We Got Y’All’s Bourbon Wishlist Right Here…

Well, it’s taken me two full nights to get this put together, but I wanted to provide a little bit of information on the whiskies that we’re going to have available in our raffle this coming Friday night (December 16th). Check ’em out!! **Please note the entries listed in all bold: these might not be some of the biggest names or most sought after secondary-market bottlings, but they’re items that are incredibly difficult to find locally and super interesting!**

• Blanton’s (single bottle purchase)-The bourbon that Jim Murray called “liquid gold” and the product that I get asked about/called regarding/begged for more than any other single item in my entire store.  Week in, and week out, this is the one y’all want!  We’ve got several bottles for sale this year, and it’s been even more difficult than usual (and that’s saying something!) to get it in the last six months.  It may well be awhile until we get any more. 
• Blanton’s (one complete set with all the lettered toppers)-Part of what drives Blanton’s popularity, other than its scarcity, is the fact that the iconic metal stopper comes in 8 different varieties, each with a different letter of the word “Blanton’s” on it, and the racehorse in slightly different poses.  It’s incredibly hard to find/assemble a set ‘in the wild’ as it were.  Here, you can get all eight bottles in one fell swoop.  We’re going to do a silent auction for this, with the starting (minimum) bid at our regular “everyday” price. Good luck finding that anywhere else!
• Eagle Rare 10-Year-While Blanton’s is the most popular ‘regular’ offering from Buffalo Trace, this is my favorite.  Aged a full ten years, from Buffalo Trace’s “#1 Mashbill”, this is bottled at 90 proof and offers a perfect blend of power, richness, and aged character. 
• Angel’s Envy Cask Strength (2021)-Just under 15,000 bottles of this release were produced and (like the ‘regular’ Angel’s Envy, it’s finished in 60-gallon Port barrels.  Here, however, it’s bottled at a robust 120.4 proof.  Comes in a stunning (hefty!), sorta-art-deco-style, wooden box. 
• Angel’s Envy Cask Strength (2022)-Roughly 1,000 bottles more of this vintage were produced than the previous vintage, and it’s bottled at 119.8 proof.  Comes in a stunning (hefty!), sorta-art-deco-style, wooden box. 
• Willett 9 year (“purple top”)-A nine-year, cask-strength, single barrel from Willett…until this year, these were never available in MO, and they’re still going to be quite hard to get for some time.
• Willett 6 year (“purple top)– A six-year, cask-strength, single barrel from Willett…until this year, these were never available in MO, and they’re still going to be quite hard to get for some time.
• Willett Wheat (“purple top”)-The most difficult of all the ‘purple tops’ to acquire this year, this 8-year bourbon was aged in #4 Char, bottled at 108 proof, and is non chill-filtered.    
• E.H. Taylor Small Batch-Along with Eagle Rare this is, in my opinion, one of the absolute best deals in Bourbon today…on the rare occasion you can find it.  It’s simply delicious, a beautiful “you could drink it every day if you could find it” bottling that’s full of flavor, bold, yet refined. 
• Heaven Hill 17-This stunning 17 year-old bourbon is crafted from a mashbill of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye is actually a blend of different aged barrels, with the youngest barrels being 17 years.  Per the press release, the blend is comprised of 28% 20 year-old barrels, 44% 19 year-old barrels, and 28% 17 year-old barrels. 
• Blood Oath Pact 8-This is actually a blend of three bourbons: two rye-heavy bourbons (a 14-year and an 11-year) and an 8-year old rye-heavy bourbon that was (and this is my favorite part!) finished in Calvados casks.  Calvados is a classic, earthy apple brandy (maybe the best fruit brandy in the world, in my estimation) from Normandy, France, and I’d be really curious to see what impact it has here melding with the spicy notes of the high-rye bourbons.
• Redbreast 101 Kentucky Oak-It’s long been my opinion that the Redbreast line of whiskies represent the best of Irish whiskey, especially considering their price.  The ‘regular’ 12-year is one of my ‘best value’ picks for whiskey (any kind of whiskey) and the cask-strength version (see below) is just…wow.  This particular release was a one-off, a sort of “Irish whiskey for Bourbon lovers.”  Indeed, it’s a very different Redbreast than you’ve had before.  The NAS release is aged in ex-bourbon and Sherry barrels (just like the ‘regular’ offerings, but it’s finished in virgin oak, freshly-toasted white oak barrels (the same type you’d use to age Bourbon in) for an additional three to seven months.  It’s then bottled at 101 proof (non chill-filtered).  This really does bring the best of Irish whiskey and Bourbon together in one bottling. 
