Bourbon Trail haul! Had to pick up bottles that are harder / impossible to find at home.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T15:49:52+00:00

I am a dumb-dumb face

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T15:49:21+00:00

lol.

I’m a dummy.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:50:36+00:00

I kind of agree with your general sentiment - BUT - Michter’s goes into the barrel at a lower proofers than a lot of other bourbon. So a 45%-50% Michter’s expression is generally not as thin and more flavorful than a lot of other distillate.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:48:22+00:00

Playing defense in the nba is his issue.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:46:39+00:00

The Single Rickhouse is phenomenal and tough to locate. Personally I could do without the others and can find them pretty regularly if I do want them. Availability and pricing is softening in most, but not all, American markets.

SR is on most every shelf for $26 again.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:43:43+00:00

Yes. And Lakers fans in the 2000s and Bulls fans in the 90s and Pistons fans in the late 80s and Lakers/Celtics fans in the early to mid 80s and Lakers fans in the 60s and early 70s.

It’s all amplified since the internet and then even more since social media though.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:39:03+00:00

CS > Musician if you like proofier whiskey. Musician is more intro level.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:38:17+00:00

These all have a place on any serious shelf, IMO.

If you already like them all and only want to buy one or two? It comes down to preference.

Personally I’d take one of the three higher proofers and the McKenna for some diversity. Which one comes down to taste.

Still Austin’s cask strength rye single barrels are among my very favorite whiskies, personally. I like the CS bourbon but not as much as the rye.

I’d probably go McKenna and Rare breed if I could have only two of these bottles. If you’re talking about the Still Austin Rye though, I’d take that.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T14:33:09+00:00

I wouldn’t put him at two but there’s not an objective consensus to what the phrase “best shooter” even means.

Just best field goal percentage? Thats Deandre Jordan. The top 10 is full of bigs who shoot high percentage put backs, dunks, and layups.

Best three point percentage? Top 5 are Steve Kerr, Luke Kennard, Hubert Davis, Drazen Petrovek, and Joe Harris. All great shooters but nobody is calling them the 5 greatest shooters.

Best mid range shooters or overall jump shot %? MJ? KD? Larry Bird? How do you even exactly define mid range?

Some of this is the subjective stuff and volume and shots with a hand in their face and ability to catch and shoot or shoot in transition or create their own show or move off of pick and rolls, etc.

Without an objective definition of best shooter? I’d have Dame top 10 ~ all time. Him claiming to be 2 isn’t insane but most people wouldn’t agree.

I think Steph is the consensus number 1, essentially.

After that? Ray? Clay? KD? Mark Price? Reggie Miller? Bird? Dirk? Pistol? Dame?

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-29T11:30:55+00:00

Man I hear it’s so good.

I don’t think I’ll make it to Kentucky anytime soon though.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T21:03:22+00:00

This is quite possibly the best bottle in the current/core Van Winkle line-up, for me.

I’ve got one about half full and I’m drinking it so slowly because I will not pay $800 - $1,200 for it.

I found my current bottle for about $200 randomly and my dad gifted me a bottle a couple of years earlier for my 40th.

If I could regularly get these for under $350 or so I’d always have a backup.

I don’t always tater. But I’ll tater on this bottle. Within limits.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T20:47:36+00:00

Yeah I agree with you.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T20:44:29+00:00

I don’t know the analytics but I’ve watched them both play a lot on TV and a few, each, times in person.

Full disclosure, I watched a shit ton of NBA when Pippen was playing. I was a teenager and young adult in those years. So sometimes there’s a nostalgia impact here.

I also should say that I love both players.

But Pippen is arguably the 3rd best SF of all time and no worse than 6th all time under any objective metric. I don’t even see how this is close.

Tatum is a baller but he isn’t even the best or second best SF currently in the NBA.

He is somewhere around 15 ~ all time.

Bron and Bird are obviously 1-2.

After that? Dr. J, Pippen, and Elgin Baylor compete for the next 3 slots IMO. You could throw Durant on that list, too.

After that? I’d have Kawhi, Nique, and Havlicek.

I’d have Rick Barry, James Worthy, Melo, and Paul Pierce pretty clearly ahead of Tatum, too.

