The Noble Dram | Aaron's Collection Selection (Season 2 | Ep. 18)

Every whisky lover remembers the bottle that started it all.

But if you were building a starter shelf today...which bottles truly deserve a spot?

In this episode of The Noble Dram, Aaron takes on the challenge of creating the ultimate whiskey starter collection. The original goal? Choose just 12 bottles. Easy enough...until Aaron decided that one list wasn't enough.

Instead, he built TWO.

🥃 12 Budget-Friendly Bottles – Incredible pours that prove you don't have to spend a fortune to drink great whiskey.

🥃 12 Premium Bottles – Exceptional whiskies that showcase just how incredible the spirit can become when you're ready to take the next step.

The Rules
Every bottle had to earn its place by following these guidelines:
✔️ Accessible – Bottles should be reasonably obtainable (no unicorns or impossible-to-find releases).
✔️ Representative – Each bottle should showcase a unique style, region, cask influence, or flavor profile.
✔️ Educational – Every pour should teach you something new about whisky.
✔️ Value Driven – Whether budget or premium, each bottle must justify its price.
✔️ Shelf Worthy – If a bottle doesn't bring something unique to the collection, it doesn't make the cut.
✔️ Drink, Don't Display – These bottles are meant to be opened, shared, and enjoyed—not collected for dust.

From bourbon, rye, and American single malt to Scotch, Irish, Japanese, and world whiskies, this episode is packed with recommendations that will help you build a collection you'll actually enjoy drinking.

🥃 What's on your starter shelf?
Tell us in the comments:
Which bottle is an absolute must-have?
Which budget bottle offers the best bang for the buck?
Which premium whiskey is worth every penny?
Which bottle did Aaron get completely wrong?

If you enjoy whisky reviews, blind tastings, distillery stories, and spirited debates, make sure to Like, Subscribe, and hit the notification bell so you never miss a pour.

🥃 Cheers from The Noble Dram!

New episodes drop every Thursday.🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or iHeartRadio
📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0d6pQqjIBr4

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Transcript

Aaron 0:00

Serious question. You wake up tomorrow morning and there's not a drop of whiskey in the house. Every bottle is gone. What do you do?

Gavin 0:10

I'd bloody cry at that point.

Aaron 0:13

I'd cry for you. Seriously, if you had to start your collection over again, where does it begin? Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Noble Dram. Tonight I find myself in the hot seat. So the premise. Or selection. Let's just be honest. Selection, yeah, I think it's a verb. Because I plan on drinking these. Yeah. So if you watched last week's episode, you know, we talked about what kinds of whiskeys a whiskey collection should have, what types. But we didn't pick bottles. Tonight, Gavin said, that's my chore. My chore was to sit down. 12 categories, 12 whiskeys that I would say is the start of a whiskey collection. Your starter pack. It's going to be weighted in my direction. I'm the one picking. Of course. Now, Gavin likes to not follow the rules. I also don't like to follow the rules.

Gavin 1:57

Oh dear.

Aaron 1:59

Because I expect some of the people listening at home might look at this and say, those are good recommendations. I would like to try some of those. Assuming you haven't already. If that's the case, I wanted to give you some options because variety is the spice of life. And if 12 is good, 24 is better. Holy smokes. We're going to be drinking 24 tonight. Well, no, we're going to drink two tonight.

Gavin 2:24

Okay, okay.

Aaron 2:25

I'll let you pick the two. But tonight we're going to drink two. What we're going to do, however, is for each one of the categories, I'm going to give two options. One that I would consider to be the more budget friendly of the two. And one for the I won't call them big baller. None of them are really that expensive, but one for the like elevated palette, if you will. All right. So well I know what you're gonna say. Let's get to get it. You don't have whiskey palette. I get it. We have no whiskey in the glass. Give me a category. Okay, we'll get through all 12. We'll tell everybody what they are.

Gavin 2:58

All right. So there's 12 categories. I would like to start Irish. Can you give us your Irish pick? My cheat sheet right here. Our Irish.

Aaron 3:14

Let me find it. Oh here we go. All right. So our first bottle tonight comes in under the Irish category under my quote unquote premium selection. Oh. It is the tealing single grain whiskey. Tealing. This clocks in at 46% ABV. That's 92 proof for all you uh American proof lovers. What? Um this one, single, single grain. Technically, it is 95% corn, 5% malted barley. Really? It's not a single grain in the fact that there's only one grain. If you recall our description of the Irish whiskey episode, it is single in that there is one distillery, grain, because it is not just malted grains or malted barley. So we can't call it a malt. So I'm gonna put that one right there next to you in front of you. Um, the fun part about tealing single grain, fully matured in Napa Cabernet 7 Yon barrels. Oh, really? So it's got some pizzazz, no aid statement, although I I think it's pretty well assumed that it's probably in the five to six years old range. And like most ivory single grains, this is triple distilled.

Gavin 4:45

I like it.

Aaron 4:46

So we're gonna do this a little different. We're not we're not gonna do the the full tasting and all the fun. We got a lot to get through tonight.

Gavin 4:54

Especially when we're here for 12 hours, so or 24, I guess.

Aaron 4:58

Let's clarify. This is the premium selection. My budget-friendly selection would be Glendelock's double barreled. Okay. So if you had a chance to catch our Irish episode, that is where we actually tasted this. So one of the reasons I picked premium here versus the budget-driven in this point was because we'd already tried the budget-driven one. All right, give you an idea of cost between the two. The budget-friendly Glendelock comes in at $20. Sorry, $29. The Tealing, my expensive version, $49.

Gavin 5:33

That's that's a budget buster right there.

