Cadenhead’s bottlings show up in the US as well, and I’ve seen them at Binny’s stores in the Chicago area (yaaaaay!), and they’re quite good. I wish some of the newer American whiskey houses would style themselves as independent bottlers rather than try to cook up a BS story about “Prohibition recipes” and such.
I still regret not getting to Scotland when I went to the UK in 1999. Then again, on my way home, I picked up my very first bottle of Scotch (Aberlour) at the duty-free. That’s a classic sherried Speyside, and it was quite a nice introduction to single malts.
I was just recommended Corsair Triple Smoke by a fellow on the mountain the other day as a good whiskey for packing in. The general rule for packing whiskey up a mountain is that if you’re gonna pack the extra weight, you should make it the good stuff.
Well, now is the time that I finally got a bottle of it, together with a bottle of Writer’s Tears and Jameson Cask Mates. I shall be opening it sometime this week.
Current bar status:
Jameson
Jameson Cask Mates
Teeling Small Batch
Teeling Spirit of Dublin poítin
The Pogues Official Whiskey
Writer’s Tears
Oh, and some liqueurs as well, like Averna for after a good meal.
Good stuff.
Current favourite is Schwarzer’s Dolomiten Tschin, with a splash of tonic water and a little twig of fresh rosemary. A delicious refreshment.
Try Averna with blood orange juice.
Ratio is circa one shot of Averna in a tall-ish glass of juice, plus a little ice if you like.
Works with regular OJ, but lacks a certain je ne sois quois.
Juice should ideally be fresh squeezed, or Direktsaft, you must have stumbled across it in Munich.
After using up the lovely Redbreast Lustau I’d gotten for Christmas and a fine bottle of High West whiskey, I surveyed the many bourbons and whiskeys available… and bought a bottle of Evan Williams.
And I have to say, for ten bucks, it’s mighty fine whiskey. Especially for a smooth boulevardier.
Because I’ve had some maple bacon infused old fashioned and manhattan drinks and they were quite good. in one case they were doing their own infusion…two other places were using a brand I couldn’t find locally (I had the drinks on the west coast, not east).
While I do not always like such concoctions, now and then its a good treat at home.
I’m assuming that will reduce international demand, no? I would think that this would be bad news for the distillers, but good news for US consumers (at least short-term.) If distillers start to go out of business, that would obviously be bad; if distillers reduce output significantly due to reduced demand, that would also be bad for the long term.
In the short term, though: fire sale on firewater!
I’ve had some very tasty (or at least very interesting) cocktails with bacon-infused bourbon but the times I’ve tried the packaged stuff it tasted very fake and pretty nasty. I think it’s because the main method for infusing meat flavors into bourbon, fat washing, isn’t something you can bottle very well. But it’s pretty easy to do at home in the fridge.