• Red Breast 12-Yr Cask Strength-It’s been years since I’ve been able to try this whiskey, and I do mean years.  The last time I saw it in person was back in my Conley Road days, and I left there in like…2016 maybe?  Anywho, Redbreast 12 is, and has always been, one of my “desert island” drams. It’s rich, it’s flavorful, and the classic single pot-still notes of orchard fruit and spice never disappoint.  This is the same whiskey, but bottled at cask strength.  More power, more intensity, more depth.  Sadly, the price has increased over the last half-decade, but this is still one of the best of the best, especially if you love Irish whiskey. 
• Russell’s 13-Yr-This was much harder to get this year, but we do have one bottle left.  It’s no secret, if you know me at all, that I am a huge Russell’s 10-Year fanboy…for its quality, price, age, and its ability to be found on shelves everywhere, I rank it as my #1 ‘go-to’ bourbon pick for anyone looking for something under $50.  It’s simply good stuff.  This, though, is in another league.  Bottled at 114.8 proof, and comprised of a mashbill of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley, this is only the second-ever release of this bourbon!  A substantial jump in quality/depth over the (already fantastic) Russell’s 10-Year!
• Baker’s-I’ve never understood the lack of love for this bottling.  Knob Creek Single Barrel gets plenty of adoration (which it deserves!), and people crave Bookers and, to a lesser extent, Basil Hayden.  Baker’s 7-Year though, for whatever reason, always seems to be forgotten.  I even found an article entitled “No one is drinking one of Jim Beam’s Best Bourbons (Still)” and that pretty much summed it up for me.  In the past, it suffered from a bit of an identity crisis, but post-2019, this should largely be a thing of the past. It’s now a single-barrel product, aged a full seven years (or older), and priced competitively.  It represents a fantastic value and, if you’re a fan of Beam products, it’s definitely one you should consider snapping up!  We see it very rarely.
• Widow Jane Decadence-This 10-year bourbon is bottled at 91 proof and is finished in…wait for it…barrels that had held artisan maple syrup from New York’s Crown Maple producer.  “Decadence” seems a pretty fair description for this whiskey and it seems like a fantastic one to sip alongside of massive stack of pancakes covered with bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup on a much-deserved weekend off.  Preferably while looking out your kitchen window at some gently falling snow.
• Widow Jane Lucky 13-This well-aged bourbon (13 years) was cut to 93 proof with Widow Jane’s own limestone mineral water from the Rosendale Mines of New York.  Bottled without chill-filtration.
• Dickel 13-Yr-The well-aged Dickel whiskies are just some of the stupidest deals in whiskey today, yet they don’t inspire the same kind of insanity that other marks generate.  This stunning Bottled-in-Bond whiskey is aged a full 13 years.  The extra-fun thing here is that this release is made up of distillate from the 2008 season…the same as the 2020 bottling that was released at 11 years old.  Have some of the 2020 release lying around?  It would be an awesome comparison to taste the same juice, from the same season, at two different age levels!
• Blackened “Rye the Lightening”-A limited-release rye whiskey for Metallica fans!  The Kentucky straight rye whiskies in this blend are aged 5-8 years and are then finished first in Madeira and second in Rum casks (a super-cool blend!).  Ex-Stranahan’s head distiller Rob Dietrich is on board here, so you know it’s going to be good!  I was initially kind of skeptical on this one (the Blackened “Black Noise” technology thing has always seemed a little gimmicky to me), but some bourbon writers that I really respect were really impressed with this bottling.  The whiskey is undeniably good, whether it’s down to the “Black Noise” treatment or Dietrich’s blending skills.  For what it’s worth, I love what rum and Madeira can do in terms of finishing rye whiskies…just look at Seagrass!
• Stagg Jr.-The classic uncut-and-unfiltered, bold, brash, bruiser from Buffalo Trace.  In years past, this hasn’t been quite as tricky to get as it was this year, but we only saw a scant handful of bottles in the past six months, and we only have one left!
• Jack Daniels 10-Yr-This whiskey absolutely proves what I’ve been preaching for years…Jack Daniels can make some really, really good whiskey.  It’s the same with a lot of brands…you can’t judge Redbreast by Jameson or Knob Creek by Beam white label.  This whiskey is 80% corn, 12% malted barley, and 8% rye and is aged for 10 full years in new oak barrels, the first prominent “age-statement” Jack Daniels any of us have likely ever seen!  Rich, full, spicy, and dry. 