Aaron 5:36

Still very, very reasonable. I will tell you the the grand total between my budget version and my premium version is only about one and a half tons of cost. Okay. So it's not sky high. I didn't go nuts. Um, specifically. Well, most people who are starting a collection don't start with all of the ultra premium stuff, right? That's a good point. I also didn't want to pick whiskeys that you couldn't go get. So even when we get into the stuff that's a little tougher to find, it is not, at least here in Houston, not in the allocated window. So the idea that you can go into stores from time to time and find them is much more plausible.

Gavin 6:24

I I get that. I get that. Um, so what teetered you to Teeling?

Aaron 6:30

Well, so Tealing's a fun distillery, and the fact that it's not one of your standard Irish, right? When you think of Jameson's, Bushmill's, like all of those standard offerings. I would say I dabbled a bit with Redbreast and some of the spots, right? Because I think they also make great whiskeys. I think they're a little harder to find. Um, and both those two brands carry a price tag that runs a little higher than Tealing. Tealing is one of those distilleries that's one of the new ones that just as recently, I say recently, in the last 20 years has come back out. Similar to Glenindelock. Both of them have quintessential, light, florally Irish notes, right? If you're going to have a single Irish whiskey, it needs to personify Irish. It's also why I picked a single grain, because I think that tends to be what most most people think of when you the flavor profiles of an Irish whiskey as opposed to a single malt. Although you can get single malts in Ireland. Um it doesn't quite line up with what I'll say the prototypical Irish flavor profile is for me.

Gavin 7:42

Okay. All right. So hate it, love it. I think this one is unique in one sense, and then I think it's one-dimensional in another. Meaning um on the palate when you when it first hits, I think that it's um there's something there, and then it fades so fast. Like it's just I don't think that it's not long, it's not lid, it doesn't linger, it's just kind of flat on that side.

Aaron 8:17

What I'll say, that's kind of what Irish is, though. Flat. No, I it's Irish is most Irish whiskies. I have to be very careful. This is not an all-inclusive, right? There is always an exception to every rule. But one of the things that makes Irish whiskies so enjoyable is they're typically very smooth, light, easy drinking. This absolutely falls in that category. I'll say where the two different the Glendalock, I think, stays on the lighter, softer floral side of things. This actually pushes into that little bit of fruits and berries and that kind of stuff from the red wine cask. I think you could absolutely pick up red wine cask on the nose, which is one of those I wouldn't expect somebody to have all of my quote-unquote premium options on your selection. Because one of the fun things is like it's it's kind of what you expect, but it's got something a little different to it. Um at least at least in the Irish whiskeys for sure. Some of the other ones I think they they stay more in the classic wheelhouse.

Gavin 9:24

All right. So that's Irish.

Aaron 9:26

Okay.

Gavin 9:26

Oh I'm gonna mark it off so I don't.

Aaron 9:28

Do we want to move on? Yeah, you tell me where to go next. I'm all right. I am following your lead, my friend.

Gavin 9:33

All right. So let's go to the um I think we want to venture into the rye.

Aaron 9:44

Okay, so now rye is a fun one. Okay, because in my mind, a rye in your collection you want to be able to make a cocktail out of. Uh-huh. So I'm hesitant to go too premium when it comes to a premium rye. But let's start with the not so premium. A glass of Rittenhouse rye. So Rittenhouse quintessential rye notes. You've got your spice, you've got your mint, you've got like all of those kinds of things going on. My premium version of this, and this will come a shock to some of those people who know me. I would put the the premium version is Jack Daniels single barrel ries. Oh. Whether you do the barrel-proof or not is up to you, right? That that gives you a bold rye that's got tons of flavor. It's a little elevated. We go from a $26 bottle of Rittenhouse to about a $45 bottle. Standard proof, not the barrel proof, um, of the Jack Daniels. This is the part where everyone's gonna go, oh my god, Aaron doesn't typically like Jack Daniels. I can't believe he picked Jack Daniels. One of the things I like about the rye is it doesn't taste like their standard tendency whiskey, right? Which is it the mineraliness? Yeah, I think I think the rye spice and flavors go well with that as opposed to kind of being at odds with it. So again, everybody has their own preference. One of the things I like about ries is both of those are relatively cost-friendly bottles. 45 for the premium and only 26 for the the cheap one. Make a cocktail out of them, right? Like you're not breaking the bank. Um, but yet both of them are worthy of a sip straight, right?

Gavin 11:48

I it's hard to disagree with that. Um, I've had both bottles on my shelf. I think that those are both very good rye options. All right. We went recap. We went Irish. So we're Irish, right?

Aaron 12:06

Um Glendalock, Glendalock double barrel and tealy single grain on the rye Rittenhouse and Jack Daniels single barrel.

Gavin 12:14

Yes. All right, where do we go next? So let's go to I'm nervous. Um let's go to the bourbon weeded.

Aaron 12:26

Okay. So classic light bourbon flavors. That's exactly what you think about when you think of weeded bourbons. There is no more common of weeded bourbon in that realm than the essential Weller Special Reserve. Right? At just $34 a bottle, right? It's gotten up. I mean, this used to be in the 25 range, right? Um, it's a very, very tasty bottle. The premium weeded bourbon for me is Old Elk's weeded. Need to be careful. Old elk makes a weeded whiskey, a wheat whiskey, and a wheated bourbon. I'm referencing the weeded bourbon. Um, wheat whiskey tends to have a different bite, doesn't have the same sweetness that corn does. Those are different, right? So be careful when you weed wheat whiskeys aren't as common, but old elk is one that has both, right? Um, so just be aware of it. I here what you're looking for is that glass of whiskey that just pours so so smooth. Weller, I think, does an excellent job at that. This is not to say this is the best Weller, but in the availability of getting a hold of one, special reserve is much easier to come across and at its cost point, much more friendly on the wallet, so to speak. Right? Because your your old out comes in at $105 a bottle. It is nearly the most expensive option I put on my premium list. That's that's the top end of what I was thinking we would spend on a bottle. And screw top. And you know, you know, screw top is a sign of a good whiskey. That's right, that's right.

