If I was still living in Kentucky, I’d be there in a heartbeat. What a great lineup (of musicians and bourbon)! Although I feel like David Byrne is just going to baffle everyone a bit who’s there to groove on the mellow tones of Sheryl Crow, Keb’Mo’, and John Mayer. Note that Sunday has The Magpie Salute, aka. The Black Crowes, which makes three bands with crow in their name – impressive.
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You know, this reminds me that there is a Pogues whiskey, officially licensed by the band. It’s been sitting on my tasting list for a while now, but I am satisfied with Teeling Small Batch at the moment.
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My awesome older brother got me something special for my 35th birthday, which I have been saving for a very special occasion. An occasion like publishing my first book (if that ever comes to pass), getting married or the end of the world, whichever comes first.
Holy Guacamole, I just realized that i could theoretically sell it for $3000+…
That is insane, I think he payed about $300 for it in one of our commie state monopolized liquor outlets 
(In the meantime, once or twice a year, I enjoy a glass or two with Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain or Laphroaig. Preferably with some blue cheese on the side 
I dont care what you think about that combination, it works for me and my mutant tastes.)
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I really need to track down a bottle of this now. I’m not a huge whiskey drinker, but I’m very curious about this.
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No time like the present!
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So initial thoughts on this…
starting prices are $150 for a 2 day ticket. Ok, that’s reasonable.
VIP treatment went to a starting price of $500…pricey…but again, not out of the norm for 2 day things like this.
Then the super dooper VIp rockets to $1000. ok…what? What do you get for that? All you can drink access. appetizers. and uh…free wifi. cool?
The low end ticket definitely worth a weekend getaway. The VIP ticket I think at face value seems good too, but I am wondering what the step level pricing is about. The top end is laughable.
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Perhaps they had a few leftover lux teepees from Coachella:
The rich gotta rich. I’m like you in that a two day ticket for a fun weekend is more likely.
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did you notice the “upgrades” include access to flushable bathrooms??? HHHHHHAAAAAAHHH
I think GA ticket is worth it, but would want to know what the levels meant. Since I am a New Englander…travelling there for a few days, I would go the VIP $500 ticket. Seems like worth while value add.
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2015, Not long enough to produce much if any aged product themselves. Apparently founded by the family that founded Cooley in the 80’s, set up a new distillery after beam bought Cooley in '11.
Haven’t caught where they’re getting their aged stuff. I’d imagine out of Cooley given the connection. Similar place to where Tullamore Dew is at. New distillery opened 2014. In actual Tullamore. But we won’t see whiskey out of it for a few more years. Still coming out of Middleton for now.
I’ve been drinking a lot of kilbeggen lately. Bunch of bottles left by family who live near the distillery. Those guys have been in continual production since 2010. Before that only making small batch stuff as a museum. Product was contract distilled by Cooley, And before that who knows. Full production stopped in the 50’s. Does seem like a lot of the more interesting/off kilter brand’s. And a lot of the better whiskey coming out of Ireland is connected to kilbeggan. Wither made their now, resurected there. Or via the Cooley connection.
Interesting things happening in Irish whiskey. From 2 to sometimes 4 distilleries nation wide to a new one opening every year or so. All inside a decade.
The gin is excellent. The whiskey. It tastes really young in a bad way. Apparently the popularity of the brand out stripped production early on and they’ve had to cut the amount of older whiskeys in the blend.
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Yeah, it used to be just Tullamore, Jameson, Bushmills, Powers, and then a bunch of cheap brands, and if you had connections Red Breast. Now the local whiskey shop (Tara Whisk(e)y, just off of Marienplatz here in Munich) has a much larger selection including Knappogue Castle, Writer’s Tears, different Teeling whiskeys and even that Pogues whiskey I mentioned earlier.
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There were actually hundreds of brands the bulk of which didn’t get exported. And where they did it was to the US not the rest of Europe. Apparently the bulk of Irish whiskey sales have been to the US for a couple hundred years.
Just as an example knappogue castle has existed in some format since the 1950s. Initially as a rare whiskey bottling from the castle in question’s cellars. Then from the 90s as rare bottling from production. The more recent 12 year bottling is basically taking advantage of the reputation from that.
The thing though is that since the 1960s almost all of these brands were produced at just 2 distilleries. Bushmills up north. And Middleton down in Cork. American prohibition and the depression took care of most of the distilleries. And shifts in the market afterwards nuked the rest. Loss of reputation for Irish whiskeys, the rise of vodka especially in the US. After the 50s kilbeggan periodically produced small bottlings, And their brands continued production elsewhere. And Cooley opened in the 80s. Bringing back brands from formerly shuttered distilleries using newly produced whiskey and cellared whiskey produced by those brands at the two big distilleries. So for most of the last 50 years 2 distilleries, And sometimes 3 or 4.
There are currently 18. Though large commercial distilleries it’s apparently like 8 to 10. And most of the new ones date to the last decade or last few years.
