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Relaxing at the Ricochet bar
Since so many of my posts generate discussions of alcohol rather than discussions of the actual topic (This is not my fault – it’s Barfly’s fault), I figured I’d just start a discussion of everyone’s preferred libations.
While I occasionally appreciate a good bourbon, tonight I’m enjoying an absolutely wonderful, refreshing beer. Bourbon Barrel Imperial Milk Stout. Smooth, chocolatey, and yummy. At bit pricey ($14 per four pack – yikes). But at 12% alcohol, you won’t be chugging 12 of these things anyway.
In the comments, feel free to discuss anything you like, except for the best bourbon, which is obviously Wellers. Case closed. $24 per bottle, and it’s the best bourbon I’ve ever tasted. The best casks of this are used to make Whistle Pig, and the rest is sold as Wellers. I’ve tried many bourbons that cost a lot more, but I’ve never tasted a bourbon as absolutely superb as Wellers. Good luck finding it. But if you do, buy it. Trust me.
For more widely available stuff, 1792 is outstanding. And not too expensive. And honestly, I find Jim Beam to be really, really good. Especially considering how cheap it is. But for an extra $5-$10 per bottle, 1792 is worth it.
If I’m in the mood for Scotch, I like Laphroaig. Smokey and peaty, and yummy. I’m amazed at how different the various types of Scotch taste (whereas different types of bourbon all taste a lot like bourbon). There are many types of Scotch that I just don’t care for. But Laphroaig is really good, in my opinion.
I drink wine sometimes, but I don’t know much about it. I think the stuff in the box is generally pretty good. So don’t listen to me.
So what do you think? What is your go-to? What is your special treat? Educate me.
Thank you in advance for your recommendations.
Published in General
I am drinking Yellowstone Select this evening.
What is that?
White wine. It’s affordable, tasty, and doesn’t give you a headache. Beer is OK, and I’ll drink it if there’s nothing else around. Scotch, Bourbon, Rye, forget it; never liked whiskey. Gin’s all right in a Tom Collins. Vodka is great.
Amaretto is acceptable if you are 25 years old and trying to impress a 25 year old woman who loves the stuff and believes the silly legend on the label. “Created in tribute to a beautiful young widow…”
I was a big fan of Weller before it became mostly unobtainable.
Every year Julian Van Winkle comes to Buffalo Trace and chooses a number of partially aged Weller casks, which later on become bottled as … you guessed it … Pappy Van Winkle.
I have one bottle of Weller Antique 107 proof that I have nursed along for a couple of years now. It is a magnificent sipping whiskey; not a drop of water needed.
I like Yellowstone; good stuff.
Introduced to it in a advent calendar
We live in Texas but visit our kids and grandkids in New England a couple times a year. One of the good routes is through Kentucky. About 8 or 9 years ago, we had some extra time, which we used up by taking the Jim Beam and Makers Mark distillery tours. We took the Buffalo Trace tour, and a couple others. But all the tours eventually wind up duplicating the same information, so now we just stop at bottle shops on the distillery grounds and look at what’s for sale. Some distilleries are located in beautiful places, as well. I got my “Bourbon passport” and got it stamped each time; after a few trips back and forth, I earned and got the T-shirt.
About tours: Kentucky Bourbon country has become overwhelmed with visitors. What started for us as a casual drop in has turned into a less friendly mass operation at many distilleries. So even getting into a tour can be a problem at times. I would recommend the Jim Beam tour, even though I’m not a fan of most Jim Beam products. It was, when we did it, more educational than most. (We got to taste the “beer” phases before distillation, and that was interesting.) And they crack a mature cask live for you, and you can taste it straight out of the barrel. Then you can see the bottling and labeling line (a little one for the tour) and if you are willing to buy a bottle, you can push your fingerprint into the cooling wax coating on the cap. Disclaimer: I do not know how much, if any, this tour has changed.
One of the more recent finds was a very interesting whiskey from the Jeptha Creed distillery.
It’s a 4 grain bourbon (most are 3 grain types), and the corn is “bloody butcher” red corn, not the normal corn.
When you sip this stuff, it comes at you in several stages and takes a little time. I think I’m tasting the four ingredients in a sequence, and it’s pretty close to a unique experience. Nearly every bourbon drinker I know finds the sip interesting or even amazing. I think I may own the only bottle of this stuff in the southern half of Texas. And I’ll replenish it this summer.
I never developed a taste for bourbon, and was always a scotch drinker until I discovered Jameson Irish Whiskey. Is a good sipping whiskey, neat.
For beer, a nice IPA (see my sig pic), pilsener, Hefeweizen, Marzen, pretty much anything else but a dark stout. Here I am, a descendant of Irish immigrants and I don’t like Guinness.
I like a good bourbon occasionally, but just a small snifter or so after dinner.
Since we moved to our current home in the Shenandoah Vally, new friends introduced us to good wines. There must be 30-40 wineries within an hour of us and we’ve visited many of them. My wife pretty much only drinks whites, but I’m partial to a nice Pinot, Zinfandel, or Cab Sauv. The other night at a tasting event we had a red blend and when she tasted it, she looked at me and surprisingly said “That’s really good.”
