You actually have me slightly concerned. I'll speak to my doctor about it next time I see him and ask. I'll report back in a few months.

Hey, if you get a blood screen and all done you'll find out whether your liver is overly fatty and/or showing signs of cirrhosis.

You may just have freaking amazing kidneys and they are hyperfilters. But doesn't hurt to get a panel screened and in terms of pure alcohol you're an outlier.

Youth helps too! I drank a bottle of cask strength whisky one night as a 19yo and got up the next day for a fried breakfast. I just stop at, well, well short of a full bottle these days

Best,
Pete

Evan Williams single barrel is my go to under $30

Place near me has Weller special reserve for $25 limit one per customer but I figure that's not the norm

Have you tried Henry McKenna Single Barrel? I think more barrel variation but 100 proof. If you get a decent barrel way better.

Bought some Jack Daniels single barrel rye at the weekend. I've only ever bought some Bulleit rye before so I don't have much to compare it to. Starting to see more of it appearing over here (U.K.) now though.

Thanks for the tip will try it - do you mean the henry mckenna bottled in bond?

I'll add to my "wish list" on distilller app - which I strongly recommend to all of you to download

Rye fans,

A girl asked me if I wanted to try out the new boss hog bottle she got. I told her to bring it over and we'd do a rye tasting.



Rittenhouse - great deal on an excellent rye for cocktails with a nice punch, but not a ton of great flavor for sipping.

Willett 2yo - fine but not a ton going on

Old scout 7yo cask strength - 119 proof but still so smooth and delicious. Sweet almost like a bourbon.

Willlett XCF - just not a big fan of this finish

High west yippee ki yay - finished in vermouth and Syrah barrels. Pretty good, but would prefer a little more Syrah and a little less vermouth on the finish.

Whistlepig 10 - pretty good stuff, better than I had remembered. Straight ahead rye flavor profile.

Whistlepig Boss hog #3 - wow, big surprise here. This was by far our least favorite, almost undrinkable straight. Just overpowering oak that adds a really unpleasant woody bitterness. We tried a Manhattan. Nope, still bad. Tried it in place of mezcal in a cocktail I like - with st Germain and rhubarb bitters. Still too much. Finally hit a winner using it in place of the ardbeg in this cocktail:
Rye 1.5 (used willett 2yo)
Antica .5
Classico .5
Ardbeg .33 (subbed boss hog)
Peychauds
Didn't expect this bottle to end up being good mainly as a flavor accent or float in cocktails. At least I didn't buy it!

Howdy folks,

Can we talk Johnny Walker? Having lived in Scotland for 14 years I was overly spoiled in whisky choice and never had any JW of any kind, ever.

The extent of my knowledge is that there are colours, right? Black, blue, red, green... Gold? Others?

Anyway, worlds colliding and such, the new Blade Runner is doing a JW tie in (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B074H56QXX). At £99 for a bottle I am already unlikely to, and have to profess ignorance that I was totally unaware in the 1982 release Deckard was imbibing JW. And I thought myself more of a blade runner aficionado than a whisky one.

So, questions - what is JW like, how do the colors vary, what do you prefer, and, is this worth a ton to buy? I am guessing no but welcome views!

Best,
Pete

I've had Johnny Walker Red, Black, Double Black, Gold, and Blue.

Red is OK. Black is my favorite every-day Whisky to drink. Double Black is a little too smokey for me. Gold.. I honestly don't remember.

Johnny Walker Blue, however, is something that is in a class of it's own. It is the absolute best thing I've ever tasted in my entire life in terms of alcohol.

Nothing can compare, as far as I'm concerned. I've had a glass of 1k/bottle wine, Louis XIII, Crystal Rose... but nothing comes anywhere close to the pure joy I experienced when Johnny Walker Blue hit my tongue. Spicy/smokey/sweet/smooth (at all the right intensity), with a long finish, every sip is pure joy. Smell it deeply, let it hit your tongue, slightly roll it in your mouth, swallow while opening up your nostrils and breath deeply through both your nose and mouth. Absolutely amazing.

People will swear up and down about single malts, blah blah blah. Johnny Walker blue is the best Scotch I've ever tasted, single or blend, period. The only way I could compare it to is your best food memory. Remember the first time you ever had something that was truly amazing from, say, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and when you tasted it you laughed? Something that was sweet/sour/savory/spicy/crispy/soft all at once? That's what drinking Johnny Walker Blue is like.

They don't call it "nectar of the gods" for nothing.

Ta Wil! I have never gotten the 'single always > blend' mentality, if you have a great blender (who let's not forget every distillery has one, even single malts are technically blended if they aren't single cask), surely they will blend up something amazing.

