What is your favourite "Regular" Sipping Liquor - (Neat No Mixers Except Perhaps Ice)

[NW-Bound]

Correct. As we have discussed on other threads about wine tasting, our tongues can only taste salt, sweet, sour, bitter, and sometimes umami. Everything else depends on your sense of smell, your health, and your own knowledge of what scent you recognize/distinguish.

The reviews are somewhat similar, caramel is mentioned 3 out of 4, wood, oak 4 out of 4, raisins 3 out of 4, and 4 out 4 have a way with words.

If the spirit is aged in an oak barrel, of course it will smell oaky. And it is allowable for spirit makers, even French makers, to use caramel to enhance the color. And often, some lesser makers use the caramel to, ahem, cheat to improve the taste too. In fact, some may overdo it, and the sweetness is not too subtle and easily detected. Keeping this in mind, I don't think any less of a bottle of a lighter color; perhaps this is a sign of honesty rather than an inferior product.

Now I have a hankering for some Armagnac.

The reviews read much like the little descriptive placards in the modern art museum.

I read that, besides the appellation which may not mean much, an Armagnac spirit is distilled only once, while a Cognac is distilled twice or thrice. But after sufficient aging, perhaps there is not much difference.

Another thing about Cognac is that the 4 big names, namely Henessy, Martell, Courvoisier, Remy Martin, spend a lot of money on marketing and to advertise. It obviously works, because when people buy Cognac, they get one of their bottles to be safe.

On the other hand, Armagnac houses are smaller, and their bottles are less expensive due to low overhead. I will continue to try more Armagnac bottles, plus Calvados. Why pay $150 when I enjoy a $50 bottle just as much? And having a variety of bottles in my cabinet makes life more interesting.

By the way, not all the spirit sold by big Cognac houses is made in house. They buy it from small independent distillers and do the aging before bottling it to sell. It is the same as wineries buying grapes from smaller vineyards.


Back to the flowery and interesting reviewers' notes, here's one review of a domestic brandy which shall remain nameless. Perhaps too much caramel added to this brandy here?

Suffice it to say that I was incredibly surprised that this stuff was not at all bad... So sure, there are some people drinking this because it's a very price-attractive option when it comes to hammering a bottle until your legs stop working. However, I'm sure there are people besides me who would choose to drink this even when other options exist.

There's certainly a bourbon-esque influence that comes from the oak aging in terms of aroma, but the nose smells mostly of cinnamon candies and Swedish fish. And the taste? To my palate, Swedish Fish. I s*** you not. It's huge on fruit gummy flavors, which was apparently well within the realm of possibility for what kinds of flavors you can get from a grape-based spirit. I suppose it makes sense.

Drinking this brings back memories of opening up a pack of Fruit Roll-Ups on a hot playground. I'm reminded of nights spent binging on one-month-old Halloween candy (consumed warm and out of a pillowcase, of course). It's all of the bad nutritional decisions I made as a child in liquid form. It's sugary and sweet, but just adequately balanced out by a hint of wood spice.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here's a Chinese liquor that's mostly unheard of in the US, yet was a favorite of John Steinbeck. It's Ng Ka Py, a strong 96-proof drink made with some herb and bark. I think the base alcohol is distilled rice wine. It's also consumed in other Asian countries.

I happened to see a bottle of Ng Ka Py at a Liquor Barn and bought it, sometime in the early 80s. I consumed it, then kept the bottle for a souvenir, I thought. Just asked my wife, and she said it's somewhere in the house.

Just now searched on the Web, and don't know where I can buy one. Maybe I will remember to look for it when I visit a Chinatown in a major city.

Similar to the exotic Centerbe that I happened to sample in Italy, these unusual bottles will add interest to your liquor cabinet.

 

[RobbieB]

I thought you were gonna whip out the snake whiskey.

 

[Winemaker]

If the spirit is aged in an oak barrel, of course it will smell oaky. And it is allowable for spirit makers, even French makers, to use caramel to enhance the color. And often, some lesser makers use the caramel to, ahem, cheat to improve the taste too. In fact, some may overdo it, and the sweetness is not too subtle and easily detected. Keeping this in mind, I don't think any less of a bottle of a lighter color; perhaps this is a sign of honesty rather than an inferior product.

