Here's a vote for Old Tub.
What's your go-to bottom shelf whisky?
- Thread starter Whisky&Steak
- Start date
For years, my "bottom shelf" whiskey was Evan Williams black label or Evan Williams 1783. Recently, I've made the switch to Old Forester 86.
For $20, this is not bad!
Agreed! I've tried it and like it.
Evan Williams Bottled In Bond is my Go-To bourbon nowadays, along with George Dickel.
I have one bottle of EW BiB to go once we are coming out of winter and then I will have it side by side with WT 101 to see who will take the budget spot.
Through the generosity of our son in law the distiller and an impulse buying trip to liquor store, we had a recent month or more of reveling in higher end whiskies. Now we have returned to EW BIB. In an Oscar Foxtrot it definitely holds own.
Lots of good whiskies mentioned here, but bottom shelf is where the cheap stuff is, if that's was the OP's idea. There are a lot of cheap whiskies and whiskeys. For me, it's probably Jim Beam in bourbon, Black Velvet for Canadian, Old Overholt for rye, and Cutty Sark for scotch. These all mix well, though I would not appreciate them straight.
Actually, I just had a look at the prices where I am in Maryland and was a bit surprised. Evan Williams regular black label is fairly cheap at $13 and change for 750 ml. I think EW is decent, but would probably go for the BIB. I think of Old Overholt as cheap but it was several dollars more. I do not like it all. Jim Beam was about like the Overholt in price. It seems okay to me but not as good as the EW. Cutty is about a buck or two than the Beam. Black Velvet is very cheap. I am not the one to ask about cheap Scotch or about Canadian at all. I can see more uses for cheap bourbon and rye than cheap Scotch!
Right-O on the cheap scotch, Rob! And I agree with your assessments of drinkability of the various whiskies and whiskeys I mentioned; they're cheap, but not so good, though usable in mixed drinks. By the way, relative prices of the rot-gut end of the whiskey scale have changed a bit over time. For instance, my only rye choices in the '80's and '90's were Jim Beam Rye, Rittenhouse 100 proof, and Old Overholt. They were all made by the same company. Price was in the order listed with Jim Beam Rye the most costly and Old Overholt at the bottom. Now there are many choices, and better. I preferred Rittenhouse back then, and I still do, among those three I mentioned, so I still keep a bottle of that around. It doesn't seem long ago that I used to get it for about $11 per fifth, and $9 for a fifth of Old Overcoat (what my dad called it). I do not much like cocktails with scotch as the spirit, such as Blood & Sand, Rob Roy, Bobby Burns, etc, so I don't keep much blended scotch around. If it's scotch I drink it is a single malt -- Talisker 10 and Macallan 12 or Balvenie Doublewood are my favorites there -- none of those are inexpensive these days. How about some Aberlour A'bunabh -- that's another of my favorites.
I actually get compliments on the whisky sours I make with Black Velvet. Then again, if mixed properly, the whisky in a sour is quite covered. Make sure you use a little egg white in your whisky sours (shake the devil out of it to make a 1/8 inch thick foamy top); it really smooths the drink. By the way, you know that the Canadian whisky style is the rye style, right? -- And rye whisky is never really all rye, because the gluten in the grain clogs up the mash making it hard to sparge off the wort. In fact only a little bit of wheat (rye) is necessary to call the whisky "rye". The rest is corn. The wheat gives it its "tangy" bite. You'll notice that same bite in a wheat beer (Weissbier).
Cheers!
Tony
I lean WT here.
wow,that is a knowledgeable post. I really like Rittenhouse, too. I like your Scotch picks, especially Talisker. I knew Canadian was mostly rye. somehow I do not love it as much as American ryes.
I might have more later! good stuff!
I might have more later! good stuff!
Ahh . . . Talisker 10! A sort of black peppery finish. Robert Louis Stevenson's whisky. Talisker 18 rounds off the sharp black pepper finish of 10, and I didn't like it as much. Then again, price has stopped me from buying more than the one bottle of 18 I ever had, so maybe I just didn't spend enough time to get with whatever subtleties 18 had. Life is so short . . . can't have it all, I guess . . . As a most interesting fellow once said:
“I want to live to be 105, and I mean to. I want to live to be a very old man. I'm enchanted with life. But no matter how long I live, I still won't have time for all the things I want to do, I won't hear all the music I want to hear, I won't be able to read all the books I want to read, I won't have all the women I want to have, I won't be able to do a twentieth of the things I want to do.”
-- Alfonso de Portago (11 October 1928 – 12 May 1957)
Monkey shoulder is easy to get where I´m from. Can´t go wrong with this one.
I believe I mentioned this a couple of times already but Famous Grouse 12 is/was great. I’m just not sure if it is still available.
Singleton of Dufftown 12y and Tamnavulin Double Cask respectively Sherry should all be at the price or below Monkey Shoulder and might surprise you taste wise
Great post! It is interesting that the regular Talisker is only 10 years old. I do not remember whether I have had the 18. Seems to me I must have and I am guessing it did not blow me away enough to justify my buying any. To me most 18 year old Scotches are much better than the 12 year old versions, I think not just because another 6 years in the barrell, but because they pick the best barrells to age the additional years. But I do not think most 18 year olds are worth the addtional cost. Scotch does not have to be ultra smooth or untra refined for me to really like it.
Monkey Shoulders is a great deal. Nice Scotch, if one likes the underlying style, which I sure do!
Bourbon-cask blend from the House of Grant: is it worth double the price of Grant's?
I do not really know Grants. It seems to come in a number of expressions. I assume you are referring to the least expensive of the line, about $16.99 locally. Monkey Shoulders is about $30.99, which seems higher than it was recently.
I would expect to be worth it. The basic Grants seems to be a blended Scotch, so single malt whisky blended with grain whisky. I did not see what region the malts were supposedly from. MS is a vatted malt, so a blend solely of single malts, said to be all Speyside, with actual distillers not publicly known, with no grain whisky, so I would expect it to be more expensive.
I notice the MS web site says MS was "made for mixing." I personally do not think any Scotch is made for mixing!
Wikipedia says MS is apparently the third best selling Scotch in the world these days, after Johnny Walker and The MacCallan. An interesting comparison, JW has any number of expressions, and, as I recall, MacCallan has quite a few itself. MS has only two expressions. Impressive on MS's part. It seems that MS sells big to bars.
I would not say MS is a big favorite of mine. But I like it. At $31 not the deal it used to be. My brother likes Scotch, but hates MS. I would probably tend more to whatever single malts Costco is carrying at any particular time as bigger favorites for me.
I have told you more than I know!