• Weller Special Reserve 750-The entry-level bottling from the massively-popular, hard-to-find Weller series is always snapped up as soon as we make it available.  One of the more affordable bourbons on offer in the drawing. 
• Weller Special Reserve 1.75-Everything above, but bigger.
• Old Fitzgerald 17 Year-This incredibly-hard-to-find bottled-in-bond offering is produced from 75% corn, 20% wheat, and 5% malted barley, and is aged for a full 17 years.  And the glass decanter is just beautiful…one of my favorite bourbon presentations of all time!  This 17-year release is the oldest OF BiB to date, and has been received very well by critics: Breaking Bourbon called it “hard to top in 2022,” for example!
• Parkers 11-Yr Wheated-From the same wheated mash as Bernheim (51% wheat, 37% corn, and 12% malted barley) but aged 11 years in barrels that were toasted for 90 seconds, rather than Bernheim’s 40 seconds.  This is the 2021 release which was extremely hard to get…we’ve been saving them for a long time, just for you!
• Weller CYPB-The Weller “Craft Your Perfect Bourbon” experiment allowed fans to choose their ideal grist, proof, warehouse location, and age.  In the end, Weller enthusiasts opted for an 8-year, wheated bourbon, aged in the top levels of the rickhouse, and bottled at 95%.
• Weller Full-Proof-Weller Full-Proof, on the other hand, is bottled at a firm 114 proof, and is non chill-filtered.    
• Weller 12-Year-The wheated legend itself…a sort of “poor man’s Pappy,” this is rich, incredibly smooth, and full of sweet caramel an nutty goodness. 
• Elijah Craig 18-Yr-Elijah 18 is a single-barrel version of the Kentucky classic that’s aged for 18 full years in oak.  It’s a bit of a divisive dram: there are those who feel that the 18 years is just a bit too much for a bourbon and that it’s too dry and oaky…then there are those who absolutely love it.  I’ve only gotten the chance to sample it once, but I would tend to count myself in the latter camp. 
• Dickel/Leopold Brothers 3-Chamber 100-Proof-A hard-to-get allocation we lucked into by supporting one of our smaller vendors (I love working with the little guys!).  This is a really unique blend of straight ryes that was nicely highlighted by Eric over at Breaking Bourbon in this this article.  The story behind it is really cool…check it out!
• Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel-This takes the winning DNA of the standard Elijah Craig Small Batch and finishes the whiskey in a new, custom toasted barrel to add more notes of oak, vanilla, and spice.  A fun special edition whiskey for Elijah Craig fans, at a good price.
• Yamazaki 12-Yr-This is one of the best-known, age-statement-included, traditional Japanese single-malt whiskies, and it’s from Japan’s first and oldest whiskey distillery.  Yamazaki is the number one best-selling whiskey in Japan and, in a world where real, traditional Japanese whiskies are becoming harder to find (especially with age statements!) are becoming much harder to find, Yamazaki 12 is a rock-solid reliable choice.  If you love delicate Highland or Speyside Scotch whiskey and are looking to try something new, you 100% need to give this a try!
• Rieger Monagram 2022-There were only 1,887 bottles of this rare Kansas-City whiskey produced.  2022 is the first year that this release has been 100% straight bourbon (here, a blend of bourbons aged 6.5-10.5 years) that were finished for up to 48 months (!!) in Sherry oak barrels (themselves almost 100 years old!!) that were brought over from Spain where they were previously used in the Williams and Humbert Drysack 15-Year Oloroso Especial bottling.  This is some really cool stuff, especially for those of you who love local (KC) whiskey and Sherry-influenced drams! 
• Larceny Barrel-Proof C921-Always one of the best values in barrel-proof “big name” bourbons, even to me who’s not typically a wheated bourbon fan!  A blend of bourbons aged 6-8 years, with a mashbill comprised of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.  Bottled at 122.6 proof.
• Larceny Barrel-Proof A122– Always one of the best values in barrel-proof “big name” bourbons, even to me who’s not typically a wheated bourbon fan!  A blend of bourbons aged 6-8 years, with a mashbill comprised of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.  This release was bottled at 124.4 proof.
