Blue coat barrel aged gin is great if you like whiskey.
Blue coat barrel aged gin is great if you like whiskey.
Gin has become more interesting I believe because of the smaller distilleries needing something to sell because they are waiting for bourbon to age long enough.
For bourbon drinking, not collecting or posing, consider focusing on the Bottled in Bond expressions. Some are very good, generally pretty inexpensive and most importantly, in the deceptive world of bourbon, you know what you are getting.
Great advice John. Thanks for checking in mate. I was inspired to start this thread, as I recently stumbled across a post by yourself where you mentioned you missed reading on this board about 'booze and guns'. I couldn't really help with the guns part, but the booze part was certainly right up my alley!
I went to a local liquor store and met the manager who told me I'd need to call every day (had no clue when shipments were arriving) to find out if they had Eagle Rare and if I called in the morning and they had some, it would be unlikely they'd have it by afternoon... and I would be competing with him personally for the stuff. It was among his 2 favorite bourbons and he claimed to know everything there is to know about bourbon .
I found another store 5 miles away that had much nicer personnel and an ample supply of Eagle Rare.. as a matter of fact, they have 1.75 liter bottles ($52) and smaller ones besides the standard 750 ($29). I'll not spill my secret location but I'll share my conclusion based on all the data points I've gathered. The nicer the neighborhood, the less likely you'll find Eagle Rare.
It's been a few years, but the Virginia liquor stores will special order.
What's the opinion(s) on Tomatin 18 year old? I just had some at a friend's and really liked it. I'd never run across it before.
Received a boxed 1250ml bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label on Friday as a birthday gift. A most generous gift considering the cost here in Australia (anywhere between $250-$300). I haven't drank a lot of Johnnie Walker over the years, and honestly view it as the Scottish equivalent to Jim Beam. Does anyone have much experience with this whisky? (deliberately dropped the 'e' as the Scots would want me to!).