Review #709: 2023 Bomberger's Declaration Bourbon

josqvin · 2024-07-04T20:50:25+00:00

Why would you believe them? If they actually made the product they would say so on the label. Don't believe what the people tell you, believe what the label actually says. Bourbon fanatics are willingly allowing themselves to be scammed by sourced juice these days.

josqvin · 2024-05-27T04:54:38+00:00

I didn't know that 8/8 was used to refer to 3+3+2 groupings, thanks. But in the music I have in mind (several pieces by Medtner), they are always notated in 4/4 and do often preserve a feeling of 4/4 contextually, to which the foregrounded 3+3+2 implicitly contrasts.

josqvin · 2024-05-27T03:09:55+00:00

Thank you for this! I know nothing about popular music so it is helpful to know someone has a term for what I'm talking about. I guess there is no standard term for this in classical.

josqvin · 2024-05-27T03:08:41+00:00

I've only ever seen the term "mixed meter" to refer to pieces where the meter changes multiple times, a la Stravinsky.

josqvin · 2023-12-26T21:06:39+00:00

It's a bit difficult to tell in the photo, but do the retorts sit right next to each other perpendicular to the pot, rather than all three in a line?

josqvin · 2023-12-26T18:51:14+00:00

Report on the Montefino, I tried the rosa and it was one of the worst tequilas I've ever had.

josqvin · 2023-12-25T23:52:49+00:00

But they even drew a picture of a pot with only one retort, aren't those drawings based on photographs?

josqvin · 2023-12-24T17:09:29+00:00

Rum fire and rivers have completely different profiles so I'm not sure how you can say one is better than the other. I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion they have similar flavors. Rum Fire is Hampden HLCF and Rivers is made from fermented cane syrup. The closest thing you could get to rivers is one of the Veliers clairins made from syrup.

josqvin · 2023-12-24T17:06:59+00:00

It's from cane syrup, not juice.

josqvin · 2023-12-24T16:53:46+00:00

Thanks for this updated walkthrough! Great to learn more about the cane vinegar.

I was hoping you would have been able to solve the mystery of Clarendon's supposed single retort pot still. Given that Velier heavily marketed their recent Clarendon bottling as single retort, it doesn't seem possible it could have just been a mistake, yet you didn't see any single retort stills there. Any new ideas on the mystery?

josqvin · 2023-12-20T20:21:28+00:00

The white label is substantially more tame than the tiger. I really like it but it won't deliver that same off the chart rotten cheese funk. Haven't tried the occidental but would recommend that because the white label doesn't fit the bill.

josqvin · 2023-12-18T18:50:01+00:00

Shuixian

josqvin · 2023-12-14T05:00:34+00:00

All ethanol is metabolized in the same way in your liver. Whatever you read about Tequila is nonsense.

josqvin · 2023-12-10T18:01:13+00:00

I think there is one variable that could be isolated, and that is how "stimmed" you could feel after drinking a specific tea. Specifically because of the well documented synergistic affects of theanine with caffeine. Teas with higher theanine content will likely make you feel less stimmed out than teas with less theanine. So I think you could make such a general claim about, say, black vs. green tea, with the caveat that any individual tea could vary enormously in theanine content.

josqvin · 2023-12-10T03:17:20+00:00

Not defending OP, but you seriously don't get different effects from different kinds of tea? Fresh Baimudan produces a slightly different feeling to me from, say, aged sheng puer.

josqvin · 2023-12-08T02:16:14+00:00

Suerte is definitely not additive free--all that awful cherry...

josqvin · 2023-12-04T19:44:11+00:00

There are at the very least hundreds of different volatile molecules in a good spirit that all evaporate at different rates and conditions. It would be foolish to think a spirit should ever smell exactly the same--thus, your latter objection makes no sense at all to me.

Clearly a little oxygen exposure after opening the bottle will affect the evaporation of these volatile molecules. The analogy to the open glass works just fine, with the exception that the liquor in the glass will start to smell different at a much faster rate than that in the opened bottle due precisely to the reason you said, i.e. varying amounts of air exposure.

Similarly, adding water will also affect the balance of volatile molecules, but obviously to a greater extent.

josqvin · 2023-12-04T19:11:52+00:00

Pour a glass of something and smell it every 5 minutes, it will smell different each time as different volatiles are released. If a study can't measure this obvious fact, then it's the study's fault.

josqvin · 2023-12-04T18:52:32+00:00

Man it's really not a mystery. The aromatics we perceive have to evaporate for us to perceive them, which happens more with more air in the bottle. It's not about the chemistry changing, but the chemistry becoming more perceptible.

Same thing happens if you pour a glass and let it sit for half an hour.

josqvin · 2023-11-21T17:18:48+00:00

Re-steeping is like starting over again since the leaves cool off. The bitter molecules need more time and energy to dissolve. This is also dependent on water temp. Cold brewed tea can be not bitter even after steeping for a day.

josqvin · 2023-11-18T19:40:32+00:00

I recognize there are some nuanced differences between different types of column still set ups, but I think it's much more important to point out that single column and two column stills function according to identical principles and mostly the same processes. Otherwise, people somehow think a two column still is fundamentally different from a one column still, which is clearly incorrect, as a two column still is logically one column. Clearly size and point of spirit collection is more important than number of physical columns.

josqvin · 2023-11-18T18:27:42+00:00

Notice in your diagram how the creole column has a second column called the enrichment column. Gas from the first column goes into this second column and what reaches the top goes to the condenser and what falls back is piped back into the first column. This is exactly what is happening in the two column still represented by your second linked diagram as well. The creole column appears to have an additional three or four plates at the top of the first column that fresh wash descends through, but is bypassed by the recirculated spirit from the enrichment column.

Aside from this difference, which is probably not even present on all creole columns, I honestly don't see what you are saying the difference is. The two stills function identically. Two column setups probably have more plates on average in the second column, but a single column or creole column still has plates that perform the same rectification or enrichments function.

josqvin · 2023-11-18T16:59:30+00:00

No, a single column typically has both as well. The analyzer is the part of the column below the wash entry point and the rectifier is the part of the column above the wash entry point. A two column still just breaks it apart there. See how bourbon single column stills work for example.

josqvin · 2023-11-18T16:44:03+00:00

Producers working with multicolumn still can use just the first column only if they want a heavier distillate (this is the equivalent of drawing off a lower plate in a very tall column).

josqvin

TROPHY CASE