The Noble Dram | What's in a Bottle Count (Season 2 | Ep. 17)

Every whiskey lover has been there.

You're standing in the liquor store when a bottle catches your eye. You've never seen it before. No reviews. No recommendations. No awards on the label. Just a bottle... asking you to take a chance.

So what do you do?

In this episode of The Noble Dram, Gavin and Aaron dive into the psychology of buying whiskey when you don't know what's inside the bottle. How much research is enough? Are YouTube reviews and ratings helping or ruining the fun of discovery? And is taking a chance on an unknown bottle one of the best parts of the whiskey hobby?

Together they discuss:
🥃 What makes a bottle worth the risk
🥃 How bottle shares help you discover new favorites
🥃 Whether reviews influence your buying decisions
🥃 The excitement—and disappointment—of buying blind
🥃 How often your favorite whiskey started as a complete unknown

🥃 How many bottles should you have on your shelf?

On the table:
 🥃 EH Taylor - Barrel Proof Uncut & Unfiltered - Batch #11
 🥃 Lagavulin 12 - 2018 Edition

Sometimes the best bottles are the ones nobody told you to buy.

So before you reach for the latest hyped release, maybe it's worth asking...

When was the last time you took a chance on a whiskey?

🥃 Join the conversation!
What's the best "random" bottle you've ever picked up? Have you ever discovered an incredible whiskey simply because the label caught your eye? Or have you been burned by taking a gamble? Let us know in the comments!

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and ring the bell so you never miss a pour with The Noble Dram.

🥃 Cheers!

New episodes drop every Thursday.🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or iHeartRadio
📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-UPaemcZpM4

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Transcript

Gavin 0:00

Gavin, quick question for you. What's your count? What you you mean my body count?

Aaron 0:06

No, no, no, no. No, your bottle count.

Gavin 0:09

Oh. Well, it kind of depends. Am I bragging to my buddies or am I talking to my wife? Well, either way, you're gonna lie.

Aaron 0:55

It is so great to have you with us. So, one of the problems Gavin and I have each and every week is trying to decide what to sip on air. Is that an actual problem? You'd think it would be great, but it's not, right? It has this problem of so many options, and it's difficult to decide. One of the things that I've always loved about having a big whiskey room full of brown water is letting somebody else pick my whiskey for me. Right? So this week, Gavin had a brilliant idea. He said we shouldn't pick at all. We should let fate decide. So tonight we do a completely random selection. So I'm trying to make this as double blinded so neither Gavin nor I know where we're going. So I have with me, I have my I have my laptop here. On my laptop, I keep a spreadsheet because I'm way too nerdy. That is every bottle in the room. So they are numbered. The heading is row one. So you get row two through row 482 as of this morning. Okay. But I don't want you to just pick a number because a number then just gives us a spot, and it would be somewhat easy to decide where in the room you wanted to go. So we're each going to pick a number, and then we're each going to pick a category, and I'm going to reorder the list based upon the category to make this somewhat double blind. So, Gavin, first and foremost, let me get on a piece of note paper so I can write this down. Okay. You're going to pick a number between two and four hundred and eighty two.

Gavin 2:50

Okay. Um let's go uh 186. 186. Okay. I'm gonna write this down.

Aaron 3:00

Right? That's right. I don't cheat. Um I'll go higher. 312. 312. Okay. Okay, now I need you to pick a category. I'll give you a list of the categories so you have them. You've got the bottle name, the distillery, the bottler, in the event that it's not the same as the distillery, the stated age, the ABV, the bottle size, the barrel type, the price I paid, the whiskey style, the region it came from, and the purchase date, in sequential order of year, month, date. So it always runs in order.

Gavin 3:46

For Pete's sake, dude, that's a lot of categories. Give me a category. Wow, that's a lot of categories. Okay. Um well, because we just did a few weeks back the barrel episode. How about we go barrel? Barrel type. Barrel type.

Aaron 4:05

Okay. And I get to pick a uh category. I'm gonna uh I like barrel type. It would have been the one I'd have picked. Let's go region for me. Ooh, region, okay. Barrel. Now just to truly make it fully randomized, we're gonna do barrel type ordered from Z to A, and we'll do region from A to Z. Okay. Okay. Okay, that makes sense. Z, Zeta to Alpha, Alpha to Zeta. Okay, let's see what we get here.

Gavin 4:41

We need like some sound effects in here.

Aaron 4:43

Yeah, no, you you talk you talk about something wonderful.

Gavin 4:46

Something wonderful. So the thing that I like about this that that made us think about doing this kind of episode. It's kind of like whenever you go to a uh somebody's back patio, like here, and uh there's just a several guys or ladies, and they all bring a bottle. You never know what you're gonna get.

Aaron 5:10

All right, I need you to write this down. The bottle Gavin selected. Okay, sorry, my number Gavin's type turns out to be EH Taylor Barrel proof, uncut, unfiltered batch number 11. Sorry, I I interrupted you. Let me uh let me reset in a different order here. We'll do by whiskey region.

Gavin 5:38

You said batch 11. Okay, batch 11. And then so while while he's doing that, I'm gonna find EH Taylor barrel proof uncut unfiltered batch 11.

Aaron 5:51

Um I I'm I'm that OCD. They're in alphabetical order, you'll find it.

Gavin 5:57

Okay. Uh so as I'm gonna I'm gonna probably be off camera a little bit here. That's okay.

Aaron 6:02

Um so the the the ladies the ladies will get to see you from behind now. Uh oh, uh oh. Uh uh. Mom, look away.

Gavin 6:11

Mom, look away. Uh oh. It's too much. Um it's a rotisserie. It's a rotisserie. Get your EH Taylor. E.H. Taylor. Okay.

Aaron 6:19

Gavin's number, number 186, sorted by region, happens to be the one, the only Laga Vulan 12-year 2018 release. Okay. That's it, right there.

Gavin 6:36

And I I know where your logas are, so they're right where God wants them.

Aaron 6:41

Right at close range. Close range. All right, here's your loga. All right. Now I guess we have to decide who gets to pour first. Um, I think we need to go. I'm afraid to do anything after logoin. So I think we should go with the H. Taylor first. I agree with that. I fully expect this to be screaming out. So um yeah. But what else today? This is gonna be fun. All right, gotta pour for us. Okay, then you hit me a page for some notes here. Let's do this.

Gavin 7:13

Look at that, look at that. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I like the color on that one right out of the gates. Right out of the gates. So this is let me double check here. Um, 129 proof. So it's for screaming for the day, baby. Screaming eagles.

Aaron 7:34

Fur You don't have to over the one for me. I can I can tell you that. Uh oh, good lord. You're gonna love it. I'm afraid to tip that glass over. I think that one's I think those are both overshots. All right. We may we may end up with a little left in the glass at the end of the day. All right, bottles. I'm not gonna put it over here where everybody can see it. Make it look pretty. All right.

Gavin 7:57

Uh, so since we did this truly random.

Aaron 8:02

I was gonna say, how much do you like normally? We would fill in all the details. You're gonna have to read the bottle.

Gavin 8:07

Yeah, so this that we know of, right? Because we've had each tailor on the show. You're right there. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. Um, Buffalo Trace Distillery. This should be mash bill number one.

Aaron 8:22

I believe this to be the Uno.

