List of Whiskey I have tried in order of most liked to least:
1. Macallens a single malt Scotch whisky
2. Jameson Irish Whiskey 12 Yr Special Reserve
3. Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Yr
4. Pure Kentucky, Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Lately, due to the Christmas and holiday season my taste buds have entered into a smorgasbord of new experiences. One of my newest experiments is whiskeys. My fascination started with the exploration of whiskeys and what I knew to be true about them at the Italian restaurant that I worked at a Johnnie Walker Black Label which was a complimentary drink that I used to indulge in after a hard day’s work.
1. Macallens a single malt Scotch whisky
2. Jameson Irish Whiskey 12 Yr Special Reserve
3. Johnnie Walker Black Label 12 Yr
4. Pure Kentucky, Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Lately, due to the Christmas and holiday season my taste buds have entered into a smorgasbord of new experiences. One of my newest experiments is whiskeys. My fascination started with the exploration of whiskeys and what I knew to be true about them at the Italian restaurant that I worked at a Johnnie Walker Black Label which was a complimentary drink that I used to indulge in after a hard day’s work.
Black Label: an 80 proof (40%
ABV) blend of about 40 whiskies each aged at least 12 years. Originally known
as Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky, the Johnnie Walker brand is a legacy left by
John "Johnnie" Walker after he started to sell whisky in his grocer's
shop in Ayrshire, Scotland. The word whisky (or whiskey) is an Anglicization of
the Gaelic word uisce or uisge meaning water. Distilled alcohol was known in
Latin as aqua vitae = "water of life" I had never given it much
thought when I drank Johnny Walker Black it was simply as far as I was
concerned at the time the best Scotch that you could purchase without taking a
mortgage out on your house. Scotch is malt whisky or grain whisky made in
Scotland. All Scotch whisky was originally made from malt barley. Commercial
distilleries began introducing whisky made from wheat and rye in the late
eighteenth century.
Scotch whisky is divided into
five distinct categories: single malt Scotch whisky, single grain Scotch
whisky, blended malt Scotch whisky (formerly called "vatted malt" or
"pure malt"), blended grain Scotch whisky, and blended Scotch whisky.
All Scotch whisky must be aged in
oak barrels for at least three years. Any age statement on a bottle of Scotch
whisky, expressed in numerical form, must reflect the age of the youngest
whisky used to produce that product. A whiskey with an age statement is known as
guaranteed-age whisky.
The first written mention of
Scotch whiskey is in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1495.
After some deep thought, and
maybe a few drinks later I had come to the conclusion that I knew nothing about whiskey. So I did some digging.
Whiskey is a type of distilled
alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used
for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye,
wheat, and corn. Whiskey is typically aged in wooden casks, made generally of
charred white oak. Whiskeys come from all over the world some of the countries
around the world that make whiskeys are American whiskeys, Australian whiskies,
Canadian whiskies, Danish whiskies, English whiskies, Finnish whiskies, German
whiskies, Indian whiskies, Irish whiskeys, Japanese whiskies, Scotch whiskies,
Welsh whiskies.
Now since I have not experienced all
of these whiskeys I cannot say whether or not one whiskey is better then the other but I can tell you how I feel about the ones I have tried. So, the following is a list and the history of the ones I have tried.
My latest experiment is with the
“Bourbon whiskey” of Pure Kentucky
straight Bourbon whiskey. Pure
Kentucky XO, Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
is distilled, aged and bottled in Kentucky at 53.5% alc./vol. (107 proof). Pure Kentucky is an all-natural
product. Made with all natural ingredients and pure limestone water,
it is a true masterpiece among Kentucky's finest Bourbons. We hand-bottle this
bourbon, extra old, in very limited quantities, one small batch at a time.
It took me a while to really get
a taste of Bourbon whiskey. You really get a sense of that wood like taste that you get from the barrels used in the
fermentation process in my experience especially with whiskeys like Johnny
Walker that harsh alcohol taste is somehow aerated an off that cannot get punched
in the face by the alcohol and really get a taste of the drink.
My first attempt at drinking the
Pure Kentucky Bourbon whiskey was that it was too hard to drink. After
receiving an aeration device for whiskey and spirits for a Christmas present I have
since become to like this Bourbon whiskey and give it a 7 out of 10. Where as I
would give Black Label a 8/9 out of 10.
Before I started dabbling with
this Pure Kentucky whiskey I had my eye on a bottle of “James Bond 007’s brand
Macallens a single malt Scotch whisky distillery in Craigellachie, Moray. Macallan
was "the world’s third largest-selling single malt (behind Glenfiddich and
Glenlivet) with over 500,000 cases a year, and second largest by value." Since
the Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 came into force labelling of bottles of
Scotch whisky has been regulated, and currently produced bottles of The
Macallan indicate it is a Highland Single Malt. However the website for the
brand indicates that "The Original and Spiritual Home" of The
Macallan is Speyside, an area near Strathspey. n 2007, a bottle of 1926 The
Macallan was sold at a Christie's auction for $54,000, making it one of the
most expensive bottles of liquor ever sold
Now, These facts do not in my opinion
hurt the prestige of this product or the taste I do believe that for the money
this is by far the best whiskey I have had to date. I give it a 10 out of 10 as
of this day 25 Dec. 2012.
29 Dec. 2012- Today I purchased Jameson Irish Whiskey. I have
used my aeration device and have been very happy with the outcome. Jameson is a
single distillery Irish whiskey produced by a division of the French distiller
Pernod Ricard. Jameson is similar in its adherence to the single distillery
principle to the single malt tradition, but Jameson blends column still spirit
with Single pot still whiskey, a combination of malted barley with unmalted or
"green" barley distilled in a pot still. The company was established
in 1780 when John Jameson established the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin.
Jameson was Scottish, a lawyer from Alloa who had married Margaret Haig, a
sister of the brothers who founded the main Haig firms, and related to the
Steins, a Scottish distilling family with interests in Dublin. Portraits of
John and Margaret Jameson by Sir Henry Raeburn are in the collection of the
National Gallery of Ireland.
In my opinion this is a whiskey that I would definately keep drinking. The one that I tried was a 12 yr old Special Reserve which cost about $45. I would say that it is comparable to the Black Label but with a little more of a mellow kick. This is on the other hand very funny when you think about it. In order for a whiskey to have the more prestigious label of Scotch it has to be bore in Scotland but yet i would consider a Scotsman making whiskey in Ireland "Scotch" but that's my opinion.
Any who, I give this bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey a 9 out of 10.
I will keep this blog up to date
as my experiments continue.
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