For beer and bourbon drinkers, here’s a good choice:
Kentucky® Bourbon Barrel Ale – Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. (lexingtonbrewingco.com)
I have converted one dedicated Scotch drinker over to bourbon. I brought so many good tasting bourbons to parties that he finally figured out you can get a fine bourbon for a fraction of the cost of a fine Scotch.
Dark Beers Matter.*
*@mattbalzer
A spring / summer time go to (daily) is a vodka Arnold Palmer. I use a native TEXAN vodka:
I’ve got all the plaid pants for scotch (golf), just not the taste for it.
My son got my brother an aging cask some years back. Put whiskey in it. Let it sit 90 days, rebottle it. It transforms bad whiskey into good whiskey and good, but not great whiskey into the water of life. This Christmas my brother gave me an aging barrel. First time out I put some fairly cheap stuff in there and it came out pretty good.
My middle son has gotten interested in bottled-in-bond. When I was at his place last week for the eclipse we tried three different bottled-in-bond whiskeys. One, Even Williams was solid, but unspectacular. We both wondered what it would be like if aged for three months in an aging keg. I have another month on the stuff in the keg right now, but earlier today I got a bottle of Even Williams. I’ll let everyone know how well it works.
I’m sipping a 16-oz. can of Lone Star.
There, I said it.
There are some sacrifices you have to be willing to take in order to score. Especially at 25.
Watch out for the giant armadillo.
Make this about tea and I’ll get back to you.
As a Baptist, I presume you refer to SWEET tea.
Now THAT stuff will put hair on your chest…
Southern Baptist.
Haven’t tasted Bourbon for a while but if memory serves me, Woodford Reserve, Ridgemont 1792 Reserve, and Four Roses Small Batch are pretty good. For whiskey, I’ll take Laphroaig Ten.
The Four Roses Small Batch was a surprise because 50+ years ago it was the rotgut that my great-uncle Clay bought when he wanted to tie one on. About 20 years ago, my department manager wanted me to by some Bourbon when I went back to KY, something he wasn’t likely to find in CA. I was going to buy something else, but the liquor store owner suggested the Small Batch. He said a Japanese company had bought the place and wanted the staff to make the best they could at the price point. For a while, all the stuff was shipped to Japan, or so the story goes. After the company built up stock, it was shipped to CA.
For wine, I have no favorites, but lately my choice in reds is Dubourdieu Liaison, 2019. They sell a pretty good white Bordeaux as well. No, I’m not a wine expert, but I do know what I like.
But also Zimbabwe, Kenya, Pakistan, and Hong Kong.
Zimbabwe’s Tanganda–that’s the good stuff.
Evan Williams B-I-B is one of the few bourbons I like. I’ve found that I like a higher % of rye in the mash bill. So I picked up a pint of Bulliet Rye. I like it, and may pick up a fifth (well, 750ml).
For a blended scotch I like Dewar’s White Label. Single malt go-to used to be Oban 14y, but it’s nearly $100/bottle here in NC. (It was ~$65/bottle when I lived in NY; don’t know the price there now.) So I’ve switched to Balvenie Doublewood 12Y at $75/bottle.
I also will have some rum-based cocktails, and the rum of choice will depend on what I’m making. Appleton Estate is always on hand though.
My taste in beer is that I’ll drink pretty much anything of decent quality. I prefer German style beers (Olde Mecklenburg Brewery makes an altbier that’s really good, and a dunkel that’s fantastic), but I can’t stand Hefeweizen.
Note that “decent quality” does not include Bud, Coors, Miller, etc. For an American style mass beer, I’ll grab a Yuengling.
I just have a very difficult time imagining those places serving sweet tea the way it’s supposed to be…. in a glass full of ice.
Well, for you that partake, the top shelf of my bar has the dead coffins of the Middleton Irish whisky which I am quite fond of. Alcohol or not everyone is always welcome to Teneriffe Tavern. Being from Irish dissent my blood is boiling over the current price, and you and your children are dead to me now. Well, unless you get below $200 then we’ll talk.
On the opposite end of the spectrum I was enjoying a beer at my local Uno’s after a three hour drive from the beautiful people on the Hudson River on the south side of the Zakim Bridge when I saw this post. Now they can breathe a breath of fresh air instead of poop air for only a dozen mil. I said if you just gave them each $200,000 and said to ignore it it would cost half. I can’t keep my mouth shut sometimes.
Good having a beer with you guys now I need to address Doc’s other post. Important stuff first.
I don’t get the sweet tea thing. It reminds me of Malaysia when they put sugar cain in this pulverizor and it fills a glass of nasty liquid.
yankee.
If you are interested in “one off” bottles, my eldest son is friends with the guys who started “Two Souls Spirits”. They go around to craft distillers and ask for the “special cask” they might have. They bottle it “cask strength” under their brand with full credit to the distiller. Nothing is cheap, but you can get quite the collection of (usually) very spectacular spirits.
They focus on Bourbons, but have offered an occasional Rum, Rye, etc.
The last few offerings did not interest me. I think they may have accepted some of the craft distillers weirder offerings, rather than the rarest best. Some of the first ones were fantastic.
When i get these bottles, I only drink them when I can share with friends. Otherwise, I am not that particular.
As George so eloquently proclaimed: “When I’m alone, I like to drink by myself!”