New Year, New Whiskey
I’ve heard of this despicable trend starting – Dry January. Fuck. That. I’ve also heard of Bender ‘til December. That’s more in line with my way of thinking.
I really appreciate the opportunity to try a sampling of fine whiskey without the attached price tags. That’s why I recently participated in a top tier whiskey sampling opportunity. I’ll leave the fine art of swirling, exposing it to oxygen, adding water, and trying it with ice cubes/rocks etc for those who are just getting into this or who are seasoned aficionados and continue to enjoy participating in these various ways of sampling whiskey. That’s the purpose of this – enjoy the whiskey in whatever manner you desire.
Me? Not so fun anymore. I quit doing that about 10 years ago. Already know what I like and how I like it. Trying to manipulate the drink to find its many aromas and flavors is not my goal anymore. I just want to relax, enjoy the sip, include a fine cigar, and enjoy some tunes from my jukebox for an hour and a half every night. Once I’ve sampled all 13 bottles, I’ll post what they all were and where they fall in my rating scheme.
To that end, I provide some additional advice to those still experimenting.
Some Advice to Add
- Buy an aerator. Run your pour through it, which will expose greater amounts of your whiskey to oxygen at a much faster rate. Either replace your 5-10 minute wait with that or combine it. Try both ways. I won’t tell you what kind to get. You can google that shit yourself and buy one from Amazon.
- Adding water is great. To up that a level, try to get yourself some branch water. That is, water from the same source that the distillery in question uses to produce their whiskey.
- Make ice cubes from branch water.
Lessons Learned
Taste is a preferential sense. Subjective to the individual. Therefore, anything I have learned does not apply to you. You must go out there and discover your own tastes and preferences. That’s the really fun part! These are the lessons that I have learned.
I like my whiskey neat. No added water. No ice cubes. Room temperature. Definitely not in an old-fashioned.
I’ve learned that spending $80 on a bottle of Blanton’s is going to taste pretty much the same to me as buying a $24-50 bottle of any Weller’s. So why waste my money. I’m enjoying that pour of Weller’s just as much as I enjoyed the Blanton’s but I saved myself $60 to spend on – yep! You guessed it. Another bottle of Weller’s. I’ll never buy another bottle of Blanton’s again but I’m glad I tried it. Same goes for COL Taylor. Eagle Rare, on the other hand provides me with a different expression from the same origin, that I can appreciate enough to pick up a bottle when I see it. Same goes for Van Winkle.
I’ve learned that I prefer the higher proof version when offered. That’s why Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, Barrel Proof is my go-to Friday whiskey night sip-n-smoke. The octane usually clocks in between 128-134 proof at my base Class Six. This is also why I generally like all Bottled-In-Bonds. Guaranteed to be 100 proof.
What I’ve Settled On
For me, the following will cover all flavors that I enjoy and are usually in Casa Basil Cigar & Whiskey Lounge’s inventory, from least to most favorite:
- Maker’s Mark
- Buffalo Trace
- Wild Turkey 101
- Evan Williams BiB
- Jack Daniel’s Bonded (BiB)
- Weller’s Special Reserve
- Weller’s 12 Year or Antique
- Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, Barrel Proof
Additional Notes About Me
My usual pour size is 4 oz.
I buy a bottle to drink, not collect. I’ll never buy a bottle to flip and make money.
You won’t find a bottle in my bar that is over a year old. If I don’t care for it too much, I’ll give it away. If I like it, I drink it. I will not die with a full bottle of Pappy in my bar. I didn’t spend that money to watch it collect dust.
Happy New Year and happy sipping!
