Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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thrill
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by thrill »

33anda3rd wrote:
Michael wrote:Thanks, 33anda3rd! I'm running through options.
GeddyWrox wrote:33 needs to change his avatar to Paul Newman's character Fast Eddie from The Color of Money.

(Loved that movie, BTW)
The Color of Money is a sequel to one of my all-time favorite movies, The Hustler from 1961. The movie is dramatized, but at its core I think The Hustler understands what it means to be a competitive gambler more than any movie I've ever seen.
The Hustler is a top-five movie for me. Gleason, Newman, George C Scott, and Piper Laurie are extraordinary in that movie. If it comes on TMC I'm locked to the sofa for a couple hours.
The McQueen-Newman beef produced two of the best gambling movies. The Hustler & the Cincinnati Kid. Sometimes I feel like having a real scum bum weekend and I buy a pack of cigarettes, watch old gambling movies, and get drunk for a couple of days straight.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by Michael »

The Cincinnati Kid is a good movie, but it's a poor mans The Hustler. Same with Rounders - it's super revered in the poker community, but in my opinion it's a few tiers below The Hustler.

I think Altman's California Split is an underrated gambling movie, but that's more about degeneracy than competitive gaming like poker or pool. It's not a classic or anything, but it's a darn good film. Another solid degeneracy focused movie is The Gambler with Cann.

33anda3rd wrote:Michael, if I may....

Derrumbes San Luis Potosi. Roughly $80. Altitude is so high/desert-y that trees don't grow there and the plants grow like weeds. All wild harvested and the result is like a confit of mezcal--like someone infused mezcal with mezcal. But it's not that smoky. They're roasted in a pulque yeast and get kinda funky. You get notes of coriander, cilantro stems, picholine olives.

They also make a Durango that is very low smoke, very forest-floor in flavor, lots of mushroom and umami notes. Derrumbes as a brand is all D.O. mezcal, the label indicates the region.

If you want to try a sotol, La Higuera Leiophyllum is super interesting. Grassy, herbal, minty, bright. Comes from a dasylirion plant that unlike other agave species will push agave every year. Hand milled, double distilled, no water added on the second pass, cooked in a conical oven that doesn't impart a lot of smoke. It's really interesting, when I tasted it earlier this month I had to have it.

La Higuera also makes Cedrosanum that goes through a lot of the same process but is like a dessert sotol. Creme brulee, burnt sugar, but with a dry finish.

If they don't have any of these at Binny's or Independent Spirits, ask them to order you a bottle from Cream, they are the distributor on all of these. They have the most interesting agave spirits portfolio in town, my man Christophe Bakunas over there is an agave spirits Jedi and he manages a beautiful portfolio.
Thanks! I'll take a look tonight after work.

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thrill
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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Michael wrote:The Cincinnati Kid is a good movie, but it's a poor mans The Hustler. Same with Rounders - it's super revered in the poker community, but in my opinion it's a few tiers below The Hustler.

I think Altman's California Split is an underrated gambling movie, but that's more about degeneracy than competitive gaming like poker or pool. It's not a classic or anything, but it's a darn good film. Another solid degeneracy focused movie is The Gambler with Cann.
Hard Eight & The Hustler are my two favorite gambling movies.
If you haven't seen it, check out Mississippi Grind. It's basically a better California Split set on Mississippi River area casinos. Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds are great gambler losers.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by Michael »

thrill wrote:
Michael wrote:The Cincinnati Kid is a good movie, but it's a poor mans The Hustler. Same with Rounders - it's super revered in the poker community, but in my opinion it's a few tiers below The Hustler.

I think Altman's California Split is an underrated gambling movie, but that's more about degeneracy than competitive gaming like poker or pool. It's not a classic or anything, but it's a darn good film. Another solid degeneracy focused movie is The Gambler with Cann.
Hard Eight & The Hustler are my two favorite gambling movies.
If you haven't seen it, check out Mississippi Grind. It's basically a better California Split set on Mississippi River area casinos. Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds are great gambler losers.
I've seen both Hard Eight and Mississippi Grind, they are both really good suggestions. Oddly, I've never been a huge Paul Thomas Anderson or Robert Altman fan, but their "minor" gaming movies are my favorites.

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33anda3rd
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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Yes to Hard Eight and California Split. I'd go:
1. Hustler
2. Hard Eight
3. California Split
4. Cincinnati Kid
5. Rounders (it's so paint by the numbers but I like it)
6. Color of Money

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by GeddyWrox »

I really like The Hustler. I can tell it's a "better" movie than TCoM. I just like TCoM better. I think it's the pacing.

But the way 33 1/3 talks about whiskey, it just reminds me so much of Fast Eddie in the bar at the beginning of TCoM. He just *knows* his booze!

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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Hahaha thanks Geddy. If you find yourself in Chicago in the future, drop me a line and I'll pour you a few.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by 33anda3rd »

I talked with Heaven Hill's Chicago folks yesterday. I was telling them how much I love the Heaven Hill 6 Year Bottled in Bond and they were saying that there is serious conversation about ending that product line to focus on the core stuff of Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Larceny, Pikesville Rye, Rittenhouse Rye. Heaven Hill would no longer make anything called Heaven Hill. If true, that's heartbreaking, that stuff at $12.50/bottle is the best value there is. So that's a bummer.

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thrill
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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I toured this place on Saturday: https://hamiltondistillers.com/

Discussed a potential investment deal with the owner. We'll see if he goes for it. It's a really interesting product. Very young whiskeys aged in the hot, arid climate in small barrels with VERY unique character. The mesquite smoked single malt isn't just a gimmick. It's pretty damn good.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by 33anda3rd »

There's one from Austin TX that's pretty good called Garrison Brothers. The secret to these hot climate whiskeys is the aging. In KY there are only a couple big diurnal shifts per year. Once as winter turns to summer, once as summer turns to winter. In places like AZ and TX they have two diurnal shifts every 24 hours: as the very hot day becomes the cool night and then back to the next hot day. This regular expansion/contraction of the barrels pulls and pushes the whiskey in and out of the wood and they can age a bourbon for 4 years that tastes like it was in the wood for 10.

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