• Larceny Barrel-Proof C922– Always one of the best values in barrel-proof “big name” bourbons, even to me who’s not typically a wheated bourbon fan!  A blend of bourbons aged 6-8 years, with a mashbill comprised of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.  This release was bottled at 126.6 proof and has got some impressive acolades. 
• Jack Daniels Coy Hill-Probably the most exciting whiskey Jack Daniels has ever released.  Well, yeah, it’s rocket fuel.  At over 140 proof, you’ll need to keep this nonsense away from open flame, but it’s so good.  9-plus years have done nothing to tame the fire, but the intensity and depth here is commendable.  Definitely one to drink with a bit of ice!  I sold a few of these via raffle/blog/etc throughout the year, and the reviews from people who came back were stellar.  Get it while you can! 
• Yellowstone 101-While Yellowstone Select is a perfectly fine bottling at around $40 (and a huge hit with fans of the TV show, even though there’s no direct connection), it’s the 101 that’s where it’s at, man.  Bottled at a robust 101-proof, this is a blend of 7-, 15-, and 16-year-old bourbons that are finished in Marsala Superiore casks.  I am loving seeing more of these bourbons finished in European oak of various types!!
• Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit-The much-sought-after “gold label” single barrel from Wild Turkey, bottled at the brand’s iconic 101-proof, and aged for 8 long years.
• Wild Turkey Master’s Keep “Unforgotten”-Though this comes without an age statement, Turkey has disclosed that this is created from a 13-year-old bourbon (75% corn, 13% rye, 12% malted barley) and 8- and 9-year-old ryes (51% rye, 37% corn, and 12% malted barley). 
• Bookers 2022-03-This bottling, the “Kentucky Tea Batch,” is aged for over 7 years, and bottled at 126.5 proof, and is one of the oldest (I believe the oldest) batch of “normal” Booker’s ever released.  Supposedly named after Booker Noe’s favored, if rather unusual, cocktail (which I’m now curious to try!).
• Booker’s 2022-02-Christened as the “Lumberyard Batch,” this bottling clocks in at just over 7 years (one of the oldest yet!) and is crafted with 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley, bottled at 124.8 proof.  If you missed this one earlier this year, it’s a great time to pick it up!
• Lil’ Book Chapter 6 “To the Finish”-The sixth release in the series, this is a quirky blend of four 4-year-old malt whiskies and one bourbon that’s bottled at 117.45 proof.  The four malt whiskies are finished in interesting ways (cherrywood staves, applewood-smoked barrels, hickory-smoked barrels, and maplewood staves).  Frankly, this one sounds delicious, even if it’s a bit of an oddity!!   
• Elijah Craig Barrel-Proof-We’ve got a couple different batches of this barrel-proof, 12-year bourbon, but you can be sure that it will a) always be delicious and b) always be a good value for a well-aged, cask-strength pour. 
• King’s County Empire Rye-Here’s another really unique allocation we snagged as a result of the support we show to one of our smaller vendors!  Created to be a sort of throwback “New-York-Style” rye, this is crafted with 80% New York-grown Danko rye and 20% English malted barley (some of the best in the world, but that’s just my opinion as a one-time homebrewer).  A minimum of two years old, but reviews suggest that it drinks much older than that and shows surprising complexity.   
• J. Magnus Cigar Blend-Y’all been asking for this all year, but we only got a single bottle (and, frankly, were darned lucky to get that!) so we had to save it for this event!  Finished in Armagnanc, Cognac, and Sherry casks (I love Armagnac cask finishing!). 
• Old Ezra 7-Yr Rye-Brand new to the Old Ezra family, this is a blend of two rye mashbills (one 51% rye and one 95% rye) aged for a full seven years and bottled at 114 proof.  As much as I like the well-oaked, spicy nature of Old Ezra 7-Year Bourbon, I can’t help but feel that this should be excellent!
• Knob Creek 18-Yr-The oldest Knob Creek ever released, bottled at a robust but approachable 100 proof and crafted from a mashbill of 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley.  Leather, old oak, and plenty of cinnamon spice.  One for collectors and fans of Knob Creek!
• High West Midwinter Night’s Dram-One of the best “dessert” or “nightcap” drams out there, at least from an American producer!  This is their Rendezvous Rye (a blend of MGP 95% rye whiskey and their own house-made 80% rye, 20% malted rye whiskey), finished in ruby and tawny port barrels.  Tons of dark fruit, dried fruit, and vinous notes from the finishing barrels always make this a perfect cold-weather, “burrow-down-deep-in-your-armchair-by-the-snow-covered-windowsill” type of pour. 
