Diving back in to whiskey, heading to Tennessee

I have been away from imbibing whiskey for sometime.  With numerous special beers being released, and a basement in my house being turned upside down, pretty much all my spirits are still sitting in boxes.

I started this blog mostly to focus on spirits and bourbon whiskey in particular.  In the time I was moving, it was easier to dive back into beer and enjoy its great sudsy goodness, while all my whiskey was packed and shelved away, hard to get to, almost never to be touched and seen again.  Beer would be consumed quickly, and easily fit in my fridge.  Whiskey went in a box, and thus hibernation.

I am in the process of re-building my basement which will also contain a brand new bar which I am quite excited about.  This is slowly looking like more of a reality, and my mind starts getting all excited about the possibilities of delving back into spirits and throwing my bourbon on a nice piece of perhaps cherry wood?  One can dream.

When thinking back to all the bourbon I reviewed, I realized it was quite sometime ago that I had jumped into it.  Numerous barrel aged beers, Lambics, and Belgian styles beers consumed, whiskey seemed like a distant memory.  I needed to get back, but... where to start?  I had several bourbons still to try for the first time, but being so absent for drinking whiskey in so long it didn't seem right to leave off where I was.  I felt I needed to start a little bit back in the beginning, and I had the perfect starter in mind.

I grabbed a bottle of George Dickel no. 12, which is a "Tennessee Sipping Whisky".  This is not a bourbon, but very much has the characters of one.  It was a great place to get my feet wet before starting to dive into bottles of say, Van Winkle or George T. Stagg.  I decided on a video review, a few year end comments, and also decided to make a whiskey sour with this whiskey.  Check out the video below to see more.

Cheers!

Finally a glass made for tasting whiskey, and how to christen it properly. Whistlepig does the trick!

As I began tasting whiskey I sort of went with what I could get on hand to make it an enjoyable experience. I needed some small glasses with a little taper, and found some simple standard cognac/brandy snifters. They were inexpensive, and I could buy a few knowing that if I ever broke one I wouldn't shed a tear. As time went on and I ran around looking at whiskey, it was something I read about when tasting brandy that made me think I might be missing out on the tasting experience because of my glassware. The person said "When evaluating brandy never use a snifter, use a tulip glass". What??!? I thought.. you mean these so called glasses called "cognac/brandy" glasses should NEVER be used for as there name says... "brandy"?

Well it made me think if whiskey was the same. Certainly two revered products should be capable of a good glass right? So I was talking about my rye experience online with some very knowledgeable people on StraightBourbon.com, and on a lark someone pointed me to a Canadian Whiskey aficionado, and there stood in his hand on his webpage... something I hadn't seen before that was to me... very unique. What was that thing?! I asked myself.. and before I knew it I discovered he had in his hand a glass SPECIFICALLY for tasting WHISK(E)Y which is called a "Glencairn".

Long story short, I bought four of them finding a good online deal I think. Many times a single Glencairn glass can be a little pricey (not too bad), but also I would be peeved if I broke one of these (the glass is a little fragile). I am very excited to try the four glasses out on my next bourbon tasting, but I figured it made sense to evaluate it with something good. I used the glass while hunkering down and evaluating a bottle of Whistlepig rye whiskey, a 10 year aged straight rye whiskey made in Canada and bottled in Vermont.

The glass made some interesting surprises for me. To see how, take a look below at the video. Cheers!

American Straight Rye Whiskey to the RESCUE! Manhattan cocktail joy and drink

In the realm of whiskey I was always confused about what "Rye" whiskey was. I grew up in Canada and it seemed like virtually all Canadian whiskeys were just referred to as rye whiskey. The funny thing is, everyone I knew and grew up with never drank it, the only people who did were just really old, and they certainly weren't my parents. It seemed everybody just drank beer, the typical macro stuff and not any craft beer cause the movement in those days wasn't as big as it is now.

When I got into bourbon, I started learning just about whiskey in general, and many bourbon fans also enjoy rye whiskey too. However, I soon learned that there was a distinction to what Americans call rye and what Canadians call rye. There are many distinct differences, but not to say that one is superior over the other all the time.

One of the most obvious things is that American rye whiskey has to contain a mash bill that is at least 51% Rye. There is no such stipulation or law for this in Canada for rye whiskeys. Some Canadian whiskeys hardly even contain any rye at all.

I was also realizing that many people like Rye in their Manhattans which is easily a favorite cocktail of mine. I normally have it with bourbon being such a fan, but as I started hearing people talk about all these great American ryes, I felt like I was missing out on something special.

So I grabbed three straight American rye whiskeys to compare against, and more importantly try them all in a tasting. The results and imbibing joy are all below.

Cheers!