Short's Aphasia

Nose: rich malt. Lots and lots of rich malt. I'm not even close to using a proper glass for nosing beers, but I don't particularly care. I'm really just here for the drinking, sorry.

Palate: yeah! Nice roasty malt.  You name your dark flavor, it is well represented.  Chocolate, molasses, coffee... You name it.  As it is Short's, it does have that distinctive flavor that is their yeasty hoppy tangy thing, but it is rather understated here, which works well.  It is enough to be distinctive, but not so much that it dominates and forces itself on you like it can sometimes feel.

Finish: great finish for an ale.  Smooth, malty, and not too bitter.  Like the ale itself, it starts full bodied but recess quick enough.  I don't like the finish on most beers to hang around too much.  Bad things tend to happen when they go too long.

Overall, this was a great gift from Dr. Green and White.  He had one during our nice friend evening, and I had a sip..  First impression was that this was good.  When he left a bottle, I knew I had to write it up.  There's a fruit undercurrent through this that I need to figure out, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to run out of beer before I do.  The lazy writer in me wants to say raisins, but that isn't it.  Besides, raisins never really seem good to me. Maybe a plum? Nah, maybe just some toasted grains. 

Sunday with Friends

A great evening with friends.  Many wine bottles were lost to the evening and a beer, too.  I, unfortunately, had started with some whisky, so that is where I stayed.  As nobody was joining me, it was just well whisky.  As I have recently cleared some space in the hutch again, I've decided to use my decanter again. Yay!  I like the old time feel of using decanters.  May have to break out the 'bourbon' neck tag for it as well.

Anyway, the evening was very fortuitious for this endeavor, as Dr. Green and White provided a nice gift bottle, plus several interesting beers.  So, several days of content coming soon.

Cheers,
Andy

Woodford Reserve

Nose: strong spices, anise, pepper. A pretty harsh note of varnish. Not as unpleasant as that sounds, but not a nose that you want want to just bury yourself in all night, it inspires you to just drink it.

Palate: smooth but hot grain, a hint of that varnish, and a fair amount of acidity and sweetness. A decent tang to it, but not terribly strong or offensive in most manners. Has that certain something to it, dare I say Jack without the ash? Yeah, that's probably the best phrase for it.

Finish: increasing in heat, a little bitter.  Not too long, but not too short, either. Seems a bit engineered for blandness, but that could be my preconceived notions getting in the way of my taste buds.  Probably is, but this is my writing, so we'll go with that for now.

Now a note for me... Woodford is one of my daily drinkers.  I haven't bought a bottle of it myself in years.  Probably about ten years, really. BUT, it is a fantastic gift bourbon.  Due to the branding, it is available everywhere, the gift giver feels good that they bought something top shelf and great, and it looks like a great bottle for the shelf.  So, I have it on my list for people to give me for gifts.  I tried being a little trickier on that list with some Elmer T. Lee a couple of years ago... that frustrated some people and they felt like they needed to drive all around town for a silly gift bottle.  I don't want friends and non-drinking family to do that.  It is the thought that counts, after all.  Besides, the drink is just lovely and works well in most any mixer.  Perfect for something that you can pour every day.  It took all of two days for me to crack open this bottle, and that was only because I was sick yesterday.

More on gifting: if you are a non-geek, you're not going to impress a geek with anything you can find on a shelf anywhere.  Particularly not for <$40.  You might make them very happy with the perfect selection of a hidden gem from a well stocked shelf if you have a lot of help and some luck.  However, you can choose something that lets them know that you care and that you like to buy well.  Woodford accomplishes that quite nicely.  Sure, there are some other readily available drinks which might do just as well, say maybe a Blanton's..  Nobody should be shelling out the $60 for that as my gift.  Just crosses into that next price point, if you know what I mean.

Cheers,

Andy

Christmas Eve

Normally a time when I get to whip out a few specials to share.  This year, I had the main partner not present, the second stick to wine, and the third decided not to drink.  While I could have nosed and enjoyed just fine, I find that the time spent with others is better, so I went the daily drinker route.  A nice couple of pours of Old Weller Antique.  See the prior posting on that for further notes.

