2013 Last Minute Gift Guide

So, you've let your holiday shopping go, and now you're behind the proverbial 8-ball, with Solstice and Christmas parties bearing down on you, with Christmas and Boxing day themselves just around the corner. Fortunately, in most places in the US and other developed countries, the local liquor offers a selection of gifts for the adults in your life. As an added benefit, if you choose wisely, you'll appear thoughtful and erudite, as opposed to desperate.

To that end, here are some ideas for good  gifts, and some that aren't even too dear.

A Bottle for the Party

Looking to bring something to share for the holiday party, that's distinctive, good, and not too expensive? Here are some ideas:

Old Weller Antique Reserve - Usually under $25 a bottle, and under $20 in some places, this is a great choice for parties where you know there will be bourbon drinkers.

Redemption Rye (not yet reviewed) - Price ranges from $22 - $30 a bottle. Youngish, but mature enough to be drinkable straight. It makes a great mixer for cocktails, like Manhattans (originally made with rye, before Prohibition all but killed it off) and other bourbon-based drinks.

Auchentoshan Classic Single Malt Scotch (not yet reviewed) - $28 - $32 a bottle, generally. This is the only single malt that's triple distilled. The results is a light, sweet spirit with honey notes and none of the divisive peat or smoke flavors that often divide whisky drinker. The resulting wide appeal makes a great choice for parties.

 A Bottle for Under the Tree

For starters, I've reviewed several scotches, bourbons, as well as a rye, a rum and an Irish whisky that I've labelled as good gift choices. They are mentioned in the list below, along with a couple of extra ones that I haven't had a chance to formally review yet.

For the Bourbon Lover

Angels Envy (not yet reviewed) - runs between $40 and $50 a bottle, and well worth it. Angels Envy is finished in used port casks. This has been done by scotch makers for years, but it's a rarity in the bourbon world. The resulting blend of flavors is excellent, and as gifts go, it's a real winner: rare, good, and not to expensive.

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel  - runs $25 - $30 a bottle, if you can find it. A great gift for the bourbon lover, because it is quite good and honors the man credited with starting the bourbon revival. And the reasonable price doesn't hurt at all.

Woodford Reserve Distller's Select - runs around $30 a bottle, plus or minus a couple of bucks, depending on where you live. One of my top 4 bourbons of all time, and solid choice for the bourbon aficionado. Even if they have a bottle on their bar, they're going to need another one sometime soon.

For the Scotch Lover

Auchentoshan Classic Single Malt Scotch (not yet reviewed) - see above.  An excellent scotch, and one whose price has not yet gone through the roof.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask -  Moving up the price range a bit, the Quarter Cask will set you back between $50 to $60 for a 750ml bottle. As gift, you wan't to be a little more careful with this - you need to select a recipient who likes peaty scotch. However, for such a person, this bottle makes an excellent gift. Not only is the whisky excellent and relatively new to the market, it gives the enthusiast a chance to see how changing the wood/whisky ratio in the aging cask affects flavor.

The Macallan Cask Strength - Prices for this are all over the map this holiday season, ranging from $60 - $100 a bottle, and stock seems to be limited. If you can score this for $90 or so, it makes a good gift for the scotch connoisseur, assuming you love or need to impress somebody $90 worth.

Ardbeg Uigeadail - Running from $55 to $75 a bottle, and worth every penny, even at $75. Peaty scotch partially aged in used sherry barrels, the resulting flavors are surprisingly rich and well blended. For the scotch drinker with any taste for peat at all, this is a heavenly dram and thus a wonderful gift. Ever folks who find the standard Ardbeg too peaty and harsh like Uigeadail. However, if the maximum amount of peat a person can tolerate is zero, another choice, alas, might be better for them.

For the Rye Lover

WIllett Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye - Around $35 a bottle, and simply the best rye whiskey I've ever tasted. Now, some folks simply don't like rye, much like some folks don't like peat. But if they like rye, and you can locate a bottle of this, it's a surefire winner of a gift.

For the Irish Whiskey Lover

The Tyrconnell - Runs around $35 a bottle. A rarity in the marketplace, this is a single malt Irish whiskey (most are blends).  That, plus the fact that it's plenty good whiskey, makes it an excellent gift for the person who fancies the lighter Irish take on whiskey.

For the Rum Lover

Zaya - About $25  - $35 a bottle, which makes it a little on the expensive side for rum. However, this is special stuff: quintuple distilled, aged for 12 years, and so sweet and smooth and rich you can drink it straight. And I've seen nice gift packs in the stores with excellent glasses for the same price as the bottle alone. You can mix it, but if you do, be aware of how sweet Zaya is on its own.

 

The Dimple Pinch - Cool Bottle, Decent Whisky

 

The triangular bottle is one of the most distinctive shapes on the liquor store shelf. Filled with 15 year-old whisky and wrapped in gold netting, it practically screams out: "I'm unique, I'm cool, I'm premium!"

