It's time for a bourbon thread

Everything else
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I have an older friend I only see 2-3 times a year. For the past few years every time I’ve hung out with him he’s introduced me to a new single malt… it’s always really wonderful and really expensive. I’ll be seeing him in a couple of months and I’d like to bring him a gift for the past few years’ of scotch education he’s given me. But I can’t afford the sort of scotch I know he’d like.

He’s also a bourbon drinker. I’m wondering if there are any really top-notch bourbons out there that be had for a reasonable price. I’m willing to spend more than Knob Creek or Maker’s Mark costs and am hoping to find something nicer in quality rather than just more expensive. There have been a few pretty good threads here about good scotch, so I’m hoping to find similar results with the Qt3 Boubon knowledge.

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Did you check this:
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=7666

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Curse you and your ability to make use of the search feature in new and unheard of ways!

er… thanks

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bah - I remember that thread now. It turned to scotch talk really quickly.

And as much as I like scotch. scotch, scotch, scotch as much as the next guy – I really want to hear about the best of the best of the best (with honors!) of bourbon.

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There was some bourbon discussion in that thread, my old comments still apply. My favorite is still Basil Hayden’s (cheapish stuff), but friends of mine seem to like the Blanton’s a bit more. The Noah’s Mill wasn’t that spectacular, and I thought the Black Maple Hill was a tad overrated.

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Woodford Reserve

http://www.woodfordreserve.com/

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Maker’s Mark. Buffalo Trace. Heaven Hill. Bulleit.

Price is most certainly not everything when it comes to bourbons. While you may not personally like Maker’s Mark, I guarantee that you could spend twice as much and not find as nice a tasting bourbon. That’s partially biased in favor of Maker’s Mark, but it’s also the truth.

Ever tasted the Jack Daniels centennial whiskey? Does that taste like $100 worth of whiskey to you? It doesn’t to me. You could go spend $100 on Johnny Walker and it won’t taste half as good as that Bowmore.

Them’s the breaks. Sorry, but cost’s got no place as a factor when considering what to purchase. Taste with your mouth and your mouth only; don’t even let your wallet glimpse the situation until you’ve chosen and’re ready to pay.

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I second the vote for Woodford reserve. Bought a bottle a few years back and while I’m not sure it especially counts as expensive to anyone other than me (was about £30 here if I remember right), it was thoroughly enjoyable.

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EDIT: Scotch-based thread derailment removed.

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It’s an Islay whisky (like Lagavulin or Bowmore).

The problem is it tastes like peat mixed with pine-sol/dettol. You could lighten the flavor by mixing it with pitch.

…and that’s what Islay whisky tastes like.

But, he doesn’t want to talk about Scotch, and this is definitely Scotch.

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P.S. He wants Bourbon, not Scotch.

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What BTG said.
Laphroiag is a pretty common Islay single malt and definately not the strongest flavoured of the bunch. But good.

But I want to learn about bourbon too.

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Maker’s Mark is my daily drinker bourbon. And honestly for the money I do not think there is a better bourbon out there.

I picked up the Basil Hayden’s last June on BTG’s word and it is indeed awesome. Pricier though (high thirties, vs. mid to high twenties for the Maker’s Mark).

I’ll second the recommendation for Woodford Reserve, I have a bottle of that as well.

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What’s Irish Mist?

I know, I know, you are all going to laugh, but I like the taste and my wife can drink it too. Is it whiskey, bourbon, or scotch? Or some blashphemy?

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Wild Turkey Rare Breed is pretty decent and so is Kentucky Spirit.

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For some reason I feel like I have to be a racist and fly a confederate flag from the back of my pickup truck in order to drink Wild Turkey.

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Wild Turkey Rare Breed really is yummy, and it reminds me of a good story. The first time a good friend of mine got drunk was when I bought him a bottle of WTRB for his 19th birthday and he insisted on going tit-for-tat with me. I was drinking MM and he was drinking the WTRB and didn’t seem to realize the proof differential. He was a really skinny kid (no fat, no muscle) but we were blazing through the liquor so by the time all was said and done we’d each gone through a liter of our respective liquors in half an hour.

He spent most of the rest of the evening quickly learning how to cope with being that intoxicated and - much to my delight - held out on vomiting for another two hours. What a champ.

I, on the other hand, quickly degenerated into a further state of intoxication by not knowing when to stop and by the time the night was over all mirrors had been removed from the walls (leading to an accusation of me doing coke in every room of the house by my mom - hey, what can I say? She was out of town and her house is the best party house I know of), I had punched numerous pans and kitchen appliances in an act of defiance, headbutted my friend in the crotch proclaiming “Nuts, nuts, I want your nuts!”, assumed his middle name as my first name, headbutted a wall, attempted to play guitar very badly, and then was forced to crash on my futon while people took shifts watching over me. I also was completely unable to stop speaking in a British accent for about half an hour.

Two couples were formed that night and my friend, God bless him, only vomited once and didn’t get alcohol poisoning.

I realize this is a digression but I simply cannot think of a better recommendation for Wild Turkey than this. He refuses to drink anything but now.

Also, Woodford Reserve is good, but not that good. I think it gets a lot of credibility for being a “boutique” type liquor. Whatever. Kentucky Spirit is yummy but eh. I only drink Islay scotches so I like my bourbons more in that vein - though MM certainly is the smoothest taste ever.

Sorry to turn this into a “omgwtf drinking stories!” thread for a moment but it’s the best recommendation I can give for Wild Turkey. Never met anyone who took it on the chin like that before and kept on tickin’ only to choose the liquor that got ‘em face down in the law as their liquor o’ preference.

I’m glad to know Hunter S Thompson was a racist who flew a confederate flag on the back of his convertibles. ;) If we want to talk about image over taste then I most definitely assure you that the Belgians take the cake - they might as well be the most redneckinist sons-of-bitches to ever walk the face of the Earth since some of their liquors taste like dirt because, quite literally, they allow the dirt and the dust to cake up on/in the barrels so that it absorbs the flavors. If we’re going by, you know, image instead of taste.

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And yet none of the other bourbons made in kentucky?

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SYNTAX ERROR

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I probably should have quoted. CURSES