Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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GeddyWrox
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by GeddyWrox »

stlouie_lipp wrote:I've been seeing these online ads for specialized whiskey/bourbon glasses. Is there anything to them, or is any rocks glass just fine?
IMHO, depends on the whiskey. If you're wanting to really enjoy a good one with interesting characteristics, use a small tulip shaped glass. It helps hold in the smells so you can really get the full experience. If you are just drinking some low-shelf stuff on the rocks, any old rocks glass is fine.

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haltz
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by haltz »

You can accomplish more or less the same thing with the right wine glass or a snifter if you have something like that laying around without buying those nosing glasses.

It depends on if you really want to focus on the aromas or if you want to enjoy the actual act of drinking. Something with a larger diameter at the rim like your typical old fashioned tumbler is MUCH easier to drink from.

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thrill
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by thrill »

Those whiskey tulip glasses suck. I have a snifter that I use sometimes when I want to nose a particularly good whisky I dropped some $ on. Those tulip glasses are just super fragile. I've broken a couple while hand washing. I've broken one literally just picking it up while a bit drunk. No good imo.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by GeddyWrox »

thrill wrote:Those whiskey tulip glasses suck. I have a snifter that I use sometimes when I want to nose a particularly good whisky I dropped some $ on. Those tulip glasses are just super fragile. I've broken a couple while hand washing. I've broken one literally just picking it up while a bit drunk. No good imo.
HULK SMASH

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33anda3rd
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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by 33anda3rd »

You want a glass that has a smaller diameter at the lip than it does at the base. Something that is feminine in shape. A big part of tasting is the information you get through your nose and a feminine/tulip shaped glass will hold the aroma in the glass better than a wide-mouthed tumbler. You want something like this:
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That's industry standard, it's what is used everywhere from distilleries in Kentucky to house parties hosted by those too-serious bourbon men with their silly pocket squares and bow ties. They're very durable. If you like ice in your whiskey, the standard Glencairn like above won't work, but glasses are made in that shape that are bigger. These are on Wine Enthusiast's website, set of 4 for $39.99:
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If you don't want to shell out $5-20 for whiskey glasses, a stemless wine glass from Costco is perfectly fine. Really anything that closes in at the top. On an unrelated note, when you nose whiskey, best thing to do is get your nose over the glass, and as much of your mouth as possible with your mouth open. Then, instead of taking a deeeeeeeeep breath in through your nose, take several sniffs, like short bursts. Imagine a dog sniffing around the ground for information. The dog doesn't take a really deeeeeeeeep breath through her nose, she takes a bunch of rapid sniffs. That's the best way for her--and our--noses to get information, constantly refreshing and reloading to detect what we missed in the last sniff.

Stems are unnecessary for whiskey, good for little more than affect. The biggest benefit of a stem for a glass of wine is to keep you hands off the bowl of a chilled glass of wine. With whiskey, warming it up via the heat coming off your hands is not only good, it's desired. Certain aromatics are released. Many tasters will pour a whiskey and let it sit and air out for as much as 20 minutes before tasting, there are a lot of weird habits/beliefs people have but cold whiskey will always = not fully tasting the whiskey, esp. if you shock the whiskey with ice.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by stlouie_lipp »

Thanks for the input guys. I have some shopping to do.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by GeddyWrox »

It's probably been touched on in here before, but I just finished off a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 and I was very pleasantly surprised! A very good bottle for low $20s!

Next up is Devil's River. Haven't had it before either.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

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One could make a very nice, drinkable collection of whiskey that hits a lot of different flavor profiles at home for just a hair over $200, even with a couple splurges. All the below are made at a Kentucky distillery, none are NDP nonsense where you're paying for marketing and runway costs, and all are IMO very very good.

Mellow Corn Bottled In Bond $17 (90/5/5) *
Makers Mark $28 (70/16/14 wheater) **
Wild Turkey 101 $22 (75/13/12)
Evan Williams Bottled In Bond $18 (75/13/12)
Old Grand Dad Bottled In Bond $24 (63/27/10)
Four Roses Single Barrel $40 (OBSV 60/35/5) ***
Pikesville Rye $55 (HH 51% rye) ****

*Snobs look down on this whiskey. I love it.

**Mr Samuels when he re-opened this distillery decades ago went to Pappy and said "I love your wheated whiskey, show me how" and Pappy did. Makers is Pappy teaching Bill Samuels how to make the whiskey then Samuels going and doing that. It's not as aged as Pappy or Weller, but you can't find Pappy or Weller, so this is the best wheater you can find. You can splurge for cask strength too, and switch out other splurges below.

***Or a store pick with one of the other nine 4R mash/yeast combos, but that will run you more $$$.

****Big splurge but legitimately very much worth it. It's 6 years and 110 proof, but you could drop down to Rittenhouse at $27 and save $28, dropping this under $200.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by GeddyWrox »

Devils River is just meh. It's not swill, but it isn't great either. I liked the Wild Turkey 101 I just finished MUCH better.

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Re: Rant/Rave: Bourbon

Post by Swirls »

Big fire at one of Jim Beam's rickhouses today...

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