So, the Dimple Pinch bottle, actually patented in the US in 1958, is a master stroke of marketing. Does the blended scotch whisky inside match up?

The short answer is: maybe. It depends on how much you pay for it.

I've never seen such price variation in a whisky before. Checking online, I found prices ranging from $22 for a 750ml triangle, to $47 for that same bottle. It's $43 on the North Carolina ABC store shelves where I live.

At the high end of the price range, you can get better for your money. If you like the Dimple (as it's known outside the US), a bottle of the Auchentoshan Classic single malt will only set you back $30 - $35, and it has a very similar flavor profile. Cragganmore and Dalwhinnie are also on the light site of single malts, and run about $45 - $50 a bottle  and offer substantially more character.

On the other hand, if you're fortunate enough to live in a place where you can obtain Dimple for $22 a bottle, then it's a right good deal and well worth the price.

Dimple is a blended scotch, in this case the product of more than 30 different malt and grain whiskies, blended together in whatever proportions are needed to achieve the signature Dimple taste. Everything in the bottle spent at least 15 years in a wooden cask.

Unlike Johnny Walker Black, Dimple is not a frankenscotch that tries cover all the things a scotch can be. It's blended to offer a much more restricted palette of flavors and true mass market appeal.

Dimple is sweet, medium bodied whisky. Bottled at 80 proof (40% abv), it sips smoothly straight out of the bottle. I don't pick up much of a nose, a little oak, a little honey, a little alcohol. Nothing that really stands out.

Flavorwise, Dimple is sweet, with honey fading to hint of oak and alcohol, and then away completely - it's a short finish. The mingling of the 30 plus component whiskies smooths off almost all the rough edges, and there are none of the peat or smoke flavors that so divide folks into love it or hate it camps. Adding water doesn't make the flavors bloom like it does with other whiskies, it just thins the honey notes a bit and cuts alcohol burn part of the finish down even some.

This makes it a perfect social whisky for the bar. You can offer it to all sorts of people, secure that you're not giving anyone something so strongly flavored that they hate it, and yet good enough to make them feel as if they had been given something premium. The distinctive bottle shape will only reinforce that impression. In a party atmosphere, it goes quickly, as I can attest.

Of course, you can get the same effect with a bottle of Auchentoshan Classic, and play the single malt snob appeal card at the same time. You just don't end up with a cool triangular bottle that your crafty and artist friends will bug you for.

(Addendum - I finished my bottle as I was writing this review. Unless I can find a place selling it for $25 or less, I have no intention of replacing it.)

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel Bourbon - A Fitting Memoriam

 

Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel Bourbon is one of the amazing variety of bourbons that flow from the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky. I've previously reviewed a different bourbon from this distillery: Old Weller Antique Reserve, which is just about my top value bourbon.

The whiskey is named after Buffalo Trace's former master distiller, who recently passed away. Lee was credited with reviving bourbon drinking in the US by creating the premium bourbon category with Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon in 1984. I haven't reviewed Blanton's yet, but it's one of my top 4 bourbons ever, and has a permanent place on my bar.

Despite being from the same distillery, these are distinctly different offerings. First off, there's the grain bill. While both are, by law, required to be at least 51% corn, the grain bill for Elmer T includes rye, whereas Old Weller replaces that with wheat. As a result, you'd expect the Elmer T be spicier, and the Weller to be sweeter.

Elmer T is also bottled at 90 proof (45% abv) , which means it's watered down to sipping strength, while Old Weller is essential cask strength at 107 proof (53.5% abv). I drink both with some water added, which mean I likely end up making them pretty close to equal strength in my glass.

However, they are similar in the incredibly reasonable prices they go for on store shelves. Elmer T. Lee runs around $25 a bottle in the US, which makes it an easy choice for a regular dram.

Which is good, because the flavor will keep you reaching for the bottle. This is an amazingly well-balanced bourbon. It starts off sweet, then there's some fire, and then the spice of the rye and oak comes in and then it all fades away to honey. This is a medium-bodied dram that smells of vanilla and honey and oak, and the rich amber color looks lovely in the glass. It sips nicely, cleanly, with a medium long, sweet finish.

One quick not about the bottle. You can't tell from the photo, but the bottle has a distinctive feel in the hand. The unlabeled sides are hollowed in, providing a perfect hand grip. It's a small touch, but a well thought out one.

I'd say it's a fitting tribute to a bourbon pioneer. And now that my bottle is empty, I'll be hunting for a replacement - this deserves to be a permanent fixture on my bar.

As to where this fits on my bourbon continuum, I'm provisionally putting it above Old Weller Antique Reserve and just a hair below the my personal top quartet of bourbons. I reserve the right to reevaluate and possibly promote it once I procure another bottle for further tasting.

