Bookers is okay for a change of pace, my go to day to day bourbon is Woodford Reserve.
No? What about Ezra Books? Heaven Hill? Old Fitzgerald 1849? Jim Beam Choice?
As a Vermonter with a bottle of Whistle Pig in the cabinet . . . yep. They’ve only been in business for a few years, so, as I understand it, while they wait for their own booze to age, they’re bottling someone else’s. “Bottled in VT” whoopie!
I like it, but not at the price. As a man of somewhat limited means, I feel that I can get pretty damned good booze for 1/2 the price as a bottle of Whistle Pig’s “bottled locally, sourced internationally” alcohol.
I’ll buy my second bottle when their own brew is for sale.
Ha! I guess that’s my thing here now, that and Linotypes. I wish there were more opportunities to discuss both.
But yes, there are really not very many distilleries capable of producing bourbon at a nationally distributed scale. Even fewer are making rye for nationwide sale. And ultimately, I can think of only two that are making whiskey where the rye grain is more than 90% of the mashbill. MGP in Indiana (Bulleit rye, Templeton, others I forget) and Alberta Distillers (Whistlepig, Masterson’s, some others). I don’t think there’s any other large scale source. Come to think of it, I think AD is owned by Jim Beam now, maybe.
I’m gonna argue that calling Rittenhouse ‘overproof’ is a discouraging victory by marketers who want to put less stuff in a bottle and charge the same price. 100 proof used to be more or less the standard.
Ezera Brooks is awful.
But let me get this straight: Jack Daniels puts out a product, doesn’t file with the feds to have it classified as Bourbon, insists that it’s not Bourbon, calls it something that’s not Bourbon, and some of you are saying “Screw you, we’ll tell you what your product is!” 
First, the technical part. Tennessee whiskey is drip-filtered through sugar maple charcoal before it is barrelled. Bourbon is not. This is the only distinction between them. So, the Jack Daniels marketing department is correct when they say “<random bourbon brand> isn’t Tennessee whiskey like ours!” That’s entirely true. However, on the other side… I know it’s crazy to imagine a corporate marketing department making shit up just to make their product sound a little more exclusive or distinctive, but that’s exactly what they’re doing when they say “our stuff isn’t bourbon.”
Nope. Bourbon has a very specific legal definition. Jack Daniels doen’t meet that definition, therefore they aren’t a bourbon. Kinda by…
wait for it…
definition.
Not true. JD meets every requirement to be called straight bourbon. The charcoal filtering doesn’t change that as the rules do not disallow it.
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
The Federal Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits (27 C.F.R. 5) state that bourbon made for U.S. consumption[3] must be:
[ol]
[li]Produced in the United States;[4][/li][li]made from a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn;[4][/li][li]aged in new, charred-oak barrels;[4][/li][li]distilled to no more than 160 (U.S.) proof (80% alcohol by volume);[4][/li][li]entered into the barrel for aging at no more than 125 proof (62.5% alcohol by volume);[4] [/li][li]and be bottled (like other whiskeys) at 80 proof or more (40% alcohol by volume).[5][/li][/ol]
Bourbon has no minimum specified duration for its aging period.[6] Products aged for as little as three months are sold as bourbon.[7]
Whiskey sold as Tennessee whiskey is also defined as bourbon under NAFTA[13] and at least one other international trade agreement,[14] and is required to meet the legal definition of bourbon under Canadian law,[15] but some Tennessee whiskey makers do not label their product as bourbon and insist that it is a different type of whiskey when marketing their product.
[/QUOTE]
If I make a sandwich with two slices of white bread, a slice of American cheese, and then put it in a hot pan with a little bit of butter until browned, but then cut it into four pieces, I can call it anything I want but that doesn’t mean it’s not grilled cheese sandwich by definition.
Heh, I was going to draw a similar sandwich analogy. If you make a sandwich and call it a Manwich, you get to be the authority on what defines a Manwich, but not what defines a sandwich.
Nice one.
Now, back on track, here’s what I always have on hand:
Old Granddad Bottled in Bond: Same high-rye juice as Basil Hayden, but at full proof, and way less than half the cost. It suffers from being four years old vs BH at I think 8yo, but still is delightful. Even better but harder to find is the OGD 114.