Gavin 14:28

All right, so are we ready to venture on? I'm ready, I'm following your lead. All right, so let's go to the bourbon rye.

Aaron 14:43

Okay, yeah, so rye bourbon. We're gonna take the weed out, we're gonna put the rye in. My standard bottle, four roses, small batch, select. Okay, dark brown label. I think it's an excellent bottle coming in at just $40. But on the premium side, E. H. Taylor's small batch clocking in at $54 is quintessential rye bourbon in my mind. It is got a little spice, a little kick, lots of sweetness still from the corn. Um, your ride content in this instance is in like the 12-13%. So it's not overly ride, but there's enough there to let you know that it's there, right? Um this one's probably one of the hardest categories to pick, I'll be honest. Because there is a lot of really, really good ride bourbons in the world that you're like, well, what do I do? Like, I had to eliminate a lot. Um, I mean, just run down the list of all of the great ones. You're like, I like that one. Yeah, I like that one, I like that one. Like they all fall into the ride bourbon category. I can see an argument for you having a second ride bourbon in your wildcard category at the end. Um, I don't teaser for what is to come. I didn't go ride bourbon on my on my wildcard, but I can certainly understand that if if that's a flavor profile you like, the percentage of rye can dictate how spicy and bold it is versus how sweet and and uh dessert ish, uh caramel and vanilla heavy. Um that also goes into there. All right. I will say there's a little cheat in the fact that one of the categories is a high-proof bourbon or an over-proof bourbon, which pretty much gets you a second ride bourbon option, anyways, right?

Gavin 16:54

Fair. And um so we're not actually gonna track with that. No, no. So we've kind of we've got Irish and then we've gone bourbons, bourbons, bourbons, or American rice.

Aaron 17:08

What I will also say is the thought process being if you wanted to double up the list, I was trying to spread love. I fully understand that three of the four bottles of the table were made by Buffalo Trace, but in no one category did I pick two from the same distillery for that reason. So if you go back and look, I've got some four roses, we've got Weller, I've got Old Elk, I've got some Jack Daniel. Like, you start looking at the breadth, I'm I'm I'm picking a little bit from all over the place because I'm part of creating a collection is having a range. If all you had was just Buffalo Trace products that were all mashbill number one, like, well, you just have different versions of the same thing. That's not really a a breadth of selections.

Gavin 17:58

It's like the same whiskey that they've it's like Dayton proof down, proof, you know, Dayton or sister.

Aaron 18:04

It's kind of the same thing still, right? Yeah, yeah, kind of, kind of, yeah, kind of for sure.

Gavin 18:11

Okay, so that takes care of the fourth. It's bottle quattro. Um, so let's go cinco. Um, I want to go. Um, let's go to Scotch. Okay. Unpeated ex-bourbon.

Aaron 18:29

Unpeated ex-bourbon. Okay. So we're mixing up just a tad bit here. So I I did not essentially split whether or not it was ex-bourbon or ex-sherried, but rather it was a floral floor forward and a sherry forward flavor. Gives me the option to do double cask or double maturation in here, uh, just introducing a little twist. But I selected the classic Lottie from Brooke Lottie. This is my, this is my budget friendly at $45 a bottle. The premium Dal Winnie 15. And if you go way back, one of the very first episodes we did, we had uh Delwinny 15. Uh difference? Delwinie 15's got a little more smoke to it, right? Um, still no peat, but there's a there's a smoky barrel char that shows up that I don't I don't really pick up on the Brooklottti. However, Brocolati is that beautiful light entry-level scotch. Add to the fact that it is a distillery on an island that typically is heavily peated, it gives you a level of uniqueness to the bottle in your collection that somebody who comes over and is like, I don't know much about them, but it's a fun story to tell off the side. Um, the other part that I've always loved about Brooklottie is their level of transparency in what they do. There is a code on every bottle. You go type that code into their website, it then tells you what all barrelings got blended back together to create that badge. And that so you know exactly when it went into that barrel. Sorry, into that bottle. However many barrels went into that batch, kind of spells it out, which is a fun thing, especially when you're branching off and beginning to learn more about other whiskey styles in Scotch.

Gavin 20:34

Oh, very nice, very nice. So um bottle number five. So that's bottle number five.

Aaron 20:40

So we're gonna hit Oh, did I? So I said Dalwinny earlier. The difference, Dalwinny premium bottle $74 as compared to the Brooklyn's $45.

Gavin 20:51

Okay.

Aaron 20:51

Again, running about one and a half times cost on the premium side.

Gavin 20:54

So, you know, we we talked in the last episode about kind of what's the flyer uh price range. And so far, I'm trying to keep in that range that if you've never had it, you've you're I don't know where we're going, but so far you've if you paid MSRP for these, you're you're sitting.

Aaron 21:15

I should clarify the pricing that I'm giving is the pricing that the big box retailer down the street has these listed on their website for sale.

Gavin 21:24

That's a good frame of reference.

Aaron 21:26

So yeah, I don't I don't know what the official factory MSRP is. I don't know what your local liquor store offers. This is big box retailer price. Um, and to that end, I think I only had one or two that was not listed as available at the store just because of availability and such. So really tried to keep into the world of if you wanted one, you can go get one of these, right? Um, what's the fun in a whiskey you can't actually? It might be delicious, but if you never get to try it, who cares?

Gavin 21:58

Especially if you're starting. From scratch, right?

Aaron 22:00

I mean you I mean you gotta repla I I'm assuming you're living in a tent in front of your house that just burnt down, and that's why you don't have a whiskey collection anymore. And so you gotta keep it small enough, you can keep it in a box and carry it with you, right?