In terms of absolute value, I'd score this equal to the Old Weller Antique Reserve. As a gift idea for a whiskey enthusiast, this a definite step above the Old Weller: the cork stopper (as opposed the Old Weller's plastic cap) makes a better impression, and the link to the master distiller and fact that it's a single barrel whiskey push it a couple of notches higher up the gift chain.

 

 

 

Zaya - Rum Good Enough to Drink Straight

 



 

Curveball - this week we're venturing into a place I rarely go: the world of rum.

As a younger man, I drank a fair amount of rum in a small variety of mixed drinks. As I aged and started drinking my spirits straight, or with a little water, rum became something I kept  on the bar for my friends who didn't like whiskey. It was a lonely bottle of either Ronrico or Bacardi, light, and lasted a long time, since it only got consumed by visitors.

Last year at our annual Solstice Party, though, a friend whose opinion on many things, including booze, I greatly respect, insisted I try a dram of this Zaya Grand Reserva dark rum he had brought.

With a little trepidation, I did. What a surprise.

It smelled of vanilla and caramel. It had a slightly heavy, but pleasant mouthfeel when taken neat.

And, oh my, the flavor. Sweet, so very sweet, with rich vanilla, caramel and chocolate notes. You can taste some alcohol, but there's almost no alcohol burn, which is simply stunning for an 80 proof (40% abv) spirit. It has a nice medium length finish, with maybe just a hint of oak towards the end.

Zaya Grand Reserva is a blended rum, made from a blend of different rums that have been aged in oak barrels for at least 12 years. It's also supposed to be quintuple distilled.

For those who have forgotten, rum is made from sugar cane. And while all drinking alcohol is produced by yeast eating sugar, the source of sugar the yeast consumes greatly affects the flavor of the alcohol created.

You could make mixed drinks with this, I guess, but stay away from mixing it with cola. Your tongue will go into a diabetic coma.

I recommend at least trying this as I take it: neat, at room temperature. It will have you seeing rum in a whole new light.

You can find this around the country, and even in North Carolina, for $30 - $35 a bottle, which is a decent price for an excellent 12-year-old spirit.

And, yes, my friend was kind enough to leave the bottle with me...

 

The Best Damn Rye - Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Rye, Rare Release

 

WIllet Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye is simply the best rye whiskey I have tasted. All my whiskey-loving friends who like rye rave about it. Even those who don't like rye admit that it's the best rye they've ever had.

If you manage to find this, buy a bottle. It's not too pricey (around $35 a bottle in the US as I write this) and even if you don't like rye, it's a fantastic addition to your bar for your friends who do. It also makes an excellent gift to a rye whiskey drinker - I gave myself a bottle for my birthday, in fact. :-)

This is the whiskey that redeemed rye whiskey for me. My first taste of rye was horrid: astringent and unpleasant and completely off-putting. I was planning to give rye a complete miss, until a friend convinced me to try the Willet Family Estate Bottled Single Barrel Rye (hereafter referred to as Willett SBR).

That designation, detailed at length on the label, as a single barrel whiskey, makes this a rare bird in the marketplace. Most whiskies of all types (bourbon, scotch and so on) that are bottled are produced by mixing the contents of many, many barrels to produce the desired flavor and amount of product. This is necessary because different barrels of whiskey age differently, depending upon a host of factors, such as temperature, place in the warehouse, the wood of the barrel, variations in the quality of the grains in the mash and so on.

So, each individual barrel can have its own unique taste. However, successful branding requires a consistent product, and successful business minimizes waste.  So barrels are mixed to smooth out the variations and maximize utilization of the distilled spirit.

Willett SBR is one of a handful of whiskies on the market where the contents of the bottle came from a single barrel of whiskey: no mixing. Flavor consistency is maintained by the taste buds of the Master Distiller, which leads to an interesting phenomenon - WIllet SBR bottles don't carry a consistent age statement. I have bottles that were aged for 4 years, and bottles who had to spend another year in the cask to become "right".

This is also a cask-strength whiskey. The strength varies a little from cask-to-cask, but the bottles I've seen or drank have ranged from 109 proof to 116 proof ( 54.5% to 58% ABV).

In the glass, this has a rich reddish gold color. The aroma is of oak and alcohol and spice.

I occasionally sip this straight, which is frankly amazing for such a strong spirit, but I generally prefer it with a little water. That cuts the hefty alcohol content down and lets some of the other flavors come through.

WIllett SBR has a nice rich mouthfeel. I taste notes of mint and spice, maybe some oak, and a lovely sweetness that's not quite honey.

I think it's delightful. But rye, because of it's spicy notes, tends to divide folks more than a sweeter grain, such as barley, does when it is the primary ingredient in the mash. As an American Rye, WIllett SBR is legally required to have at least 51% of the mash grains be rye. I have found several places online claiming that the mash bill is actually 95% rye and 5% barley, but I haven't found what I consider to be an authoritative source for that information.