Rittenhouse Rye: A steal at twice the price. Just recently changed from Early Times (DSP 354) to Bernheim (DSP 1) so I’ll have to do a comparison to see if it holds up. For some reason this is unobtainable in WA, but common as dirt in CA, so I pack my suitcase full when come back from Santa Barbara.
Four Roses Small Batch: Any thing Four Roses does is worth checking out. I think they’re doing the most consistent, best work of any bourbon or rye distillery right now. The Small Batch Limited Edition from last year was truly amazing and I was lucky to get one of the 4000-ish bottles. It makes me sad every time I take a drink knowing I can’t get any more. That said, they do enough custom bottling that there’s always something interesting to try. They have 10 different recipes to work with.
High West almost anything: High West started out in that category of craft distiller with nothing to sell as their own stock aged. So they went out and sourced bourbons and ryes. After some initial distrust based on less than great transparency, they opened up and hit their stride selling vattings that no one else had ever thought of. Rendezvous Rye (6 and 16yo ryes) is outstanding. Double Rye, for a little less money is still very very good. Campfire, which sounds disgusting, is a vatting of bourbon, rye and peaked scotch that I love unreasonably.
Old Weller: I’m not a huge fan of wheated bourbon, but I think this stuff is great. I can’t remember which bottling I like (there’s a 107 proof, a 12yo, and I think a ‘standard’ bottling). Same stuff as Pappy is blended with as the leftover Stitzel-Weller stocks run out. Pappy is overrated. Get 95% of the effect at 25% of the cost and 0% of the hassle.
Thomas Handy Rye: The only one of the Buffalo Trace Antique collection I make a serious effort to find. Love it. It has the most amazing nose. Let the glass sit long enough and you’re enveloped in a warm brown blanket.
Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye: This is the greatest tragedy. It’s still virtually impossible to get, but is grossly overshadowed by the Pappy bourbons. This is the real winner of that line. Heavenly. I have one bottle left and I am afraid to even look at it hard. Before the ‘craze’ this was always gathering dust on the shelves of my local liquor store. For years! I couldn’t understand how such a magical product went so unloved. If I tried to serve rye to my friends it was like I suggested we all share a toast from a glass full of urine. Now I can’t get it. I should have hoarded.
Cool. I am going to be coming back to this thread.
I can get practically any variety of single malt Scotch in Calgary and find plenty of folk willing to drink it with me but when I say I like Bourbon I get blank stares and the varieties available here are pretty limited. I don’t think I have even seen an american Rye Whiskey even in the bigger stores.
Up here in Alberta, ‘Rye’ refers to Canadian whiskey, almost none of which has ever seen a single grain of rye. Although I love me some ‘rye’ and coke, Canadian whiskey is really just for cocktails and is pretty sad straight up.
I have to chuckle about Whistle Pig. Alberta Premium is as far as I am aware the only Canadian Whiskey that is actually Rye whiskey. Most people pass it by for Crown Royal sadly.
Wow, you have to leave home to be considered a genius, I guess.
Check out Forty Creek. I picked up this bottle and am waiting for the right time to pop it open. I don’t put a lot of stock in numerical reviews, but still, I think it’s clear this isn’t Canadian Mist.
you would think if somebody paid 150.00 bucks for a bottle of Glenlivet you’d think they know what it says on the bottle, still…try it…good stuff…
JD is what it is…a bourbon, because they call it a Tennessee Whiskey, whatever that is does not make it any less a bourbon.
Legally it is not Bourbon. They have not filed with the U.S. Treasury Dept. to call it a Bourbon. There are standards to be followed.
Its marketing pure and simple,…yada yada yada…
No it isn’t. Jack Daniels is not Bourbon. It cannot even legally call itself Bourbon just like Miller Sharps cannot legally be called beer, just like sparkling wine from California is not champagne. A Puffs is not a Kleenex, a Valentine One is not a Fuzzbuster, and an Igloo is not a Thermos. Just because you call something something doesn’t make it what you call it. These things matter.