for what it's worth you can get a bottle of scotch that is off. it can have this sulphury taste, which is usually a sign of a bottle that isn't right.

but the fact you reported this with an Islay malt implies you probably just don't like them very much, they are apparently very strong.

I never knew that. What is it that makes the bottle "off"? I always thought that the whisky itself couldn't go off as it is strong alcohol and is therefore unaffected by bacteria. Is it contamination at bottling?

jihad, fwiw i really like islay scotches but not a huge caol ila fan. it's not really that it's too strong but it just feels very sharp and shallow to me. a good islay lives up to its burn with complexity and depth imo. i'm far from an expert on this kind of thing, and i suspect it's mainly preference, but you're not totally alone on this one.

I enjoy Jack Daniels as my regular... Never went "to deep" about it but I know people usualy discuss is it whisky or burbon?? So can someone clarify this for me please? And also - where JD stands in world of whiskey? Is it like average or upper/lower than that?

Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey, to be bourbon it has to come from Bourbon County, Kentucky. Tennessee whiskey is more similar to bourbon than it is to scotch, which makes a lot of sense given the geography. Bourbon is a type of whiskey, just like scotch is. Scotches are whiskeys from Scotland.

Whiskey ratings depend a lot on personal preference, but I would say it is similar on the spectrum to where budweiser is for beer. There are plenty of beers of higher quality / better tasting than Budweiser, but it's not terrible.

the cask that is was aged in. or just **** quality control, because not all product produced is good enough to be sold.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ralfystu...58/bN-1mNqCLpc

watch this vid, the guy knows what he's talking about.

edit: fwiw i would more find it more probable this would happen with, as he said, an independant bottler, because the company size probably creates a situation where 1 or 2 people check quality and if they have an off day it could happen that one bottle slips through the net.

edit: if you liked his fix in 85, watch 86 it has an awesome winter scotch recipe that i'm dying to try one time if i have some whiskey to spare :P.

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel is getting towards high class whiskey. It's creamy and buttery and doesn't burn like Jack Daniel's No. 7 does. Off on a tangent here but I had an "old man moment" with it once. Sitting in my friend's dorm's common room at 2am talking about the political and economic state of China while 2 of us were sipping JD Single Barrel and the 3rd was sipping wine.

Well about my whisky drinking. I drank a lot of Jack Daniels No 7 in high school. It was partly because of the badass factor and partly because it gets you drunk really fast. Because of that, alcohol burn doesn't bug me anymore. Then in university, someone suggested that I start trying scotch and I'm off on a whisky adventure. I've tried Glenfiddich, Macallan, Aberlour, Bowmore, Talisker for single malts and Ballentyne (blech), Grant's (blech again), and Johnnie Walker (I hate Johnnie's guts) for blended scotch. My favourites are probably Macallan and Talisker, Macallan for the honey and sherry palate, it's smoothness, and that warm feeling and the after taste that makes losing 400 dollars seem not too terrible. Talisker for that distinct smokiness and punch-in-the-face taste that you expect from whisky (yeah, I'm not that good at describing the palate and aftertaste).

Has anybody here tried this:



I've never tried a rye whiskey and the store I buy from online highly recommends it.

I'm a bit unsure of my next purchase though. My bottle of Caol Ila is almost finished and it's one of the the ones that I want to always have in stock however I really want to try some different Scotches, and I would really like to try a rye.

okay whisky lovers finish this sentence for me, if you please

if you recently discovered (and enjoyed) basil hayden, next you have to try ______

PR: Sazerac is great. Rye is a little "harsher" taste than other whiskeys, but it has a great flavor and makes great classic whiskey cocktails - manhattans, sazeracs, etc.

LML: Baker's and Blanton's. Booker's if you want to try something a little stronger. Noah's Mill, Rowan Creek, Old Rip Van Winkle, Pappy Van Winkle.

I've ordered a bottle of the Sazerac, and also a bottle of this 1996 independent bottling of Caol Ila....



Should be getting it delivered tomorrow or Wednesday hopefully, so will report back here when I've given them a test drive.

I gave up whiskey and beer on Jan. 1 and lost 25 pounds eating normally.