Gavin 8:23

Yes. Um, and uh, let's see. No age statement. Um, but there is some things that we've learned on doing some research on some other bottles. There's some rumors out there of what people think go into this bottle. But I hesitate to say that because I don't know if it's true or not. But yeah, it's never stopped us before.

Aaron 8:49

All right. We often say shit that we I won't say no is untrue, but we have no basis by which to believe it to be true, but we just like the story, so we say.

Gavin 8:59

So I think that the somewhere between like eight-ish years, maybe a little younger. Um somewhere right around there, probably six to eight years or something.

Aaron 9:10

High in the Rick House, too. This one has gone up in the heat.

Gavin 9:13

So, as I was mentioning, kind of the antithesis of this was to go back to how we started uh the podcast and really be on the back patio and bottle shares and all those kind of things. You never know what's gonna happen and the the random nature of a bottle share. Also, thinking about going into a bottle shop, right? And you're walking down the aisle, and you may not know what you're going in for, or maybe you do somebody mention something in passing of hey, there's this bottle. If you can find it, go get it.

Aaron 9:51

Yeah, I so I mean, one of the let's start with this. One of the things that I think happens when you don't have very many whiskeys, you don't want to take a flyer on something you've never heard of or never tried because God, if you get home and it's not good, yeah. It's one of the one or two bottles you have, like that means you gotta suck it up, butter cup. Yeah, I was gonna say put on your big boy pants and and get after it. Um yeah, and so I will say, at least for me, in my own personal journey, it wasn't until I, by definition, I had a collection of whiskeys that I felt comfortable to walk into the store and just kind of take something off the shelf. Or like I've heard of those guys, but never tried anything. Let's give it a shot, right? Um, and and truly take a flyer on a bottle. I mean, it's a whole lot easier when you're on somebody's back patio and they got a bottle and you're like, well, I'll take this flash of that. It's not costing me anything, and if I hate it, I can just pour it over my shoulder. I guess that makes life a whole lot less uh less daunting.

Gavin 11:03

Absolutely. Um I've taken a lot of flyers over the years, and it's a hot one.

Aaron 11:11

It's a hot one.

Gavin 11:12

It's hot. It's for the first pour of the day, and it's early in the day for us. Uh it's not morning. It's not morning.

Aaron 11:20

We we are we are past the noon hour.

Gavin 11:22

Actually, I I this is not my first pour of the day. I guess I should fess up.

Aaron 11:26

Oh good lord. This is what happens when giving them a thing to do during the day. He just gets to drinking.

Gavin 11:31

I went and got a little hair trim, and my barber poured me uh there are worse, there are worse ways to get your hair trimmed.

Aaron 11:38

So I I go to the barber just so that way I can have drinks. Yeah, it makes perfect sense to me. Yeah. So, question that often comes up. How familiar do you feel like you need to be with a bottle before you're willing to spend a set dollar amount on it? I.e., I assume there is a lie if you're charting this out as to do I know if I like it, and or un on one end is unknown, and on the other is I absolutely know. And on the other, on the other scale is zero dollars all the way up to some dollar amount. There's a line on there that says, Well, the more I know I'm gonna like it, the more I'm willing to spend on it. Where is that where is that tip over point where like I kind of gotta know if I'm gonna spend that kind of money on a bottle? And I know everybody's different, but for you, where's that?

Gavin 12:35

It's a good question. I I think it just depends on what style of whiskey.

Aaron 12:43

Uncommittal gathering. Well, that's what we're that's what we're calling.

Gavin 12:46

What style of whiskey? Are we talking a scotch? Are we talking a bourbon? Right? I think depending on those two things, your tipping point might be a little different. Um, it may be different. I may have never had it, but there may, excuse me, there may have been a recommendation. And do I trust that recommendation? Do I trust that podcast? Do I trust that um person who told me, oh, there's this bottle and it's delightful and it's delicious and it's 68 bucks. Am I gonna take a flyer on it? Um, so I think it just depends on that. I think I think for a bourbon, um, like 50 bucks is like my cutoff.

Aaron 13:32

Like 50, 60 bucks for for a complete flyer, don't know anything about the bottle. Don't know anything about it for 50 six bucks. I will say it depends how close I am to pay. Oh, there's that. On the Friday you get paid, like screw it, throw it in the cart, let's do this, right? Uh 14 days later, when you're like, I don't get paid until tomorrow. I probably should hold off a little bit. Um, for scotch. We we just had to replace the water heater at the house.

Gavin 14:03

Probably better put that one back, right? Um, those unexpected medical bills will get you.

Aaron 14:12

Yes, we had a butt we had a buddy said I'd love to have two bottles, but I just had an unexpected medical bill. Better make it just one.

Gavin 14:20

Um, and then for a scotch, I feel like uh it goes up a little bit more. We're probably pushing 80 bucks for me to say I'm gonna maybe take a flyer on it or not.

Aaron 14:31

Yeah, I so often so often you're you're picking a single barrel or a single bottling or it's a limited release. So it is ultimately uh a dart throw, right? Right. Um but you you hedge your bet by saying, I've had stuff from that distillery, I've had stuff from that region, I've had stuff of that style. Um like you you're always kind of hedging bets. But the truth of the matter is, with a few small exceptions, I don't often go back and buy another one of the same bottle. Right? Okay. I there are some staples. Hang on. Yep, that's a lot of floor whiskey and a lot of doubles. No, not not as many as you'd think, right? Um there are some, but like I I couldn't imagine not having one of those in in the room at any given moment, right? Um some of them are I like that one, and it was so hard to get a hold of that when an opportunity to grab another one comes along, I'm gonna go ahead and throw it in the cart. Um knock on wood, that those days are falling behind us as whiskies become a little bit more commonly available. We don't feel like we have to snatch them up right away because you never know when you're gonna find another one of them. Um, that was always a tough one for me is that you go to the store and come home with four bottles, but you realize you didn't buy anything you didn't already have.

Gavin 16:06

Yeah.

Aaron 16:06

So you didn't get to open anything when you came home. Like it felt anticlimactic to go out and and whiskey hunt. Um if you just ended up buying stuff you already had.

Gavin 16:17

Do you ever feel like whenever you're drinking um on a bottle or two or however many, and you've got just like what's your what's your limit before you really like, okay, I just gotta finish that bottle? Is it you know, you get uh just a couple pours left? Are you kind of like, well, it gets to this point and you've got to finish it because you know, now there's air in it and all the functions.

Aaron 16:44

I'm not saying that over an extended period of time that the whiskey does not change and does not oxidize and does not off-gas lighter compounds. I I get all of that. There is this the the little devil on one shoulder and the angel on the other shoulder, right? And one of them says it's just taking up space on your shelf. You've got other whiskeys you'd like to get out and on display, and you'd love to open, and and you need to finish it. And then on the other shoulder, it's like, yeah, but what if next week that's the day where you're like, I just I wish I had one last pour of that. Like it would it would make sense to save it. And so for me, I waffle back and forth. I tend to save those for a period of time and then realize I've got all I've got six, seven, eight of them in the room. Like it's it's time to rotate the stock, so to speak. And and we'll have guys over, and and the the intent is guys, you if you open that bottle for a pour, you drink the rest of that bottle. Get rid of it so we can get out of here. Once we get down to one or two glasses left. Um, so yeah, I I'm not trying to be non-committal here, but like Yeah, you're being me right now. No, no, it's uh what I'll say is there's a period of time where I feel like I want to hold on to them, like I don't want to lose them, so to speak. Right. And then at some point you realize they're just collecting dust and it's time to move them on. Um it's like your old baseball card collection or uh insert whatever hobby you had in your teenage years that you're like, I can't get rid of these. Like I we've still got tubs of Legos from when I was a child, right? That are like, well, no, you're not we're not gonna get rid of those.