Not sure where or when I will snag a bottle of blue. Is it malt only, no grain, or age restricted, peated/unpeated, or what? I know I can Google this stuff but trust this thread and its imbibers far more than random Internet commentors.

Best,
Pete

Id try a glass first Pete, my thoughts are about the opposite of wils, meh. Preferred the green but I don't think they make it any more, wouldn't buy any of them though.

Ta Goose,

To each their own. I wondered if green was a grain blend, but then I thought maybe I was just equating green with Irish and being totally racist...

I'll probably do a flight of as many as possible sometime one evening to establish my thoughts!

Best,
Pete

When it comes to Scotch, it really seems people are in two very different camps. They are by nature inherently different, almost for different purposes. I personally do not enjoy the overwhelming taste of smoke/peat. Maybe in small doses it's fine, but I've tried drinking them all night and I feel I ate a handful of dirt and stood next to a bonfire all night the next morning.

I just love good blends and appreciate the complexity and skill it takes to achieve an enjoyable one. I understand why people are in the single malt camp, I'm just not one of those people.

I encourage you to give Johnny Walker Blue an honest, open minded try. It is one of the few things in the world I've ever tasted and had such an immediate reaction.

If your favourite single malts are of the glenlivet/glenfiddich variety you may really like something like Johnny Blue. I'm more of an ardbeg/lagavulin kind of a guy though so that's why I find all of the above quite "boring". if I was getting drunk though I'd probably prefer something on that boring spectrum.

Wil: definitely agree with your attitude that single malts are not necessarily better than blends. However, I can 100% guarantee you based on your reaction to Blue that there are multiple things in that price range that will blow you away you'll like them so much better. If you're in the market to buy something, let me know and I can take a look and let you know some options (which you can always try like a 1/2oz pour at a whisky bar instead of committing to a whole bottle).

PW: black label on the rocks is one of my go-to standard bar orders. Very solid whisky. Red is pretty harsh/bad. I like smoky double black quite a bit. The rest you can get much better stuff for the price. £99 for a higher proof slightly different blend black label in a fancy bottle is up there with the worst whisky deals anywhere.

What would you suggest I try that would be better or just as good as blue? Let me know a few of your suggestions, there are a few high end whiskey bars in the downtown Philly area that I'd like to try out.

Wil,

What are the best liquor stores for whiskey? I'll take a look at what's being distributed there and give you some suggestions for what might be available at bars. Any of the bars have whiskey lists online?

It's surprisingly hard to get a menu for their whiskeys online. Here's a list I found from a lounge in the loews hotel.

https://d3opdn976v5yna.cloudfront.ne...rinks_2015.pdf

That 18 year Japanese whiskey is something I'd like to try. And I found this list at another bar :


http://cooperagephilly.com/menus/whiskey/

Any suggestions would be helpful. I wouldn't mind going out and sampling a few recommendations, I'll take notes and report back. I'll make a night of it.

Wil,

Cool I'll take a look tonight or tomorrow.

Also you'll probably really like any blend by Michel Couvreur except for the ones specifically called peated. I bet you'd really enjoy stuff like this: http://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1011196

Ok I'll wait for you suggestions. I can order that online? If so, I'll order a bottle tomorrow and report back when it arrives and I give it an honest try.

Edit: Nooooo!! They won't ship to Pennsylvania! I'm so mad. Does this mean I have to drive into that cesspool, New Jersey? God, our liquor laws here are a disgrace.

Thanks El D! Thought it was a terrible deal. Useful contextual info too, I am a big Laphroaig fan so knowing that peat lovers may not dig the JW experience so much helps too.

For science, I'll try and do a flight somewhere when I find a bar stocking several JWs and report back.

Thanks again, all!
Best, Pete

JW Blue is a phenomenal whiskey (and i tend to fall in the single malt camp), but i would never spend $250 on it, i feel the same way about Maccallan 18.

I mean, would you rather have a lag 16, glendronach 15 and pick another over one of those?

Big,

I thought Blue was like $225 (I know I've spent $200+ on it in the past), but it looks like you can get it for $150 these days.

Cue howls of disapproval, I don't like Lagavulin 16. Too syrupy. I am more an iodine fan, hence the Laphroaig.

Islay is so variable! Not a fan of the sulphur of Ardbog, or the charcoal of Caol Ila. How one wee outpost can make so many flavours...

Best,
Pete

$150 may change my buying habbits, but i have never seen it below 225.

I like the syrupy ones, big fan of Dalmore as well.

fwiw out of Lag/Ardbeg/Caol Ila I think the Caol Ila 18 is the best, i just can never find it.

Lag 18 is nectar of the gods, but they phased that out for the 15, which i have yet to try.