Gavin 22:13

Instead of buying new underwear, you're buying whiskey. I mean underwear you can wear dirty. Yeah, that's right. You can't drink dirty whiskey. There are those who claim that scotch is dirty bourbon. That is that's true. And we have a good friend who likes to call it that. All right, um it's five. Number six, number six. Oh my gosh, where do we go? Where do we go? Where'd it go? Um, I want to say Scotch Unpeated Sherry. Scot unpeteed sherry.

Aaron 22:50

Okay, so here is where you can start to play with the double cask kind of thing, right? Because you can get sherry influence without actually be fully matured in sherry.

Gavin 22:59

Uh-huh.

Aaron 23:00

So, on my budget-friendly bottle, this is where they get really close. My pick, Abelauer 12-year double cask. Oh, that's a good one. A delicious bottle. That is good. However, the one we have tonight for us is the premium version that clocks in just a couple dollars more. At Bunahaven, 12 year. Again, playing off the thing we talked about in Brooklottie, again at Isla Distillery, commonly known for their deliciously heavy peated. This one is not peted, but is heavily sharied. So, cost difference between the two. You start at $63 for the Abelauer 12, you go to $66 for the Moonhobin. This is not a big jump. Like these are essentially interchangeable. Um, the other option in a premium world would have been to take the Abelauer and go to the Cast Strength Abonade, um, which is a significant step up in price, but equally delicious, but just carries a lot more kick, if you will, a lot more punch. Um, again, this is a category that is really, really tough. We talked about how hard it was to weed out all of the ride bourbons.

Gavin 24:18

Not wheat out, but weed out.

Aaron 24:20

Yeah, no, no, they I mean, every distillery you know of in Scotland makes a sherry-influenced single malt. Um that's it's Alvini, it's McCallan, it's Glenn Levitt, it's Glenn Fittick, it's I can't just start running down the list, right? Um I will say the other one that really was tough for me was Glendronic for the premium bottle. I'll say the reason I went Boonehaven 12 um was just sheer price point. Um, at $66 a bottle, it's hard to beat that price on a delicious sherried scotch out of Scotland. Um most sherry-influenced scotches that would be in that price point would be a double cask, which means you've got bourbon and sherry. This one is heavier, sherried, a little less bourbon. So if you're really trying to showcase that range, these two, I think, specifically, really are kind of on extremes of that rather than being really close together. Ultimately is a fun way to split them up.

Gavin 25:31

And it's literally one of my favorite distilleries to say. It's a great name. I mean great name. Can't beat it, or as my wife calls it, Bunahavahane. Bunahabain.

Aaron 25:44

If you want to look like a Scotch know-it-all, being able to properly pronounce Bruclati and Bunahaven, that's a great start. Because the average person who walks in and has nothing about Scotch or Gaelic or anything is going to mispronounce both of them. And then you get to say, actually.

Gavin 26:05

Or, I mean, even the simpler names like, is it the Balvini? Is it Balvini? Like, I mean there's what I do know is it's the, not just Balvini. It's the, not the, right? Oh, oh. Probably should call somebody. Because it's the if I can see that.

Aaron 26:26

Positive somebody out there knows and will correct us. So pick one, and we'll get we'll get a comment that says, You guys are idiots. And we can't, I can't argue with that. We appreciate those comments. We are idiots. We've never claimed to not be. But we love we love what we do. We're just idiots who like whiskey. Yeah. I mean all right. That is six. Yes. Which means we need to talk a little bit about what we got in this class. Yes. So we're we're condensing here. We're condensing, right? We're here. We got a lot of whiskey. So we're only halfway through, and we still got more whiskey to drink and more whiskey to. Oh, you can leave that around. Put that right out front. Yeah, let the world see us. Um, all right. So give me, we're gonna skip all of it. Give me a number and why it got that number.

Gavin 27:23

To me, the tealing. I'll write this down. Um, the single grain. Uh I mentioned that I feel like it's unique in one way, but also very um um one-dimensional in another. I think on the palette, it just there's a lot going on and then it dissipates really fast. So I'm gonna give this an 81. Um, when it comes to Irish whiskies, I've got some fun ones. And so the when I scored against the other Irish whiskies that I have on my shelf. Yeah, but you got bougie Irish. Yeah, I do got bougie Irish.

Aaron 28:08

Yeah, I I had a I had a basic and premium package. You you're you're comparing it to bougie options. Well, that's that's the way we live. All right. Your turn. What are you giving it? I so I like that this is atypical in the world of Irish, but yet still rings true to Irish. For me, this is an 87. I love the berries. Like there is a raspberry, blackberry, strawberry kind of thing going on in there that I really enjoy. And it carries. It's on the nose, it's on the palate, and it's on the finish. There is still classic, florally, light kind of notes that carry through that just absolutely remind you that this is Irish for sure. There's no question. If you had blind taste it, if you blind poured this one out of this set and said, which one is like, that's the Irish. Um, and so I like the fact that it's recognizably Irish, but yet distinctly got something different about it that's not as true to everything else. Um, if you were to sit this down next to a Jameson or a Bush Mills or a Tillamordue, like this stands out significantly compared to a lot of those. Um so to that, 87 for me. 87 for you. All right, and 81 for Gavin. Still in the 80s.

Gavin 29:31

So that means we get to go to glass number two. You ready? Yeah, all right. I'm more than ready. So my job is to still guide us onto the next pour.

Aaron 29:43

Okay, so we got we got six options to pick from. Gavin, pick us one of the six.

Gavin 29:50

Let's go. Um Scotch blended. Ooh, that's a fun one. That's a fun one.

Aaron 30:01

I we have we have a good one here. They're all good ones. I get it. All right, so let's talk before we pour this one. My budget-friendly blended scotch. We have talked about this one time and time and time again. The classic monkey shoulder. Um, a wonderful blended malt scotch that comes in at just $32. But my premium selection is Compass Boxes Hedonism. One, great name. Makes you feel like you're doing something dirty when you drink it.