The use of oak in the aging process in wine or spirits contributes many flavor profiles and colors, and in some cases unique to that wine or spirit. For instance, bourbon must be aged in charred oak barrels, not toasted like a traditional wine barrel. (Unless the winemaker is marketing a wine aged in a bourbon/whiskey/rum/ whatever barrel.) And unless the bourbon is a single barrel and marketed as a single barrel, it will be marketed as such. But to get uniform color throughout the bottling run, barrels are blended together to remain consistent and provide the expected flavor profile. Makers Mark blends 264 barrels together to make a bottling run.

The "white dog" or the distillate spirit, should taste like what the mash bill or fruit mash contributes. Any flavor in wine or a spirit other than the fruit or mashbill comes from the oak, such as the vanilla, toffee, coffee, mocha, caramel, smoke, and tar flavors and aromas. These flavors are also varied whether the oak used is from American, French, Hungarian sources. Bourbon must be aged in charred American oak barrels, but Markers Mark adds some additional French oak staves to their Makers 46 brand. Makers has also extended that Makers 46 brand to varying choices of 6-8 French oak staves in single barrels to further customize a customer's flavor profile choice. Of course, more premium, more moolah.

Like you say NW-Bound, some of the smaller distillers may use caramel coloring, and one may taste the sweetness. I find Woodford Reserve to be on the sweet side but I doubt they use caramel as an additive. They are a premium brand and that would destroy their reputation with us serious bourbon collectors and tasters.

 

[Badger]

I stopped drinking hard liquor decades ago. I never liked the taste of any but could tolerate tequila. I even gave away a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue to a friend after sampling a bit. Just not my preference anymore. I may have an occasional glass of wine but can't tell the difference from a $5 bottle from a $50 bottle. I will drink a draft of chocolate stout however.



Cheers!

 

[NW-Bound]

I thought you were gonna whip out the snake whiskey.

No, I would never have an Asian liquor with a snake or some animals marinated in it. It's gross. And it probably tastes disgusting.

I heard of Tequila bottles called mezcal with a worm (larvae). I have not had such a bottle, but that's as far as I would go.

 

[txtig]

For the last forty years or so, my favorite sipping whisky has been Maker’s Mark. Since retiring, I usually have a small glass (neat) before going to bed. No reason to stop now.

 

[NW-Bound]

I think for me it is the knowledge that $900 (or a bit more) will send a deserving young person to a year in a post-secondary school program in Indonesia. The pleasure of a $900 bottle or other extravagant expenditure pales in comparison to a changed life that I can have a hand in. I do not criticize anyone else's spending. I know I waste money and could live much more inexpensively. So spending for what you want is the way to go. But one of my "luxuries" is to make a difference in at least one person's life. $900(+) to do that is a bargain and it will last long after I'm gone. YMMV as always.

"Conscience is the part of you that hurts when the rest feels so good." - Anon.

 

[Magus]

Relative to price bourbon > Irish w > scotch > everything else. Old bardstown by Willett of $22 is a steal

 

[NW-Bound]

Ararat brandy from Armenia

The YouTuber Bald and Bankrupt mentioned it in an episode when he was in Yerevan. Churchill was fond of this brandy after he was introduced to it by Stalin at the Yalta Conference. Reportedly, Churchill then had 400 bottles sent to him each year. I hope he did not drink them all by himself.

Ararat brandy is well-known throughout the Soviet Union.

Just checked on Total Wine. What do you know! Ararat brandy is sold at Total Wine, but unfortunately not at a store near me. Price is quite reasonable at $44 for a 10-year-aged brandy, but then the cost should be low from Armenia. If Churchill loved it, I surely would not mind adding a bottle or two to my collection.

 

[Bamaman]

I was thinking the other day that it's less than 45 minutes to Lynchburg, Tennessee, and I ought to think about making a day trip to visit and take the tour. Might even hit Mrs. Bobo's Boarding House for lunch.

I checked online, and found they're charging for tours and tastings--cost depending on how many different whiskeys you taste. There again, I had no idea they had so many different Jack Daniels products--other than the old Black Label.

I looked online and found a number of other area distilleries producing small volume whiskey and moonshine around Middle Tennessee. And it goes much farther than just Jack Daniels and George Dickel.

But I no longer drink anything except when on vacation. And then, I'm after fine European beers more than any hard liquor.

 

[Koolau]

I've occasionally wondered how common it is to buy a decent (but inexpensive) liquor and put it in a saved high-end bottle to serve to guests. I would think you could get a way with that - especially if you started serving the cheap stuff toward the end of a party. After all, who is going to say anything about free booze?

