Quantcast

Whiskey appreciation thread

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Just bourbon, or is scotch an option?

Bourbon-
Woodford reserve is always a go-to. They have some high end shit if you need to get spendy.

I have a high school friend who is now the master distiller at George Dickel. She's turned around their brewery from Trash (tabasco flavored????) to really good stuff: https://robbreport.com/food-drink/spirits/review-george-dickel-bourbon-1234629843/ Her bottled in bond stuff is fantastic, not sure on the other stuff, but all of the major magazines loved it.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
~$45
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
whoa dang son. That's out of my element and I'd feel uncomfortable recommending something I haven't tried. Do post what you get, so I can live vicariously through your lawyer!
 

MonkeyGut

Monkey
Dec 8, 2006
156
98
Caol Ila and Scapa have been my 2 favorites for quite some time. I think I need to get a Japanese bottle, had some years ago and dug but just haven't had a bottle. Recs?
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
Caol Ila and Scapa have been my 2 favorites for quite some time. I think I need to get a Japanese bottle, had some years ago and dug but just haven't had a bottle. Recs?
I love Nikka whiskey. The coffey malt is sweet. I want to try the coffey grain.
 

MonkeyGut

Monkey
Dec 8, 2006
156
98
Thanks MikeD! Appreciate it and am actually hitting the liquor store today or tomorrow. It's kinda on my way to work
 

MikeD

Leader and Demogogue of the Ridemonkey Satinists
Oct 26, 2001
11,669
1,713
chez moi
I had another one of their bottles once, Taketsuru I think. It was delicious.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,799
8,383
Nowhere Man!
Woodford Reserve. I drank my friend's bottle. He left it here. I replaced it. He left that bottle here also. I gave him a couple of days.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,799
8,383
Nowhere Man!
I like their double-oaked.
I am not very discriminating. If it's in a shot glass and someone else's has paid for it. Odds are its going down my gullet without much concern. Even the normal oaked stuff. I am Ok with Moonshine Manhattans for the most part tonight. Just the right amount of nasty. Saved a Miller tall and a bonghit in the shed for when I get home. Leaving now....
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
I am not very discriminating. If it's in a shot glass and someone else's has paid for it. Odds are its going down my gullet without much concern. Even the normal oaked stuff. I am Ok with Moonshine Manhattans for the most part tonight. Just the right amount of nasty. Saved a Miller tall and a bonghit in the shed for when I get home. Leaving now....
I sip whiskey, so it needs to be good to drink. I haven't done "shots" since college and now I find I like a nice whiskey and some ice-water to reset my pallet. I'm partial to Ardbeg and Lagavulin, don't really find much fun in the highlands, but I like a lot of american Whiskey and bourbons, the ones that pick up good fruit and flavor characteristics from the barreling. So yeah, I'm pretty discriminating. The good part about the american stuff is it's not crazy expensive. The good scotches are crazy expensive.
 

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,799
8,383
Nowhere Man!
I sip whiskey, so it needs to be good to drink. I haven't done "shots" since college and now I find I like a nice whiskey and some ice-water to reset my pallet. I'm partial to Ardbeg and Lagavulin, don't really find much fun in the highlands, but I like a lot of american Whiskey and bourbons, the ones that pick up good fruit and flavor characteristics from the barreling. So yeah, I'm pretty discriminating. The good part about the american stuff is it's not crazy expensive. The good scotches are crazy expensive.
Moonshine is the Fentanyl of whisky. And its free to me for the most part. I am pretty fucked up right now. So, I am going to quit while I am ahead.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,140
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
I sip whiskey, so it needs to be good to drink. I haven't done "shots" since college and now I find I like a nice whiskey and some ice-water to reset my pallet. I'm partial to Ardbeg and Lagavulin, don't really find much fun in the highlands, but I like a lot of american Whiskey and bourbons, the ones that pick up good fruit and flavor characteristics from the barreling. So yeah, I'm pretty discriminating. The good part about the american stuff is it's not crazy expensive. The good scotches are crazy expensive.
Unsolicited recommendation, grab some Brimstone if you can find it way up there in Polar Bear land. https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/american-whiskey/whiskey/balcones-brimstone/p/126246750?glia=true&s=1107&&pid=cpc:Core+Catalog+-+Shopping+US+CALI+ENG+SPART::google::&gclid=Cj0KCQiAw9qOBhC-ARIsAG-rdn5qTrLgcy4QD3Lcw58hRXONq_n9HgNTpchKMYWh2bjOgRKLyCQYKtIaAuVjEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

If you like Islay Scotches, and American whiskies, this should be right up your alley.

Hoping one day Biden un-fucks the Scotch tariffs so we can have pre-2016 Scotch pricing again, that's a large part of what's driven their prices through the roof. I miss $60 Lagavuilin 16, until then, lots of good American stuff to explore.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Unsolicited recommendation, grab some Brimstone if you can find it way up there in Polar Bear land. https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/american-whiskey/whiskey/balcones-brimstone/p/126246750?glia=true&s=1107&&pid=cpc:Core+Catalog+-+Shopping+US+CALI+ENG+SPART::google::&gclid=Cj0KCQiAw9qOBhC-ARIsAG-rdn5qTrLgcy4QD3Lcw58hRXONq_n9HgNTpchKMYWh2bjOgRKLyCQYKtIaAuVjEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

If you like Islay Scotches, and American whiskies, this should be right up your alley.