Gavin 30:42

Yeah, you hedonist.

Aaron 30:44

Number two, this is a significant step into premium. Compass box makes some of the greatest blends in my mind, um, coming out of Scotland. This is a single grain blend. Um, in a fun way. Oh no. Or I dropped my pen. Um, no, no, no, no. We can share. I got it, I got it, I got it. All right. Uh, I'm gonna get it after we pour. So, one of the things that I really, really like about Compass Box, again, to that transparency. You go to Compass Box's website. One, this is a new new bottle, new bottle, which is always fun. Um, fresh cracks are my faves.

Gavin 31:26

Fresh cracks are always the best.

Aaron 31:29

Ooh. Um, one of the things that is really fun about Compass Box is you go to their website and they actually give you. I didn't want to interrupt that. Sorry. They give you the blending percentages from each distillery. Now it's not, I don't think it's enough for you to go recreate your own bottle of Compass Fox by blending things together. A lot of the distilleries they use are only available as blends and don't come in single malt options. So it would be hard to recreate this. But if you wish to know, this is this comes in a 43% ABV, 86 proof for those at home. Uh, this series was originally released in 2000. They do an annual release every year. The blend varies ever so slightly, but shooting back towards that classic taste. This one happens to be a blend of North British distillery product, about a little over 18%, Gervin distillery at just over 20%, Port Dun, I'm gonna say Dundas, I'm sure I'm mispronouncing that, at 22%, and then three different barrelings from Cameron Bridge distillery that come out to just over 39% of this bottle. So when it gets into blends, this is where you get to kind of see a little bit of what they're doing. Not only do they tell you what distillery it came from, they tell you the notes and flavors that they picked up from those barrels that they ultimately blended, trying to shoot for this exact flavor. So a fun, fun, fun way to try blends. Again, this is premium, right? We went from $32 for monkey shoulder, this is $105 for a hedonist. That's a premium. Yeah, this is a big jump. This is one in an ironic twist in the category that probably would have thought to be the one of the lowest cost categories. That's where I thought the value was in spending more. I'll tell you the one that I really, really struggled with was Johnny Walker 15-year green label blended malt. If the category had been blended malt whiskeys and not blended scotches, I might have picked that one. But the word blended opened up an option that I could go with a blended single or blended grains as opposed to a blended malt.

Gavin 34:13

I gotcha. Alright. Well, you poured it, but I'm gonna ask you, what do you think? Just just initial I forgot to read something to get my pen. Uh conversation. What what's your what's your take on that?

Aaron 34:30

On this one? Yes. I so I'll be honest, this harkens a little bit to the Irish. I had not realized that when we were picking the bottles, but this does have a bit of the Irish five. Um it's a different level of sweetness. Like that one was a little more berry forward. This has got a little bit more of your classic bourbon-y kind of notes that carry over into scotch, the vanillas and that kind of stuff. But I I don't want to get all into it, right? Let it let it develop as we go. But I will I will be completely honest. That is the first bottle of tea ling I've ever owned, right? And I'm down to there. This is easily the third or fourth bottle of hedonism I've owned. Um, hedonism is absolutely one of those bottles that when people ask, hey, I don't know anything about scotch, what one should I try? I was like, go fun on your first one, right? Go get you some hedonism. Um the name only makes it more fun.

Gavin 35:28

Go get a little dirty with your scotch.

Aaron 35:32

I don't, I there's there's nothing about this that is earthy and dirty, right? I guess it's a very light, floral, sweet kind of thing going on. It's just not what people think of when they think of scotch or compass box. I mean, your yeah, every other compass box I got is smoky. Exactly. Like they they put something peated into it, and this one doesn't have any the you said it right.

Gavin 35:55

I think the parallelism to uh the tealing, the Irish. I I think you're right that it there's different it's different, but it harkens to the Irish style. Yep, 100% agree with that. Absolutely. Okay, let's go, let's switch back to bourbon real quick, and let's go overproofed bourbon.

Aaron 36:20

All right, overproofed bourbon. So the question is always like, well, what do you classify as overproof? Yeah, I'd make an argument, bottled and bond puts you at 100. You probably gotta clear 110 before I would start saying that's overproofed. So my budget-friendly bottle of quote unquote overproofed clocks in at 55%, aka 110, and that is Russell's Reserve single barrel. One of my absolute favorite go-to bourbons, hands down, there has never been less than three bottles of this in this room at any given moment. Now, the overproofed, because this one starts at 66 bucks, right? Like it's overproof. We're expecting to pay a little more. The very small step up in cost, my premium version would be Elijah Craig barrel proof. Elijah Craig barrel proofs historically have been delicious. Second, they often don't drink it nearly the proof they are. They're also a little hotter than this, typically in the 130 range, right? Upper 120s, low 130s is the is the norm, I'll say. Um both have the ability to be drank straight. I'll be honest, for me, Elijah Craig needs a splash of water to bring it down. Ironically, I probably bring it down to close to around 110, right? Which is why I like um the Russell's. Both of those are ride bourbons, right? So this is my cheat, and the fact that I get a second ride bourbon. This one just going from what is 40 something on this one? Nope. The bottled and bond. That's a 50, so that's a hundred proof. This is my step up at 110.

Gavin 38:16

So you said Elijah Craig. Is there Elijah Craig barrel proof that is best one I've ever had? Yeah, yeah.

Aaron 38:25

Tell me about it. Years ago. I'm teasing, it was RPC.

Gavin 38:29

The Dragon Spire.