 Cheers,
Andy

Compass Box Great King Street New York Blend

It has happened, this blog influenced my drink choice.  I'll almost always grab a North American whisky given my choice, but I want to set myself for something that I want to do on here to make this actually interesting.  Not sure if that will work, but I can try.  Anyway, traveling to the world of Scotch for this one.  

Nose: typical scotch; light grain with floral, herbal, and vegetal notes.  Just a hint of smokiness. I'm trying to pin down just what smacks me first, and I think I want to say sage, thyme, and a dewey fresh cut grass.  Very little alcohol on the nose.  This is 46%, so it isn't exactly watered down swill, but the vapors nicely mingle to enhance the nosing qualities.  The floral notes are not refined, not a pure flower such as a Rose or such, more like a wild prairie flower.  I'm envisioning a Victorian garden in a big greenhouse.  I know, how British.

Palate delivers exactly what the nose promises.  Light, but with a depth to develop all the flavors nicely. Mouth feel is fantastic.  Just a little slippery and a very nice texture to accentuate the old school flavors. 

Finish: decent length, with a pretty strong decrescendo.  I was just listing to Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral (Wagner) and the ringing of the hall after the final chord is a nice parallel for me.  This whisky isn't that powerful, so it is more like listening to it as background music than sitting in a concert hall.

I'm not a huge scotch fan.  I have a low tolerance for peat and crazy phenols. The Great King Street is one of my go-to blends to pick up to have something that I like handy.  This is a little bolder expression of that, and it is decent, not a bajillion dollars and drinks well.  That said, a bottle will last me maybe up to two years.  I just prefer the spice blend in American whisky.

This is good enough to keep on the shelf for the rare drinker that prefers scotch as a visitor.  A head to head with a nice Japanese whisky will be forthcoming.  Maybe I'll pick up a Johnny Walker Black to pair with them both for curiosity.

Old Weller Antique

So, if you haven't noticed, I'm posting reviews of items that I drank the night before.  Often, the notes are ones that I have written before, but I'm now just posting.  That is going to be my plan for this, but we'll see how well that works out.

A staple round these parts.  This one was a store bottling by Tippins Market in AA/Saline MI.  Nose is of a pretty sharp bourbon.  Maybe a touch of acetone, it isn't the most pleasant nose in the stable right now, but it is cheer by half than most of them.  It isn't unpleasant, I just need a way to differentiate it here.  It still has plenty of spice, more pepper and cardamom than vanilla I think, but still enough of the caramel types so that you know this is an aged bourbon.

On the palate it is hot.  Maybe a touch too hot, but when one gets used to the feel it is delightful.  If one isn't expecting it, this is a stiff drink that will make the novice cringe a little.  The feel is very prickly on the sides and top of the tongue.  Additionally, you can feel where it has touched throughout your mouth.  It isn't exactly subtle.  As with the nose, the taste has some notes of that acetone profile, just enough to notice that it is there and you wish it wasn't.  Not enough to really focus on, but an undercurrent.  Finish is pepper and wood that fades and twists with a little bitter tang.  The bitterness is minor, but much like the acetone notes above, just noticeable enough that you wish it wasn't there.  However, it is a darned good whisky.  The value is hard to beat for $26.  I'm also a little afraid to taste this blind with the Four Roses 2013 LE Small Batch.  I'd be concerned that I'd choose incorrectly and I know that I couldn't stop myself from calculating the number of bottles that I could have had instead.  But alas, I'll probably do that sometime soon. I can't avoid it forever.

Out on a limb, I don't remember as much acetone in the regular off the shelf OWA that I usually have handy. The heat is a constant, however.  It is always a soft heat, and if you know it is there, it isn't a problem.  You can also cut it with a little water or an ice cube and that will take the edge off of it nicely.  With the ice, it is more toffee and raisin spices on the pallet and less bitterness and acetone on the finish.  

In summary, this is good. Value is fantastic.  It is one of three 'daily drinkers' that I'm always going to have handy.  Heck, you can't spend outrageous sums on everything you drink.  That's a way to the poor house.  I would prefer both to not be in the poor house AND have a tasty drink.  That's why this is one of my daily drinkers.

Duchesse de Bourgogne

Another beer day.  I usually don't do much beer, but at holiday get-togethers beer works well.  I also can't say enough about the nice selection of the large Belgians available at Costco.

This is a nice sour. Lots of nice dark fruit, cherry, raspberry and such.  It also was a cask matured variety, so you have the nice oaky caramels and tannin.  Maybe this is a little sweet.  Maybe a little tart as well.  I'll allow it.  Rich, thick, and a great mouthfeel with the foamy head.  Great for splitting and sharing at a gathering when you only want to have a little bit. Too rich to just pound out the whole 750ml, but you'll notice that pounding any drink, especially beer, is not exactly in my wheelhouse.

Cheers,
Andy

Negra Modelo

Another beer night. At a local Mexican restaurant, so it was a good excuse for one of my favorites. An OK+ dark ale, if the label is to believed. I don't recall the style if this, but it is a weird hangover from some Northern European folks in Mexico. Nice dark malty flavor, but not at all heavy. Great drinking beer.

I first found this at the 2000 Final Four in Indy. It had the advantage of available at the grocery store across the street from the hotel and it was dirt cheap as well (and not Busch Light). Maybe today it just reminds me of a pretty great weekend, but it always tastes great to me.

Cheers,
Andy

Wiser's Legacy "Doing weird and wonderful things with various healing liquids."

Wiser's Legacy

Nose: oatmeal and cinnamon cookies.  Sweet with a little bit of spice.  A tint of oak with a deep breath.  Plenty of alcohol on the nose, but not strident or obnoxious.

Taste sweet with a nice depth of rye grain. Enough mint and spice with some citrus to tie it together like a nice holiday cake. The sweetness is offset by the harsher rye grain to provide a balance with a well defined depth.  You will notice that I write a lot about balance.  I generally feel that balance is the key to a good drink.  Compared to a lot of the single barrel or small batch type stuff, this is a very different balance.  Those are raw balances that seem to happen by chance with just pure selection from large numbers.  This is a carefully engineered balance. The blend has been clearly selected and tweaked to give the palate that the designer, in this case Don Livermore, exactly what he wants.  The flavor has plenty of depth, but it isn't the un fathomable depths of many great single barrels.  This is a well defined chasm with a clear cut and formed trench along the bottom.  It has been expertly engineered to fit the deepest vessel that is expected to pass with sufficient clearance.  I can't wait to put this thing in a head to head with some standard shelf items like Elmer T. Lee to see how it does blind.  It is so wonderfully smooth that I have to take my hat off to the top of line items from these guys.  This, the Lot 40, the Wiser's 18, all drinks that are just so wonderful at what they deliver and so smooth I could drink them to excess daily. The mouthfeel of all three is really quite impressive, I can hold this in my mouth for minutes and just keep exploring the nooks and crannies of that trench.  If I had been more sober at WhiskyFest, I would have taken better notes on what they do to get this great feel, but as it is I will have to just wait until I corral him at some future event.  Maybe I'll just go knock on his office door.  They are quite close, you know.

Back on topic, the finish is pleasantly long, but not unending.  It turns a hair bitter and acidic if I'm looking for something to be amiss, but that is a bit of a stretch for me. In general, it gives a nice reflection on the sip and then fades gently to a memory.

This is quickly becoming a shelf item at my house.  It is a little pricier than I would like, but it is really quite nice and just different enough to get people's attention when they come over.  Unless they are a geek, chances are that they have overlooked this on a shelf a few times and never tried it.  Every body that I've handed it to has taken one sip and just gone a little wide eyed and given me a nice "whoa."  Hiding in plain sight.  Just like your first bottle of Elmer T. Lee.

 (quote is from High Society)

Open Bottle Inventory

Didn't have anything to drink last night (strange, I know) and thus have nothing new to report.  For whoever is reading this, here's an open bottle inventory.  Let me know if there's anything you want to see/hear about.

Lot 40 Canadian Rye 2012

Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2013

Parker's Heritage Collection Wheat Whisky

Old Weller Antique (Tippins Market single barrel bottling)

Civilized bourbon (Micro Distillers)

George T. Stagg 2014

Compass Box Great King Street New York Blend

Wiser's Legacy Canadian Rye

Nikka Taketsuru 17 malt whisky

Satsuma Shochu "Kiccho Houzan"

Old Crow

Early Times

George Dickel No 12

Old George Rye (Grand Traverse Distilling)

Beer Me.

Not going to do a write up on this, as I didn't bother to write anything down last night, but tonight's drink was a Bell's Winter White Ale.  A nice, soft wheat beer, not too hoppy, not too sweet.  Was currently on sale at Meijer.  Not what I was planning on drinking, but the wife opened it and decided she didn't want to finish the last 2/3rds of it.  What am I going to do, throw it out? To me, that would be alcohol abuse.  Anyway, I have a pretty firm 'no mixing' rule for categories (beer, wine, liquor-it does not go well for me).

Cheers,
Andy

Civilized Bourbon (40%ABV)

Last night was low key, so here is just a quick note on this item.  I wrote it up last night, but seem to have lost that, so this may be edited later.

Nose: new make.  Corn, sweet fructose, and lots of alcohol.

Taste: again, lots of new make type corn.  This isn't white dog, but it isn't far off from it either.  There is some sweetness and it is surprisingly smooth for something that needs to get a lot older.  Feels almost frothy to me with the fresh alcohol and corn flavors, almost like they haven't been able to remove the head from the initial fermentation off of it yet.  It is actually better than I expected for such a young whisky, but it is still so, so young.

Finish: nope, acidic, bitter, and sour.  Not a good finish, but it is pretty quick.  You would make 'the face' if you did a shot.  You know the face I'm taking about.

Anyway, the larger overall picture here is that this is a small micro distiller that seems to be doing things the right way.  This was a reward purchase for them "y'all seem nice, you're trying hard, and putting out a good effort."  That is worth a little something, right?  They will have to get some older stuff if they want a repeat purchase, however.  I used this to mix with some Pepsi Throwback. Worked just fine in that environment.  The sweetness mixed well with the cola, it provided some bourbon flavor, and the fizziness of the cola buried the finish so as to not be a problem.  Came across more like a Rum and cola, but I like that so what is the problem?  Would one of my 'daily driver' selections work better? Probably, but I haven't posted any of those yet, so how would you know?

Satsuma Shochu "Kiccho Houzan"

Satsuma Shochu "Kiccho Houzan"

Change of pace, a sweet potato based shochu.

Nose: light, ethereal citrus.  Maybe a little like some of the sweeter bean pastes.*

Mouth, still very light, sweet and slightly acidic.  A fine citrus note, but not a familiar citrus, more like how lemongrass reminds you of citrus.  So for those keeping score with Axl Rose, this reminds you of a memory. 

Finish, short and slightly tart.  Doesn't hang around and goes away clean.

This is an interesting change of pace and not likely to be anything found around town.  I had it today with a nice cube, and the cold did nice things.  I'm thinking this would be great as a substitute in a gin and tonic, but you'd have to be careful about not blowing away the delicate flavor of the liquor with the lime.  It is so very delicate, very different from my usual powerful bourbons.  This entirely plays on the subtle.  I first became aware of shochu on a business trip to Korea. They were pouring me some off color liquor in small glasses from a bottle that I swear looked like a 20oz of 7 up.  It was much later in the evening that I learned that this was theoretically much more like a 'Korean whisky' as my hosts preferred to call it.  The particular drink listed above is not the same.  It is perfectly clear and has a much more interesting mouthfeel.  While the stuff I had in Korea did somewhat feel like a whisky (even if I was drinking it like water), this is very cool, glass like and smooth.  It is an extremely impressive texture to roll around your tongue. I'm not sure I have ever had anything like it.  It does remind me of some very nice gins, but there is never that sort of juniper snap, either in feel or taste.

Anyway, as with the Nikka, I have no idea on price.  Continued thanks to Dr. Green and White.  These have been fascinating diversions and great learning adventures.  As a tip of the cap to the locals, I can heartily recommend trying a shochu when traveling in east Asia.  I greatly prefer any that I have had to many sake.  Don't get me wrong, I like some sake, but some is just rot gut and I don't know how to tell the difference.  That might also be true of shochu, but I haven't found an un drinkable one yet.  Sadly, I recently asked a Korean supplier where they get good shochu in Michigan... The guy looked like he was going to cry for a second and went on a rant about how none were available.

Nikka 17 Pure Malt

Today's drink: Nikka 17.

Here's a brief example of some tasting notes.

Nose: soft and sweet, plenty of fruit, I'll go with peaches and figs, but there could be some pineapple and such as well.  There is a nice dose of English leather, your choice if I mean the cologne or a library. Very nice nose that puts a quality feel to the experience.

Mouth: hidden buzz saw! Plenty of spice and heat to go with the nice leather and fruits. Not too much oak or too much burn, but definitely not reflective of that soft gentle nose.  This is a samurai slap to the face that is not nearly as gentle.  It isn't a punch, but it gets your attention.  There is very little smokiness to this, which I enjoy and approve.  The more you hold it the more the heat builds, seeming to rise from the back of the mouth. I don't know what it was aged in, but I want to guess bourbon barrels as I taste some hints at the vanilla and caramel flavors riding beneath the surface.  But the smooth grain, cute fruits and fire riding on top are much more prevalent.

Finish: returns to the soft gentle tones of the nose with a gradual fade.  Decent length, not so long that it generates any weird flavors, not so short as to feel cheated with the quality of the product.

Overall, I find this to be a very high quality drink.  It is very much a single malt style, but it is a good example of such, much like a Lexus is a good expression of a luxury vehicle.  While it might not be a BMW, that can be a good thing as well.  There is excellent quality, no off notes or tones, and a very even experience with this whisky.  I can't say about the price point...  I didn't pay a dime.  Thank you, thank you Dr. Green and White.  Looking at similar ages in Japanese whisky available locally, I can't imagine this would be affordable as a daily drinker here.  I'm not sure I would spend top dollar to have this as a showcase whisky, either. While sufficiently complex, I am not blown away by this like I was with the Hibiki 12 or the Yamazaki 18.  Both of those seemed to offer more "wow" factor to me.  That said, this is an excellent whisky that I would drink anytime.

Drinking notes, Overall.

I usually drink out of a small 70s style, smoked glass shot glass.  They are completely useless for judging color or clarity.  But they were my father's.  They have his initials.  They happen to match my initials by coincidence.  I also find that the Glencairn nosing glass focuses the alcohol vapors quite a bit and makes it hard to get anything other than alcohol on the nose.  So, this little straight sided wonder works just fine for me.  Mostly, it is a physical reminder of family.  I started the daily drink when thinking of my great uncle Bud many years ago.  My father's entire side of the family would pretty much disappear for a cocktail at 5pm if you were visiting them.  I decided that was a pretty good tradition.  Due to other pressures, that doesn't really happen at 5pm for me, but the idea is there.  A daily drink is a good time to think of friends and family, and a better time to talk to them or meet up with them.

Back to the drinking process, most whiskies I will do neat.  Or with splash of water. Or with a small ice cube.  It really depends on what the whisky needs. Some do better with water, some don't.  Just a little experimentation to feel out how it will perform. I find it funny that it doesn't correlate with proof, but that just shows the skill in making the good stuff, if you ask me.  For example, I find little reason to add water to Stagg or this years Parker's Heritage even with their robust proof.  However, I almost always have a small ice cube in my Old Weller Antique.  Some of that has to do with what I am expecting when drinking them, and for the context of their use. 

Cheers,

Andy

Quickie post:
Tonight's drink is from Unibroue. La Fin du Monde. Good stuff, and gotta love it at Costco.

Cheers,
Andy

Introduction

First, I don't expect many to find this for a while. I'm going to practice for a bit before I advertise it, so this will be bland and quite generic until I take some time to make a proper site. Anyway, I am going to highlight some of my favorite topics here and steal blatantly from some other blogs for some things that I like. My apologies to those whose formats I am stealing. I'll work and tweak to add something new, but that might not happen for a long time.

The title of the blog refers to barrels (both bourbon and cork) and stockings (as in the nice equal length oversleeves on vintage Bach trombones).  I know the overlap on those is pretty small, and I'll try to sort it out on here somehow.

For now, yesterday's drink was a nice Canadian Whisky, Lot 40. I have a review typed up, just need to be on a different machine to post. I plan to have singular tasting notes, blind comparisons, and hopefully some other interesting tidbits.

Until then, cheers,
Andy