Back at my parent’s for Christmas. They live 10 minutes from Buffalo Trace, going to swing by Saturday morning to see what I can find. I miss the good days before the bourbon craze took off...

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Good Luck, I hope they have what you are looking for

I am headed to Buffalo Trace Monday, for a tour. It will be my third visit, but only my first tour.

I will not be eligible for another Blanton's until January 3. So I am hopeful my wife can snag a bottle, if they have it available.

I really enjoy everyone of their offerings I have tried, including Benchmark No 8. It is their 36 month old offering and for $9.99, It has become a regular for mixing.

Weller Special Reserve, Antique 107 and Buffalo Trace have all become favorites of mine, neat or with a stone.

I hope to try Eagle Rare this weekend.

We cracked open a bottle of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked.

It was delicious. Sweeter than many others I have sampled. I guessed it stronger than 100 proof, I was wrong, it is 90.4 proof.

I am still so new to this and have so much to learn.

Hope to crack open some Eagle Rare this evening.

What have you tried this Christmas?

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Been seeing a lot of Makers Mark 101 lately. I bought a bottle but haven't cracked it yet.

As you can see, I love Maker's Mark.

I recently purchased the Maker's Mark 101 but was not that impressed with it. It wasn't the worst bourbon that I have tasted, but certainly not the best.

quote:

Originally posted by GT-40DOC:

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Been seeing a lot of Makers Mark 101 lately. I bought a bottle but haven't cracked it yet.

As you can see, I love Maker's Mark.

I recently purchased the Maker's Mark 101 but was not that impressed with it. It wasn't the worst bourbon that I have tasted, but certainly not the best.

I resisted buying for awhile but snagged one in a box for $50. With the others, plus cask strength, I don't really understand the product. Haven't opened it yet.

I bought my MM 101 because it was $22.95 in a box.

I found a bottle of 1792 Full Proof for $83 plus 9% sales tax, I passed as the price just seemed to high. First one I have come across though so maybe that is the going rate.

Picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels Single Barrel Barrel proof instead. Hopefully it is as good as I have heard.

quote:

Originally posted by VANQUISH:
I found a bottle of 1792 Full Proof for $83 plus 9% sales tax, I passed as the price just seemed to high. First one I have come across though so maybe that is the going rate.

Picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels Single Barrel Barrel proof instead. Hopefully it is as good as I have heard.

That's high but it is a pretty solid bourbon. I think I only paid in the $40's for it recently.

quote:

Originally posted by VANQUISH:
I found a bottle of 1792 Full Proof for $83 plus 9% sales tax, I passed as the price just seemed to high. First one I have come across though so maybe that is the going rate.

Picked up a bottle of Jack Daniels Single Barrel Barrel proof instead. Hopefully it is as good as I have heard.

I don't believe that you will find the JD single Barrel anywhere near the quality of the 1792 bourbon......but maybe.

That price for the 1792 is too high for me, and I keep it in my bar all the time.

Attended my first bourbon tasting this past weekend at a friends home. Prior to the hunt beginning (8 months ago), I would typically have a bottle of bourbon or whiskey around the house, Tin Cup, Woodford Reserve, or Jack Daniels were the three most common for me.

Back to the tasting.

The larger group at the tasting sampled 8 bottles:
Willett Single Barrel 6 year
Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
New Riff Single Barrel
Russell's Single Barrel
Eagle Rare
EH Taylor Small Batch
1792 Small Batch
Larceny Small Batch

I have only been in the Bourbon hunt for 8 months and just about everything I have falls under the $60.00 price point. While I have a couple that exceed that price, I have not opened them. I am not certain I would be able to appreciate super expensive bourbons at this point in my journey.

I told our host that I was new to all of this, so he was thrilled to share his wealth of information and bourbons.

My top four were:
Eagle Rare
EH Taylor Small Batch
New Riff Single Barrel
Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

My bottom four were:
Willett
Larceny
Russell's
1792

Please let me qualify my statement. The bottom four were not bad, they were just not quite as good as the top four, for me. There were none in the group that I disliked.