Gavin 18:29

Well, you were a child.

Aaron 18:31

I I my boys are now old enough that they don't play with Legos either. And it saddens me because it was like one of my favorite things to do was sit and play Legos with the boys. Legos are pretty fun.

Gavin 18:41

I mean, even as an adult, Legos are pretty fun.

Aaron 18:44

Yeah, the problem is as you get older, your creativity of Legos wanes, and you just build what it says to build. And some of the best things I ever made was just me making spaceships uh in the basement when I was a kid.

Gavin 18:59

Yeah, we make a lot of castles and things like that um in our house. So when you're walking down the aisle, um, so you asked me kind of the normally the guy stands at the front, she walks down the aisle, but go on. Whatever. Um, you were you were asking about kind of that tipping point. I want to know what is like Aaron's rule when you're walking down an aisle and you're gazing at different bottles, and you may not have had this or you may not have had that. What tends to push Aaron over the limit to be able to purchase that bottle that you've never tasted before?

Aaron 19:39

Um I know this will sound stupid. I tend to trust the rando stranger standing in the aisle also whiskey shopping, as much, if not more, than I trust the guy in the aisle trying to sell me whiskey. Okay. Um, you do have to wade through a little bit. Best thing you can do is say, hey man, if have you ever had this, ask a bottle that you've already tried just to see what they say.

Gavin 20:07

Okay.

Aaron 20:07

All right, because then ultimately, if they say, No, I really like that one, you're like, Yeah, I thought it was garbage. I don't don't ask him a follow-up question, right? Um, and so if you can get to a point where whether it's a podcast that you listen to or something, right? That they like you, I I tend to agree with what he says and and tastings. Um whether it's I taste the same thing he tastes or not, doesn't matter. Does he enjoy it? And if he enjoys it and I tend to enjoy the things he enjoys, perfect. I'm gonna I'm gonna go get one of those. Um I I'll say personally, my rules of thumb, don't ever bend over at a liquor store. Anything that is is on the shelves that close to the floor, you don't need to be buying. Right? There was a joke in the I know, I know there was, I know there was. I I tried to set them up just to get you to choke on foolproof whiskey. I know that was nailed it.

Gavin 21:06

Sorry for the folks out there hearing that.

Aaron 21:10

There is so there is some ASMR guy who's just like cringing, driving off a bridge embankment right now after that whole exchange. Um yeah, I I tend to lean towards I like that distillery. Let's go see what else they do. Um, sometimes it's I wasn't necessarily a huge fan of what they were doing, but the release I had was something special. Maybe I should go try the norm. Um I hate to say it, but one of the fun things about this this show has been that like sometimes we pick a category. Like, I would never go buy a bottle under $25 on my own, but that was the challenge. Or like you gotta go get a horse themed bottle. Like, that's a Some ridiculous reason to pick one bourbon out as opposed to the other, but like sure, like it it lets you try something you've never done. So I will say is if if you're looking for fun ways to do these and you and your buddies are wanting to do something fun, pick a completely arbitrary rule to why the bottle has to be picked that has nothing to do with the bourbon in it, right? And then go to the store and try to find something obscure. Like, oh, it it has it has to have a four-legged animal on the label, or it has to um it has to have a a dump date of a certain month, or like whatever that is, go try to find something that is obscure and not specifically tied to the distillery. Just try something different.

Gavin 22:47

I think that's part of what makes this hobby, uh, this journey, this adventure so fun is experimenting and really trying to find the things you like, the things you don't like, and you will get the things that you don't like as well. Like it's not so one-sided that you're gonna find you know, whiskey every time, or that thing that you bought, that flyer every time is gonna be great. I'm not saying that because I have bought some flyers that were not great. And uh but I'm not a quitter.

Aaron 23:23

You and so you always should have a bottle that is perfect for mixing with coke when you have a buddy come over that that's what he drinks right now.

Gavin 23:30

Exactly.

Aaron 23:31

You should have whiskeys on your shelf there. Like adding simple syrup to that one isn't going to hurt my feelings. Pouring it with Sprite in a glass and floating in the pool with like I that's fine. Like there are days in which you really want to delve into the whiskey and and critique and really get lost in it. And there are other days where you just want to drink and hang out by the on the boat or by the pool or wherever, right? Like it's okay to have bottles like I'm just gonna set that one to the side. That's a that's a go-to a friend's house bottle. That's that's going in the bag to take. Do you have a do you have a an already stocked bag of shit I don't like that I just anytime somebody's like, hey, you want to come over and grab a drink? Yeah, yeah, grab my bag.

Gavin 24:18

That's awesome. There may be one in there that's like excellent, and the other ones are just you know and you get there, and there are people like, oh my god, you brought the water.

Aaron 24:26

I was like, oh my god, no, you gotta try these other ones. Yeah, look at this one, and look at this one. You come up with a really bizarre backstory to how great it is. I was hunting in the Sahara Desert and found this. I ran into a cardiologist one day and he was telling me about how a guy he'd saved his life and he bought him this bottle, and he's amazing. And so I give you one. Oh, that's funny. Um, all right, do we want to talk about this one? Yeah, let's talk about it. Um I'll be honest, it took me about eight cents to get to the point where I could smell or taste or or um pick up on anything. All right, so I guess normally you pick a bottle or I pick a bottle, but in this instance, we've neither really picked a bottle, we just kind of got it selected for us. Um, so I guess this one classifies as yours, so I'll I'll go first. Yeah, is that yeah? Okay, yeah. I poured it. So I like it. So I will say on the nose, even from the beginning, the amount of caramel and butterscotch on the nose was just liked out. It took a lot of air to cut through the burn, for sure.

Gavin 25:35

I'm still getting choked up.

Aaron 25:38

Yeah, I mean, you can't even still you can't put your nose in the glass and just you know take a big schnause right through. Um it you you need to leave the mouth open and and do some do some heavy breathing to try to loot everything down. But um, the other thing though, as I as I sat and came back to it repeatedly, um vanilla cream icing. Like it's it's got vanilla and cream, butter and caramel.

Gavin 26:07

I it were you like reading my notes? It's dessert.

Aaron 26:12

Or it's dessert. No, it's delicious.

Gavin 26:14

It's it's it's a it's a warm dessert. Let's just put it that way.

Aaron 26:19

Um like if if they brought out a sticky toffee pudding and the goo that came out of the middle of the cake tasted like that, like man, it lights up. Um I'm done. My wife and I give them a Michelin star.

Gavin 26:32

Yeah. Uh my wife and I went to on a date night um on a couple days ago, and um we had some celebratory things, and um they just kept bringing out um basically free stuff for us, which was great. They started out with like free champagne, and then they came out later on with free dessert, and they gave us um Wait, what did you tell them you were there to celebrate?

