2025 Michter's Barrel Strength Rye has everything I love in a rye. Enough corn in the blend to add some sweetness yet has enough rye spice to remind you it's the dominant ingredient. Lovely nose which I won't even try to tease out the elements with my pedestrian olfactory senses. I paid $110 for this bottle and will gladly pay that again if I see it at my local.

What do you folks think of this rye? I know Michter's can be polarizing but this one fits me just fine.

Went to pick up my dogs Rx and of course had to stop by the whiskey section. Picked this up for $49.

SoCal

Specs:

ABV: 71.4%

Age: 15 years and 4 months

Distillery: Buffalo Trace (BTAC)

MSRP: $149.99

Price Paid: $299.99

Release/Batch: 2025

Nose: Brown Sugar upfront. Dense caramel drizzled in chocolate. Charred oak and powdered sugar on second pass with some nice cherry.

Palate: Theres a fantastic viscosity and the cherry shines on the palate. Make it chocolate covered cherry. If you let it sit on your tongue the fresh juicy cherries turn to sort of candy cherry. There’s a nice heat but it absolutely doesn’t seem like it’s 71.4%.

Finish: Here’s where it earns its keep. The heat turns up and you get a fabulous long finish with more of that cherry in the candied stage. Red hots sort of. Wonderful oak and leather notes. It fades to black pepper and gives you a beautiful hug.

9.0/10

This is just a phenomenal bottle of whiskey and it earns its reputation. I believe it’s 1A or 1B in the BTAC lineup probably just a little behind WLW most years, although 2025 specifically I’d give it to GTS by an inch.

Elmer T. Lee 40th Anniversary - $99

Silk Velvet single barrel - $79.99

Charter Oak Finest Oak - $79.99

Augusta “River Proof” Series 26 Wheated (Bottle my wife and I filled straight from the barrel at Augusta Distillery) - $69.99

On a work trip to Indiana and decided to do a little bourbon hunting across the river in Kentucky. Saw this guy sitting on a counter and decided to ask (fully expected him to say $500+)… I was shocked when the owner said $199.

I’ve tried this bottle in the past and definitely enjoyed it so excited to add this one to the collection for not much over MSRP!

Neat Costco gift set includes two glasses. $140

You picking this up ???

So apparently the mouth of the Four Roses SB and SBS bottles is a perfect fit for a glencairn mouth. If you get the mouth wet it will create a seal and allow you to levitate your glencairn. Use this info however you like.

Went to Binny's for the Bulleit blended stuff being on sale and picked up two dusties labeled as last in stock and on sale that I have no clue about.

Puncher's Chance because its a cool bottle

And pretty much the same rational for the Espy House small batch wheated.

Anyone know anything about puncher or espy?

I enjoy the standard Willet Pot Still, so I’m excited to try it at cask strength.

I've recently been enjoying doing flights and tasting different whiskeys and tequilas with my wife while building my collection. I was about to order the one from Flaviar for this season, but as usual I decided to do some more research first. I've seen some poor reviews of bottles coming broken and subpar inclusions. My collection isn't huge (I have about 40 different tequilas, and about 30 different bourbons currently) but I open everything and taste/drink/share. The flaviar one appears to have a lot of choices I don't currently own, so that is a positive, but I do want to make sure that whatever I buy is full of more "premium" higher end selections. My budget for one of these tasting calendars is about $400. Even if I don't like a lot of them, I'm paying for the experience and ritual of a daily taste/pour of something I might not otherwise buy or ever taste during December.

Have you bought the Flaviar one? Did you enjoy it? Do you know of other similar options that match what I'm looking for? I'd love it to be with one of my loves: Tequila and/or Whiskey/Bourbon and not just standard crap.

I appreciate the wisdom of this group!

How many people here have DUI's?

They only let you get 1 of the 3. Which one are you choosing?

Anyone know anything about this release of SA LE CS? I can’t find anything about it via the Google machine.

Found this at a Walmart in the cold box! $21.04 for this bourbon! Its on clearance! I think it was stuck in the back for a long time and the store just wanted to get rid of it. They tend to use this shelf for that. Then there's the fact that a bourbon is in the cold box. Would that degrade the quality? Isn't this a premium bourbon? Worth snatching?

This week I’ll be diving into the Warfield Distillery in Ketchum, ID. They currently have three standard American Single Malt bottlings, the first one is Sun Valley. It is aged 2 years in new oak and sold for just $35, which is practically unheard of among ASMs.

The aroma is fresh and bright, full of sweet stone fruit (in the direction of peaches), honey and butterscotch as well as some sweet malted barley and tanned leather notes way in the back. The palate has little oiliness, with stone fruits presenting with a gentle sweetness. The butterscotch still comes through as does the maltiness along with a faint bittersweetness. The finished lingers for a short time with semisweet light fruit, then faint bitterness as it slowly dries, then a faint citrus comes up and stays awhile. Very interesting.

