If you’re about to stock up the ol’ cabinet for the holidays, don’t forget that more expensive often doesn’t equal better. Some of the $25-$60 range is so good that you never need to spend more. If you aren’t interested in most of the video, the most entertaining part is about Blanton’s at 18:15.
Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
“This bourbon is sooooo smoooooth.”
We never spend more than about $60 for whatever we’re into at the moment, probably thanks to you.
That ocean voyage bourbon is pretty hilarious.
I’m glad I don’t have a sophisticated palate, and the point of fancy alcohol is entirely lost upon me.
Honestly, I don’t know how sophisticated my palate is. I have had bourbon that is very expensive (either before it was expensive or from the generosity of others). It’s hard to compare things you’ve had months or years apart, but I don’t beleive the expensive stuff is any better than what I like in the $20-$60 range. So either my palate is unsophisticated or the emperor has no clothes. And really, anything $50 or above is expensive for me, so those are very occasional buys.
Interestingly, sophisticated palates don’t have much to do with the inflated prices of some bourbons. It’s more to do with wealthy buyers wanting to show off, or buying “the best” to pay homage to their own prosperity. Real bourbon snobs moved past Pappy years ago. Pappy became a hot item among them becuase originally it contained stock from the fabled old Stitzel-Weller distillery, which closed in the early 90’s. Buffalo Trace ended up with the leftover S-W stock and began releasing it as Pappy at some point. So the last S-W bourbon would have been used up in the 23 year old Pappy from around 2015 (and many bourbon snobs say that 23 was never very good, as some consider that too old for bourbon). The last 15 year old Pappy to have it would have been in around 2007. And even then it was never clear if you were getting a bottle of S-W stock or one made by Buffalo Trace (you needed to be able to taste the difference to know). As the S-W stock became more scarce, the real snobs moved on to hunting down old dusty bottles of various brands of S-W bourbon in out-of-the-way stores, while wealthy wannabe bourbon snobs continued to chase Pappy, and still do. I have no doubt that current Pappy is very good, but it’s not the same stuff that made the name famous. But some people will pay thousands for a bottle with an MSRP of $250, or up to $2000 for a $75-$100 MSRP bottle and put in all kinds of time and effort jockeying to get one.
It’s a status thing, like buying a Rolex. I doubt if very many Rolex buyers are real watch snobs; they’re either showing off or satisfying themselves that they have what they’ve heard is “the best.”
Money has a way of robbing people of all sense.
More than one YouTube watch reviewer claims that Rolex’s QC is in the shitter now because they realized rich idiots will throw money at anything they produce.
Old Forester is all you need. Also, I’ve come to prefer Rye over bourbon.
Dude! My go-to affordable rye is Bulleit. Which one(s) do you like?
When my dad died, we found 18 fifths of Evan Williams stashed in his kitchen. Guess he didn’t want to risk running out …
If I could just have one, it would probably be Wild Turkey 101. But I recently splurged some X-mas bonus on a bottle of Old Forester 1920, and it’s great stuff.
I’ve had only four ryes that I can remember, Bullleit, Knob Creek, High West, and Dickel. I liked them all, but I think I liked Knob Creek best.