Aaron 26:57

I want to do this. Well, I can't tell you it's a secret. I if there is a secret code word out there, you're like, no, I'm here to celebrate this, and they're like, Oh, well, let me get all the free stuff.

Gavin 27:08

It was a speakeasy, so there's there's a bit of that, but yeah, man, the the dessert that they gave us um was, I mean, uh very uh rich and caramel, there's caramel to it. There was some um they they brought out uh uh there's uh it was topped with ice cream and like I get a lot of that vanilla cream, uh dessert, uh, but it's there's some warmness to it. Um I think the butterscotch does show up in this. And then on the palette, I think there's a bitterness almost like uh a dark chocolate bitterness that come out. Excuse me, that comes out.

Aaron 27:53

Yeah, kind of on the kind of at the end of the palette, yeah, not so much at the beginning. I get a lot of cinnamon on the palate. Um, it reminds me, not quite the sweet cinnamon of like candy cinnamon, but like big red gum kind of cinnamon. Um that it's not atomic fireball hot. Like part of that is proof, right? Like the heat of the proof coming through. Um, and I also get just a smidge of like a dark brown sugar. Um, yeah, I the first thing I wrote down on the palette though was heat, right? Especially in the first couple sips, you're like, I mean, that one lights the tongue up. The eyebrows are you're sweating over there? Sweating a little bit. Goodness. All right. Um, now, but to me, I think where this one really separates from a lot of other bourbons, the finish on this is extremely long. It does run from these big bold sweet vanilla cream kind of things, and runs into a soft oak that carries out for a long time. The sweetness never really fully disappears, but it really does kind of turn down, and then like even still, I it's been several seconds since I had a sip, and I it it's still there, it's still there.

Gavin 29:19

Yeah, I think it is long lingering to use those kind of words. I think that those kinds of those kinds. Those kinds of you know, when you know who you are, those kinds. Because when we talk about finish, those are you know, we talk short, medium, long, lingering, warm, big hug, and using all those buzzwords. I think this to me on the finish gets a little bit of a um kind of a leathery note.

Aaron 29:58

Um I can see that a bit. Just a little bit. I swear to God. The longer I think the sip sets on your palette, the more pronounced the oak is on the finish. Um, but yeah, I I sometimes oak and then to me, when I think leather, there is like a richness and oakiness that go together that kind of create the leather note. Um, so yeah, I I totally understand what you're saying. You already give it to a number to it? Are we giving numbers? I think we should give numbers. You want to give numbers? Okay, all right. It's a blind number, so go like this.

Gavin 30:41

It's ridiculous. Uh I wasn't even thinking.

Aaron 30:45

Oh no, well, you start thinking about a number, and I I'll tell I'll I'll share one more fun thing about about it. Having a whiskey collection. Okay. Well, when you're because I've already written my number down. One of the things that I will say is a true joy of having a collection is the blind tasting. If your whiskey closet contains one bottle, the tasting isn't very difficult. You can get, you can guess which whiskey it is every time somebody brings you a pour. But the as the collection in the room grows, it allows you to really start to delve into those subtle differences. So one of my favorite pastimes here in the house is to send somebody else into the room and say, pour me a glass and bring it out here, and then you fully disconnect from the brand, the label, how sexy is the bottle, right? How much was the how much did you pay for it? Like none of that stuff matters because you don't see any of that once once you have a um a blind taste, so to speak. And so I one of the fun parts about having a collection, one of the things I really, really enjoy about the room is that I get that opportunity to have those kinds of um experiences. So this is not fully blind, right? Like we know what it is we're drinking, we just didn't know we were going to be drinking it.

Gavin 32:13

You want to know one of my favorite things about you having this room?

Aaron 32:16

Is that you get to come over and drink? I'm fully aware of how that. I like to think most of my friends would come over and see me, even if I didn't have the whiskey room. I don't know if that's true or not. I really don't. I really don't. All right, your bottle, my number. Yes. So I mean, this is a stellar bourbon. Um, it packs a wallup. It's not unpleasant in any of the things that it does, though, right? It's not overly oaky, it's not overly sweet, it's it's beautifully balanced, but yet all of the stuff come in with force. Um, I I'm at a 92 on this one. This one is a really, really, really good. 92. 92. I looked, I looked earlier. I could one over here. I don't know if this will throw your number off, so keep your pen down because I want I want you to be honest. I only paid $85 for this bottle. This was an this was an MSRP steel, um, knowing what it is. But yeah, at $85, this is a no-brainer delicious bottle.

Gavin 33:29

Um 80, did you buy that in 2022?

Aaron 33:35

Do you remember like when Yeah, I it would have had to have been around there because I these these don't last very long. And and one of the things I've always prided myself on is I you go into a liquor store and they're charging about five or ten percent more than MSRP, okay. But I'm not paying, I'm not paying double, I'm not paying secondary market prices, even at a retail store. And about the only time you'll find bottles that are older that are still around is because somebody's been overcharging for them all along and hasn't had anybody take. Um so yeah, I I'm I'm positive this would have been one that would have come out and within a month it was on the shelf.

Gavin 34:15

Right on. I'm setting at an 88. 1.21 gigawatts. 88 is a travesty of a number for delicious that birds. So it's delicious. I I like it. It's just when I think about an every I'm gonna be careful when I say this. An everyday sipper. No, it's not even close to that. It's not an everyday sipper, it's not something that I'm gonna reach for and just want to pour every day, right? It's gonna be special occasions. Um something like this where you're randomly, you know, randomly selecting a bottle or somebody's pouring something for you, and they're like, oh, EH Taylor, like let's pull that down. Um this it's delicious. I I will give it that. I think as much as I love high proof, um, this is probably a little higher than my like just sweet spot. So it's a problem that can be fixed. Yes. Which soon, towards the end of the episode, I'm gonna put a splash of water in it and just see kind of how that turns.

Aaron 35:16

Um you you you got up and wandered off camera, and now I'm wondering where my eyedropper is.

Gavin 35:22

Yeah, I don't know where it is either. But um, so yeah, I'm setting it at 88 just because I think it's just the uh the the heat on it. Like I'm sweating, folks. I mean, it is it is warm whiskey.

Aaron 35:35

It's just because you're nervous. I'm gonna get it. You're new, being on camera. It's a lot for people to take in. I don't I don't think so. I don't think so. Everything is red. All right. Unlike other episodes, we are not stepping away. There is no break. We are going straight to bottle number two because we don't want you guys to miss a minute of the action. So, shall we slide these to the I'm actually gonna leave this out here because I don't I'm intrigued to see where this one sets when we get to the end.

Gavin 36:16

Because I will be putting a droplet of water, all right.

Aaron 36:19

Two glasses, one bottle, and a box. Two glasses, one bottle. It's a whole different video.

Gavin 36:26

You don't want to and is this a brand new? Never been opened.

Aaron 36:34

Never been opened at all. And this is a big deal. And this was 2018. 2018. This is a holy smokes, man. I mean, what you've been slacking. I I just want you to understand how important you are in my life that that I didn't say no, punt this. And we gotta put this one back. No, this is this is a lot of fun. All right, so this one comes in at 57.8% ABV. Uh check your math. 115.6 if you're a proof. 15.6 proof. Not surprisingly, the Logavulin 12 2018 release is a 12-year-old that was released in 2018. Um, any other stats on this bottle? I haven't gone and checked to make sure that's true, but that's that's the way I understand it.

