Interesting, will give that one a try.

A friend of mine turned me on to this. Play around with the ratio until you get the result that you want. Sometimes a whiskey is just bottled at the "wrong" proof for you. I feel that way about Elijah Craig. 94 just feels too low to me. The barrel proof, however, with a little water added, is just so rich and savory.

vanuel said:

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A friend of mine turned me on to this. Play around with the ratio until you get the result that you want. Sometimes a whiskey is just bottled at the "wrong" proof for you. I feel that way about Elijah Craig. 94 just feels too low to me. The barrel proof, however, with a little water added, is just so rich and savory.

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Also gotta be careful for which barrel proof you buy. The C series is 137-138 proof while the B series is 122 proof or atleast the bottle I have bought.

It is very interesting to me that the B normally ends up being lower proof. My guess is it gets less time in the high heat temperature cycle because of when it is laid down. The last C batch I bought, which I think was C918, was just about undrinkable. Water didn't help it, ice made it worse. I ended up giving it away.

Merry Christmas everyone. Santa brought 2 Bookers; biscuits and country ham. Nice friends to have indeed!

Merry Christmas bourbon people. This year I received an Evan Williams BIB, Kentucky Spirit, and a Weller 12. Last night I shared some bottles and laughs with family including - Wild Turkey Master's Keep Revival, Woodford Master's Collection Oat Grain, and a Barrell Bourbon single barrel 15 year old sourced from Dickel.

burnbarn said:

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Merry Christmas everyone. Santa brought 2 Bookers; biscuits and country ham. Nice friends to have indeed!

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Good for you. Bookers is mighty fine and that batch is delicious.

wilmwolf80 said:

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Merry Christmas bourbon people. This year I received an Evan Williams BIB, Kentucky Spirit, and a Weller 12. Last night I shared some bottles and laughs with family including - Wild Turkey Master's Keep Revival, Woodford Master's Collection Oat Grain, and a Barrell Bourbon single barrel 15 year old sourced from Dickel.

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How was the weller 12? I haven't been able to grab one of those bottles yet.

It's very good. I know some folks that prefer the Old Weller Antique because of the higher proof, but 12 is a very good bourbon. I miss the days when it was easily available, before everyone understood the Pappy connection. I think the wheater genre of bourbon really start to reach their potential at 12 years old, and it's a shame there aren't more available in that age range. I'd love to see Makers or Larceny let their products get that old, even if it is for a limited edition. Outside of the Weller and Van Winkle lines, the only other wheater that has expressions that old currently is Old Fitzgerald.

A few months ago I lucked out and got my last Blanton's horse stopper I needed to finish the collection. My wife got me the barrel top display for the corks and a spot to display a bottle Christmas. Looks good on the shelf. I also got a bottle of Woodford double oaked and Baker's 7.

Nice! I've got a big bucket of Blanton's toppers, and last I checked I had all the letters a few times over, I've just never gotten the display. I like to make things, so I think I always figured I'd make my own one day. Just have to get after it. I also have a bunch of the Blanton's bags that I planned to do something with, just never have.

Ha I figured someone out there like you had a ton of those things. So where would you rank Blanton's among other bourbons you've had?

Blanton's was my favorite bourbon for a very long time. In the golden years when you could walk in the store and buy a bottle any day of the week, I drank it almost exclusively. IMO, there has been a fairly strong drop-off in quality as scarcity and demand has increased over the last 4-5 years. Of course, the whole line started with Elmer T. Lee picking honey barrels, and you wonder with his passing in 2013 who actually is doing the picking now and if that has any impact. I've been underwhelmed with most of the bottles I've had recently, and only actually have a couple bottles at the moment, one of those being a private barrel that I haven't opened yet, so maybe it will be the Blanton's of old. I just think that when you look at a product that used to be 7-9 years old, and now it's mostly 6-8, that missing barrel time results in a product that just lacks the velvety smoothness that it used to have. To me, it's no coincidence that expressions like Old Charter and the old Ancient Age 10 year disappeared around the same time that demand started growing for Blantons', because those expressions are the same juice, and they needed it more for a premium line that makes them more money. So to me, that indicates that more product that may not have passed old Elmer's taste test is making it's way into the bottle, but that is all just conjecture on my part. I still probably wouldn't pass up a bottle if it was on the shelf, but I'm not standing in line for one.

Yeah I figured since the recent demand from folks like myself who are fairly new to bourbon(at least drinking it in a tasteful way) some of the quality had been lost. I only ask about Blanton's because I know it's harder to come by and often wondered if I liked it so much because my brain thought I was supposed to like it due to scarcity.

There is no question that psychology plays a factor in taste. Bottles that look fancy, or that are more expensive, or harder to get can all trick your taste buds into thinking something is good. Blanton's was very good back in the day. It blew me away the first time I had it. It wasn't cheap, but I remember when it was attainable at under $50, which even then wasn't outrageous, but was definitely high end. It's a single barrel product, so there has always been variance from bottle to bottle, I just see a trend towards more bottles that are just ok and not great.

If you are into experiments, I would recommend this: Buy a bottle of Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star. It's 90 proof and thought to be about 6 years old. It's the exact same distillate found in the Blanton's bottle, it's close in proof (90 vs 94), and close to around the same age (an acquaintance was just involved in a private barrel selection of Blanton's and the barrel they picked was just under seven years old). Have someone place them both in glasses and let you taste them blind and see if you can pick out which one is which. I'm betting you would be surprised at how close they are given there's at least a $50 difference in price there, and a way different presentation.

