Scotch. I enjoy other types of whiskey, including the rice whiskey made here in Thailand and even the local moonshine, but there’s something about bourbon that simply turns my stomach. Really.
They’re my favorite too, with Kentucky Spirit being my absolute favorite pour. So delicious. My wife however hates all bourbon.
My open list is currently pretty small, as I have a couple bottles of Scottish whisky that I’m also working on. Currently I have :
Wild Turkey 101
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15 yr
Rock Hill Farms
Elmer T. Lee
George T. Stagg
Noah’s Mill
Of this lot, the Pappy is the clear favorite. I know that Rock Hill Farms is pretty well thought of, but I just don’t care for it that much. That’s the bourbon that I serve my brother in law, who likes his whiskey over ice.
Ever since a rather disastrous decade, even the smell of cheap bourbon makes me gag.
Makers Mark however, does not. I’ve not tried very many since the early 90’s, sticking instead to Irish whiskeys, in fear that I’ll drop $30 and end up heaving.
Trusting silenus, I may make a note of those to try (excluding Wild Turkey, alas)
That’s quite the bar! I usually only keep one bottle of hard liquor on hand. I just finished a fine bottle of Knob Creek the other day. Good stuff, with just a hint of sourness.
You may want to try something from the Van Winkle line. Like Maker’s theirs are “wheated” bourbons, though the char level on the Van Winkles is noticeably higher. They have a 90 and a 107 version of their 10 year that are very good for not a lot of money.
Has anyone here plopped down the big bucks for the Pappy 23?
I haven’t had the 23, but I have had the 20. Way out of my usual price range, but oh so good. Sort of Maker’s on steroids. Wheated, but vanilla-y and smooth.
Is it true that you cannot buy Jack Daniels in the county where it is made, because of a local prohibition on liquor sales? Or is that simply another Urban Legend?
And I think Woodford Reserve is some of the finest bourbon I’ve come across. The “official bourbon” of the State of Alabama, Conecuh Ridge, is gross, however.
Yes, in fact this is the third time you’ve mentioned it. You also told me we were blood brothers and swore you’d die for me in a heartbeat, then you tried to pick a fight with the bartender, and then you laid your face in your hands and wept. Could you just try not to breathe in my direction?
Obviously it seems there is a far greater range of bourbons available in it’s home country, than here in Australia.
My personal favourite, for a regular drink is Makers Mark. Very nice, very smooth.
I currently have half a bottle left of the most divine bourbon I’ve ever tasted, Bookers Bourbon It is my favourite bourbon ever, But at 90 odd bucks (AUD) a bottle, it’s not something I’ll indulge in for an everyday tipple.
Funny thing, I got onto bourbon as my drink of choice maybe 10 years ago, while still in my 20’s when on a reasonably small paypacket, and I happily indulged in Jim Beam as my bourbon of choice with an occasional special treat of Jim Beam black label. But after a few years of sticking with Makers Mark, I was served some Jim Beam recently and thought it tasted very ordinary indeed. I’ve become a bourbon toff!
Hey, hey, hey! Blame the county, not the state! Most of the rest of Kentucky embraces our very own homegrown product and we of northern Kentucky persuasion practically revel in the long line of cars going southbound from Ohio on every Friday night cuz the alcohol’s cheaper over here.
According to this map, out of 120 counties we have 30 that are wet and 16 that are “moist” (some precincts are wet and some are dry). 21 allow limited sales at golf courses or restaurants, and 53 are totally dry.
I live in a wet county, but I can drive due west for over three hours without hitting another one.
Bourbon is one of the few alcohols I can’t go near, probably because my one horror story of blacking out happened at a “Bourbon and Coltrane” party (that’s right, 30 college students sitting around, listening to John Coltrane and drinking fine bourbons). Pretty much, I don’t remember anything after about an hour and a half and 3 drinks into the evening. I ended up going to a night club, dropping a bottle of bourbon right outside said club before being allowed enterence even though I wasn’t a member, going to a burger joint and eating a burger while talking to some guy I met there about Alaska and my college, playing “Charlie in the Trees” (an awful game where you go out to a paved area with an empty beer bottle, throw it up as high as you can, scream “Charlie in the trees!” at the top of your voice, then run as fast as you can, dodging and rolling, until the glass falls and shatters everywhere), and then being taken home, forcing my friend to climb through the window to let me in, even though I had the key. All told about four hours of my life I don’t remember. I woke up in the morning in boxers and socks on top of my covers, and though, “Hmmm, this is a fun party. Wait, what the fuck am I doing in my bed?!?!?!”
That’s why I don’t drink bourbon. My dad loves the stuff though, and does it on the rocks. He tends to drink Johnny Walker black. Me, I love my Tanqueray gin, and stick with that either on the rocks or in a gin and tonic. And beer. Gotta love beer.
I tried a new one the other day with which I was impressed. It was billed as the “Official Bourbon of the Kentucky Derby”. I don’t remember the name, though. I’ll email the folks I got the sample from and get the name.