Still haven't managed to crack open the Laphroaig yet, but will do.

I'm making a trip with some college friends to Ireland and Scotland in mid-June and we're all big whiskey drinkers. Can anyone recommend any distillery tours they may have done or heard were especially cool? Since there aren't many left in the Lowlands we're looking to drive up to the Highlands (not sure if we'll hit Speyside yet).

El Diablo:

What are your thoughts on the Eagle Rare?

For someone who drinks mostly Jack and Cola is there a better Whisky to mix with thats common or should I just stick with normal Jack?

I don't think this is true. It's named for Bourbon County but doesn't have to come from there. According to wiki:

Nowhere does it say it has to be from Kentucky. And from liquor suite 101:

pj, i could be wrong, I just assumed that it was similar to champagne in the naming thing once i knew there was a place actually called bourbon county

Elijah Craig 18 yr old Single Barrel ainec...this is the nuts for sipping Bourbon.

Pappy Van Winkle is also absolutely superlative and even better if you like a very mellow taste...in the style of a great Irish Whiskey
Not at all. Bourbon's come from all over Central Kentucky, most by far comes from Nelson County...Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, and Barton brands...plus the little bitty Maker's Mark. When I say little I mean when I left in the late 90's Maker's was doing 40 barrels a day and HH and JB were each doing 600 per day!! But, they do make bourbon in Jefferson, Woodford, and several other counties to a much lesser extent.

One correction to the OP on Bourbon...while whiskey in Kentucky CAN have as much as 80% corn, you must label it Corn Whiskey if it has more than 75% corn. Similarly, if it has more than 15% rye it must be explicitly labeled RYE whiskey. Some purist think Makers should not be allowed to call itself bourbon because of the winter wheat, as some would say that Budweiser should not be called "Beer" because it has rice in it for some reason. (Or for that matter Busch beer because it contains corn).

US Federal Law doesn't seem to mention anywhere about bourbon having to be produced in either Bourbon County or in Kentucky.....

Tbh I always thought that it had to be produced in Kentucky, and that was why JD is sold as "Tennessee Whiskey" and not Bourbon. Apparently though, it comes down to the charcoal mellowing process that JD use, and it is this process that makes the distinction that means it is labelled Tennessee Whiskey and not Tennessee Bourbon.

Mixing it with Coke takes away all the complexity of the whiskey, so buying more expensive whiskey to mix would just be a waste of money imo as the higher standard of spirit will just be lost in the mix.

Generally it's cheap spirit for mixing, good spirit for straight-up.

Hey everyone! Here in Columbus we have Barrel 44 whisky bar.

http://www.barrel44.com/

One of the bottles (Stronachy 12) that my local liquor shop guy had me try has been described by some websites as "a 'bastard' bottling better than some semi-official and independent bottlings of Benrinnes."

I'm not that familiar with how the industry ends up working, but does this essentially mean that some distillery's that produce bottles of their own somehow bottle the same whiskey (?) under a different brand? What's the purpose?

Also got myself a bottle of Balvenie 15 Single Barrel which while more aggressive than I tend to prefer, is really complex and has a very nice finish.

I've just looked into the Stronachie whisky you mention Berge. It turns out that Stronachie was the name of a distillery that closed in 1930. Apparently the quality of the whisky was so good that a search was made to find a currently operating distillery that produces whisky of a similar style, and the distillery chosen was Benrinnes. Benrinnes whisky of different ages is blended together to create a whisky that is as close in style to the old Stronachie as possible. So, I think, what the websites you've seen referring to a "bastard" bottling are actually talking about is that the whisky you are drinking is actually Benrinnes whisky, just bottled under a different name in homage to the old Stronachie distillery.

i had my last final of the first year of med school today and finished the last half of my bottle of glenmorangie 25 to celebrate. i drank too much before then to comment, but everyone else (mostly non-whisky drinkers) who tried some remarked about how smooth it was (ldo)

That's pretty interesting actually.

The sick part of me now wants to find (LOL) and drink the original.

Further question for you whiskey experts.

What is the practical different between having a glass on the rocks, neat, or no water at all? I've been always using just a bit of cold water (does temperature have any impact?) but always was curious.