Aaron 38:32

I the one of the problems, and you can't see it on here because it's actually one shelf up above Gavin's head. Um, I have a problem saying no to Elijah Craig barrel proofs. I think I have seven, eight, nine different Elijah Craig barrel proofs. Um, all of them being some sort of single barrel. Like every one of them was like, man, it's just good. Like, what do you do? What do you do when every single one of them is tasty? Um, yeah, I I I can't say enough about either of them. Um, one of the highlights of my bourbon life was was standing at Wild Turkey and and getting Jimmy Russell to sign a bottle of Russell's Reserve. I like it's like bucket list checkoff kind of fun stuff. Um yeah, I when I first had a pour of Russell's Reserve single barrel, I was like, I don't know why people drink other stuff, right? That's how much I liked it right out of the gate. So um, I've gone and tried all the other wild turkey stuff. Still the best.

Gavin 39:36

I can't fault you for that because I am a Russell's reserve fiend as well.

Aaron 39:41

Like the funny thing was, I really, really debated the Russell's Reserve single barrel rye instead of the Jack Daniels rye. But ultimately, I if I if I only got to pick one bottle from Russell's, it's this one. I can't pick the rye instead, right? So that that that swung the final decision, so to speak. That is fair. I get it.

Gavin 40:03

All right. Well, let's venture on down our list. Let's do, let's go back to the Scotch world. Okay. We're gonna do Scotted bourbon. Okay.

Aaron 40:19

So one of the challenges on this one was deciding which one I was going to bring out. Uh uh. You gotta go fish for it? No, no, no, no. I got it, I got it. All right, so if you caught the episode a while back, we had David Moore on. We drank Ardbag Moore. David Blackmore. What did I say? David Moore. David Blackmore, right? Um I apologize, David. No, I this is the problem with drinking all these whiskeys to try to figure out what you want. So my my budget-friendly pick for peated whiskey was Ardbeg 10. I know, I know it's got a little bit of a lot of things going on in there. It's hard to find one that is just ex-bourbon, um, but one that is more floral forward and less sherry forward. Um, Ardbeg 10 came in at $55, but there is no chance I was going to have a Peter selection that did not include a bottle of Logavulin 16. Log of Ulin 16 is everything I think Peter's gut should taste like. So I'll be honest, this was one of those tough ones, right? Where do I take the shared version and go with the distiller's edition or the unsharied version and go with 16? I either way I was putting the logavulin on the set. Um, ultimately, when it came down to it, I picked a different one on the sherried because I knew I could put this one in um for the unsharied. However, this bottle clocks in at $88. Right? So it's a little more premium. I'll be honest, that was lower than I have seen it in a long time. Um, Logavulin 16 has run in the $95 to $100 range for quite some time. So kudos to whoever lowered the price. Appreciate it a bunch. Um be buying more now? Yeah, I I we laughed about we laughed about how much Russell's reserve I've bought over the years. I don't even want to think how many bottles of Logavulin I've I've uh burned through. I think it would be the best way to describe it.

Gavin 42:20

I think at the company cook-off, yeah, we drink one every year. And that is that's it's a symbolic thing. It you drink, there's people drinking that outside of a glass.

Aaron 42:34

So so so the the the policy was years ago, I brought a bottle of Logavulin 16, and for the first time we ever won a category and got to walk up and get a trophy. And we came back and I said, guys, we need to celebrate in style. And we took the top off, uh, opened a bottle of Lagavulin.

Gavin 42:50

Oh, you mean Logavulin? You didn't take the top off.

Aaron 42:52

No, we well that too. You can't really drink Logavulin with your shirt on. Um and then literally the entire cook team stood in a circle and Julia just passed the bottle around until the bottle was empty. And we like the eight of us just stood and drank Logavulin until it was gone. And that became the tradition. And so every year I buy a bottle of Logavulin and I leave it in the leave it in the box, and we don't drag it out until the award ceremony. And if we walk up and get a trophy, we drink. And I will say, we've not not walked since we started the tradition. So every year I every year, every October, I drink an entire bottle of Lago Food in one, in like 30 minutes. It's ridiculous how fast we drink it.

Gavin 43:41

Um yeah, absolutely fabulous. Well, hopefully this year there's a noble dram category at the cooking. Oh we're talking to Beeble.

Aaron 43:49

We're talking to Beeble.

Gavin 43:50

All right.

Aaron 43:51

Figure out how to put scotch in your uh barbecue recipe.

Gavin 43:53

Yep. Gotta gotta get gotta get to getting on that. All right. All right. That is bottle what? Nine. Nine. Good lord. All right. Time is flying. We're drinking a lot. All right. Let's go, Scotch. Pete Ed Sherried.

Aaron 44:08

Pete Ed Sherried. Um, it'd be a fun wedding invite to get a Pete Pete and Sherry getting married. All right. That'd be fun. All right, so my budget friendly. And their kids' names Island. Jeez. All right. This is one of the one of the higher-end budget whiskeys. Higher end budget whiskeys. Is there even such a thing? Nope. In my list, I'm looking at my price. This my budget version clocks in at $73 a bottle. It is the Benrioch Smokey 12. But if you know me, when we go premium in this category, there can be none other. Then Highland Parks Cast Strength. Uh, this clocks in at $96. Obviously higher proof. You expect to pay a little bit of a premium just in that proof. As an Orkney distillery, it has got peat, but it's not overly peaty. It is sheried that I think actually helps to balance out the peat. It is one of the most beautifully balanced sherry and peat bottles I have ever run across. Absolutely fabulous. This is one where I don't think the premium is that much. I think you get a higher proof. Put it on the shelf. That being said, the Benriak Smoky 12, although has become tougher to find here locally, is one of the quintessentials. I'll also say you could have put the Benriak 12, the not smokey version, you could have put it in in the sherried unpeated category. Both of those releases are absolutely phenomenal. And they're quintessentially the category that they fall in. All right. I picked two wide bottles. Hold on, let me move this. I'm gonna start shifting stuff down on us here.

Gavin 46:12

So that takes us. Now we're getting to the fun stuff. Bottle. Ooh. You all didn't see that. No one saw that.

