Whisk(e)y and other fine spirits. What's everyone sipping?

As the topic says: what are you sipping on? What's in your collection? What are you enjoying most now? What do you recommend?

I've got a reasonable collection of fine spirits. Definitely leaning in the malt-whisky direction. Of late I seem to be on a minor Japanese kick. Think I may need a couple more smokier offerings to round the collection out. Highland Park or something on the smoother Islay side. I wish Lagavulin didn't come with a Ron Swanson tax.

Best of my collection. Only sipping on special occasions:

• Cask Strength Kaiyo (Mizunara oak aged whisky) - The most distinct whisky I've had. Lots of sandalwood, brine, and evergreen. Reminds me of Big Sur or Carmel by the Sea.
• Nikka Whisky from the Barrel - Lot going on and fantastic.

Dedicated sipping whiskies. Enjoyed neat or a bit of water, but not doing a disservice if not given full attentions:

• Nikka Pure Malt (blended from Nikka's 2 distilleries) - This is likely turning into my go-to sipping whisky. Smooth. Fairly sweet - but it's sort of fruit sweetness instead of the caramel and vanilla you normally expect in a sweeter whisky.
• Craigellachie 13
• Stranahan's (a single barrel pick)
• Cruzan Single Barrel premium extra aged rum - Most amazing rum I've found. Up there with the whiskies.

Sipping or Blending whiskies. Good neat, on rocks, or in a cocktail that shows them off like a Manhattan or Old Fashioned

• Endeavor Malt Whisky - So... I distill as well as brew now. This is our first try at a Malt Whisky. It's solid, but not perfect.
• Real Spirits Texas Hill Country Single Barrel Whiskey - Nice single malt from Texas. My dad uses this in his "$100 Manhattan".
• Stagg Jr. Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Cask Strength - At 132 proof (66%) this is too big for me to drink strait.
• Weller Special Reserve

Mixing

• Tin Cup - this has become my go-to grab for most cocktails. One of the best whiskey values I've seen. It's a blend of malt and high-rye bourbon, so it plays well in a wide range of drinks.

My current sipper.

I've just started down the brown liquor path only recently.  I got a Macalllan 12 year old for my most recent birthday.  I bought a Suntory Toki (light crisp) and Basil Hayden Dark Rye (rye with Port added) to try a range of flavors.  

Water

Your Cruzan reference reminded me of how much I enjoy their Black Strap dark rum.  Best Dark & Stormy ever when mixed with Bundaberg ginger beer and lime.   

wawazat said:

I've just started down the brown liquor path only recently.  I got a Macalllan 12 year old for my most recent birthday.  I bought a Suntory Toki (light crisp) and Basil Hayden Dark Rye (rye with Port added) to try a range of flavors.  

Nice. We've been serving the Macallan as one of the offerings at our bar. Pretty sure we're going to end up bumping it in favor of the Nikka Pure Malt. Different whiskies, but similar smooth and leaning sweet. The Nikka's a bit cheaper and would give us a different geographic location.

Not tried the Toki. I gather that's supposed to be a real easy sipper, but not one of their complex ones.

I'm finding I'm not wild about Bourbon, but do really like Rye. I should add a good Rye to my cupboard. Currently the Tin-Cup is kinda-sorta filling that niche.

If you want 90% of Lagavulin at a reasonable price, look for Port Charlotte.  That's my current favorite peated single malt.

Monkey Shoulder is great to keep around.  It's a blended Scotch, but punches way above its price tag and is very widely available.

The high-end Buffalo Trace expressions are great if you can get them.   I've got some Elmer T Lee, EH Taylor, and a blue Weller around here and they're good.  Not good enough to pay what the secondary market wants for them, though.  Same with Blanton's, really.  Eagle Rare is a little easier to find and is good to have around.  But, honestly, the plain Buffalo Trace is about 75 percent of the really rare stuff but you can get it anywhere and nobody sells it over msrp.  Great bottle if you can get it.

New Riff is making some great stuff - they've got a BiB that is worth the price. 

Speaking of BiB, though, there is some fabulous bourbon available for not much scratch in that segment: Old Grandad BiB, Old Bardstown (only available here in the Commonwealth), Evan Williams BiB, and Henry McKenna all make a great product for sipping or mixing and it's cheap.  Old Tub is another one that's from Beam Suntory, I think, and it's good but I don't know how widely distributed it is.

Jefferson's Ocean sounds like a stupid gimmick, but it's good stuff.  I'm not sure it's $70/bottle good, but it's close.

The Costco bourbon is okay if you're making a bourbon slush, but for my money I'd rather just get the Evan Williams white label.

I pretty much always keep Lagavulin 16 and Laphroaig 10 around. If I really want whiskey and Coke it's usually Seagram 7. I used to keep Red Stag around for people that wanted whiskey but didn't like the taste of whiskey. They changed it to less alcohol somewhat recently and I'm not a fan.

For mixing I always have Di Amore Amaretto for Godfathers, which is a drink every one has to try once. While in Australia we brought back as much Bundaberg rum as we could, good stuff really.

I keep Beefeater gin around for dirty martinis and Patron Lime liquor for lemon, lime and bitters. Horchata for coffee at times.

The wife has her Lagavulin 9 and Bird Dog peanut butter whiskey ( which is way way better than skrewball btw, and cheap).

All that makes me sound like a huge alcoholic lol, but usually I have an Islay or a godfather once and awhile

In reply to wae :

I wish I could find Port Charlotte around me, I may see if my local liquor store can order me that and some Wee Beastie soon.