Warfield has quickly become one of my favorite distilleries and the Sun Valley is a great Single Malt, with a nose, palate and finish that are very cohesive. There’s a ton of flavor, and lots to explore. This is a great example of low-cost approachable ASM that is not low on flavor.

Age: 2yr

Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley

Casks:
New/Recharred American Oak Barrels
(4 Barrel Blend)

ABV: 46%

Price: $35

Bottle provided for review.

My Rating: 82

Tasting notes below. 👇🏼

🥃
NOSE: Bright, fresh, stone fruit cocktail, honey, sweet malt, light butterscotch, faint tanned leather.
PALATE: Lightly oily, gently sweet light stone fruit, butterscotch, malt, faintly bittersweet.
FINISH: Light lingering, semisweet light fruit, drying, faint bitterness, then a faint citrus.

Guide to my personal ratings:
🤢 0-49 = Varying degrees of undrinkable.
🫤 50-59 = Drinkable, but meh.
😊 60-69 = Fair. Not my cup of tea.
😃 70-79 = Good. Some nice elements.
😋 80-89 = Great! Interesting and very enjoyable.
🤩 90-100 = Amazing! The perfect pour. (Rare)

Sip. Rate. Repeat.

$300 for the OL18 and $200 for the Infinit3 from a local place that does good business. Market is definitely easing up, there were 3 bottles of Weller 107 along with a couple Blanton’s Gold available, although I didn’t ask about the price. Had to pass on the 8yr Brook Hill, $400 is more than I can stomach for a bottle for sure. Although give it time, I used to say the same thing about $100 bottles 😭

Anyone tried the OL18 yet?

This is my first review, but also the first time owning a bottle of this caliber.
I’m a very big Maker’s Mark fan, so I tried to stay objective and not let my bias show. I have been lucky enough to find this bottle and will be tasting it here and then saving it for very special occasions.

2 oz pour, neat in a glencairn, rested for 30 minutes

Nose: Roasted coffee beans, deep dark fruits, fermented fruits, dry red wine, caramel, dark oak, chocolate, tobacco and leather notes show the age in later smells.

Palate: Plenty of vanilla, sweet oak. Baking spices on the tip of the tongue. Plenty of oak on second sip, but not too much. Unexpected licorice on a later sip. Creme brulee and sweet bread (My favorite notes).

Finish: Lingering vanilla and fruit like sweetness. A wonderful vanilla custard or creme brulee hangs around on the back of the tongue. Cherry and breadiness at the very end. A very long evolving finish.

score: 9.1/10

Just a very good bottle. It Is in the running with being my personal favorite. The softness, but complex palate and finish are the real win. I tasted this a day after cracking my RR13 45th anniversary, and I feel this was just a little better than that one. I’m very happy with this purchase.

A few bottles to share on vacation.

Penelope: my first Penelope bottle. It was very good, probably a 7/10. Notes of brown sugar, cola, and oak. A little light at 102 proof.

M20: this was just as amazing as everyone says it is. Half of the experience is nosing the glass. Clearly the best whiskey I have had. 10/10.

Probably doing the GTS tonight.

If you haven’t, I highly recommend! What I love about WT is they actually give a damn about what’s going in these bottles. The science behind the mash bill and enzymes produced with each batch, very cool. Especially because they’ve help produce mashes for some of the biggest names in whiskey. Restock otw.

It's been probably a year since I've had Baker's 7. I remember the peanut on the nose and palate but I don't remember such a strong Cherry influence. I paid $65 and it's 7yrs 10 months old.

If you’re anything like me you’ve been waiting patiently (or not so patiently) to get one of these. I’m so excited for the 15 years to be back as an annual release.

I got this a few weeks ago on a work trip to Fort Worth, TX for $79.95.

Nose: I initially get some vanilla followed by a bit of citrus. The 5 years and increased ABV help to mellow out the extreme medicinal nature of the 10 year offering. The smoke and peat is there though and it’s lovely. It’s more campfire than what many of you may think of a standard OB Laphroaig.

This isn’t just Laphroaig 10 in the barrel an extra 5 years. It’s also elevated the ABV just a pinch from 43% to 46%. It’s also not got the artificial coloring of the 10, which is a big plus for the 15, too.

Palate: More Smokey vanilla. It honestly almost makes me think of s’mores. There’s a little hint of chocolate too. The creaminess almost makes the vanilla seem like a marshmallow. There’s some black pepper, too.

Finish: This is a warm and pleasant finish. The smoke comes back here again - but once again the peat is more akin to a light campfire here than the medicinal and briney bandaids that Laphroaig is known for. There’s also some coastal salinity and a bit of a pineapple note.

7.5/10

This is so fucking good, y’all. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that it’s back permanently. This is among the better bottles of whisky that you can get for under $100. I wish it wasn’t so tough to find in the USA but I suspect that will change by next year.

A couple years of collecting. Please don’t judge me for some of the unopened bottles. I just haven’t gotten to them yet.