Blind Tastings: High End Bourbons & Scotch, Rye, Bourbon

It's been a while since posting a blind tasting, so we remedied that with a two-for-one night. A couple of friends joined the fun and we decided to watch some Wipeout, which is essentially 60 minutes of people taking physical abuse for the chance to be on TV and win some money. They never show anyone getting hurt but there HAS to be serious injuries, I mean have you ever seen the punishment these people take?!? Nevertheless, it makes for some outstanding TV while shooting the shit with friends and enjoying a few rounds - I can't recommend it highly enough.

But we're not here to review Wipeout (though I'd give it a glowing one), so let's take a look at the blind tastings. Each round consisted of 3 pours, with 3 points being given to the favorite, 2 points for second place, and 1 point for the caboose.

Blind Tasting #1

The round 1 contestants

Three high end and high proof bourbons on display here with proofs ranging from 100 to 130+ and all aged for over a decade. They all have pretty unique flavor profiles and it showed in the ratings. Here are how the results panned out (my picks in bold):

1st: 7 points (2nd, 1st, 2nd) - Very Old Scout 19 Year
2nd: 6 points (1st, 2nd, 3rd) - Parker's Heritage Collection Blend of Mashbills 2012
3rd: 5 points (3rd, 3rd, 1st) - William Larue Weller 2012


Initially I was surprised the Weller came in last both overall and for me, but looking back at my review and trying it again I remembered how much water aided this whiskey. I also noticed that I liked the Parker's a bit more than previously. Perhaps it needed some time to grow on me, or maybe the euphoria of watching Wipeout engulfed me. This tasting also  reinforced how much I enjoy the Very Old Scout... if only there were more bottles of the stuff available (sigh).

Blind Tasting #2

The Campfire competition

We can call this one the Campfire tasting as it featured a bourbon, a rye and a scotch (just like High West's Campfire whiskey). Unlike the first tasting the proofs on these were much tamer, checking in at 80-94. Here's how they did:

1st: 8 points (1st, 1st, 2nd) - Elmer T Lee
2nd: 6 points (2nd, 3rd, 1st) - Vintage Rye 21 Year
3rd: 4 points (3rd, 2nd, 3rd) - Singleton of Glendullan

No surprises from how I rated these as I'm a big fan of Elmer and as much as want to like the Vintage Rye 21 (I absolutely adore the Vintage Bourbon 17) it has never really overwhelmed me. This could be due to the bottle being poorly stored... the one I purchased had much of the wax top melted and the cork broke off when removing the top. As for the Singleton finishing last overall, the other tasters are self-admittedly not big scotch fans so I'm not sure it got a fair shake.


So what do you think... agree/disagree with the results? Have you tried some/all/none of the whiskeys that made up the field? Think I'm an idiot for getting this much enjoyment out of Wipeout (you're probably right)?