Gavin 37:27

That's what the label says.

Aaron 37:30

There's part of me that was nervous about about losing a cart. No, no, no, no. We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. All right, so wait, I didn't smell the goodness from here. Oh my lord, oh my lord. All right, so I did look when Oh Malort? Is that what she said? That's a different there are a few things that can give Malort a run for its money, and that is one of the uh for sure. All right, so uh this is their cask release. They do an annual cask release, so cask strength, I should say. Um that's where we get this to be much more than the typical 43, 46 kind of thing that you tend to get out of most scotches. Um I mean, right off the bat, like even with just a little bit less in the glass, you can see, good lord, that's a gavin pour for sure. Um you can see how much darker the bourbon was. Um I I do I don't know. I don't know the barreling. I I wish, I wish I knew the barrel. I mean, even in a brown bottle, you can say it's still not as dark. Um, so what I will say is I did look when we were going through one of my columns is how much I pay for it. Right. So uh this one came in at $150.

Gavin 38:54

Okay.

Aaron 38:56

Holy cow.

Gavin 38:57

Now that's what you paid for, or that's MSRP.

Aaron 39:00

No, that's what I paid for. I don't know what MSRP is. Okay, right. Uh I'm assuming now getting old of 2018 would be really expensive, except for we already opened it, so now it's not worth anything, but the whiskey.

Gavin 39:10

But the goodness that we get to enjoy.

Aaron 39:14

All right, so I kind of want to do, I kind of want to do a shift. We've talked a lot about kind of the randomized side of things and what a collection can do to your need to randomize or willingness to randomly put models, maybe would be a better way to put it. So I want to spend a little time talking about what makes a whiskey collection. Or selection. I that was exactly where I was gonna go because my wife often says, no, no, Erin's a whiskey collector. And I was like, I am not a collector, I'm a connoisseur because I drink the whiskey I have. This is not a museum and a trophy room. This is a working test lab of deliciousness. Oh God. We're gonna rename the room Test Lab of Deliciousness. Um I love it. So one of the things we're we didn't pick the bottles tonight, but we knew this is what we were going to um talk about. So one of the things I went and did, and I said, Well, what makes a collection? Right? The average drinker, the average person in America, like, how many bottles of whiskey does the average Joe, if you will, have? I'll be honest, it's not 481. I did some digging, and that's a lot more than the average.

Gavin 40:51

So it's because you're above average.

Aaron 40:53

Let's start with this. Statistically, depends on where you go, find your numbers. Somewhere between a third and half, okay, somewhere in there, um, of all adult Americans don't drink at all. No beer, no wine, no whiskey, no rums, no tequilas. I don't even think they sniff paints. Like, I don't know what they're doing. Are they lying? I don't know what they're doing. Are they lying? If you asked, if you ask my doctor, I don't drink as much as I do.

Gavin 41:24

Um they know as much as you tell them.

Aaron 41:27

So then it becomes really tough to like all the statistical accumulating groups, right? Like, it's hard to to get this as to like how many bottles of whiskey does the average American have. But what I did find is a handful of estimates. It said the average casual drinker. So this is eliminating the people who don't drink. We're only looking at drinkers. Okay. The average casual drinker has between one and three bottles of whiskey on their shelf. I'd say that's pretty casual. Um yeah, if you were casually dating, it feels like more than three bottles, right? Like I'm just saying. They say the what they were calling home enthusiast, or the the guy who's got the home bar five to fifteen bottles. Five to fifteen, okay. And that they a true whiskey hobbyist or collector, connoisseur, whatever word you want to put to it, would be more than that, twenty plus bottles. So I find it fascinating that I have roughly two hundred and fifty percent no two thousand five hundred percent more than the average household. It's a lot. Like I I get it, I got it, I got a lot, right? Like I understand that. But so 250 times as many as the average.

Gavin 43:08

So, with that being said, how did you venture from being maybe that beginner three to five bottles to hundreds of bottles?

Aaron 43:22

Yeah, I mean, I I think even when I thought of myself as a whiskey drinker, I still was in the five bottles for a long time. Um, and it was mostly because you bought a bottle and you're like, well, I only got half a bottle left, so I'll go to the store and get another bottle, right? And you never felt the need to have more than that because you always had a whiskey available to you, right? And it wasn't until I actually began to kind of delve into differences in whiskies and I was like, man, there's a lot of different stuff going on here, right? Like these aren't all the same, they're not all just quote unquote whiskeys. Whiskeys. There's there's a big variety. So for me, it happened to be my my 40th birthday. All right. My wife threw a great big surprise birthday party. It was all whiskey themed, a whiskey-shaped cake, looked like a bottle of Sazerac rye. I mean, it was it was tons of fun. Um, and I don't I don't know if this was on the invite or not, but everyone showed up with a bottle of whiskey. That was the theme of the day, and so everyone brought one. And so my whiskey collection went from about four or five to about 45 in one evening. Um, and to your comment on whether or not you take a flyer on it, when your collection is only three or four, you want to make sure every bottle you get is a good one. You're not willing to risk a stinker, right? Um, and so for me, once I had this large selection, then you'd finish a bottle, and you're like, that one looks good. I should go get another one of those. But while you're at the store, you're like, well, I'm already getting one I know I'm gonna like. Maybe we'll try this one over here. Um, and a lot of that was I fell victim to the sales guy who told you to get walking stick, and then you're like, why would I buy this again, right? And then every time you go in, they're like, Have you tried this one? Like, yes, yes, you suckered me into that one last time. Sorry, walking stick. Um, but yeah, I it it ultimately kind of pushes you into um a comfort level of trying things you otherwise wouldn't have tried. Maybe that's the best way to put it. So I've I've laid my cards on the table and and and said my bottle count. If you were guessing, I know I know you don't know right off the top of your head, or I assume you don't. Do you have a feel for where you fall? I'm assuming fully within the hobbyist section of more than 20.

Gavin 45:55

Yeah, so um my my app that I was using, I'm not gonna say it.

Aaron 46:00

Um unless you want to pay us. Unless you want to pay us to sponsor, and then we'll start using it.

Gavin 46:05

Except for my app stopped working. Um, about 50%.

Aaron 46:08

If you have a different, if you have a different app you want us to start sponsoring, well, uh he'll move all of his info over.

Gavin 46:13

Um, so I haven't started rebuilding it. Um, but I'm right around 140, 150 bottles.

Aaron 46:20

Yeah, I mean, well above the quote unquote average. Yes. Um yeah, I I mean that's if you had told me when I only had five that someday I would own 150 bottles, I would tell you, like, why on God's green earth would you need that much whiskey? That's what my wife says. And it's look at me. Why do you need this? Look at me now. So I am proof that if you just keep dreaming.

Gavin 46:47

What I will what I will say is uh the COVID explosion, right? I think that ballooned uh for me, and then obviously starting the Noble Dram has ballooned it again. You can't blame me for this. I'm not blaming you, I'm blaming us. Uh, but one of the things you said, I want to go back to um you said something about um when you finish a bottle uh and you go back to the store, you might contemplate buying another one of those bottles or buying something different. What I like to do is I like to buy that bottle that I just finished, maybe, or a different expression of it, and then buy a second bottle. So I'm always at least adding something new to the selection.

