Bourbon

The second in a series of "open bottle" tastings...this one "Best of Rye!" We both brought four rye winners from previous tastings. John might have brought one for our guest taster...Howard! Fuggles was a no show! Does Fuggles not like rye?

So we decided to have a few rounds of "best-ofs." This one was bourbon. We were supposed to each bring four of our winners from previous rounds. Can you tell which one of us didn't follow instructions?

After the last two tasting, I'd exhausted my supply of exciting whiskey. So I phoned it in. John? I guess he can blame Audra for sleep deprivation.

Lucky 13! I wasn't going to be able to top my entries from last tasting, but I had some stuff I thought John would find interesting (and one I thought would win to hedge my bets). Unknowingly, John brought all bourbon, too.

So, I've been taking the easy road the last few tastings: playing to win. I felt John was a little uninspired by my choices, so with a little luck from the bourbon gods, I decided to bring all things John would find "interesting." John decided to bring all rye.

I didn't think we'd have a tasting so soon after John's baby. I had already decided to not buy anymore bourbon. But John seemed disappointed when I misused my vocabulary and said: "I've got crap I could bring." "Crap" doesn't necessarily imply bad in my vocabulary. But I felt bad, so I bought a few bottles. Plus, I don't like to lose. Oh, John would like to say he was actually 6 minutes early to this tasting!

The big "X". This will probably be our last tasting for awhile: John's baby is due in a month. He thinks he will be able to get away. But I am pretty doubtful.

Since we don't know what each other is bringing, it's always interesting to see what is revealed at the end. In this case, we tacked heavily back to bourbon...

I was actually sick for this tasting. I didn't tell anyone, though. But that's why the posting is so late. We had had a brick oven potluck the day before, and I probably over did it.

Finally, we're outdoors again! Yeah, summer! I now fully embrace high-proof ryes for tastings because we have a tendancy to pick them. Although, personally, I'm still not convinced I like rye.

After last time, I was determined not to get shut out of the final round. So I pulled a John and snuck some rye in. I also picked a high-proof bourbon (knowing John's a sucker for the heat).

We finally managed to only bring four bourbons each. This was a good thing because we could enjoy a few drinks of the good stuff at the end. Which, unfortunately for me, all happened to be from John.

Attending? The usual suspects.. except Fuggles. He had better things to do, like chase mice. We were only going to bring four each, but John has too much bourbon. So two rounds of five and then a final round were he snuck in yet another one!

We tried to make this one as blind as possible. John brought six, I brought six and we didn't tell each other what we were bringing. Marya randomly choose and put in glasses marked on the bottom and she noted them on cards. Then I mix them up and labeled the fronts. As blind as we could make it without having Jeeves around.

The dilemma: how to do a blind tasting if everyone is drinking? So, Marya and I did a test run. I put all my open bourbon in the kitchen. I labeled the bottom of glasses with symbols and papers with matching symbols (folded so symbol is not visible). I left the kitchen. She picked four and poured and wrote the items on the paper and put them some where. I came in, changed the order and marked the glasses with letters.

Marya, Ryan, John and Fuggles taste 13 bourbons and wheated whiskeys.

Ryan, John, Marya and Fuggles have their first tasting featuring 11 bourbons.