As I said at the beginning - if you can find it, buy it. If you don't like rye, buy it for your bar anyway. Trust me, you will find folks who do and will love you for introducing them to the Willet SBR.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask - Laphroaig Refined

 

Off the southwestern coast of Scotland lies the Isle of Islay. The signature taste of Islay whiskies is peat, with peatiness generally increasing as you move from west to east, and north to south, across the island.

Thus, at the southeastern corner of Islay, you find the three distilleries that define the outer limits of peatiness in scotch whisky: Ardbeg, Lagavulin and Laphroaig.

The standard Laphroaig expression is  a 10-year-old single malt, that, to my taste buds, is the least interesting of the standard expressions of these three distilleries. The others (Ardbeg's 10-year-old and Lagavulin's 16-year-old) offer more complex flavors to complement the peat, while the standard Laphroaig is just peat, peat and more peat.

Enter then, the Laphroaig Quarter Cask.  It comes with no age statement, but an intriguing back story.

Laphroaig takes whisky that's been aging in their standard reused American Bourbon barrels, and moves it into much, much smaller American Oak barrels of the size used 200 years ago. These barrels are about 1/4 the size of modern barrels, thus the name.

This dramatically changes the wood-to-whisky ratio -  more of the spirit in these smaller barrels interacts with the wood, altering the flavors substantially.

Quarter cask is also bottled at a slightly higher proof than the 10-year-old Laphroaig - the Quarter Cask is 48%/96 proof, the standard is 40%/80 proof - but still doesn't qualify as a cask strength whisky. It has a lovely golden color.

You can really taste the difference the change in the aging regime makes. Quarter Cask has a wonderful sweet lead in to the trademark intense peat flavor, that slowly, slowly fades gaining notes of iodine and hints of sea water.

The aroma is slightly less intensely peaty and iodiney than the standard Laphroaig,  promising something different, yet familiar.

Laphroaig recommends taking your Quarter Cask with some water, and I agree. A bit of water accentuates the sweetness and cuts the alcohol burn down, allowing your tongue access to all the available flavor.

Make no mistake - this is still Laphroaig. Peat is the main attraction, and if you don't like peat, you will not like this. Conversely, if you like peat, this will not disappoint.

I think of it like this: the Laphroaig 10 is a teenager, full of piss and vinegar, but obsessively passionate about peat and with no conception of elegance or grace. Quarter Cask is that same teenager at 30, still intensely passionate, but softened a bit by age and experience, and having learned the value of grace and refinement in getting his way.

I can take or leave the Laphroaig 10. Quarter Cask, on the other hand,  I will endeavor to keep stocked on my bar.

 

Tyrconnell - Sweet Irish Single Malt

 

The Tyrconnell is a rarity in the marketplace - a single malt Irish whiskey. Most Irish whiskies you find on the shelves int he US are blends of whiskies from several different grains, and possibly  different distilleries.This includes heavyweights like Bushmills (although they do have a single malt offering) Jameson's and Tullamore Dew.

It is, by Internet reports, double-distilled, as opposed to the triple-distilling most Irish whiskies undergo. This seems to be born out in the heavier mouthfeel of the Tyrconnell when compared to a triple distilled whiskey like Tullamore Dew.

The Tyrconnell is aged for some years in oak barrels. How many? Who knows. There's no age statement on the bottle, nor on the official Website. Barrels are ready when the  master taster says they are.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as barrels of whiskey in a warehouse age at different rates depending on where in the warehouse they are. Some will be ready sooner than others.

And I certainly can't complain about the end result. The Tyrconnell has a wonderful, intense fruity smell that immediately surprises. It's got a pleasant light golden color.

Taste-wise, it's a nice mix honey and fruit sweetness with just a little oiliness at the end (which seems to support the double distallation hypothesis). The finish is short - the flavors don't linger long.

I find it to be quite a pleasant dram, especially in summertime. I take mine neat. Water seems to weaken the wonderful aroma, and reduce the honey and fruit notes in the taste and bring out the alcohol flavor.

At $30 - $35 a bottle, it's a solid value in the whiskey world. It's a quite accessible drink, and makes a nice addition to the bar of somebody who wants to offer something a little different from the standard Irish whiskies most Americans are familiar with.

If you're a scotch drinker who likes Auchentoshan or Glengoyne, you'll find Tyrconnell to be most agreeable.

And a side note on globalization: Cooley Distillery used to be the last independent distillery in Ireland. It's now owned by the parent company of Jim Beam.

Historical note: the packaging claims a heritage that goes back to 1762. However, the Watt Distillery, which was the original producer of Tyrconnell, went out of business in 1925. The brand was acquired by Cooley Distillery in  1988, and subsequently the Tyrconnell was resurrected.