Aaron 46:21

Oh my god, it's behind the bottles. You're hiding it well. Uh bottle number 11. Where are we going next? We only got two categories left. That you know of. Um International. Intro national. This was a fun one because we we did spend so much time studying international stuff, and there was a lot of things that was like very regionally specific. I fell in love with Cavalon during our whiskeys of the world, and so the Cavalon Classic came in as my quote-unquote premium bottle, coming in at $100. But that's not the one I have for the table today. The one I have today is the Habiki Harmony bottle, maybe one of the prettiest, sexiest bottles you'll find. Now, this is a blend. This is not a single malt. It's got some non-malted barley in it, but it has such a beautiful balance. Even though it's fairly premium price tagged at $87, right? It exudes sexiness and elegance just in the bottle. When you pour it in the glass, it backs it up. Which is hard to find sometimes. Sometimes you get that like, man, that bottle is spectacular. And you pour the whiskey, and you're like, the bottle's better than the liquid, right? Like that happens. Not in this instance. This one, I think the the liquid is every bit as good. Tougher to find. I'll say when you get into international, just availability becomes a little bit tougher. The Cavalon Classic is a very commonly available Kavallon, and the Harmony is a very commonly available Habiki. Oh, fabulous. Also, the topper defense mechanism. Yeah. You could club, you could club baby seals with that thing. Yeah, that thing is excellent. Yeah.

Gavin 48:20

All right, that brings us to your wildcard of the top 12. Build your whiskey shelf selection.

Aaron 48:36

This represents probably the hardest part of the night. Because the entire playground is open, if you will. Right? Yeah. Every you could repeat a category, you could move away from anything you have. I ran into the problem. There are three distilleries that I cannot believe are not currently on this table. Only get two here. And that was really, really tough. From the top of the bottle? I think you know what it is. Again, trying to understand what is budget friendly, what is premium, where does it fall relative to everything else? Because there are distilleries that I really like, but I'm not positive they're a great deal different than things that we have. So my budget-friendly option, Glen Scotia's double cask, the American Oak and Sherried. They now make American Oak and Rum. I love you, Glen Scotia. The sherried version is better. It's just better. It is at $65 one of the, in my mind, best bang for the bucks in Scotch. It's got that Campletown funk, charred sugar, it's got that little bit of smokiness, it's got just a hand of peat going on back in there. It's got sherry, it's got richness of vanilla. It an absolutely phenomenal pour. But that is not the premium bottle. That is the budget bottle that's $65. Clocking in at my most expensive bottle of the night. At $120, Glenn Maranji's 18-year-old is my open category.

Gavin 50:32

And the oldest, right? I think that's the oldest.

Aaron 50:36

Yes. I mean, we got a 16, we got a number of unstated, some 12s. I we got a lot going on here. Um I'll be honest, it hurts me to not put Oban on the table.

unknown 50:50

Yeah.

Aaron 50:51

Oben is one of my favorite distilleries. The problem here is my favorite of all OBA's was a limited release that is not available anymore. So hardy feels bad putting up a bottle that you can't get on a regular basis. Part of what I said was these need to be things that you can go find if you're starting a collection. Where do you start from? Also, Glenn Maranji makes a lot of great bottles. The 18 might not be my favorite of all Glen Marangies. I'm an absolute avid fan of the Signet. It's ridiculously good and nothing like anything else on the table. However, it carries a price point almost twice what the 18-year-old is, right? And so it's really starting to push that envelope. Like if we'd added a third column of Ultra Premium, right? And I might have the cut. 18-year gives you all of the beautiful light floral notes that show up in classic Glen Maranji, but all of them are elevated with a level of elegance and sophistication that the standard 12s and 14-year releases just don't quite have.

Gavin 52:07

I am just surprised that Kilhouman did not show up on the I so I'm just you you could absolutely make an argument for Kilhouman falling into the Peter sections here, right?

Aaron 52:19

Both I Kil Hooman makes a PX matured that I think is absolutely phenomenal. I the the truth of the matter is when you can only pick 12, I can't have all 38 of my favorite distillators. That's just how it works. Um I I will say I I think it's fun to have the structure of the different categories. It also pins you in. The truth of the matter is if I was picking my 12 favorites, I don't cover the range. It's a good right. If if you said pick your 12 favorite whiskeys, I probably don't have an Irish, I probably don't have a rye, right? Because they're not my favorites. But if you're going to have a whiskey collection, it needs it to be a collection that allows you to make a cocktail or drink it neat. It needs to be something that would hold up to an ice cube or something that can be sipped straight from the from the bottle. Like you need to have that range of things. And so that ultimately means it's not necessarily my 12 favorites, right? I the truth of the matter is if if I was picking my 12 favorites, these aren't exactly the same 12. A lot of them would be on that cat on that list, but not necessarily all of them. Um, you know, I've I've always struggled with the rationale between am I a whiskey drink, am I a Scotch drinker, or am I a bourbon drinker? And ultimately the truth is I'm a whiskey drinker and I I have all of them. Um I I currently have three bourbons and I have I've got six scotches on the table. Right? I you begin to start looking at it, I was like, well, there are things I like more than I like others, but part of that is I'm trying to fill the width of the spectrum, right? Um but yet at the same time I want it to be something that isn't so far extreme that it's difficult to find the right time and place.

Gavin 54:29

Well, I'm gonna give you one more task. Are you ready? Okay, because I like to break the rules. Baker's dozen. You get one more to add to the table. He does not know this. This is legitimate. He does not know. I'm giving him a task to pick one more bottle to add to these 12.

Aaron 54:54

Does it need to follow the same criteria? Does it need to be regularly available?

Gavin 54:58

Nope. This is the one bottle, your baker's dozen. It's your double wildcard, no regulation. Go big go home. Go big go home.