I really really hated Monkey Shoulder but a lot of people like it. I'd rather drink pretty much any whiskey made before that.

New Holland Single Malt- while the ingredients are very Scotch- the taste isn't.  Instead of malty, it's really floral, in a good way.

New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon- it was cheap at the distillery

Blantons- one of my favorites

Two James Catcher in the Rye

Traverse City North Coast Rye

Old Forrester Statesman Bourbon

Ann Arbor Distillery 4 Grain Whiskey

Have a bunch of rum, with our favorite being Don Q Gran Anejo

Did have a special Wild Turkey 101, but finished it recently.

Lagavulin 16 is what started me on a love affair with the Islays. Ardbeg Wee Beastie is totally different from Ardbeg Uigeadail, and they're both fantastic. We have a single barrel Talisker that we bought when we were in Scotland and as a 6 yr, it's nectar. Pretty much, Laphroaig can do no wrong. Distilled coastline. 

A bottle of any of these will keep me sipping happy on fine occasions for 3, 4 years...

RossD said:

My current sipper.

Times twiced.....

Fourty Creek Canadian rye whiskey is a nice change from my regular bourbon.  

Just stocked up yesterday down in Tennessee with all the stuff we can't find in VA. Got some Blanton's, WL Weller 107, WL Weller Special Reserve, Buffalo Trace, and some Angel's Envy. Some will be for me and some as gifts.

wae said:

If you want 90% of Lagavulin at a reasonable price, look for Port Charlotte.  That's my current favorite peated single malt.

Thanks! I'll look that one up. Looks like I can grab it at the liquor agency near the brewery. I'm not looking for heavy peated. Just more assertive than Highland Park, but a bit softer than Ardbeg 10.

Quite familiar with Monkey Shoulder. Definitely one of our top value picks. We've got a pair of infinity jars at the taproom - one malt, one bourbon. We use Monkey Shoulder as the base that we build on top of for the infinity malt.

Another great value we discovered is Tamnavulin Double Cask. It's a $40 Speyside single malt that drinks like $60+.

For Bourbon and Rye, the biggest winners we've taste tested are Redwood Empire.

Jay_W said:

Lagavulin 16 is what started me on a love affair with the Islays. Ardbeg Wee Beastie is totally different from Ardbeg Uigeadail, and they're both fantastic. We have a single barrel Talisker that we bought when we were in Scotland and as a 6 yr, it's nectar. Pretty much, Laphroaig can do no wrong. Distilled coastline. 

A bottle of any of these will keep me sipping happy on fine occasions for 3, 4 years...

I normally gravitate towards Speysides or lately Japanese. I can appreciate Islays, but it's fairly rare that that's what I'm looking for, and usually they're a bit past what I'd like.

We keep Ardbeg 10 at the taproom. Solid, and I prefer over Laphroaig, but still a bit past what I'd like in my collection. How does the Uigeadail compare with the 10?

 Bulleit is my current favorite.

For the everyday "have a drink" stuff, I keep some Evan Williams around.  It's not terrible and mixes well.

For my top shelf stuff:

Maker's Mark
Elijah Craig
Lagavulin
Cazadores Reposado (doesn't cost top shelf, but I would take it 20 times before I'd take Patron)

Cardhu is worth a try.  I like Highland Park myself.

A schnapps of some sort but Šljivovica, and kirchwasser are my two favourites. Not much of a sipper, though 

I bought a cheap still and my favorite liqour to make is 60% corn, 25% red wheat, 20% 2 row Barley, 5% munich malt,

I guess you'd clasify it as wheated bourbon, proofed down to 100, with a couple ice cubes.

In reply to RossD & 759NRNG:

Personally I think it all tastes like burning, but my Uncle is quite fond of Bulleit.

He used to be a big single malt guy, we brought him some Glenkinchie back from Edinburgh that he really liked, but he's pretty much left Scotch all together for Bourbon.  We were going up to visit my aunt & uncle, stopped by one of the fancier liquor stores, I gave their "whiskey expert," some info about my uncle, and wound up leaving with a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon.  Now he's hooked and Bulleit is his go-to. 

Beer Baron said:

Jay_W said:

Lagavulin 16 is what started me on a love affair with the Islays. Ardbeg Wee Beastie is totally different from Ardbeg Uigeadail, and they're both fantastic. We have a single barrel Talisker that we bought when we were in Scotland and as a 6 yr, it's nectar. Pretty much, Laphroaig can do no wrong. Distilled coastline. 

A bottle of any of these will keep me sipping happy on fine occasions for 3, 4 years...

I normally gravitate towards Speysides or lately Japanese. I can appreciate Islays, but it's fairly rare that that's what I'm looking for, and usually they're a bit past what I'd like.

We keep Ardbeg 10 at the taproom. Solid, and I prefer over Laphroaig, but still a bit past what I'd like in my collection. How does the Uigeadail compare with the 10?

Compared to the ardbeg 10, well, it's huge. Huge and assertive. As for Speysides, I juat started learning more about 'em last year and so far I haven't met one I didn't like...

Lagavulin 16

Caol Ila 12

Oban 14

Add a Bolivar No.2  or a Punch Grand Cru to any of those and I'm in heaven.

Crown Royal and 7-up if I want mix.

Go to daily drinker.

Something tasty.

The quarter oak is nice.

also a worthy pour.

This one is strange.  By far the smokiest bourbon I've ever tasted.  Probably the smokiest in existence.  It's like a bourbon version of a double IPA wheee the brewer just wanted to make the happiest beer he could.   Not something I drink often and pretty expensive.