I just saw a piece on this subject a couple of nights ago. Apparently, there is a thriving business in which folks buy old empty bottles (Lots of them on eBay, I guess.) fill them with "decent" substitutes and sell them as super-premium stuff. Obviously, the stamp/seal must be manipulated to make it look unopened, but crooks are often cleaver if not necessarily smart.

The piece mentioned that detecting the "switch" is difficult for various reasons: Really expensive bottles are often re-sold several times, many bottles remain unopened and are kept as bragging-rights objects, most folks don't know the difference, folks who have been "taken" tend not to report it because they feel foolish, actually determining that the content of a bottle is "fake" requires a significant commitment in time and expertise, the "penalties" if one were to be caught AND convicted would be relatively minimal - especially for a first offense. (Other's I have forgotten.)

It would be the near perfect crime with "rich" people as the victims. I'd never w*rk that hard myself, but it does sound like a good way to be a "gentleman" criminal though YMMV.

 

[disneysteve]

I just saw a piece on this subject a couple of nights ago. Apparently, there is a thriving business in which folks buy old empty bottles (Lots of them on eBay, I guess.) fill them with "decent" substitutes and sell them as super-premium stuff.

The way to avoid this is to only buy from actual liquor stores. The "secondary market" is all illegal anyway. You and I can't legally sell alcohol without a license to do so. Anytime someone buys a bottle from anyone other than a liquor store, the law is being broken.


Now if actual stores are participating in this sort of crime, that's a much bigger problem. Obviously, if they get caught, they'd lose their license and face prosecution, but it's also probably easier for them to get away with it since they have the advantage of being legitimate businesses.


Unfortunately, as you said, it's a tough crime to catch and prove. If I bought a bottle of Pappy, I wouldn't honestly know if it was substituted assuming what was in the bottle was of decent quality. Every barrel is different anyway. Every batch varies somewhat. If some crook poured some Weller 12 into a Pappy bottle (same company, same mashbill), I'd be hard pressed to know.

 

[Koolau]

The way to avoid this is to only buy from actual liquor stores. The "secondary market" is all illegal anyway. You and I can't legally sell alcohol without a license to do so. Anytime someone buys a bottle from anyone other than a liquor store, the law is being broken.


Now if actual stores are participating in this sort of crime, that's a much bigger problem. Obviously, if they get caught, they'd lose their license and face prosecution, but it's also probably easier for them to get away with it since they have the advantage of being legitimate businesses.


Unfortunately, as you said, it's a tough crime to catch and prove. If I bought a bottle of Pappy, I wouldn't honestly know if it was substituted assuming what was in the bottle was of decent quality. Every barrel is different anyway. Every batch varies somewhat. If some crook poured some Weller 12 into a Pappy bottle (same company, same mashbill), I'd be hard pressed to know.

I sense that folks who are willing to counterfeit fine liquors wouldn't worry too much about having an alcohol distribution license.

 

[Music Lover]

I'm one of the few rum drinkers here and am just beginning to move beyond mixed drinks to sipping, although I haven't tried many high end rums yet. Booze is expensive in Canada. My main rum so far is Flor de Cana 12-year rum, and I also like the Flor de Cana 18-year.

I have a bottle of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva and also one of Don Papa, but haven't tried them yet.

 

[doneat54]

I'm one of the few rum drinkers here and am just beginning to move beyond mixed drinks to sipping, although I haven't tried many high end rums yet. Booze is expensive in Canada. My main rum so far is Flor de Cana 12-year rum, and I also like the Flor de Cana 18-year.

I have a bottle of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva and also one of Don Papa, but haven't tried them yet.

Those are all good. If you like sipping Rum, try to find Pilar. Best sipping rum that I h ave found.

 

[Winemaker]

I'm one of the few rum drinkers here and am just beginning to move beyond mixed drinks to sipping, although I haven't tried many high end rums yet. Booze is expensive in Canada. My main rum so far is Flor de Cana 12-year rum, and I also like the Flor de Cana 18-year.

I have a bottle of Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva and also one of Don Papa, but haven't tried them yet.

If you get a chance to pass through NC or the Outer Banks in particular, try some Kill Devil Hills Rum. They have a Silver, a Gold (aged in a barrel to get color), and Honey Pecan (the Gold rum aged with Pecans grown on the distillery property). 5 Stars, IMOO.