• Jack Daniels Sinatra Select-You would not believe how hard we had to work to obtain this.  As far as I know, few if any other people in the center of the state have been able to obtain this recently, and once I finally did, I was determined to hold onto it for this event, no matter what.  This is a must-have for Sinatra/Jack Daniels fans, and the collectible bottle, box, and packaging pay tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes in a classy and memorable way.  I wouldn’t pay for it again (I be broke these days) but the bottle that my wife got us to celebrate an anniversary and our love of Frank (we walked up the aisle to Fly Me to the Moon) will always be a favorite memory. 
• Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel-Proof-For those of us who’ve been paying attention, this bottling (sadly rarely seen on shelves) has long been proof that Jack Daniels can make seriously goodwhiskey at reasonable prices. If you love the standard Jack Daniel’s single-barrel, this is definitely one to try!
• Buffalo Trace Store Pick Single Barrel-We (somehow!?) managed to get picked for two single barrels of Buffalo Trace this year, and we’ve saved most of our split of the barrel for this release!  What other stellar/cult producer puts out a single-barrel of reliable quality at this low price?
• Stellum Black Bourbon-This blend of bourbons from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee bourbons will immediately find fans among those who love the “standard” and single-barrel Stellum offerings (count me among them!).   
• Stellum Equinox-Again, a blend of bourbons from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, this inaugural release is a full-bodied, spicy affair that’s bottled at cask strength. 
• Stellum Fibonacci Blend-Crafted from six different rye whiskies from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, this rye is, according to one lucky customer who drew one earlier this year, “one of the best ryes he’s ever tasted.”  This will certainly appeal to rye drinkers who love a lot of spice and prefer the sweetness toned down a little bit. 
• Jacob’s Pardon 8-Year Bourbon-This whiskey is the brainchild of Marc Taub (the CEO of Palm Bay International) who brought on well-respected spirits guru F. Paul Pacult as master blender for the project.  Super-hard to get here in Central MO!
• Lock, Stock, and Barrel 21-Yr Canadian Rye-This is the fifth entry in the series, initially created by the late Robert Cooper, of St-Germain fame.  This is one of the oldest rye whiskies you can buy but, from the reviews I’ve read, it’s not at all over-oaked or harsh, because it’s a Canadian rye (possibly sourced from Alberta Distillers?) that’s been aged slowly (“cold weather matured,” they call it) in the cooler Canadian climate.  It’s the same reason that a lot of single-malt Scotch whiskies don’t get particularly rich or deep until they hit that 18-21 year age range, but many American bourbons (from a hotter climate, with much bigger temperature swings) will start to taste over-oaked or harsh at that age.  To the best of my knowledge, we’re the only ones to have snagged a bottle of this locally.   
• Henry McKenna 10-Yr-Yet another bottled-in-bond bourbon that was once available year-round on our shelves but is now limited to a once-or-twice-a-year allocation of a few bottles (if we’re lucky!).  This single-barrel whiskey comes from the folks at Heaven Hill and is produced from a mash of 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye).  The price has gone up quite a bit, but unfortunately that seems to be the name of the game with these super-hard-to-snag bottlings.  Even at the higher rate, this is still an excellent 10-year single-barrel BiB bourbon and a pretty good value. 
• Kanosuke 2022 Single-Malt-Yet another allocation we snagged from a small distributor, this one is extremely hard to get, and is a great score for Japanese whisky enthusiasts.  Distilled between 2017-2019 using all three of the distillery’s traditional pot-stills, the (unpeated) malt whiskies in this bottling were aged in a variety of different oak barrels (with Sherry taking a prominent role) and blended together after three years of maturation.  Bottled at cask strength.  A real treat for Japanese whisky fans!   
• Leopold 3-Chamber Bottled in Bond 2022-This release is a five-year-old, bottled-in-bond, single-barrel rye crafted by Leopold from a grist of 80% Abruzzi rye and 20% Leopold Bros. Floor Malt.  The “Three Chamber” release has become a huge deal for Leopold Bros., who’ve really hung their hats on these whiskies created in an old-fashioned, pre-Prohibition type of still that they had to engineer and build from scratch based upon old diagrams and manuscripts that they’d found. Rich and quite spicy, this is a rye whiskey for rye whiskey fanatics that’s rather unlike anything else you’re going to find in the market.  People weren’t sure quite what to expect when this series first came out, but the reactions have been quite positive! 