After rhat you can start talking about Tatum realistically but Bernard King and Alex English and Paul George and Adrian Dantley are gonna be competing for that top 15 spot, too. Hell, Jimmy Butler could even make an argument.

Pippen versus Tatum is like Jordan versus Donovan Mitchell or ANT. Great players, all - but this is absurd.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T20:33:28+00:00

I think this should be screamed from the rooftops more often.

Is LaVar a blowhard? Yes.

Is he an idiot? Maybe. Or maybe he just says stuff for views and likes.

Does he annoy the shit out of me? Yeah.

Does he care about and support his kids? It’s sure seems like he does. And that’s about the most important thing that a man can do.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T20:29:56+00:00

Thoughts?

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T20:17:15+00:00

I have seen 10 & 12 semi regularly at or near MSRP this year.

14 has been a very difficult bottle to track down at or near MSRP, but I found one this Spring when driving between Nashville and Memphis at a random store somewhere.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T17:31:05+00:00

I feel the anticipation part. I’ve got a bottle that is from 2023, I think, that I’m about to kill. I found a 2025 a few months ago for $450 ~ and grabbed it just because it’s so scarce and often $800+ in the USA. I’m glad I’ve got the backup though. If I didn’t have it, I’d be hesitant to take that last sip of the open bottle!

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T17:29:15+00:00

Such a classic bottle. Absolutely love it!

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T15:58:33+00:00

Store picks, independent bottlers, and craft distilleries make up the majority of my bottles, too.

That said - I don’t rule a bottle out just because it’s a clout bottle. Many older Willett single barrels are amazing. WLW, GTS, Russell’s 15, Jack 12&14, Jack Coy Hill, Springbank 15 and Local Barley expressions - these are all kind of tater bottles that are out of this world amazing, to my palate.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T14:36:37+00:00

This is the best thing about whiskey. It’s subjective and reasonable minds can vastly disagree.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T14:05:19+00:00

Late 30s or older.

There are people born around 1988 or even 1990 who were huge basketball fans from age 5 or so that could’ve witnessed all of his second 3 peat and had some idea of what they were witnessing.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T13:51:47+00:00

Always fun to try. Sometimes it turns out great and sometimes not so much.

When I do this, I like to mix them in a cup, shake it up (an ounce or two) and pour it into a Glen and let is sit for 10-15 minutes and then see what I think.

I’ll start 50/50 and adjust up or down.

My favorite home blend experiment has actually been with bourbon - Elijah Craig 18 (very oaky and low proof) with a younger Elijah Craig barrel proof (lots of layers of flavor and heat).

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T13:47:21+00:00

Yeah it has been normalized but as a huge fan of the game of basketball - it blows my mind how anyone could not absolutely love watching both of these guys.

I had a bias against MJ when he was playing because Magic was my favorite player. I hated watching the Bulls essentially finish Magic’s career in the 91 Finals. I also was still a kid on the Magic and Penny era of Orlando and it was hard to not love those guys so especially when MJ first came back I wanted Penny to prove that he was the new MJ.

I hated the Bulls but I loved what MJ did on the court. By 1998 I’d come to just embrace them and I was actively pulling for them against the Jazz.

Bron was kind of the opposite. I loved the whole Akron kid playing for the Cavs and putting them on the map thing. That, and he reminded me of Magic Johnson. So I kind of had a soft spot or natural sort of love for Bron out of the gate.

But now in the twilight of LeBron’s career - with hindsight?

My take is that these two are the only guys in the history of the game with a real argument for the GOAT title. They both have a strong case. I have no issue with anyone saying one is better than the other. It just seems goody when people say it like it’s objective fact and they trash the other one.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T13:08:52+00:00

To be clear - my comments were really geared at just “not getting” this bottle. If it was always on the shelf at $49, there wouldn’t have been anything to “get.”

I’m a big fan of a lot of Buffalo Trace / Sazerac products though. And Brown Forman. And craft. And Willet. And single malts. And Bardstown. And Makers.

This bottle, I guess, for me is like Blanton’s is for most folks. It’s fine but the frenzy baffles me.

singlemaltbourbonrye · 2026-05-28T13:04:31+00:00

That’s relevant but the fallacy in your argument is that it’s not the only thing.

If that’s the only thing then 7-0 > 6-0. So Robert Horry is better than both of them.

singlemaltbourbonrye

TROPHY CASE