Enjoy the holiday, one and all. We'll be back sometime next week with new installments of your beloved superficial drivel.
24 December 2011
Joy in the Air...
Sure, I work retail and I may have groused more than a bit about Christmas meaning all work and no play for a guy like me, but at the last minute, humanity comes through. The kind owner of the Indian/Nepali restaurant across the street gave us dinner on the house, a delicious lamb tikka masala, and a co-worker/friend, who happens to be something of a nerdly collector, generously shared some selections from his private cellar...
...not least of which was this bottle of 1860 rye whiskey (more on that later, ethereal). Yes, it's real, and yes, it's delicious.
Enjoy the holiday, one and all. We'll be back sometime next week with new installments of your beloved superficial drivel.
Enjoy the holiday, one and all. We'll be back sometime next week with new installments of your beloved superficial drivel.
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13 comments:
Merry Christmas! May you and your family have a wonderful day! Thanks once again for such inspiration over the past few years. Not a truer gentleman in the blogosphere.
Merry Christmas, G.
Merry Christmas
Buon Natale e tanti auguri!!!
Luigi
Hoping your days were merry and bright.
Can one of you gents explain the difference, in taste more so than anything else, between rye bourbon and "regular" (corn based) bourbon. I would like to know before spending hard earned money on it. I love regular bourbon, btw. Favorite brands?
a bottle of rye from 1860? sounds horrid
I hope this causes no offense, but this has to be one of my favorite posts. Cheers, and can't wait to hear more. Happy New Year.
I am glad to hear that you got to enjoy some of the holiday.
Anonymous,
I suppose I should have said that to the generous fellow who shared this with us. Very much in the holiday spirit.
In fact, it was delicious. Odlly, in it's old age, it had acquired an herbacious and almost mentholated quality unlike anything I've tasted. A rare treat.
Gentleman Mac,
Bourbon is made from a mash containing at least 51% corn. Rye is not Bourbon. It's generally drier and lighter, with a less viscous texture. Don't be fooled by expensive brand names here. Right now, rye is trendy so there's a lot of needlessly expensive stuff around. Old Overholt, despite being the drink of choice amongst hipsters, is better than you think for $11.99/bottle in MA. Redemdtion, for around $30, is good too. Most of the others, in my opinion, are overpriced, the worst offender being Michter's 10 year old at $85.
Now I know that whisky, unlike wine, does not age in the bottle. A 1981 vintage bottle of Merlot, for instance, is aged 30 years. A bottle of 10-year-old scotch produced in 1991 is not a 30-year-old scotch: it's still a 10-year-old scotch.
So an 1860 rye is interesting, in that it's not "aged" 150 years. It's as young as the day it was bottled. In your future post on the rye, G, I'll be interested to hear if you think this is the "new old stock" of liquor (e.g., "This is what rye tasted like in 1860."), or if there is, in fact, something added during a long storage process.
Merry Christmas!
True, they don't "age" , but the evaporation that occurs does alter the flavor profile.
"new old stock" is a better description. In any case, it was something special.
Happy Holidays to you and your lovely family.
That is a treat, any way one looks at it; to be offered a gratis family dinner, and, to sample something so old, and therefore of country historical importance (Rye being a U.S. based whiskey). I read a little on this (bourbon and whiskey) just two days ago, via the NYTimes. I just bought a bottle of Buffalo Trace bourbon, and found it quite nice (except for WA state's high tax on it)...Thanks for sharing! http://www.bourbonenthusiast.com/forum/DBvd.php?id=57&task=displaybottling
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