Favorite Bourbon
- Thread starter onepixel
- Start date
electronjohn said:
Elijah Craig, may be my favorite Bourbon/Whiskey. The price is decent and the stuff IMHO is what JD and Jim Beam only wished they were.
The Elijah Craig is an Evan Williams production, which would explain the fair price. It's a no-nonsense, fiery, smoky, Bourbon and it's not sickly sweet like some other whiskeys I mentioned. Great stuff for the money. Hell, it's great stuff for TWICE the money!
Mike
Russellc
Addicted Member
I have been reading about it on the straightbourbon.com forum, but hadnt stumbled on it until yesterday, but in the gigantic double size bottle. Just tasted one shot so far, which isnt enough. at first it seemed a little light, but i was amazed to see that it was over 90 proof! I have heard lots of good press on this stuff, need to sample a little more then compare.X Man said:Elijah Craig, may be my favorite Bourbon/Whiskey. The price is decent and the stuff IMHO is what JD and Jim Beam only wished they were.
The Elijah Craig is an Evan Williams production, which would explain the fair price. It's a no-nonsense, fiery, smoky, Bourbon and it's not sickly sweet like some other whiskeys I mentioned. Great stuff for the money. Hell, it's great stuff for TWICE the money!
Mike
russellc
uofmtiger
Addicted Member
Well, I gave it a try. I got a new Bellari VP129 phono amp today and needed a drink for the unveiling...uofmtiger said:
Anyway, to give you some background, about ten years ago (a wild guess), I went to a "cigar dinner" here in Memphis at the Spaghetti Warehouse. Part of the festivities included a taste testing of small batch bourbons. This was the first time I had heard about small batch bourbons and since they had a huge dinner and cigars, I felt like nothing would be lost.
Anyway, we tried Booker's, Basil Hayden's, Knob Creek, and maybe one or two more. The consensus in our group was that KC was the best.. We were told by the guy that was selling the bourbon that we would eventually move into something stronger like Booker's.
At the time, my roommate purchased Booker's and I purchased Knob Creek. We went through several bottles of Knob Creek while Booker's gathered dust. Even our poker buddies preferred the Knob Creek. Keep in mind that this was before their fancy ads, so people were judging on taste alone. Of course, we were not and still are not connoisseurs, but we know what we like. However, I still have not grown into Booker's. My gal says I will never grow up and I guess this little tidbit is proving her right.
Anyway, I got the Buffalo Trace this evening. It was $7 cheaper than the bottle of Knob Creek, so that made me happy. I got it home, slipped "Waltz for Debbie" onto the TT and started sippin' and a listenin'. It was a great night all around. I did not have Knob Creek around for a taste test, but the Buffalo Trace was very good. :thmbsp:
uofmtiger said:
Great idea, and totally appropriate!
I checked through Buffalo Trace, but it isn't distributed in TN anywhere. Not in Atlanta either. I guess the question is more where it is distributed.
Did I get this URL here?
http://straightbourbon.com/
I went through the list on that site, then to the Buffalo Trace site. They don't have a wide distribution. And Tennessee is only one state South of Kentucky.
http://straightbourbon.com/
I went through the list on that site, then to the Buffalo Trace site. They don't have a wide distribution. And Tennessee is only one state South of Kentucky.
uofmtiger
Addicted Member
Interesting. Maybe their page is not updated. I have no idea, but I plugged in my zip and it showed no one around here having it and then I plugged in the state and it also said it was not available. I am not sure how the place is selling it without them knowing it. The price was $19.99, so there was not some sort of markup or anything. Also, I bought it at some hole in the wall liquor store in a small town outside of Memphis, so I would think they had to have some sort of distribution.Grainger49 said:
I am guessing that this little store would not go out of their way to get it illegally. There would be no reason for them to take that chance. Also, we are in the southern portion of TN and Kentucky is not all that close.
If you are real curious you should send Buffalo Trace an email if you want to know for sure. However, it is not unusual for sites to get behind on updates.