• Whistle Pig 18-A well-aged, bold rye whiskey from Whistle Pig (likely from Alberta Distillers in Canada).  This is a blend of 79% rye, 15% malted rye, and 6% malted barley, aged for 18 years in new oak. 
• Boss Hog IX: Siren Song-This edition of the oddball fan favorite, eye-wateringly-priced whiskey is finished in perhaps the most unique barrels to date: barrels that once held a Greek fig nectar and a Greek-style liqueur called Tentura.  It should be noted that the contents of both of these finishing barrels were made at the Whistle Pig farm in Vermont.  In other words, they crafted, from scratch, a Greek-style liqueur solely so they could use the barrel it spent time in as a finishing barrel for this whiskey.  Now that, my friends, is dedication.  Or madness 
• Rebel 10-Yr-From the folks that produce one of our best-selling 100-proof bourbons, this 10-year single-barrel bourbon from Rebel (once “Rebel Yell”) is also bottled at a robust 100 proof and carries a welcome 10-year age statement.  Undisclosed mashbill.
• St. George 40th Anniversary Single-Malt-We couldn’t believe we actually scored a bottle of this.  This 40^th anniversary celebratory bottling is the product of carefully tasting through over 600 cask of whisky…only 30 made the initial cut, and a mere 14 of those were selected for the final blend.  The mashbill is the same they’ve used since they started distilling back in 1997: 100% 2-row malted barley, of five different types (pale malt, crystal malt, chocolate malt, black patent malt, and beechwood/alder-smoked malt from Bamberg, Germany).  Any of y’all whiskey fans that are also beer/brewing nerds probably perked up a bit at that mashbill…it’s incredibly interesting from a whiskey standpoint!  American oak and, to a lesser extent, French oak, make up most of the aging material, but for this special release, the folks at St George have picked some really unique finishing casks, including Cognac, apple brandy, umeshu, port, sherry, and a California-made Sauternes-style dessert wine casks. Probably one of the most unique single-malt whiskies you’re ever like to try.  Extremely, extremely limited. 
• St. George Single-Malt Batch SM022-A very limited release every year, this whisky has been in production since 2000.  Crafted from malted barley at various toast/roast levels (i.e. the malts typically used in brewing).  A mere 20 barrels of single malt whisky were selected for this blend, and there are a number of unique finishing barrels at play here (apple brandy, port, and a Sauternes-style dessert wine from California).  The components range from between 4.5-8.5 years of age, but there’s also some 23-year-old malt in here as well.  Quite exceptional.
• Maker’s Mark BRT-01-This Wood Series bourbon is bottled at cask strength (109.4 proof) and is drawn from the hotter, higher floors of the rickhouse, where American-oak staves are used in the barrels during the first few years of its aging. 
• Maker’s Mark BRT-02-This Wood Series bourbon is bottled at cask strength (109.4 proof) and is drawn from the lower, cooler regions of the rickhouse, where French0oak staves are used in the barrels during the final years of the bourbon’s maturation.
• Old Granddad 114-I would have never thought of keeping this back for a drawing, but it’s been so hard to get this year that I’m glad I’d originally held on to a case for personal use…erm…special drawings for our customers!  In all seriousness though, this is now a highly-allocated, hard-to-find bottle that “fixes” (IMHO) what’s wrong with Basil Hayden.  It’s the same mashbill, though the whiskey is admittedly not quite so old, but the proof is dialed way up.  There’s no doubt that Basil Hayden is a very balanced and easy-drinking pour…it’s easy to like for just about anyone who’s into whiskey, but that’s (again, IMHO) it’s downfall.  As a former Basil drinker, having it now, it’s just a bit too mild.  Old Granddad 114 fixes all that.  This is a whiskey your grandpappy would have loved; it’s delightfully old school, a bit brash, a bruiser of a bourbon that comes across as decidedly and unapologetically masculine.  It doesn’t have the finesse of some higher-priced, older bottlings, but this one will always have a place in my heart, especially at the price-point!
• George Dickel 15 Year Single Barrel-This snuck in the door just in time for our drawing. Well-aged Tennessee whiskey is often a leader in the extreme value segment, and that’s certainly the case here. Reviews suggest that this comes off as full of old, lightly musty oak (like a rickhouse or damp wine cellar) and tastes older (in a good way) than it is. At the price, a sure bet!

We’re still hoping to get the Pappy/BTAC stuff in in time…more to come on that front!

Cheers,

Dan

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