Episode 15 - A special occasion. Tasting the Balvenie PortWood 21 Year Single Malt Scotch

Hello everyone,

There's one thing that none of us can stop, and that is getting older.  This year, Lance turned 50 - much to his chagrin.  And while he is now officially classified as an "old fart", one great benefit is that he did get some particularly GREAT gifts for his birthday and one of the standouts was a 21 year old single malt from Scotland - the Balvenie Portwood.

To say that tasting this bottle of scotch is a treat is an understatement.  It is incredibly well balanced, almost delicate believe it or not.  The port finishing gives it a slight sweetness, like from a raisin and the finish lingers an amazingly long time.  It's just an amazing bottle of scotch!

Since this was a special gift to Lance for his birthday from Jeff, we could not really discuss pricing in the review but suffice to say, this is a special review for us as this scotch is way outside the lines that we've setup for this blog.  It's not cheap.  At all.  But with that said, it does deliver an exceptional value and from that perspective, it succeeds mightily.  You pay more, but you certainly get more - and as long as that is true, that's just fine with us.

We hope you are lucky enough to be able to get your hands on a dram of Balvenie Portwood 17 or 21 at some point in your life.  Life is short and unpredictable, but we can each count our lucky stars if we get the chance to be able to stop and savor something that took nearly half of our lifetime to create.

We wish you success, happiness and a great dram as you move through each chapter of your life.  Slainte!!

Lance & Jeff

Our video review of the Balvenie PortWood 21 from Jeff's back porch on a warm summer evening  - accompanied by a fine cigar.  Does it get any better?   :)

Episode 14 - Trader Joe's to the rescue?

Hello again everyone,

Over the last several years, the Trader Joe's grocery store chain has expanded significantly across the United States and they've developed a devout following (yours truly included).  Based on the idea of finding great deals, a fixed operating margin (never any "sales") and great customer service, they have gained a reputation as a great place to find new and unusual foods, off-brand bargains and a very long list of products featuring their own in-house brand.

This pattern of Trader Joe's products goes way back to when Joe C would go out to producers of wine, cheese and other products and offer to buy up the full remaining lots of those products - if they were of good quality - under the TJ's label.

While this started out with wine, it soon moved over to other forms of alcohol.  In many states, you can now buy a variety of alcoholic beverages under the TJ's name - usually at bargain basement prices. Sometimes, you do get what you pay for and other times, you can get a great bargain and with this in mind, we decided to taste test the Trader Joe's Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey.

This is a very young whiskey that the Trader Joe's website describes as... "Produced for us in Bardstown, Kentucky (in Nelson County), our Bourbon is sweet, fruity and spicy with hints of brown sugar and oak—it is aged for a minimum of two years in new (charred) white oak barrels. Its finish is long, appreciably spicy and dry, with accents of vanilla that linger on your tongue. "

For $14.99 (ok, it is $15.99 here in Massachusetts) how can you go wrong?   Watch the short video review below to see what we thought of this bargain priced bourbon.  And as always, enjoy in good health!

Lance & Jeff

Episode 13 - Knob Creek Smoked Maple Bourbon Review

Greetings once again, fellow whiskey fans!

Well, we had so much fun last time shooting our whiskey tasting review outdoors that we decided to do it again.  Once again, from the world-famous Jeff back porch lounge and target practice range, we dive into our first try at a flavored whiskey.

These days, when you go into a liquor store, there are all sorts of flavored liquors on the shelf.  Vodka obviously being the most overdone of all (Orange cream, seriously?) but no doubt financially successful.
Now we are seeing flavored tequilas, and of course, flavored whiskey.  In some cases, these flavors bring with them an unwanted level of sweetness and syrupy texture, so we approached the Knob Creek Smoked Maple with some reservations.  While you will need to watch the 9-minute video review below to get the full story, we found it to be both reasonably priced and not overly done with the syrup.

