What are you drinking right now!

[Charger]

Thanks to my sick leave I can start my Xmas bottles little early this year...

Found a new one this year...and I'm sure ZZZ will appreciate this as it's from TEXAS!




Never had Texas bourbon (or should that just be called whiskey?) before and it's a really special kind of surprise this one....very smooth and has a different flavour to it than Kentucky Bourbon does...

I have another one that's bit more special than this one but that stays sealed untill christmas eve.

[Zzzptm]

That is a surprise to me, as I didn't know Texas was a corn whiskey maker. That is interesting, indeed!

[Charger]

Yellow Rose appears to be the biggest one in Texas, but not the only one!


And for Christmas Eve I am having this:






This one was a new find for me. I've had Single Malts from the Isle Of Arran before but never Machrie Moor. And ooohhh myyyy is this one smooth. Goddamn! Peated, rich and smooth.
Quite a surprise this one! Wasn't even that expensive!

The Cigar is from Nicaragua. Joya's Antano. Another new find...

[Charger]

Christmas just won't be christmas without a visit from the Very Bad Elf!!

[Zzzptm]

Ah, a holiday classic!

[Charger]

As promised the other special Bourbon got opened just now!





For this christmas era I took my mission to find bourbons that were NOT from Kentucky (or Tennessee for that matter) and this was the first one I spotted and I knew I wanted to try it out!

HIGH WEST WISKEY's American Prairie Bourbon from Park City UTAH! That's right UTAH!

Small Patch and 46%...This is quite smooth but still packs quite the punch once it's landed...and warms my cockles nicely. This wasn't crazy expensive either...under 50€ the bottle.
I was expecting this maybe to taste bit more "different" but it's pretty solid bourbon...maybe bit less sweet than some of it's Kentucky cousins....

[Vyn]

I've actually had a glass of that High West - it was tasty!
 
One of our clients, McCormick's Distillery (they are actually our first client back in 1984!) brewed up a barrel of bourbon for our 40th anniversary earlier this year. They've been making whiskey for a long time (read about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCormick_Distilling_Company).

Some of us went out to their place in Weston and spent the day touring and tasting stuff. The bourbon we eventually went with had been curing in a small cave.

Anyway, this is one of the bottles from that, going to open it up and have a drink tonight!

[Charger]

Well now THAT is SPECIAL! Enjoy!

[Charger]

I'm carrying on with my exploration to Bourbon's outside Kentucky...

This time I'm venturing into INDIANA:




6 years aged 100 Proof RYE WHISKEY from Lawenceburg Indiana called ROSSVILLE UNION.


I don't think I've had 100 proof Bourbon before...I'm not sure...I have had barrel strength Scotch before and many 90+ proofs... With Scotch single malts even the strong ones can be quite smooth and easy to drink...I wasn't sure what to expect from Bourbon, but I did think it might be bit less smooth...and I was right. But the warm feeling you get deep down takes the harder edge off pretty quickly.

It has the typical Rye tang to it...This might be better with a drop of water in it...or a cube of ice that you let melt for a bit...to smooth it out. But it's still pretty good...But not something to have multiples of...

[Charger]

I know St. Patrick's Day was yesterday but I had to work last night so I'm celebrating today with some Black Stuff!