Snake Oil Department, Top This

[mansr]

Scotch tastes like dirt.

And food tastes like chicken.

 

[BluesDaddy]

And food tastes like chicken.

I suggest far more people would taste an Islay Scotch and agree that it taste like dirt than would taste a medium rare Wagyu beef Ribeye steak and say it tastes like chicken (or a Brussel sprout).

 

[mansr]

I suggest far more people would taste an Islay Scotch and agree that it taste like dirt than would taste a medium rare Wagyu beef Ribeye steak and say it tastes like chicken (or a Brussel sprout).

There's more to Scotch than Islay.

 

[BluesDaddy]

Oh ho ho... I would love to engage you in some bourbon Double-Blind Testing, (or perhaps "Tasting"). You might be very surprised.

Pappy Van Winkle bourbons started out many years ago as leftover Stitzel-Weller bourbon in warehouses after the Stitzel-Weller distillery closed in 1972. Some of the old stocks were below average, and were sold on the bulk market. The better stuff was bottled and sold under the Old Rip Van Winkle and Pappy Van Winkle brands (Pappy was used for the higher ages), initially at prices roughly equal to other upper-tier but not top-shelf bourbons. Some non-Stitzel-Weller bourbon was sold with branding like "Old Rip Van Winkle Lot B", which was Bernheim bourbon.

After some people discovered that it was really good juice, they started buying it and sharing the find, and the prices started to rise, and eventually far exceeded normal top-shelf bourbon pricing. The rarity of the bottle allocations and the internet really helped this along, and what originally sold for about $50/bottle started selling for $600/bottle.

The Stitzel-Weller stocks started to run out in the late 2000s, and the bottles started to contain more Weller and less Stitzel-Weller whiskey. PVW hasn't contained any Stitzel-Weller bourbon since about 2014. What's in the Pappy bottles now is made by Sazerac (who own Weller and the Van Winkle brands) to taste as close as possible to the original "real thing", and sold at the same crazy-high prices.

So... not quite snake oil marketing, but it's pretty close, and there are some parallels to be drawn to audio snake-oil marketing. Whiskey, (scotch, bourbon and otherwise) is a crazy business, especially when you start to look at it from the inside, the making and marketing.

"High end" bourbon has gotten ridiculous over the last ten years due to the influx of new 30 and 40 year olds with money looking for another "hobby" and that the shortage of 10 year and older juices in rickhouses (along with a couple, IIRC, major "disasters" of rickhouses burning down). It hasn't been even ten years that I could walk into a liquor store and find Old Rip Van Winkle 10 or a William Larue Weller on the shelf for $50 or a little more. About 8 years ago I bought three bottles of Weller 12 for $26 each at a liquor store. That was the last time I saw it in the "wild" (though admittedly I will NOT go "on the hunt" for much of anything, including bourbon). Five years ago I could walk into my local and find a half dozen bottles of Blanton's in their boxes on the shelf for $50. And just three years of so ago I could find Col. E. H. Taylor Small Batch for about $40 and the single barrel for around $60. Haven't seen either of those on the shelf in a couple years. The one thing Scotch does have over bourbon is availability of quality bottles and not unreasonable prices. Anyway, I look for decent bourbons I can always find not kept under lock and key or sold by liquor stores at secondary market prices.

 

[BluesDaddy]

There's more to Scotch than Islay.

That's not a denial. And, really, only in degree. This did start as simply a light hearted jab and there are some Scotches I like, including Macallan 12 and older, though that seems to get poo pooed by Scotch "aficionados". I also enjoy a Rusty Nail every now and then.

 

[Spkrdctr]

Snake oil flows from Audioquest like a river. Now, they are making silver ground wires. And reviewers are trying to review them, as if.

Reviewer: "My gut told me I would hear differences between the AudioQuest GroundGoody wires. "
Roger Russell (RIP): "Believing is hearing. That's right, if you believe you will hear a difference, then there's a good chance that you will."

I will change that to, if you believe you will hear a difference, you will hear a difference!

 

[Sal1950]

Anyway, I look for decent bourbons I can always find not kept under lock and key or sold by liquor stores at secondary market prices.