Later the host and I tried several others, including:
Old Forester Birthday Bourbon
Old Forester 1920
Elijah Craig Small Batch
Elijah Craig 12 yr.?
Makers 46 Cask Strength
Willett 4 yr. rye
Angel's Envy Rye

Of these, I strongly preferred the Old Forester 1920, with just a splash of water.

After that, he share some Irish Whiskeys, Aged Rums and a couple of Scotches.

This took place over several hours, so no, I was not hammered drunk.

We closed the evening with a little larger sample of two he thought I might like. Again, blind tasting, so I did not know what they were. Shit, I recognized the first one right away, it was smooth and not too strong. It was Buffalo Trace. The second sample was familiar, similar to the BT but with a little more flavor. I was thrilled when he revealed it was Eagle Rare again.

I will be dropping by my fiends home tomorrow, with an Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C920, which I hope he and his family will enjoy in 2021.

If you have a chance to attend or host a Bourbon Tasting, please do so, your friends will appreciate the opportunity to explore new bourbons.

Today, we visited the Buffalo Trace Distillery (fourth time for me). I (with my wife and Daughter) picked up, three bottles of E H Taylor Small Batch, yeah!!!!!

I found a 1792 Full proof store pick for $69 and picked it up. Hopefully will get to try it soon.

Skip the kentucky owl of both variants this year and the pvw20. The KO rye was the better of the 2 and the pvw20 was very muted in flavor. Ive had way better pvw20s.

quote:

Originally posted by VANQUISH:
I found a 1792 Full proof store pick for $69 and picked it up. Hopefully will get to try it soon.

I believe this is the same bottle my Son in Charlotte bought last week. He has not been home to try it, but has heard really good things about this bottle.

Please let me know how you like it.

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
Skip the kentucky owl of both variants this year and the pvw20. The KO rye was the better of the 2 and the pvw20 was very muted in flavor. Ive had way better pvw20s.

Thanks for the heads up. Being so new to Bourbon, I have yet to try one I do not like. That said, my friend who had us over for the Bourbon Tasting, had one bottle he said we would not try, because it was so bad. It was a George Dickel 12.

quote:

Originally posted by P-220:

Thanks for the heads up. Being so new to Bourbon, I have yet to try one I do not like. That said, my friend who had us over for the Bourbon Tasting, had one bottle he said we would not try, because it was so bad. It was a George Dickel 12.

Dickel is a very love hate brand. Many find it has a mineraly taste reminiscent of Flintstones vitamins. I detect that taste and it’s kinda a turn off.

I found another bottle of 1792 Full Proof today for $60 so it followed me home, I am dollar cost averaging I guess.

Also found a bottle of 1792 Aged 12 years, that was $200 so it stayed on the shelf. Maybe one of these days.

Also found the elusive Elijah Craig barrel proof today so grabbed one of those. Pretty good bourbon hunting day today.

1792 Full Proof when you find it in the $50-60 range is fantastic. Ever since it got named Whiskey of the Year some places are bumping the price up to $100+. It's good whiskey. I really like it a lot. There are just things I like more once you get up in that price range.

We had a series of impromptu bourbon taste testings over the holidays at my local gun shop.
Right around closing time 3-5 of us would show up right around closing time.
Flip the sign to closed and we'd start pouring!

Probably tried 20 bottles over 4 or 5 sessions.

Favorites were probably

EH Taylor Small Batch
George T Stagg
Blantons
Smooth Ambler Old Scout (No one had tried this before - big hit)
Weller Antique 107
Old Elk (nice suprise, first time seeing/trying it)
Wild Turkey Long Branch

A few unremarkable but decent ones
Sagamore Rye was Ok
Sazerac didn;t go over as well with everyone else, I like it though.
Dickel Single Barrel

The only real dog was Uncle Nearest, paid over $50 for a bottle on vacation -- don't do it.

Happy new year all! I just picked up some Widow Jane yesterday. Anyone try this before?