I’ll put in a good word for our local hooch, Pine Barrens whiskey, which makes a helluva good mint julep and is also excellent with water over a rock or two.
I can’t find EHTSB anywhere ever so if I want it I have to pay $$$ online. I’m in Ohio.
That list is bullshit. Bulleit is mass market, middle of the road bourbon that nobody in their right mind would ever hype, and the less said about Beam the better. Maker’s and Jack are solid offerings as well. Jack gets its rep from being Keith Richards and Frank Sinatra’s swill of choice. The last 4 on the list are either special blends (Blanton’s, Basil) or next to impossible to find (Weller, Pappy). Only the last 2 would I consider “over-rated.” Pappy is good, but it ain’t that good. I can’t read the article from work, but I seriously question their methodology.
ETA: Bulleit Rye is just your basic MGP 95/5, which is the base product behind most of the rye on the market today, it feels like. Solid, if uninspiring. Good for cocktail usage and pretty inexpensive.
There, that should spark a discussion or 6. 
I would go so far as to say Blanton’s is overrated these days. Back in say… 2010 when it was $50-ish a bottle, it was priced right about where it should be. It’s far from terrible, but it wasn’t uniquely amazing either.
Weller is even more absurd; used to be that you could get Weller for nearly nothing, with the cheaper bottlings being regarded as rotgut. Once Pappy Van Winkle took off, someone realized that it was the same thing coming out of the still as Weller (in the same way that Knob Creek and Old Crow are the same coming off the still), and the prices rose commensurately. I mean, it wasn’t ever bad, but it’s sure as hell not worth more than about $25 a bottle for the Special Reserve.
Case in point- in about 2008, I went on a bird hunting/poker playing/drinking trip with a bunch of guys and I took a handle of Weller Special Reserve. And I came back at the end of the weekend with a handle of Weller minus the single drink I’d made from it. Nobody would drink it in 2008 because it was perceived as cheap. These days, it would be coveted. So definitely overrated I’d say.
True… and if you’re going the MGP 95/5 route, the Dickel Rye is a better expression to my taste. That charcoal filtering is a good thing to do, I feel.
Hell, I remember the days when I could find Old Weller Antique 107 at the local grocery store at rock bottom prices! Back when we used to wear an onion on our belts.
Lately I’ve been dabbling in Maryland-Style ryes like Pikesville. They have more corn in the mash than Pennsylvania-style rye like MGP. Both styles make good Manhattans.
I’m about to try something truly unusual; Millstone 100 Rye.
100% rye, pot-still whiskey distilled in the Netherlands. The guy at the downtown Houston Spec’s was really big on it, so I thought I’d give it a shot.
In other news, bourbon drinkers might be well served to give high-end rums a shot. I got a bottle of Black Tot Finest Caribbean a while back, and it’s definitely a sippable spirit along the lines of whiskey or brandy.
Roger that. I have a couple of rums that get served in the same glasses I use for brandy. Personally, I’m fond of Pyrat (not that high end). Guests will get served Mount Gay XO or Flor de Caña 18.
Whiskey card revoked. Blanton’s is famously a single barrel.
It’s also maybe the most overrated bourbon on the planet. Now, I like Blanton’s. At $60, it’s great. It goes for 2-3 times that on secondary, which is nuts though. In Virginia there’s a list of bourbons are saved up and released at one time, with an email notification. People speed to the store, illegally park, and fight in line for the opportunity to skip over Midwinter Night’s Dram , Stagg Jr, or Knob Creek 18 and buy Blanton’s.
That’s insane. Now, I’d cheerfully maim for a case of Stagg Jr., mind you. But Blanton’s?
No case either, one bottle. There have been a couple bribery charges recently too, where people paid employees to leak them the store list early.
The financial returns to engineering these social-media-enabled viral buying frenzies is so huge that it’s a wonder more unscrupulous operators aren’t doing them every day.
But for damn sure if you can convince a bunch of lemmings that, e.g. Blantons is a steal at $300/bottle (when you can get it), the lemmings will stampede to fill your cash register.
Makes me ill.
Not only is it single barrel, it is the line that essentially created the single barrel concept. It’s overpriced now, but it is very good bourbon.
I stopped at Buffalo Trace Distillery yesterday. Showed up at 8:58 am. They open at 9:00 am. There were 150-200 people in line waiting to get in! I still managed to get an Eagle Rare ($40) and a Buffalo Trace ($27). This morning I stopped by a liquor store and found Weller for $24. I’m set for 3 months!
Are people lining up for a tour, or do they sell like George T Stagg daily?
Tours and gift shop. It’s Derby week which is apparently their busiest week. They were expecting 6000 people Friday (today).
It’s a crap shoot for what is available to purchase that day. Kentucky has some odd laws on liquor distribution. The distillery cannot sell to the consumer. They have to sell to a distributor who then sells back to them according to their allocation. So the day I was there what they were selling was Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Bourbon Cream, and Wheatly Vodka. They scan your drivers license and allow you to buy 1 Buffalo Trace per day and 1 Eagle Rare every 90 days. I imagine the days when something like Stagg or Elmer T Lee is available they have VERY limited supply.
Sounds like the DC Costco liquor aisle.
Not too bad a resurrection, I hope.
Lately I’ve become very fond of Green River bourbon and all of the offerings from Redwood Empire. Some of the latter are a bit hard to find, but well worth it.
Also in my current rotation is an Oregon bourbon - Burnside, out of Portland, who age their product in garryana oak. Tres delish.
Got a question for you guys. Over here in the UK, the range of Bourbons you can easily lay hands on is limited and a bit hit-and-miss; so I was very pleased to find one that was new to me, Elijah Craig small batch. Got some on Friday, gave it a go over the weekend. My impression: very smooth…and that’s about it, really. OK, so I’m a bit coldy and sniffly at the moment, and maybe I’m a little taste impaired; but your thoughts on Elijah, please? The reviews I’ve seen rated it pretty high, and I was expecting more.
j
Elijah Craig is a pretty decent bourbon. Nothing to write home about, but not plonk either. I have a bottle in the liquor cabinet myself. You could do a lot worse.