Aaron 55:15

Man, if I had 13, you know what I'd do? This would get replaced with Oban's Distiller's Edition, and I would replace this with Signet. If I'm if I'm if no holds barred, no, no dollar amount, Kevin. I could make an argument for Black Arts from Broccolati to be on there. Um Glenn Scotia's 25 year was an absolutely phenomenal bottle. Um, no, I'll I'll say this. I'll say this. If I get to pick any bottle, price doesn't matter, none of it, I still think I want Signet on the table. The problem there is that it puts two Glimmer Angies, so I'm pulling 18 off and I'm putting Oban back in. Okay. If you tell me I get 13, I'm switching out. I'm I'm calling in the lefty. Get that guy out of here. We're switching, we're going for a uh a base runner. We're gonna change it up just a little bit. All right. Oh man, that was fun. That was fun. I look forward to putting you on this one.

Gavin 56:21

I know, I know. I got a lot of work to do.

Aaron 56:23

I I did a lot of talking tonight, which was a lot of fun, but what we didn't do. Give numbers and have a good time with this one. So tell me on the compass box, what do you think of this one?

Gavin 56:39

I like it. I think letting it breathe a little bit. Um, there's a bit more um spice that comes out to me. Um I don't know if that's like an anise kind of thing that's showing up, or almost a clovey. Um I'll be honest, I get toasted coconut.

Aaron 57:02

Like not quite like coconut scented sunscreen, right? Like we're not on the on the beach. You're not Hawaiian tropics. Yeah, we're not on the beach in Mexico. Slathering. We're never gonna slather each other up on the beach. I stopped that one before we got to do more than like it's already out there. Yeah, the internet knows. Um I'm just saying it stays in Mexico. I'm just saying Gavin needs a lot of sunscreen. What are you gonna do? You know, hey, I um I will say this is creamier when compared to the tealing that we started with. Tealing is much more berry and fruity, right? This is much more creamy, um custardy on the nose, if you will. Uh like the filling out of a creme brulee.

Gavin 57:55

I feel like the berry in that one and the creaminess in this would go really well together if they were blended. You're gonna blend the blend?

Aaron 58:07

I didn't say I was going to. I just said it's like inception kind of stuff. That's like a dream within a dream.

Gavin 58:11

Dream within a dream. All right, you gotta give it a number though, Kevin. So I'm I'm setting uh an 85 on this guy. Um, I think that there's more in this that I tend to lean towards. Um, and so I gave it a little high.

Aaron 58:37

Your your score went up. I think yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, it jives. Um, you're like, I like this one better, but the other one I got a higher score to. That would be weird.

Gavin 58:45

Uh yeah, fair. Um, I think that it tracks it. There's just there's more depth to this one, I think, in my opinion. In my on my palette. Um, I tend to go more this direction than the tea ling.

Aaron 59:04

Although I like the tea ling, but this one I I don't know the ages, right? As a blend, I I they don't give you ages at all. But I will say that the tea ling smells youthful compared to the hedonism. Um, I'll give you that. I my number's an 86. Okay. Um, I think it's a very tasty bottle. I think the thing that keeps this from being scored higher for me is it's not cheap. And in my head, there's a bit of like blends should be less expensive. Right? This one in on my list of premium bottles, this was the this was tied for second most expensive bottle on my premium side, right? And it that seems a little off for me. So to that end, I I we always debate do you do you include price, do you not include price when you when you give the scores? Um yeah, I I wish I think this had gotten another point if it was $20 a bottle cheaper. That's a good point. It probably wouldn't taste as good if it was cheaper, though. I'd be making it with inferior nonsense. Uh that's $86.85 for the two of us on hedonism from Compass Box.

Gavin 1:00:19

Yeah, so that brings us to the breath of Aaron's whiskey shelf. If he had to start over with the knowledge he has today.

Aaron 1:00:29

Yeah, no, I I we were trying to come up with a name. I was like, I like this. It's a collection selection.

Gavin 1:00:34

There you go.

Aaron 1:00:35

I I to our point, these are not my 12 favorite whiskeys of all time. This is if you were starting a selection and you could only have room on the cart, only had room in the box for 12 bottles, what are those 12 bottles? Um, I think this gives you a pretty nice wide range of all the things that whiskey has to offer.

Gavin 1:00:56

And if you were given a budget of a hundred bucks a month to go spin on whiskey, most of these.

Aaron 1:01:04

Let's talk, let's talk dollars before we close this out. All right. If you purchased all of the budget-friendly versions, your total bill would be $614.50. Not bad. If you were to purchase the premium bottles that we discussed, your total bill would be $969.88. A lot of 0.99. Wow. So yeah, sub a thousand dollars if you were to buy all 12. Wow, that's awesome. I I feel like this is a even the premium is pretty budget friendly. So if you were to buy all 24, 24, you're talking just under $1,600.

unknown 1:01:47

Yeah.

Aaron 1:01:47

Wow.

Gavin 1:01:48

Not bad.

Aaron 1:01:50

Yeah, it's a hell of a way to spend the Christmas bonus. Yeah.

Gavin 1:01:55

Lay it all on red.

Aaron 1:01:57

It's mid-year. Probably got that mid-year bonus burning a hole in your pocket.

Gavin 1:02:02

There you go. Go to your local bottle shop or your big box store or wherever. They'll love you.

Aaron 1:02:09

I'm telling you, you walk in with a $1,600 and set it down on the counter, they'll probably give you 5% discount.

Gavin 1:02:15

Yeah. Then you can buy another bottle.

Aaron 1:02:17

All right.

Gavin 1:02:17

All right.

Aaron 1:02:19

Till next time, when we get to hear what Gavin would pick. Prepare. Go and light the fire under that hot seat and let him work on that one for a bit.

Gavin 1:02:29

All right. Cheers. And Slan Javard.

Aaron 1:02:34

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'd 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.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:53

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

Aaron 1:02:58

As always, be noble.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:00

Enjoy your journey responsibly.