Hoping one day Biden un-fucks the Scotch tariffs so we can have pre-2016 Scotch pricing again, that's a large part of what's driven their prices through the roof. I miss $60 Lagavuilin 16, until then, lots of good American stuff to explore.
Islay, you say? This I am interested in. I love single malt, especially islay, but it's difficult to justify the premium over really good bourbon.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,140
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
Islay, you say? This I am interested in. I love single malt, especially islay, but it's difficult to justify the premium over really good bourbon.
What's your idea of price for really good bourbon?

There's some damn good, Islays for not a ton of money. Peat Monster is outstanding, though not a single malt https://www.totalwine.com/search/all?text=compass box peat monster Wee Beastie from Ardbeg is a pretty solid value as well.

There's some good peated American Single malts coming out, but the prices are still pretty up there. Hoping Balcones does a peated version of their Pot Still Bourbon some day, that would be a killer bottle for cheap. I, a noted scientist, put a splash of Peat Monster in Balcones Pot Still and it was phenomenal. Pretty sure the snobs would blow a fuse if somebody did a peated Bourbon, but it would be worth it.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
What's your idea of price for really good bourbon?

There's some damn good, Islays for not a ton of money. Peat Monster is outstanding, though not a single malt https://www.totalwine.com/search/all?text=compass box peat monster Wee Beastie from Ardbeg is a pretty solid value as well.

There's some good peated American Single malts coming out, but the prices are still pretty up there. Hoping Balcones does a peated version of their Pot Still Bourbon some day, that would be a killer bottle for cheap. I, a noted scientist, put a splash of Peat Monster in Balcones Pot Still and it was phenomenal. Pretty sure the snobs would blow a fuse if somebody did a peated Bourbon, but it would be worth it.
Well look at you, Dr. Science.

I'm not thinking really good, I'm thinking "approachable whiskey that doesn't give me the trots and is enjoyable neat". So, like $30-40 which usually includes woodford and some others. I spend less if I don't mind peeing out my butt for a morning. Around here, most single malts are $45 plus, and for $45 you're usually getting some pretty low hanging fruit.

I enjoy Laphroig 10y quite a bit, but last I looked I think it was $51 a bottle, which is just too much for me unless it's made by weird french monks.
 

maxyedor

<b>TOOL PRO</b>
Oct 20, 2005
5,496
3,140
In the bathroom, fighting a battle
Always have to ask when somebody mentions "good" bourbon, because some people mean Woodford, some people mean Blantons, and some people drink Pappy.


Not a ton of single malt in that $40ish range, but don't shy away from blends. The get a bad wrap because it used to be a way to just make cheap shit, now people are making good shit cheap by blending. Monkey Shoulder, SIA, bunch of good stuff.
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Thanks for the tip! I haven't had a blended scotch since my then GF got me a bottle of the Famous Grouse. I still have nightmares about J+B
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,647
1,116
NORCAL is the hizzle
Speaking of expensive bourbon, I expect there's not too many monocled monkeys in this market but interesting nonetheless:

That $1,000 Bourbon You Bought May Be a Phony

May be behind a paywall for anyone without an NYT account, but here's a snippet:

To the casual eye, there was nothing amiss about the bottle of whiskey sitting on a shelf at Acker, a wine store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But for anyone who knew what to look for, the warning signs were clear.

The whiskey, a bourbon called Col. E.H. Taylor Four Grain that Acker was selling for about $1,000, normally came packaged in a special cardboard tube; this one sat there tubeless. Its strip stamp, attached over the top of the cork, was on backward.

Still, when a producer from the TV news program “Inside Edition” asked in April about the bottle’s authenticity, the store assured him it was legitimate.

The producer bought the whiskey, then took it to Buffalo Trace, the Kentucky distillery that makes the Col. E.H. Taylor line of bourbon, for chemical analysis. The bottle, it turned out, was fake: It had been refilled with cheap whiskey and resealed, then sold to Acker as part of a private collection.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,562
24,182
media blackout
Well look at you, Dr. Science.

I'm not thinking really good, I'm thinking "approachable whiskey that doesn't give me the trots and is enjoyable neat". So, like $30-40 which usually includes woodford and some others. I spend less if I don't mind peeing out my butt for a morning. Around here, most single malts are $45 plus, and for $45 you're usually getting some pretty low hanging fruit.

I enjoy Laphroig 10y quite a bit, but last I looked I think it was $51 a bottle, which is just too much for me unless it's made by weird french monks.
I drink scotch infrequently enough that when I do want it, I want something good. My go to is lagavulin. A bottle usually lasts me a year.
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,852
9,557
AK
Unsolicited recommendation, grab some Brimstone if you can find it way up there in Polar Bear land. https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/american-whiskey/whiskey/balcones-brimstone/p/126246750?glia=true&s=1107&&pid=cpc:Core+Catalog+-+Shopping+US+CALI+ENG+SPART::google::&gclid=Cj0KCQiAw9qOBhC-ARIsAG-rdn5qTrLgcy4QD3Lcw58hRXONq_n9HgNTpchKMYWh2bjOgRKLyCQYKtIaAuVjEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

If you like Islay Scotches, and American whiskies, this should be right up your alley.

Hoping one day Biden un-fucks the Scotch tariffs so we can have pre-2016 Scotch pricing again, that's a large part of what's driven their prices through the roof. I miss $60 Lagavuilin 16, until then, lots of good American stuff to explore.
I am not a fan of laphroiag, which is available at Costco. I was wondering where the days of 59 Laga went.