Sounds like it could be the McClellands's Islay:

http://www.mcclellands.co.uk/uploads...ands-islay.jpg

Including Rye in here too. For my money....

$1-$15: N/A

$15-$25: Buffalo Trace, Makers

$25-$35: Elmer T Lee

$35-$50: Basil Hayden (Sure it's made by Jim Beam, but it's damn good), Blanton's, Mitchner's Rye, Elijah Craig 18, Van Winkle 12, Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit, Hudson Baby Bourbon (note, this is 375 ml bottle), High West Rendevous Rye (I've oscillated back and forth on this pour, but currently love it again)

$50-$100: Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (Especially the Stagg, Saz 18yr Rye, and Handy Rye), Some of the Willetts,

$100-$200: Some of the other Willetts, Van Winkle 20, Black Maple Hill 23 Rye

$200+ ?: There's really not much in this price range. Van Winkle 23 is about the only bottle I can think of that consistently goes for $200+

I think $40-$100 is really the sweet spot for Bourbon/Rye, there are a ton of excellent options in this range.

Also, Willett stuff may be hard to find outside of Kentucky, DC, and the Bay Area, but is almost always awesome in my experience. If you're interested in some more details, see here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=360

They almost always have some Willett at my local liquor store (Lee's in Las Vegas).

DF: "Has anyone had the Balvenie Caribbean Cask?" Yeah, I have tried it 3x now and don't like it. I think it tastes weird. Balvenie is one of my all time faves (12yo Doublewood and 21yo Portwood are both incredible imo, and 17yo(?) Peated Cask is my current favorite bottle), but this is the first thing I've had from them that I simply haven't liked.

foobar: Excellent list. Agree w/ most everything there except for the Elmer T. Lee and the High West. Nothing wrong with those picks, just not my taste. As for sweet spots, I'd actually say $40-60 is the best value sweet spot for bourbon/rye, just so much great stuff in that range.

A little research tells me that the McClelland's Islay is actually 5yo Bowmore. Reviews I have read have said that it is a little one-dimensional and harsh, which is not unexpected of a 5yo whisky.

To the guy that bought a bottle of this stuff... don't be put off if you think this bottle is a bit too strong/harsh for you. If you think you may like the taste of the Islay whiskies then I strongly suggest getting a bottle of one of the more popular releases. Bowmore 12yo is a good one to start off with as it's fairly fruity and rich to balance out the smoke flavour.

El D: Agree that somewhere around $40-$60 is likely the real sweet spot. I was a bit obsessed w/ buying every single bottle of bourbon/Rye I could find for a while, regardless of price. What I've come to realize is that while all bourbons are different, it's hard to justify something that costs > $100 as substantially /better/ than a solid ~$50 bottle. See this thread in OOT where I do a blind taste test w/ several different good/very good bourbons/ryes and IrieGuy follows suit. Both turned out to be a big bunch of fail where price didn't correlate to taste/enjoyment. I'm currently trying to curtail my purchase of expensive bottles, but we'll see how long that lasts: buying expensive booze is one of the few "baller"-ish things I do.

foobar,

Cool taste test thread. I'm gonna do one soon. I'm not surprised by your results. While I love them both, bourbon and rye imo simply don't have the complexity that scotch has to really differentiate between the premium bottles that much.

What I'm most interested in is tasting a couple of $20ish bottles against a couple of $60ish bottles and seeing how that comes out. I think the two nicer ones there should clearly stand out, but I wouldn't be surprised to be proved wrong.

I have a bottle of Carribbean Cask and I agree with Diablo. It's not so much that I don't like it, but I do agree that it has a strange taste and really isn't up to the level of the other Balvenies. I love the Singlebarrel and the Peated Cask though. Peated Cask might be my favorite scotch atm. Very close between that and Glenrothes 1985.

Gonna pick up a bottle of the peated cask today or tomrrow

you going to do this with Bourbon?

thanks for the responses, by the way.

GT,

Yes, bourbon.

I'm not a huge macallan fan, but tried the macallan cask strength the other day and thought it was really good.

AA,

I feel exactly the same way.

Yay, great thread I just found it.

Are you referring to the rum cask for Balvenie (should be a 17-year old?) If so, yes I've had it. Tasted like rum. Shocking. Was a different taste than you're used to for scotch, so if you like a fairly heavy rum flavor then there you go.

Agree about Buffalo Trace too, it's a good quality bourbon at a good price.

I actually made a mistake. I initially said that the Caribbean cask is 17 year. The Caribbean cask is 14 year. They have also made Madeira and Rum cask 17 year old, which I've also heard is not so great.

My store down the street didn't have the Balvenie Peated Cask, so will have to go across town for it tomorrow. I did, however, tilt buy a bottle of Aberlour A'bundah. Hoping for good things! Will probably get into it later tonight.

AA,

I really like the A'bunadh

If you like sherry, I predict you really enjoy the A'bunadh. I recently got a bottle and I love it. Very sweet, rich, a bit of a maple syrup flavor. So sweet and well-balanced that despite the 60% alcohol I prefer it straight even though I usually dilute higher proof whiskies down to 40-50%.

According to Wikipedia:
"Rumour has it that when the second pair of stills were put in in 1975, a time capsule was discovered behind the name plate, containing a 1898 newspaper about the distillery fire wrapped around a 1898 bottle of Aberlour. The workmen who discovered the bottle polished off four fifths of the bottle during their lunch break, but the remains of the bottle went off to the laboratories in Keith, and were analysed. A'bunadh is an attempt to recreate this single malt."

I thought this was pretty cool.

lol, drinking 4/5th of a bottle of scotch on lunch break. The high life

Especially one that probably was near priceless (slight exaggeration)!

Looove the a'bundah (I do really like good sherry btw Ike, and it definitely had some big time sherry notes in it). Lots of maple syrup, chocolate, vanilla, raisins, sherry....I had it both straight, and with a splash of water, and actually slightly preferred it with a tough of water (probably diluted to about 50% from 60%).

Gonna buy a bottle of this later in the week per recommendation from a guy who's opinions on whiskey I really respect. If anyone has every had it, let me know what you think! It's aged in Chateau D'yquem Barrels which is pretty amazing, not some random cheapo sauternes.

$15-25: havent had many in this price range but for $25 you cant really go wrong w/ Evan Williams Single Barrel imo.

$35-50: Van Winkle 12yr is really good and you can still find it some places right now.

$50-100: Pappy 15 which is pretty much impossible to find at this point is just a great bourbon. The best of them all imo(havent had the 23yr tho).

William Larue Weller is another great one tho tough to find.

George T Stagg as well. Might be becoming my favorite. At 143 proof the bottle should end up going a long way unless youre hardcore and dont add any water.

$100-200: Pappy 20 is really good but imo for the price you pay you would be better off just picking up 3 bottles of the Van Winkle 12 yr.


As you can probably tell I tend to favor wheated bourbon so if you prefer rye then the Van Winkles and WLW may not appeal to you as much.

a place near me had the whole BTAC for $75/bottle except the Handy was $58 i think. they had 5 Stagg so i just grabbed them all. each time i drink it, it gets better and better.

has anyone actually seen Pappy 15 anywhere other than ebay in the past week or so. ive gotten some 10, 12, and 20 in the past week and seen the 23 but no 15 anywhere.

I got some in my kitchen

yea, me too. i was looking for more but it seems its pretty much all gone.