Amen, Plain ole Makers Mark satisfies my taste for a really good bourbon. One of their newer "Wood Finishing" series now and then if I want to get fancy.
https://www.makersmark.com/how-its-made/makers-46

 

[Stu Pidasso]

I only use super old cables because they have the experience to reproduce the best possible sound.

 

[sergeauckland]

I only use super old cables because they have the experience to reproduce the best possible sound.

Furthermore, they should be contemporary with the music being played, so 17- 18th century for Baroque, 1950s-1960s for classic Rock n Roll, 1970s for Prog.

Real Jazz fans will also ensure that the cables were correctly manufactured on the West coast for cool jazz, East coast for hot jazz and Chicago for blues.
S

 

[Stu Pidasso]

Furthermore, they should be contemporary with the music being played, so 17- 18th century for Baroque, 1950s-1960s for classic Rock n Roll, 1970s for Prog.

Real Jazz fans will also ensure that the cables were correctly manufactured on the West coast for cool jazz, East coast for hot jazz and Chicago for blues.
S

I thought that Baroque is when you have run out of Monet...?

 

[Boris Badinov]

Scotch tastes like dirt. I've tried for 30 years to appreciate it, but just never have. Bourbon is the drink of the gods!

I once dated a girl whose mother told me that any one that drank bourbon would eat schiit from a dirty spoon.

 

[sergeauckland]

I once dated a girl whose mother told me that any one that drank bourbon would eat schiit from a dirty spoon.

And you've been married now for 47 years.....
The girl, not the mother....

S

 

[Boris Badinov]

And you've been married now for 47 years.....
The girl, not the mother....

S

no, I had to pass...she was too expensive to maintain, and I grew to like bourbon

 

[Spkrdctr]

OK, I need the opinion of our drinkers. What does it mean when the only wine I like is Merlot, I don't really care for beer or whiskey but I do like what are considered girly drinks, or fruit flavored drinks with rum or vodka. I do like long island ice teas too. Am I just a finicky drinker? Oh and to add, I rarely drink. What kind of a decent human being am I? Crazy? I just don't know. What do you guys think?

 

[SIY]

OK, I need the opinion of our drinkers. What does it mean when the only wine I like is Merlot, I don't really care for beer or whiskey but I do like what are considered girly drinks, or fruit flavored drinks with rum or vodka. I do like long island ice teas too. Am I just a finicky drinker? Oh and to add, I rarely drink. What kind of a decent human being am I? Crazy? I just don't know. What do you guys think?

Get testosterone shots.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Get testosterone shots.

I haven't seen those on the menu.

 

[Spkrdctr]

Oh and I do have low testosterone. By golly I think you nailed it, I'm becoming a woman and I don't want too. At 63 that is just not right.

 

[SIY]

Oh and I do have low testosterone. By golly I think you nailed it, I'm becoming a woman and I don't want too. At 63 that is just not right.

Don’t eat soy products!

 

[Martin]

OK, I need the opinion of our drinkers. What does it mean when the only wine I like is Merlot, I don't really care for beer or whiskey but I do like what are considered girly drinks, or fruit flavored drinks with rum or vodka. I do like long island ice teas too. Am I just a finicky drinker? Oh and to add, I rarely drink. What kind of a decent human being am I? Crazy? I just don't know. What do you guys think?

I agree. I think you are quite normal. When I drank I only drank beer, red wines, “girly” or “fruity” drinks and Vodka. Most if not all hard liquor was like ingesting bile. Gins were the worst, followed by scotches, whiskies and bourbons, then tequilas and rums, some of which were tolerable. Give me a Mai Tai, margarita, piña colada, White Russian or rum and Coke - or beer - or Stoly straight from the freezer.

I no longer drink because once I start I don’t stop.

Martin

 

[Wes]

OK, I need the opinion of our drinkers. What does it mean when the only wine I like is Merlot, I don't really care for beer or whiskey but I do like what are considered girly drinks, or fruit flavored drinks with rum or vodka. I do like long island ice teas too. Am I just a finicky drinker? Oh and to add, I rarely drink. What kind of a decent human being am I? Crazy? I just don't know. What do you guys think?

Don't worry about it. