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Indeed! Although at least that is 50yo. But 15 or 18yo??? Not that I am in the market for that either! And Costco does seem like a rather odd place to have that!

Indeed it is. I have managed to squeeze out a single bottle of GTS, WLW and Saz 18 at close to MSRP (I won't pay much over that) and maybe have a chance at a second GTS. But that is about it. I did manage to get several bottles of the new PHC8 Wheat Whiskey which I think is very good as well as a couple of the batch 6 ECBP but it has been like getting blood out of a rock. I get the feeling much of the BTAC goes to on premises accounts but I have no actual proof of that. Nor could I do much about it anyway.

Rum meets Scotch! Neisson makes a very nice rhum agricole even if they have always seemed perhaps a bit overly fond of it but I think this may be just a bit to far on the wrong side of insanity. I don't care how rare it is! Neisson 15yo Rhum Agricole Neisson 18yo Rhum Agricole Oh well, at least it is a 1 liter bottle...

Attended a Chartreuse themed dinner last night. All 5 variations that I am aware of made an appearance (including the 138 proof Elixir Vegetal) which made for a good opportunity to compare side by side. Didn't really learn too much as the yellow is a bit too sweet on its own for me and I much prefer green and especially green VEP. First chance to try the Yellow VEP which was better than standard yellow but still not as good as green. We also had a few cocktails. We started off with Cava with a splash of green. OK but I think I would have liked a slightly more vigorous splash... Then a Last Word variant with a bar made ginger/fenugreek shrubb replacing the maraschino. Good but hard to duplicate of course. Shrub & Co Spicy Ginger might work but I think I still prefer the original. Final cocktail was yellow chartreuse with Botran white rum, Bonal, lime juice and Peychauds. Thought it might be too sweet but itturned out pretty good to me with a moderately dry bitter finish. Unfortunately forgot to ask for the proportions. Food was good as well to include a truly lovely foie gras torchon that was as light and buttery as any I have had and yet still pleasantly savory.

My problem as well. I have several of the NP Sherry Cask aged rum already but would buy more for $100 if I could. Damned annoying.

American Prairie Reserve may be my least favorite HW product (although Son of Bourye is running a close second). Not bad but not particularly noteworthy. Noah's Mill may well have once been worth the splurge when it was still age stated 15yo bourbon. But the age statement on current day Noah's Mill is long gone and now you have mystery whiskey of unknown age. If you find the old age stated 15yo Noah's Mill I would say go for it. Otherwise it is a crap shoot at best. A lot of other whiskey I would consider first in the $40-50 range (or even less than that). Elijah Craig 12yo Barrel Proof if you can find it springs to mind. The most recent batch (the 6th at 140.2 proof) was quite lovely and in the mid $40's here. Pappy has indeed gone way past nuts but I am not sure we can load all of the blame for that on poor Tony's shoulders! He hasn't helped but he is a long way from being single handedly responsible.

I ended up not buying this but I was tempted just because it seemed such an oddity! It may have been around for awhile but that I noticed for the first time a couple of days ago. I was initially moderately intrigued since they claim to make their own whiskey rather than sourcing it and I had no idea what "Bavarian Hard Wheat" suggested. Nor did I recall seeing a "malted" wheat whiskey before. The fact this apparently has some connection to Germain-Robin and that they were using an old Germain-Robin copper still used for their brandy was mildly intriguing as well. The producers apparently started a couple of years ago with several white dogs including the white dog version of this wheat whiskey. But at a lowish 88 proof, small barrel aging and only 2 years of aging the price of $65 (!!!!) was more than enough to keep me from taking a blind shot on it. To further add to the crap factor is the attempt to make it sound like it is something more than it is because it was aged in "used Pappy barrels". So when did PVW start using small barrels? Now there is a revelation! The Caskers website claims they use three different barrels: new American oak casks, 350-liter French Limousin oak barrels that were previously used to age brandy, and used American oak barrels that were previously used to mature Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon. I presume the new oak barrels are the baby barrels. I don't suppose anybody has tried this and has any thoughts on it?

Not sure these are truly 8yo whiskey but rather the common but annoying trick of sticking an 8 (or some other number) on the label to deliberately fool you when the age statement is dropped. This looks like it says "Something" 8 "Brand". Can't really tell what the "something" on the left side of the 8 is. There hasn't been age stated 8yo (or the 12yo) available in the US for some time now.

Side by side.

Indeed! I particularly like the Nikka Coffey Grain. Picked up the Nikka Coffey Malt on my way through Schiphol recently and looking forward to a SBS with the Nikka Coffey Grain.

I think both are a little lighter than Suze which has a prominent bitter finish to me, although I know some bartenders who think Salers is similar and maybe even more bitter than Suze. All palates are different! Then again the US bottling of Suze is supposedly slightly different than Suze in Europe (definitely a slightly different proof. 30pf in Europe while the Suze Saveur d’Autrefois that is imported here is 40pf. Don't have the European Suze so can't say with certainty how different it is. So not sure how either of those might work as a substitute. What part of Jersey are you in? The imported Suze is pretty common here in Atlanta so I would be surprised if you couldn't find it reasonably near you. NY has it and I would think Philly would certainly seem likely to have it. DUNY carries it (although they currently appear to be out of stock) and I would guess they would ship to NJ.

I doubt it is made from leftover Caroni today. But I found a post from Eric Seed (post 16 from "eas" is the one) that seems to confirm that the original private bottling of The Scarlet Ibis for Death & Co was a blend of 3-5yo Trinidad rum that they were told was pot still distilled which leaves Caroni as the most likely source since Angostura doesn't have a pot still and never has as far as I know. If anybody would know presumably he would since he bought it and bottled it! Although I suppose it must be noted that Moet Hennessy open the 10 Cane distillery in 2003 with a pot still and Scarlet Ibis first appeared in 2008. The math suggest that maybe this could be the source? 10 Cane is, or at least used to be sugar cane juice like agricole (although I seem to recall that this changed at some point and it is now blended with molasses based rum and production recently moved from Trinidad to Barbados) but there was nothing to prevent them from running a bit of fermented molasses through the still every now and again! http://ministryofrum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1169&page=2

Kind of an odd label. Says it is barreled at cask strength yet it is noted to be 46%. I suppose that could indeed be cask strength if it was aged in Scotland but kind of a typical proof. Caroni, which closed in about 2002, reportedly had both a pot still and column still so it could be from either or a combination of the two. Probably no way to ever know for sure unless AD Rattray cares to spill the beans, presuming they even know. When the Trinidad government closed the distillery apparently the remaining barrels went hither, thither and yon in relatively short order! Some reports suggest that The Scarlet Ibis rum used Caroni as a source but I have no idea if they still do.

Been a bit of a marathon for me the last couple of days which is unusual for me in the middle of the week. Wednesday featured another of our series of "Wednesday Tastings" (clever name, eh?) which was highlighted by the recent acquisition of a bottle of the High West Midwinter Night's Dram as well as rum and poitin of all things (The Teeling Poitin was good but the Glendalough's alas were not). One of the Rendezvous was a standard bottle and the other was a store pick that had been finished for 29 months in refill bourbon casks. The finished Rendezvous was even better than the regular but the MWND was the best of all. Well worth tracking down if you get the opportunity. Currently at the distillery but supposed to be released in the fall. Then last night on the spur of the moment we were off to Paper Plane, a local cocktail bar of some repute here in town. Started on the menu with a "One & Done" which included bourbon, cognac, gran classico, punt e mes and both peychaud's and angostura bitters (didn't get proportions). Next it was a Manhattan Beach with rye, aged rum (ED12 I believe), Cocchi di torino, orange curacao and a bit of cinnamon. Very interesting. Then we drifted off book to include something the bartender called the End of the Road (which bears no similarity to the one in Kindred Cocktails). .75 Amontillado Sherry .75 Zucca amaro .75 Cynar .75 Vida mescal 2 dashes lemon bitters And one that never got a name that I can remember. 1 Linie Aquavit .75 Cynar .75 Punt e Mes ,25 Luxardo Maraschino 2 dashes Bitter Truth Celery Bitters I liked both of these! At some point we ended up with a flip of some sort with a float of Laphroaig 10yo which was the only one I remembered to get a picture of! We then drifted back into mezcal drinks and my memory of what followed after that gets a bit fuzzy. Pretty sure we got Naked and Famous at some point! Just not sure if it was a cocktail...

Hmm, I wonder what would happen if you throw a liquid banana in there? Also known as the JD unaged rye. Gotta use that stuff up somehow! Still might get pretty beaten up...

I have to say I rather like the new "ugly" label on the Rittenhouse. It seems a bit more distinctive than the long standing drab black one and is a bit of a throw back to older label from the 1930's. Hasn't hit the shelves locally yet that I know of. A bit sad that it apparently no longer carries the nod to the old Continental Distilling days in Philly though. At least best I can tell from the picture.

I would concur. I don't typically garnish an Aviation anyway and I don't remember that it is routinely called for.

Delighted to hear you finally found some decent sherry and the Teenage Riot is a great place to start! Might be fun to play with a few different sherries to see what works best. I have pretty consistently used the Lustau Los Arcos Amontillado to good result. Probably not quite as dry as the Fino with a hint of raisin-y sweetness.

Me too! Count me in if you are going to start exporting it to the US.

I put a pretty standard 4yo against the new 2yo rye early on and found much the same thing. I find that young green grainy notes tends to persist a bit more in the 2yo then you noted. The 2yo does has some intriguing potential but it needs some more time in the oven. Don't recall and acetone note on the 5yo Willett but it has been awhile so I guess I need to revisit. Of course they are all different barrels so it may not have any similarity to the one you have. I think the only 5yo I have left has never been opened as I tend to turn to the 4yo more often as it is generally easier to acquire.

I try to finish bottles that are close to empty but I don't worry about trying to save some for the next cocktail unless it is something pretty rare. I have found they will generally sell you more of it if you ask!

I can second the Lustau Amontillado for use in the Bamboo. Not usually too hard to find.

The new bottle is certainly a step up from the original plain wine bottle style they used to use. I like the gin as a light refreshing summer option that isn't overly juniper dominated.

Prefessor Wondrich is no doubt likely to be your best source. I recall there was a Bombay President's Punch (or something like that) in his book "Punch" that was pretty basic. Nothing else comes to mind. I have the Ceylon brand of palm or "coconut" arrack but it is relatively low proof (80 pf I think) without a really strong distinguishing character to the spirit as I recall, unlike the much more interesting but very different sugar cane/red rice based Batavia Arrack. Looks like the White Lion arrack is even lower in proof?

Happy August to me! Had been looking to pick up a few things and the recent rum discussion inspired me to fill out a box and place the order! The two Samaroli's are rums acquired in the Caribbean but aged in Scotland. The 1995 Demara is a 16yo single still product from the Versailles single wooden pot still but hasn't been colored and gussied up with sugar like the El Dorado's are. Overly pricey but what the hell. The Caribbean 2003 rum is in fact traveling incognito because it is 7-8yo Cuban rum as was noted. Whisky included an oddity from Austria finished in Austrian wine barrels from Hans Reisetbauer. Single malt aged for 7 years. A complete impulse buy so no idea what I am getting. The other two are Glendalough poitins. A bit of an oddity for poitin, these are made with malt and sugar beets and then "matured in virigin Irish oak" for a short but unspecified period of time. The clear one is "Mountain Strength" at 120 proof while the amber bottle is the basic poitin that is further aged in sherry casks. Hmm.