Aaron 47:38

No, that's it's exactly where I was going with that. Um, the idea that you go and you're like, I really like that one. And now that it's empty, I'm gonna go get another one of those. And while I'm there, part of the fun of shopping, and I've never been a shopper, I've been a buyer, right? Like I think I like most guys, my wife likes to go shopping and she wanders around and looks at things. She still buys, don't get me wrong, she still buys. But like the idea of just going and browsing at most things, I have no interest in, but I can spend an hour just looking at bottles of whiskey, right? Like easy. Um, and so I find myself browsing and shopping. Uh, and so one of the problems is if you already know what you're gonna buy when you walk in, you didn't get the enjoyment of browsing and shopping. And so I end up browsing and shopping too, and picking, so I go in to do a little buying and then also browse and do some extra buying. Um there are worse problems to have.

Gavin 48:40

I I like to go into shops and just see what they have, look around. Um, I like to talk with um the people behind the counter, people in the aisle, all of those fun things. Um, even if I don't buy something, I like to start to develop those relationships, um, get to know the people. Um, because to your point, uh the guy in the aisle may have certain things that he wants to push to be able to get off the shelf or you know, to make that sell. Um, but the more you get to know those people, they get to know you, and they may tend to not push a walking stick and they may push something different because they're getting to know you. So that's one of the things I would like to say is, and I know we've mentioned it before, but start having those conversations, develop those relationships with people. Um, they will help find things for you that are similar or or they may push you in another direction um to help you know take a flyer on something. But I get way more chatty talking about whiskey than anything else. Amen.

Aaron 50:06

I mean I'm I I mean this whole thing, right? Right. Um when we first started doing this, I think our episodes were seven and a half minutes. Now I can't get out and just stop talking. I get it.

Gavin 50:16

Uh when when we go out in public, uh, there's my wife just gets so um not frustrated, but she's like, Can you just not not talk about whiskey with people? I mean, you talk about it all the bloody time, so much so that my daughter now goes to school talking about whiskey and then I get in trouble.

Aaron 50:38

I I more than one occasion I've stood in the aisle at at a bottle shop and had somebody stand next to me and say, Wow, I'm trying to decide which one. I was like, Oh, like what do you like? What do you like? And you start talking to them. They're like, Oh, well, if you if you've never had it, you should try this one. And you know, to be honest, bang for the buck, they got a deal going on. These over here, these are actually pretty good. And a couple times, like, man, I really someone was like, I really appreciate your help. Like, I wish I wish your manager was around. I'd tell you how what a good job you did. And I was like, Oh no, I don't work here. Like, I'm I'm just I'm just hanging out. I my goal in life is to make enough money doing what I do for a living such that I can go loiter in liquor stores and just help people find good whiskey. Like, that would be awesome. We know somebody that uh I know I got I got a guy who would love free sales labor. For sure. Uh question You have a newbie comes to you and says, I'm thinking about getting into whiskey. What would you say is an adequate number of bottles to say you have a true whiskey collection, a selection to pick from that gives you the ability to try? Like knowing that whiskey runs from sweet to bold to smoky to light to floral, like all this stuff. It's not just the US, it's it's Scotland, it's every other country. Like, how many bottles do you feel like that needs to be in order to feel like you started to cover the bases, so to speak? I get your run-in zone, right? Like you're not gonna have everything, but even at 481, I still feel like I don't have one of those, and I don't have one of these, right?

Gavin 52:32

That's a that's an interesting question. Um that's why I gave it some thought. You finally thought about something? Right.

Aaron 52:41

Uh it's been like 10 minutes thinking. It was hard. It was a it was a lot. I got a headache. Yeah. Uh I'd take a nap.

Gavin 52:53

Uh good question. I think it would be interested. I what I would love to know before I answer that. I'd like to know what people out there think is an appropriate number to be a whiskey selection if you're a hobbyist or enthusiast or a connoisseur. So let us know in the comments because I want to know what what the general public thinks. Uh, for me, um, I mentioned it before. Um my whiskey journey adventures started in Scotland. So scotch was pretty much all I had on my shelf until we moved to Texas. And then starting to venture out, do some different events around Houston and around town, um, I started buying some bourbons and um some American whiskeys. And and at that point, the few bottles of scotch that I had just continually started growing and growing and growing. But if you had, if I if I can give a range, I would say anywhere between like probably 10 and 15 is a good number to say you've got a level of understanding and different expressions and different um different types of whiskey from I mean, if you if you're if bourbon's your thing and you just want to drink all bourbon, you only need four.

Aaron 54:30

No, so it was actually a trick question. The answer for how many bottles of whiskey should one person own, and it is one more than I currently have. Right? Always one more, always one more. I no, I'm I'm with you, right? I think I I'm I mean I jokingly, I actually did sit down and give some thought to like what would be the minimum number of bottles that I I would say that you need in order to cover your bases.

Gavin 55:02

Okay.

Aaron 55:03

And I'll say what I did is I if I if I really honed down, right? Like this is no no frills, I got down to 11 bottles. But 11 is a funny number. So I said you should do a dozen and have one wild card.

Gavin 55:18

And then you're a baker's dozen at this point.

Aaron 55:22

We can we can have two wild cards, right? It's like the it's like the MLB playoffs. Yeah, right. All right, so hear me out. This is my thought process for where I came up with 11. I think Stranger Things. No, no, no. I actually I actually figured, like I wrote them down. There's there's 11 different types of whiskey that I think you should have on your shelf. Oh, okay. So this is Aaron's whiskey shelf. Aaron's Aaron's recommended whiskey starter pack.

Gavin 55:52

We're gonna have a graphic.

Aaron 55:53

No, we're not. No, no. I I don't wear graphics. Number one, in the world of bourbons, you need a weeded bourbon. I don't think a whiskey selection is is complete without a weeded bourbon. But that by default means if you're gonna have a weeded bourbon, you need a ride bourbon as well, right? So two bottles right off the bat, a weeded and a ride bourbon. I think the tendency, I think we showcase this beautifully tonight, in your collection should be an overproofed bourbon. Something that packs a little bit more punch, got a little bit bolder flavors. It can be to your palate's preference, right? But I think you need something that is overproofed. I think every collection should have a rye whiskey. One, maybe you like rye whiskies on their own. Maybe you'd like rye whiskeys in a cocktail. Because if you're only going to have a limited number of bottles, you need to be able to multi-purpose some of these, right?

Gavin 56:57

Fair, fair point.

Aaron 56:59

I think if you're going to expose yourself to the world that whiskey offers.

Gavin 57:05

I love exposing myself, so let's go.

Aaron 57:07

Good lord. Well, that would explain why we can't go near that school. All right. So I think if you're going to have whiskeys, not just bourbons, but whiskies in a larger sense, one of them should be Irish.

Gavin 57:23

All right.