Existing brands that were contract distilled at the big 2 are starting to move off to the smaller newer distilleries. And the larger brands are experimenting a lot more and producing better whiskey. The whiskey boom has increased sales, it’s restoring Irish whiskey’s reputation. And competing in what’s now a global market takes a lot more than bottling a cheap blend, And a 12 year under the same brand name.
In large part you were only seeing those very limited brands in German because Germany just wasn’t a major whiskey market. And what market there was went to Scotch. I’d be willing to bet you’ve seen a huge expansion of American and even harder to find scotches in Germany the last decade or two. But the big market these days is Asia. Especially China rather than the US or Europe.
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Keeping it clean.
Made for cussing. 
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Thanks for the background info. I was aware of the shift from pot still to blended playing a role thanks to the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum having a display about blended scotch being ironically an Irish invention.
Apropos German whiskeys, I did try Slyrs whiskey, distilled in the Bavarian Alps. It’s not bad, but I found it has a hint of metallic unpleasantness in the finish. But maybe it’s just me.
Blending always played a roll, And always has. And a lot of the major brands were never pot still. While a lot of the stuff being blended still came out of pot stills. “pot still” as a label is in some ways equivalent to “single malt” with scotch whiskey. But often indicates a step beyond. That the whiskey is the result of a single still or single run of the still at a distillery. Rather than an all malt product of a single distillery.
A lot of the smaller higher quality brand’s that never went away or recently came back have always produced a pot still or single malt product.
Some of the brands produced in the 2 big distilleries were made of whiskey distilled by those places. And simply blended to a brand style. But many of them were distilling whiskeys specifically for their brand at the big distilleries. Aging and bottling them separately. And thus have their own, unique stocks of cellar whiskey to work off of as they open their own distilleries. That’s how Tullamore Dew has been doing things since the 60s
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I got a bar of their Victory soap for Christmas and it’s surprisingly good soap. Gigantic bar that will last many many months with little bits of steel-cut oats mixed in to give it enough grip to hold onto. I don’t know if I’m manly enough to handle bourbon soap but I’ll give it a try!
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OH! I know where one of those locations are! I might have to pick up a bottle soon!
thanks!
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I’ve heard it’s not very good. Haven’t tried it myself yet. Not sure if I wanna drop 40 or 50 bucks on something I might hate.
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Got a text from a friend today who said the guy who had his desk until recently had left a bottle of 12yrs Red Breast Cask Strength.
Left it.
Just like this.
Can this be a true Irishman?
I know about true Scotsmen, but this?
shakes head sadly
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Though I’d be just fine with the bruschetta, the word “appletini” makes me twitch. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with a good cocktail, and I like making variants on the Manhattan theme. One I tried tonight:
2 oz. Evan Williams bonded
1 oz. red vermouth
1/2 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. triple sec (Luxardo)
a couple dashes Regan’s orange bitters
a couple dashes Peychaud’s bitters
a couple dashes Fee Bros. bitters
Garnish with cherries
Stir with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass, enjoy. I’d have another, except I ran out of ice. I’ll have to settle for a (suitably diluted) pour of Stagg, which is a plenty good thing to settle for.
Another nice Manhattan variant is the Red Hook (which uses maraschino liqueur, and Punt e Mes for the vermouth).
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Ooh… this topic.
Where to begin?
My usual go-to whisky Is this rather nice one:
Jura 10, sometimes branded “origin”.it’s beautifully smooth and drinkable and is just so accessible I’m always recommending it to people who are just starting out with malts. It’s all sweetness and light, with touches of vanilla and maple syrup. Pair it up with a stout and it’s wonderful. This one also really shows off the variety that you can see in the island distilleries. Jura is just north of Islay, (the channel separating the two islands is barely more than a wide river in parts) but this light and sweet dram couldn’t be more different from the peaty monsters from next door.
My other favourites, I think I’ve mentioned before, come from the Glenfarclas distillery. These are much more complex, sherried speyside malts.
There are some very interesting flavours that develop as this one gets older. On my birthday, I did a vertical tasting of this distillery- starting off with the youngest and working my way up through the age expressions until my wallet started complaining.
My absolute favourite is the 21 year old. (green packaging)
This one was so good, I was scared to try the older expressions, because that would be an expensive preference to discover.
It is lightly peated, with a lot of sherry cask influence, and it is just glorious stuff. balanced, rounded flavours of toffee, spices and a tiny hint of floral in there. Subtle, balanced and flavourful.
http://www.allthingswhisky.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/004.jpg
There’s also the 105, which is their cask strength expression- 60% ABV in the bottle, so it needs a drop of water to bring the flavours out. And when you do, the finish goes on for days. Intense lingering flavours of sweet, spice and wood.
Wow. I feel like thanking your brother as well. I’d say that having a bottle of that is a special occasion in and of itself.
That’ll be Cadenhead’s on the Canongate. They specialise in rare bottles, cask strength bottles and have an exceptionally wide range.
And according to their website, they’ve got six shops abroad now, so one of them might be closer to some of you all.
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