Lloyd,
I'm sure no expert on bourbon. I mean, I like Early Times, which is not only not an official bourbon, but is also only about $10 a bottle! I think of all the corn based whiskeys as bourbon styles, since they almost all have a similar taste to me. Even the really expensive single barrel bourbons (or related whiskeys) all have that bourbon whang, which is different from what I taste in most scotch whiskeys. I got my idea about what scotch tastes like from Cutty Sark, Johnny Walker, and several other blended scotches. Some of them do taste different, but they are all identifiable as scotch whiskey. On the other hand, some of the single malt scotches don't even taste like scotch to me. The Aberlour up there on the shelf, looking at me right now, tastes more like some brandies I've had, at least some of the good brandies. You roll a bit of that on your tongue and it just seems to vaporize. Swallow it and there's no bite. Good booze! On the other hand, while I really don't like a strong scotch taste, I do like the basic flavor of bourbon, and I like one that I identify as "smooth". Unfortunately, "smooth" must mean different things to different people, or we just have different working taste buds, which is probably a good thing for most food and beverage industries!
I do find that I appreciate the stronger flavored liquors, beers and wines now than I did when I was younger. I guess that's a part of growing older and having my taste and smell receptors age along with the rest of me. These days, on a cold evening, I like a glass of Early Times, neat, or some good port if I happen to have some. The problem is I'm just so darn cheap that I can't bring myself to buy the really good ports very often, and some of the less expensive stuff is just slightly removed from MD 20/20.
Seems like you can spend as much money as you like on brandies, wines and single malt scotch. Some of those just get plain ridiculous. The single barrel bourbons look like bargains in comparison.
OK....how about apple brandy? I have only had a Calvados once, and the Laird blended applejack. I'd really like to try an un-blended American apple brandy sometime. I can't even find Laird's un-blended locally. A search on-line a while back turned up a few American apple brandies. I'm interested in part because I plan to eventually make my own cider when my trees finally make enough fruit. Since I know how to distill, I may follow in the footsteps of my East Tennessee ancestors and try my hand at some apple brandy. I've had some really nice home made fruit brandies over the years.
Chuck