Aaron 57:24

It is a distinctly different style than you get any other place. Um, it has its place, it's fun. One Irish. I'm gonna be honest, I'm a scotch heavy guy, and I'm I'm gonna tell you that that half my list is scotch. But it's because there's a lot of different kinds of scotch you need to have. So scotches fall into two categories peted and unpete. Only two categories? On a very broad sense. Remember, I'm I'm I'm dumbing this down. Okay. Honing it in. Scotches also come in two different aging platforms that are distinctly different: the ex-bourbon and the ex-sherry. So, in that matrix, you have unpeated, bourbon aged, unpeded, sherry-aged, heated, bourbon-aged, heated, sherry-aged. Right? That's four scotches right off the bat.

Gavin 58:27

Do you have one that marries exherry?

Aaron 58:31

I think I I think depending on your love of sherry, and depending on your love of the bourbon, right? Like you can play with these kind of double casks, and like I will say it is harder to blend out the taste of sherry than it is to you just simply just add a little bit of sherry finish, and now you got sherry flavor. Um I I'm gonna say this. I think you need a blended scotch. Right? I agree with that. You need a budget-driven bottle that is a good daily sipper that doesn't feel like you're breaking the bank when you drag it out. Or breaking your shoulder. Yeah, either way. That's that's a good one, right? I think you owe it to yourself to go outside of that realm and have an international bottle. Japanese, Taiwanese, Canadian, French, Welsh, Indian, like all of those, right? Like there needs to be an international bottle in your selection. We do a whole series we did weeks of whiskeys of the world. Part of part of where this came from, right? And then that gets you to 11. That's my 11. Okay. Give you a wild card. Double up on whichever one of those is your favorite, pick something that doesn't quite fit into those categories exactly. Um, maybe it's your half sherried, half uh half bourbon scotch. Maybe it's really lightly peted but not fully peted. Like wherever that falls, maybe it's an American single bald, right? Like one wild card to do something different. Something that is really atypical to the rest of your selection. That that cart is a damn fine whiskey.

Gavin 1:00:19

So you're saying 12.

Aaron 1:00:21

12's my number.

Gavin 1:00:22

But to make a little twist, just to kind of crank it up a little bit.

Aaron 1:00:26

Don't don't don't do a set. I like twelve. I want to know your baker's doesn't. What's that? If you are adding a 13th, yeah, I think the default answer is you have a Canadian. It's not my preference, it's not my selection. But I think if you look at uh whiskey consumptions, right, can Canada represents a chunk. I it it doesn't have to be crown. Nothing against the purple bag, right? But um there's a lot of stuff going on in Canada too, right? That that you can play with. So that if if you made me pick 13th, Canadian would be my 13th.

Gavin 1:01:06

All right. Do you want to know my 13th?

Aaron 1:01:10

Sure. Texas.

Gavin 1:01:12

You would Texas.

Aaron 1:01:14

You you could do a Texas in any of those.

Gavin 1:01:16

Yeah, but you could do a Canadian in all of those, either of those as well. You can't do Canadian in your bourbons.

Aaron 1:01:22

And your internationals. Yeah, no, you absolutely could do Canadian in your international. Hear me out. Hear me out. The good Texas bourbons are specifically crafted to taste like they're from Kentucky. I'm just saying. I'm just saying it is it's the problem. I I'm not I'm not saying that there are not good bourbons in Texas. That is not what I'm saying at all. There are absolutely good bourbons in Texas, but the ones that are distinctly Texan don't hit my palate right. So I would not waste one of my 12 or one of my 13, I guess, is the question really was posed. I would not put one of my 13 as the Texas whiskey.

Gavin 1:02:09

You're wrong, but uh let's move along here.

Aaron 1:02:13

That's fair, that's fair. Um, so I like to play. I'm a math guy. So I went and looked. Okay. Not per person, the household spends $643 a year on alcohol. Clarify. Not the amount of booze they have in their collection at home, that's total alcohol expenditures. Okay. Now I'm assuming that number includes the non-drinkers and drinkers alike, it's just all adults. But that equates to at-home alcohol purchases, right? Stuff to bring home and drink is $269 a year. So play the math. If that was three bottles, right? If we decided the average drinker on three bottles of whiskey, if you spent $269 on three bottles of whiskey, that was about $90 a bottle. I that felt high to me, right? Because I'm assuming if you own three bottles of whiskey, you also own bottles of other stuff. So I actually ran the math backwards. And I I came up with $75. You make the comment earlier about what's that price point to take flyers on bottles, and you said we're anywhere from $50 in bourbons to $80 in scotches. Yep. $75 falls in that window. Yep. So if your average bottle was $75, a set of 12, my number, that's $900. You could buy one $75 bottle every month. Keep a rotating stock. Every month you get a new bottle, right? Um, it feels like somebody should have a service where they send you a bottle every month, right?

Gavin 1:04:10

I think there is a service.

Aaron 1:04:11

I'm sure there is. Um, and if that service would like us to be one of their sponsors, we'd happily tell. Hold on. The Noble Dream? Hold on, wrong side. No, the Noble Dream doesn't have a bottle every month.

Gavin 1:04:22

No, but if they want us to Oh, yeah, no, no, call us.

Aaron 1:04:24

Call us. Yeah. I'll put Gavin's phone number right across the bottom. Um, no, but that's $75 a month. That's $900 a year. I'll be honest, I think I spend more than a thousand dollars a year on whiskey.

Gavin 1:04:37

I would yep, I think so.

Aaron 1:04:41

This is the part where I'm glad my wife doesn't watch. Me too. But they're gonna I don't think you care if my wife watches. I'll be my wife.

Gavin 1:04:51

Let's just be honest.

Aaron 1:04:52

All right, I think it's time to talk a Loga Vulan 12.

Gavin 1:04:57

Laga 12, 2018. This one's a long time coming. I mean, 2018. I mean, we're I mean, we're sitting in 2026 currently.

Aaron 1:05:09

This this was a risk we ran when we said complete random. We don't have any control over what we pick. I knew there was a chance it was going to be one of those really top shelf bottles. I'm like, I was kind of saving that for a special occasion, but I guess we're doing it now. Um what I will say is there's no good reason to not open the bottle. That's that's the entirety of the statement. There is no exception, there is no clause. There's like if there is a reason to drink, there is a reason to have whatever it is.

Gavin 1:05:41

Unless there's a handy Andy around.

Aaron 1:05:46

He just comes in and starts pulling bottles off the shelf and open them.

Gavin 1:05:48

Just to open them.

Aaron 1:05:49

I don't think he drinks them. He just peels the tops off. He's like, there you go, buddy.

Gavin 1:05:52

You think that's ready.

Aaron 1:05:55

No, it's it's been one of the one of my favorite parts about the room because. It is not a collection, it is a selection that when people come in, you get to say, like, hey, pick something, like it doesn't matter, and they're like, Well, let me pick something that's already open. I was like, No, if there's something in this room, you're like, I would have I've always wanted to try that, or I've never even heard of that. What are the can we drink that? Absolutely, yes. I've got a couple sets of things that like once you open it, like you don't feel bad on opening the rest of them. Okay, that that's what it's here for. Um, every time you think, well, I'll get a full set of whatever it is, and then you end up drinking one of them before you get the full set, anyways, and it doesn't really matter. So I don't I don't care if it's your set of wellers or your your flight of different years releases of McAllen's, like whatever drink it, drink it, drink it, drink it.

