5 Bourbons and Whiskey you NEED!

Hey all, welcome back to SLB, Basement Bourbon Bar. I am Kurt Luddington, your resident host and bartender. As you can see, we don't have our normal setup that we usually do for mixing a cocktail together. What we're going to do today is we're going to do whiskey reviews. Now, more than any other question that I ever have, whether it be on our Facebook page, SLB Basement Bourbon Bar, or our Instagram page, SLB Drinks, or even on YouTube, SLB Drinks, by far the most popular question I get is, what particular whiskeys, bourbons, rye, scotch, do you prefer? And that's hard for me because I kind of take it personal to the extent that I'm really not an expert in the field of whiskey tastings and reviews. I'm really not. I'm pretty much a novice. I'm kind of like everybody else that enjoys a good pour, and has some whiskey bottles, and enjoy different types of whiskeys. But in order to try to fulfill a majority of the questions and requests that I get, I'm going to try to get through this, and we're going to have a good time regardless. So what I want to do, excuse me, not that long ago, several months ago, there was something that came up on Reddit, and it basically broke down, what they did was, if they only had five bourbons, or five whiskeys that they could choose, what would they be? And here's how they broke it down into categories. They broke it down into a daily drinker, a cheat mixer, what would you choose for a Friday night pour, what would you choose to impress a guest, and then lastly, what whiskey would you prefer to be a special occasion type whiskey, something you only open every so often because it's a special occasion type of a whiskey. Now that came up on Reddit, and a bunch of YouTube whiskey review shows that I watch personally to learn about different whiskeys, they just tore it up, they went through this a couple months ago, but I'm going to use that same platform, that same breakdown, because I thought it would encircle a lot of different types of whiskies, whether it be by price or whatever. So that's what we're going to do, and I'm all set and ready to go here. A couple of caveats though, again, once again, I am not a professional, so I can only give you my personal reviews, and secondly, I can only suggest bottles that I have either tasted or have. Now, granted, we probably have three or four hundred whiskeys down here, I don't even know, I don't have an accurate count, so I've tasted a lot of whiskey, but you know, I'm sure there's some people that'll say there's certain whiskey here, well I think this one's better, but you know, if I haven't tasted it, I really, I truly don't know. So, before we get started though, if you would please hit that subscribe button, once you've done that, hit that notification bell, and that way you won't miss a single episode of the show. Please list your comments below, I know we'll have plenty of difference of opinions, and I think that's great, because that's the way we learn. Okay, today we're dealing with bourbons and whiskies, we're going to split this up into two shows, I mean, sorry, bourbons and ryes, the next show is going to be specifically scotch whiskey, but today we got bourbons and ryes. So, the very first category is a daily drinker, so I have to be completely honest, because I just, it's just not me not to be honest, so my daily drinker is, without question, wild turkey rare breed. Without question, that's my daily drinker. As you see, this one hasn't even been opened yet, I've already emptied the other bottle last week that I had, I just got this one a few days ago. Now, the only real issue I had internally about picking the rare breed, is this bottle's going to cost you $40, maybe $42, $43. Excuse me, if you pick a daily drinker, one would think that you would try to pick something that's more around the $25 range, and that's completely understandable, there's so many options, good options in that lower range, you got some makers mark, makers mark 101, a wild turkey, I'm sorry, makers mark, yeah, makers mark 101, wild turkey 101, you've got some Knob Creek in there and some of their less expensive bottles that are excellent, but in order for me to be truthful with you, my preferred pour, more than not, is going to be wild turkey rare breed. This bottle offers a little bit of proof, it offers some great vanillas and burnt toast and just some real quintessential bourbon flavors that you'll find in this wild turkey rare breed. Now, I will tell you this, 99% of the time when I have a pour of this rare breed, it's over a block of ice. Now, you'll have a lot of professionals, you'll have a lot of people that'll tell you there's only one way to drink whiskey and that's neat, well that's just that's just ridiculous. The best way to drink whiskey is the way you like to drink it and that's the end of that story. There's some whiskeys down here that I prefer to drink neat, there's other whiskeys that I have down here that I prefer to pour over a block of ice. This particular rare breed is my preferred pour and I always pour it over a block of ice. All right, moving on to the next category. The next category is a cheap mixer. Now, I came across this bottle only several months ago, but I fell in love with it for mixing bourbon cocktails. It's Old Grandad 114. I can't speak highly enough for it. It's going to cost you a little over 20 bucks, maybe 25 bucks depending on where you're at, but this bottle is fantastic for mixing bourbon cocktails. I mean, you got your basic bourbon flavors in there, you got a little tobacco, leather, some vanilla, there's some good stuff in there, but what I love about it is the proof point. The proof point is 114, so there's a lot of different bourbon cocktails that your bourbon is going to get washed out because of the ingredients. Case in point, not too long ago, we put a YouTube out there, a video that we've made of several different bourbon cocktails and one of them was the Blood and Bourbon. In that particular cocktail, you have one ounce of blood orange juice and you have one ounce of lime juice and you have some rich simple syrup and the list goes on and on. So, once I pour in my ounce and a half, I believe that cocktail had an ounce and a half of bourbon. Once I pour an ounce and a half of bourbon, let's say of Angel's Envy or something that's only 80 proof, what do you have? Your bourbon is completely washed out. Now, with this Old Grandad 114, that bourbon is still the star of the show, which I love when I'm mixing up a bourbon cocktail as I want my bourbon to shine through and that's what you get with this Old Grandad 114. All right, moving on to the next category is a Friday Night Pour. I could not, I could not and I could not get past this list without including at least one bottle of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. These, I think, are $65. Now, I did hear that they might be going up a little bit, but I promise you this, even if they go up to $75, that is a fantastic buy for this line. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, they come out with three releases yearly. What I have here has been my absolute favorite so far of all of them that I have and it's the C919. Now, they letter and number all their releases. This was actually a 2019 release. Honey, sorry for this, but I bought three bottles of this when it came out because it was so good. I did not know that folks. So, this is actually the second or third bottle I even know, but the C919, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, it's just got all the amazing brown sugar, caramel, vanilla flavors that everybody searches out in a bourbon and that's what you'll find with this Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. Another good pick, I believe it was the 2020 releases, the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B520. That one also is fantastic, but still, to this point, my favorite is the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C919. So, on a Friday night when you get home and your work's done, you just want two minutes to relax, yeah, this has got a little bit of a kick to it because it's barrel proof. I'm sorry, I'm going to have to use my cheater sometimes on some of this, but this is 136.8 proof and believe it or not, I know this is going to sound crazy because I just told you I always have my Wild Turkey Rare Breed over ice. Seven out of ten times I drink this neat. It's on a Friday night, it's when you want to chill out, but it doesn't drink that hot. It doesn't drink extremely hot. You know you have some proof on your hands, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't drink extremely hot and it's just so satisfying and it's just freaking delightful. So, that is my Friday night pour. Moving on to the next category, Impress Your Guest. Now, if I had guests down here, this was a no-brainer for me. The rest of these, I kind of, I wish you watched around, this took me several weeks, believe it or not, to combine these bottles because I kept changing my mind. This one was a no-brainer from the very beginning. I had this chosen and this is a Bardstown release. My boy Trenton picked this up for me because he knew I was looking for it. This is the Discover Series number four. This has only been in the bar again probably, I don't know, a few months, but my, I mean, it's just unbelievable and what I like about Bardstown, once again, I cannot, I cannot recommend this Bardstown bottle specifically, this Discovery Series number four anymore. I mean, it's a fantastic bottle and all of the Bardstown releases are exceptional. Okay, moving on to the last category. The last category is a special occasion bottle. Obviously, one you probably paid a couple dollars for and something that is super, super good and you don't want to just sit there every week and have a pour and be done with the bottle in a month or two. So this was extremely, extremely difficult for me, but I finally concluded, believe it or not, on an Irish whiskey selection. What I have here is Red Breast 27 year old. You can't go wrong with any of the Red Breast releases. Any of the Red Breast bottles are very, very good Irish whiskeys. This particular bottle is a single pot still Irish whiskey and they have some writing here and even with my cheaters on them, I'm gonna have a hard time reading it, but I want to try to read it for you, but basically this bottle is an explosion of fruit flavors. I mean, it's just an amazing whiskey. It's 54% ABV. It basically says a seamless medley of dark fruit, blood orange and walnuts, summer berries, soft vanilla and smoldering oak. I've got to be truthful, I really don't get much oak out of this bottle. If it is, it's very little, but however, this bottle is truly amazing when it comes to fruit type flavors. There's a little bit of earthiness to it, so like it said on the label, maybe some of the walnuts and so forth, but the berry explosion that's in this bottle will just, will just, it's just dumb pounding. I have never gotten that with any other bourbon, rye, Irish whiskey. I've never gotten these type of flavors and that strong of berry notes in any other whiskey than this Red Breast 27 year old. Now this, this is probably also because it's finished in port wine barrels, so you know, that port wine is going to lend a lot to your berry flavors. Now as you can see, any whiskey that's 27 year old is going to cost you a couple dollars. This one's going to cost you a few C notes. I think it was, maybe close your ears real quick, but I think it was actually five C notes for that bottle. So I think she fell off the chair, but she's going to be okay. She's going to be fine. However, I've already had this bottle probably, you know, year and a half or two, and it's basically a third gone. So as you can see, I'm going to milk that out as long as I can. This is a special occasion bottle. This is something I'm only going to open every so often, and even, you know, a lot of times, you know, a pour consists of probably two ounces. When I pour something like this, it's probably going to be one ounce, and I'm going to really, really sip it lightly and enjoy it as much as I can, and I'm going to try to lengthen that as long as I can. So Red Breast, 27 year old, is my special occasion whiskey bottle. So in review, very quickly, my daily drinker, without question, Wild Turkey Rare Breed. My absolute favorite cheap mixer is this Old Granddad 114. My Friday night pour has got to be this Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, and my specific favorite release is the 2019 C919. Now, to impress my guest, the Discovery Series No. 4 from Bardstown is immaculate, and I would highly suggest most all of the Bardstown releases. And finally, the special occasion bottle, again, the Red Breast, 27 year old Irish whiskey. Man, I had a fabulous time putting this together. It's kind of like one of my passions. Again, I know I'm not a professional, but I love dealing with bourbons and brys and whiskeys and scotch. So I hope we all learn something here together today, and thank you so much for joining us. I had a complete blast doing this. So, as always though, we're going to ask you to please drink responsibly, and then we'll see you next time right down here with me for part two, don't miss it, part two of our whiskey review scotch bottles using the same format. Take care, and we'll see ya.