elam370

@Ethernut I don't really have a go-to if only because I'm a strange person and I seldom drink. It all depends on your budget. Four Roses Single Barrel Private Selections especially well picked OBSV and OBSK are fantastic and excellent bourbons. Sadly my normal go-tos now are pricy like the Buffalo Trace Antique collection or old Wild Turkey bottlings. Being a sucker for limited releases and variety has made my wallet much lighter! I do enjoy my single barrel Willetts and I have a soft spot for awesome old rye (both of which are far too expensive) and I love some good aged scotch, but I think whatever works for you works. I think the weird non-disclosure of independent bottlers in the US is strange. It might be an NDA they signed but I can't figure out why they just outright refuse to disclose. Still it's not that easy to pick out good barrels. There are some stores that do single barrel store picks that are atrocious so I'm not entirely opposed to a good NDP. The problem and I suppose the fun is that trying to figure out "mystery juice" is always something I welcome. My recent "bottle I love immensely" is probably Nikka 12 Taketsuru Pure Malt. It's not proofy, but it's tasty, with complex notes and a nose and palate that's just bright and welcoming.

Well it depends how long you've been tracking Willett. Their older Rye offerings (and indeed their current extremely limited but very expensive 25 year Rye) was almost all exclusively from Berheim (then owned by Schenley) before their acquisition in 1987 by United Distillers (now Diageo) that was left to age and incidentally acquired by Heaven Hill then consolidated. A fun thing about the MGPI stuff is that Willett actually discloses the location of distillation on their bottles. So their 4-8 year (there's a few 9 and 10 year bottles floating about too now) Rye actually says distilled in Indiana. Consider that Smooth Ambler and Redemption and High West bottle MGP ryes as well and it's not surprising that Willett was part of that. Honestly it's no surprise why there's a ton of Rye coming from Indiana, Seagrams basically mismanaged their stocks to the degree that a ton of it was sold at ludicrously low prices in the early and mid 2000s. But then again there was an entire bourbon glut still in full effect then. I'll respectfully disagree with Mr. Cowdery though (despite him being rather prominent in Bourbon History) and say that I don't think there's anything wrong with bottling another group's distillate. Considering that blended whisky is still common and that plenty of people bottle other distillate and have done it for a long long time; i.e the Van Winkles or the Weller family, I find it weird that there's a sudden dislike for "Potemkin Distilleries." Anywaaays. Willett's old ryes were most certainly not Indiana Rye but Kentucky Rye that was very likely a series of awesome consolidated barrels (that's a conversation for another time) that they had acquired from what I presume to be Bernheim post acquisition from Diageo/United Distillers. The actual movement to Willett must have been 2003-2004, but it's important to remember that that old Rye costs an arm and a leg!

I've always had an inkling that ELs aged a touch better than the regular claro wrappers. That's not to say that they were inherently superior (the few HdM and RyJ ELs that never impressed me, though the Cohiba and Upmann ones were tasty), but I always felt that they needed a few more years but bloomed wonderfully. What sucks though is that Cohiba ELs though tasty taste nothing really like regular Cohibas. Excepting the most recent ones as I have not tried those yet.

Glenfarclas 17, 105, 21, and 25 are all fairly easy and "cheap-ish" to get. Glenlivet Nadurra and Aberlour 16 or A'bunadh are absolutely excellent bottles at sub $100 pricetags. For the peat lovers, Ardbeg Ugiedail or Corryveckan has still yet to disappoint me. For those who like a bit of oddity, I think you can still get a fair amount of Springbank 12 year cask strength or even regular Springbank 12 fairly easily. The thing is, because I'm not a regular drinker, I basically rarely get these bottles. It's much more fun to go for crazy esoteric stuff!

Only recently has Willett released their own distillate (in the form of a new "Old Bardstown Barreled in Bond (which may well be Heaven Hill)), but yes most of their stocks if not all of it was distilled by others. Notably, most of their current stock is either Beam, Brown Forman or unsurprisingly, Heaven Hill (which is literally just across the way). As far as Johnny Drumm, Vintage XO, Pure Kentucky XO, Old Bardstown 101 go, they're all variations of Heaven Hill juice. Likewise Noah's Mill and Rowan's Creek also fall within that same category of being most likely heaven hill at different year intervals. Though Willett's own distillate might have one or two barrels that are wheated, I do recall a few of their Family Estate Single Barrel bourbons recently being wheated mashbills, maybe it was barrel #1400? Certainly their C and B series and some of their older block letter 17-19 year 1993 Distilled Family Estate bourbon is wheated as that's confirmed to be Bernheim distillate. Ahem. Anyways if in doubt, it's most likely Heaven Hill.

Probably the last Montecristo Sublime 2008 or that 2011 Trinidad Fundadores I had a while back. The most stonefruity cigar were those SLR Regios when I first got them and currently Punch DCs.

Easily all the large format cigars. The El Morros and Don Alejandros are fantastic and with a bit of time the RA Gigantes are brilliant. Now if only I could get them at discount prices..

1. 2005 Upmann Magnum 46 2. Por Larranaga Encantos 2011 3. 2014 VR Unicos

2 Boxes of RA Extras 2011 EL.

My monte esp. no 2 came with the lid almost separate.

I only wish there was a regular montecristo Churchill.

Lusitanias I've found much more enjoyable than the Punch although none of them are particularly bad. The VR DA is very interesting and surprisingly pleasant although not talked about often and my recent RA Gigantes have been absolutely ace. I need to try the hoyo and SLR.

Weirdly enough from what I've had I prefer the Corona Especiales. They're a tad smaller and tend to not be as plugged. The CoLa is absolutely amazing when right, but then again it really needs time. Had a 3 year old one and it was...well not that great.

Just an enormous cooler.

They're tasty and it's like a small journey. I mean it's my quiet time. And I like it that way.