Gavin 1:06:50

I mean, that's what I would I've heard distillers and different brands say, like, drink it. Like, I understand people making money off of the secondary market. I understand the I mean your trouble. I understand the thought of collecting something, right? I mean, that that's one of the questions I actually had is what makes human beings collect something that they're never gonna drink, never gonna use, they they just hoard it away.

Aaron 1:07:22

I I think it's the ability to lord over somebody that they have that they don't, somebody else doesn't, right? I I get it, right? There's there's a great deal of it's nice to have nice things because then it shows the rest of the world that I was successful at whatever. I I understand all of those urges. What I will suggest is that's not what you're on this planet for, right? Right? Go be good to the people around you, don't lord over them. Go enjoy the time you have here on earth. The whiskey that is in the bottle is worthless, it only has value once you pour it in the glass. I think there's a saying be noble. Yeah, it's it seems noble to me. Yeah. All right, we need to start talking about whiskey. All right. This one, this one's got you all over it the first time. My bottle. It's got me all over it. It still tingles my nose. I even have even after the screaming high proof of the first one. This one is a noticeable step down. It's still got something that kind of just tickles the nose, if you will.

Gavin 1:08:27

I love that you said that because that actually Do you wrote tickle down on your I wrote uh it's a it's a tongue tingler on the palate.

Aaron 1:08:36

But once again, we're off by finished notes, right?

Gavin 1:08:40

Um, but on the nose, I think um there's a limey zestiness to it that I get. Absolutely.

Aaron 1:08:47

I I think I think in my mind it's lemon over lime, but I okay, citrus. Citrus.

Gavin 1:08:54

And I roast citrus, but I I put lime, and then I think there's a a leather. So if you took a baseball glove and you took a lime and you squeezed the lime in a baseball glove, and you just kind of let it soak in.

Aaron 1:09:06

And then dried it by holding it over the campfire.

Gavin 1:09:09

Yes, yeah, yes, that is what this tastes like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely tastes like I get you. Um, so yeah, on the nose, lime, smoke, citrus, leather.

Aaron 1:09:20

Yeah, I wrote peat instead of smoke, but other than that, I wrote down all the same things. Um, yeah, I I will say with subsequent sips, as you came back to it, right? You pick up on on further things. I get them more of a medicinal note as time kind of transpires. Um, and and sometimes the lemony, citrusy, and medicinal to me reminds me of seaweed, right? And so what I'll say is I don't smell distinctly salt. I don't smell saline, right? Which is normally the other part of what I put together in seaweed in my head. Um, so it's like two-thirds of seaweed. So I like your description better. All right. Well, it's because I'm right on the palette. Oh tell me you get something different because I get all of the same things.

Gavin 1:10:12

I get all of the same things, and then I even put like there's like a roasted nut-ish kind of vibe that I'm getting off of this on the palette.

Aaron 1:10:23

Roasted nut-ish.

Gavin 1:10:24

Yes. And then I think it's earthy. I put limeade. So, like, if if you live where there's a good sonic, go grab you a limeade. Cherry limeade almost.

Aaron 1:10:38

Yeah, I wrote I wrote lemongrass because I think there's something florally, but not necessarily flowers, more grassy. Um yeah, I I I wrote down medicinal on the palette as well. It's got that new package of band-aids, right? Kind of thing going on that I honestly love. I love it. Um licks. Other people's band-aids. That's how much I love band-aids.

Gavin 1:11:07

The ones floating in the ocean are the best. They're the best.

Aaron 1:11:11

Um, all right, so on the finish, though, is there something that comes new or are we right down the the classic log ofin path again?

Gavin 1:11:21

I it tracks, I think, from the nose to palate to finish. I think it's tracking all the same flavors. Um, I think that it is it's lingering much like the E.H. Taylor lingers.

Aaron 1:11:36

This is gonna be I'll say it lingers differently. I think it's I I think the finish on the Lag Vulan is longer. The proof point carried more of the finish on E.H. Taylor. 100%. I think here the peat and the smoke carry the finish more, right? Like and to be expected between the two bottles for sure. Agree. Lemon zest showed up more on the finish. You mentioned citrus at the beginning. I I got more citrus juice at the beginning and more zest on the finish, but I I we're splitting hairs on that. I the thing that really showed up to me on the finish was the petroleum kind of notes, the tar, the creosote, that kind of stuff. I didn't pick it up as much on the nose, but on the finish it comes screaming through. All right. All right, time for a number.

Gavin 1:12:32

All right, 91 for me. I think the Logavolin 12 2018 is a gorgeous scotch whiskey. I think that um the proof is there for me. That is like what 115.6 is in that the I think that's what it is. Yep, um, that is that's right around my sweet spot of what I really, really like. So I think to me, it's just perfect. Um, it's got the flavors that track um some of those flavors that I absolutely love. And this to me brought about specific memories. I think that that's where I relate a lot of whiskey to is memories. So this one hits home to me.

Aaron 1:13:29

Yeah, I I I can I can't argue with you. This is beautiful in a completely different way than the E.H. Taylor, but I'll say in a very similar level. Um, I'm at a 90 on the log ofin. Okay. Um there in the world of Logavoans, I'm a distiller's edition guy first. I like what that sherry adds in the way of a depth to it. This is very, very, very close to that. It just it lacks that rich dark fruit note, right? That that I think keeps us from being a 93 or a 94, right? I get that's how much I enjoy Lagavulin distillers. So in the world of what does Ila whiskey taste like, that hits every single one of the notes, and it hits the beautifully. Let me put it that way. So it sings like a chorus. It does, it does. I was working really hard to get the bottle right, and then I'm realizing that the the boxes now I gotta move you gotta square it up. All right, so 91 for Gavin, 90 for me for the log of Uland 12. Let's recap where this whole thing started on the EH Taylor 88 for Gavin, 92 for me. This is one of those fun things that a 90 in Scotch and a 90 in bourbon are nothing alike. I'm going back now and putting my nose into the EH Taylor. Like it is so rich, sweet, yes, and oaky. I it's I the the proof still shows up. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is not tamed down much while we sat here and talked. I think the nose hairs are singed off. I don't I don't have any nose hair on that left nostril, but I gotta I gotta smell out of the right nostril.

Gavin 1:15:22

Um so with that being said, uh man, it's been an absolute pleasure doing this. This has been actually probably one of the more fun episodes for me lately.

Aaron 1:15:35

I I will say twofold. One, a randomized draw means no preparation. We just show up and and wing it, um, which is a lot of fun. Um, I know what that means is it's hard for you guys to know where we're going and what what's happening. And then this, you could not, we would have never picked these two bottles on one episode. 100%. I these are so utterly different from each other. You would have never put these two side by side, but yet they are so wonderful. I the gods were smiling on us today when they they helped us pick these. So uh what I will say is when you have the tough call. Which one do you raise in the in the toast? You go back to dessert or you you keep with the smokiness? So pick pick a glass. All right, you want to do them both. I know you. I know you. All right. To everyone out there, cheers. And slangeval. We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us. We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you. So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment. And if you have a whiskey you would like to see us share, let us know. You don't want to miss a single episode, so subscribe to our YouTube channel. And make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to stay up to date on the Noble Dream.

Gavin 1:16:55

If you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Aaron 1:17:00

As always, be noble.

Gavin 1:17:02

Enjoy your dream responsibly.