I'll give that a try. I know you have said in this thread before that newer people to the bourbon world need to start at the bottom shelf and work their way up. I've been trying to acquire several different bottles to have a pseudo tasting one night with a couple of buddies.

Excellent idea. There's some good stuff on the bottom shelf. There's some awful stuff too. But it's good to learn what is what.

Some people here will say I am crazy but I don't see a significant different in BT vs Blantons.

Atleast not to justify the price different. I have been chasing some of the newer/ different collections like high west, etc.

Interested if people have other series they find as good as the popular ones.

You guys must have better taste then me...lol....I just drink Maker's or Jack.....lol

I enjoy the entire Wild Turkey lineup. They have enough expressions that it's fun to compare them, and most things they put out are reasonable. Unfortunately they seem to be getting a lot of buzz lately, so they may join the rest as being hard to find sooner than later, but it's a good lineup to taste your way through.

ncsupack1 said:

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You guys must have better taste then me...lol....I just drink Maker's or Jack.....lol

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Nothing wrong with that. Drink what you like. There is plenty of stuff out there that is good and reasonably priced, that if I had to just drink that for the rest of my life, I'd be ok with it.

wilmwolf80 said:

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ncsupack1 said:

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You guys must have better taste then me...lol....I just drink Maker's or Jack.....lol

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Nothing wrong with that. Drink what you like. There is plenty of stuff out there that is good and reasonably priced, that if I had to just drink that for the rest of my life, I'd be ok with it.

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I got ya....drinking makers now...gonna have a few..

Just opened a store pick Four Roses Barrel Select OESQ formula. Was a store pick from 5 points bottle shop in Athens. Only had one glass earlier in the week and I thought it was a little milder than the other Four Roses pick i've had back a few years ago when the Wake board bought a bottle. Still a great pour of course. Looking forward to having another glass or two tonight.

Wilm makes a great point about Wild Turkey. I am the same way in that almost all of their stuff I enjoy. As we have said in this thread before the 101 is about as good as it gets for the price IMO. Lot of great tasting stuff out their that isn't "rare"

Received bottles of 1792 Full Proof, BH, and Knob Creek for Christmas. Was a nice haul.

Strangely, 4R is something I haven't typically gotten along with. The single barrels I've tried haven't really been my thing. I need to try the Small Batch Select, and maybe revisit a single barrel, because I know my tastes have changed some over time, I just don't even normally look at it on the shelf. The last time I had it was a store pick single barrel, and it definitely wasn't bad, I just didn't bond with it. Maybe I'll pick one up this weekend and give them another chance.

In bottom shelf category:

I have to shout out Old Grandad Bottled In Bond. The 114 is a favorite of a lot of people, but the BIB shouldn't be ignored. It is under $20 and well worth it IMO. Same mashbill as WT101, so an interesting comparison there of two fairly similar products from different distillers. Neat, 101 is the winner hands down for me, but in an old fashioned, which is my go to cocktail, they are virtually indistinguishable. For me, that 75% corn, 13% rye 12% barley mash bill seems to be perfect for old fashioneds. I'm not a big fan of the normal Jim Beam profile, though I have certainly had my share of it, but it is my understanding that OGD is actually a different mash bill from the rest of the JB line, which may explain why I like it better.

Another is Evan Williams Bottled in Bond, which has received some hype in bourbon circles recently. Still sub $20 at this time, and very good. I like the Heaven Hill profile, and the BIB tastes older than its four years, with more oak than you would expect at that age. I've had a few of the EW Single Barrels over the years, and I've felt most of them were pretty meh, but the BIB is very solid. Someday I'll do a side by side comparison of the BIB and the old 7 year age stated version of Virgin 101 that I talked about earlier in this thread (of which I still have a few of the old bottles), as I think it would be interesting to compare the two Heaven Hill products given the same mash bill and similar proof.

These cheap Bottled In Bond bourbons were once a mainstay of daily bourbon drinkers, and a good baseline of quality established by the distillers. Unfortunately there aren't many of them left. With the recent good publicity for Evan Williams BIB, and the way HH has been doing things lately, I won't be surprised to see it get a decent price increase soon. OGD BIB is flying under the radar currently, but eventually some one will give it an award and it will join the hype train. Get them cheap while you can.

Thanks buddy. I appreciate it!

Wilm,

I saw a bottle of Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage today at my local store. Have you tried it? It may be common as hell but I don't think I've ever noticed it before.

Yup, that's the EW single barrel I was talking about above. I've had some that weren't particularly good, and some that I liked. If given a choice, given the variance, I would choose the EW BIB, but the SB is one that most people seem to ignore. It is worth a try picking one up if you like Heaven Hill products like McKenna.

Today marks the one hundredth anniversary of the start of prohibition.

I'll drink to that

To add to the bottom shelf comment, I'd suggest Benchmark. I believe it's essentially a less aged version of Buffalo Trace bourbon, which is somewhat of a challenge to come by in the triangle these days. Same stuff made by the same distillery, just aged for less time. It's like $11 a fifth and readily available in the triangle area.

ETA: you can drink it neat, and I wouldn't put any other bottle that I've had in that price range remotely close to that statement.