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UncleNasty -> RE: Who is that man on the liquor bottle? (3/30/2009 9:10:01 PM)
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ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou
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It's the good ole southern comfort for me every time [:D]
OMG, Southern Comfort is Satan's candy. I can remember hugging a tree for over an hour as I dry heaved after helping 2 friends empty a fifth of SC. I was a teenager, and the smell of it makes me nauseous to this day.
Actually SB, most of the bourbon connoisuers I know here in bourbon country don't think too highly of Makers. There are many fine single barrel bourbons that have hit the market on the heels of the single malt scotch wave of years past. Blanton's, Bookers, Henry McKenna, etc. Almost every major distiller has "select" bourbons these days. Perhaps the best commercially available bourbons, IMO, are George Stag, which may not be available at all in Arkansas as it is very limited, and Pappy Van Winkle, which is also pretty limited. Stag typically goes for $100 a bottle, and the oldest Van Winkle for more than twice that. I still like the Stag better.
I was lucky enough several years back to have some 27 year old Early Times. ET isn't considered by me to be a premium brand, but then a lot of the quality of a bourbon has to do with barrel aging and how it is either blended, or cut, or both. A friend found it in a basement of a building he was demolishing. 3 barrels of it!!! I ended up with about 5 gallons. We strained it through Mr. Coffee filters to remove the charcoal. It was uncut, unblended and barrel proof at about 145 proof, and man, the beading was amazing. Shake the jar or bottle and they'd just hover on the surface forever. I'd only seen it that healthy in moonshine previous to that. Strong as it was it was also the smoothest bourbon I've ever had. On the other hand it was so rich that most folks palates were overwhelmed after only an ounce or two. A guzzler might have felt differently but we were mostly porch swing or camp fire sippers. The Stag comes close to matching it in richness of flavor, but it has a bit of a bite and lacks the smoothness and overall complexity of the barrel stuff.
On another note here is a story of, allegedly, how champagne was discovered. With cider and not wine.
A vintner monk, some time in centuries past, was in the cellar dealing with the hard cider. Cider was as common as wine in some areas. In any case he opened a bottle of hard cider and the cork shot out like a .... well, like a cork out of a bottle of champagne. First he'd seen of that. He decanted a bit and noted the bubbles. Then he tasted it. At which point he is described as having run out of the cellar exclaiming loudly (is there another way?) "I'm drinking stars! I'm drinking stars!" I make my own hard cider, pressing apples grown within only a few miles of my house, and make still cider, sparkling cider and some apple jack, so I have a fondness for the story regardless of its accuracy.
Uncle Nasty
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