At some point, this flavored thing might get so carried away that distillers will be made to put a list of ingredients on the bottle - but lets hope it never comes to that.  Besides, we really do not want to know what sort of chemicals go into some of those weird flavors.  For now, we will blissfully go on thinking that real Vermont maple syrup is delivered in barrels on horseback to Kentucky where it is distilled down and mixed into whiskey like the Knob Creek by stunningly attractive young maidens in Daisy Dukes.  It just tastes that much better when you have that image along for the ride.

Salut!
Jeff and Lance

Episode 12 - Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban

It's spring time in New England - or at least it was when we taped this episode.  And of course, when it is spring, a young man's mind will turn to... well, many things - most of them involving some form of procreation.

Well - neither of us are that young anymore so our minds instead turn to tasting Scotch! (some of the time anyway)  :) And because the weather is finally well above freezing, we had to do our tasting outdoors and bring in the services of a finn cigar.  And that is what you have hear my friends - a couple of guys who have clearly been trapped inside too long and very glad to be out on the porch on a warm spring evening.

What better way to relax after a less-than-thrilling day at the office then with a fine Scotch that also does not cost you everything you just made for the day.  That's what you get with the Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban. Perfectly suited for a nightcap after dinner, we found it also does very well by itself before dinner along with a decent cigar.  You may not be into cigars, but we know you will enjoy learning more about the Quinta Ruban.  Grab a glass of whatever you like and join us for the next several minutes.

Salut!
Jeff and Lance

Episode 11 - W.L. Weller Special Reserve Bourbon

Hi everyone,

In this episode, we investigate the W.L. Weller Bourbon.  Made at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, it shares the same great heritage as Buffalo Trace of course, but also more expensive whiskeys made at the same site - most notably, the legendary Pappy van Winkle Bourbon which sells for hundreds of dollars per bottle, assuming you can find it.

Our goal is to find real value in whiskey so that you can enjoy the best without having to be a Wall Street Wolf with unlimited funds. In this case, we think we have really succeeded.  You can learn more at the Buffalo Trace website or better yet, we recommended the minute you find it at your local liquor store, you buy two bottles (at least), bring em home, and try it for yourself.  Yes - its that smooth and that good.

Enjoy in good health, drive safely, and we will see you next time at the RGGTW.

Cheers!

Episode 10 - Glenfarclas 12 Year scotch Whisky

Hey everyone,

Thanks for visiting us again here at the RGGTW blog - yes, we have our own trademarked 5 letter acronym now, and we are so proud!  Perhaps someday we will come up with a cool logo and start selling t-shirts.  Or perhaps not...

This go-around we are checking out the Glenfarclas 12 year old Scotch.  Lance picked this up on sale recently so that we could check it out here on the blog.  We had never heard of it before but hey, we are always willing to check out new stuff so we decided to fire it up. 

Turns out that this is still an independent, family run distillery in Scotland.  Cool!  These days, so many distilleries and wineries are owned by mega-corps that it is refreshing to come across an independent company making a go of it.  We tasted one of their whiskys near the low-end of their offerings, the 12-year single malt,  It is finished in sherry casks, as is the tendency at many distilleries these days. 

On their website, they mention that they 12 year Scotch is "Bottled for export and travel retail markets". This means that they are either saving the best for themselves in the UK or they are sending us their best stuff.

Watch our review video here and you will get a pretty good idea which we think it is. Slainte!

Episode 9 - Balvenie Doublewood 12-year Single Malt Scotch

Hello again everyone!

We are back with an all new episode!  this go-around, we feature the Balvenie Doublewood 12-year single malt scotch.  It's widely available and at a reasonable price point, though slightly more than we usually feature on this blog.  It's one of those consistent, great scotches that represents a solid value and we hope you enjoy our review.

This time, the camera behaved itself, there was no operator-error and lo and behold, we think we have an informative and entertaining review for your viewing pleasure.  To all of our whisky friends out there... Salut!

Jeff and Lance - aka the regular Whiskey Blog Guys