Russellc
Addicted Member
I have mentioned the straightbourbon.com site here before. My guess is they just havent updated their site yet. I saw it in a very small store outside of Kansas City Mo....they only had three bottles and I bought them all. They didnt know if they would be able to get more. I told them to call their other branch stores and have them send them their bottles, which they did. They sold so fast they now keep it continually....so make a big fuss about it.uofmtiger said:
Its normal sale price is about 18-19 bucks, and it is a good bargain for what you get. Unfortunately, these bourbons discussed here are small batch type deals,
and are limited quantities. Seems like high end bourbon is going through a popularity stage sort of like cigars did in the late 90's....it took the manufactures a little while to catch up, and product suffered in quality for a while then. I have noticed this with the absolute booming sales experienced by Labrott and Grahams Woodford Reserve...not quite what I remember its quality being in the begining. Ditto for Blanton's according to some, but I hadnt noticed it. Blantons is connected to the buffalo trace distillery. I consider Buffalo trace my "NEW Maker's Mark" catagory bourbon....but better in my own opinion....tastes vary. for a while there, tastings.com rated it above Blanton's.....bold B.S. talk in my opinion!
Russellc
Uncle Paul
Super Member
Drunk many and enjoyed most. Always keep coming back to Jim Beam Black.
deaner33
Drew loves Thin Lizzy
Favorite is anything from Old Rip Van Winkle - they have about 4 or 5 different Bourbons, all great. I read that their Bourbon's are "wheated" meaning that they use some wheat in addition to the other grains. This supposedly makes them smoother and I can attest to that. The only problem is that the Old Rip Van Winkle products are hard to come by in MS
I also like Bulleit which is a nice mid-priced bourbon - apprx 16-17 dollars for a 5th.
Finally, for a cheap bourbon I like Rebel Yell, which is about 10 dollars a 5th. I heard one time that Keith Richards used to drink it back in the 70's and if anyone knows anything about boozing/drugging it would have to be him.
I also like Bulleit which is a nice mid-priced bourbon - apprx 16-17 dollars for a 5th.
Finally, for a cheap bourbon I like Rebel Yell, which is about 10 dollars a 5th. I heard one time that Keith Richards used to drink it back in the 70's and if anyone knows anything about boozing/drugging it would have to be him.
one-eyed fatman
New Member
Kentucky is one of the few places where coopers still build barrels. Bourbon must beaged in new charred white oak barrels. Most all the distillers hearabouts sell the used ones to the Scots for their whiskey. Heaven Hill had a couple of whiskey barns catch fire a few years back and you could see the glow in the sky 30 miles away. There are a couple of different scheems for aging the whiskey. Some brands shift the barrels in the barn to "even" out the effects of location of the aging period. Others leave the barrels in place, but pull barrels from different spots when they bottle. Brown Foreman, which makes Woodford Reserve, has brick warehouses and heats and cools them according to a speified schedule to simulate a perfect whiskey barn season.
doctorbongo
Super Member
I'm seeing some "designer" bourbons on here, if that's not an oxymoron. But if you are talking about straight line American Whiskeys, make mine Weller.
roseskunk
Well-Known Member
want to know a secret? jw weller and van winkle is the same whiskey recipe, made by the same company. except that weller doesn't have the blessing of the vanwinkle family. vanwinkle is an orphan brand, meaning that it doesn't have it's own distillery. the only possible difference is that van winkle picks particular barrels to be labeled van winkle, but they all come from the same vat as weller, and weller is half the price. and neither is a single barrel. you'd be hard-pressed to pick between the two in a blind tasting. both weller and van winkle are wheated whiskeys, as is makers, old fitzgerald and 'rebel yell'. the wheat makes 'em a tad sweeter. and blanton's, van winkle, and jw weller are all made by the same distiller, buffalo trace. they also make a good vodka called "rain" which is distilled nearly twice as many times as stoli, at half the cost. one more thing while i'm drinking here, blantons is aged 6 1/2 years as i think woodford is, van winkle, aka weller is aged 12. woodford in my opinion comes in a nice bottle that you pay a heck of a lot for...blind tastings will save you a lot of money my friends. cheers!
