Sippin' Bourbon

[Yung]

And I should have it here Friday.
L'chaim to life
Simong.

That there JD barrel proof winter rye is really something quite unique. I do hope they make it a regular annual release.

[Yung]

Saw the first Booker's release of this year for 65 on the shelf. Glad to see they've brought it back down to its original price, but I still think Knob Creek picks are the best pour from Beam at the same value.

[RoyGBiv]

Wife and I visited our son in Tucson this past weekend. Had a nice long drive, did lots of hiking in cool places. Wife got to stuff my son full of good food (a favorite pastime). A generally joyful time was had by all.

@Yung and I had been trying to trade some Boubon favors for a few weeks prior and I had the chance to meet up with him for lunch on Sunday (Thanks for making the trip down, Sir.!!), where he very generously bequeathed a box of goodies that I still have not yet completely unpacked. I promised to provide my thoughts on these as I tried them, and look forward to doing so.

It's always interesting meeting forum folks in meatspace. How far does a shared love of firearms and Bourbons go in the real world? We sat down for lunch around 11 and when my wife texted me at almost 2 (wondering if I was sober enough for the afternoon hike we had planned on Mt. Lemmon ... I was ), I realized there was barely enough break in the conversation to have finished eating. Good times.

Here's a pic of the goodies.... More to come.

Thanks Yung!

[frank]

After two months of airing out, I still think Knob Creek 12s and 15s are not as good as even the single barrel store picks that are only 9 years, though I hear older ones are not uncommon. I missed out on the cask strength version of the 12 year though, so my bias might be due to the picks being 120 proof and the 12s and 15s being 100.

Knob Creek SiB store picks can be truly amazing. I've got a 13 year that blows away anything else in my collection apart from a WLW.

[LHS]

Thanks to a certain awesome forum member, I have something new to try out:



"Liquor Advisor to the Tactical Elite" for damn sure!

[entropy]

[mark7]

Scored this trio on a trip to DE. Living in a state that has a liquor monopoly, they couldn't be sourced locally.

[Yung]

Anyone tried FAE-01 yet? How is it compared to last year's Maker's release?

[RoyGBiv]

The first bottle from the @Yung collection was uncorked on Friday afternoon. Bourbon Buddy and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves tasting this treat. Partly because it was very good, partly because it was very interesting. More in a minute...



https://www.nevadadistilling.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Nevada.H...tilling/posts/
https://www.thebourbonbard.com/smoke-wagon-bourbon/

Interesting things.....

• Another very good finished product made from Indiana distillate (MGPI). It joins the ranks of several other recent Indiana-distilled, elsewhere-barrelled spirits from Redemption and Nine Banded. While those two were Wheated versions, this SW is made from a high-rye mashbill (60% Corn,36% Rye, 4% Malted Barley) and it shows in the spiciness of the finished product.
• Blended from 4, 6 and 10 year old barrels, aged in Las Vegas, NV. I wonder what the yield is on a 10yo barrel aged in the desert?
• This bottling was done at 57.44% (114.88 proof). I've become a high-proof Bourbon snob as of late, but even some bottles I've had at higher proofs did not exhibit one amusing characteristic of this bottle. When you drop in an ice cube, it went "clunk" and stayed on the bottom of the glass. Not unheard of with high proof spirits, but, a surprise for us. Check out the ice melting in the image and video below. (hopefully the Vimeo link works).

Video link, just in case: https://vimeo.com/530448687

On to tasting.....
I like to use a Stranahan's shot glass for Bourbon pours. If you buy a bottle of Stranahan's (used to be) it's topped with this aluminum shot glass that's actually 1.5 shots deep. It's also marked for a regular shot if that's your preference.



You can smell the Cinnamon immediately. The first sip has a BIG cinnamon flavor on top of the big alcohol note. I could taste some caramel in there, but, the big alcohol was hiding a lot of the flavors, so, I added a broken piece of ice, about the size of a half round nugget you get in bagged ice from the grocery store. Definitely no tap water for this purpose.

After amusing ourselves watching the ice sink, and melt in a way that resembled heat waves off hot asphalt, we tasted again.

Much less cinnamon and much more caramel and sugar, more balanced spiciness, some oak and a finish that faded into a spicy honey.
4 thumbs up from me and Bourbon Buddy.

I've put the remainder of the bottle out of sight until my BiL visits in May. I'm looking forward to sharing it with him (another Bourbon snob), especially tasting it neat again, after it's been open for a while. We'll uncork the Stagg Jr during his visit as well. He's never had any (unobtanium for him so far), I'm looking forward to his impressions on it.

[Savage Hands]

I picked up a bottle of Maker's Mark Cask Strength last night, only had a shots worth last night neat and I did like it! I need to pour a glass and enjoy it once I'm past the post vaccine side effects I feel creeping up on me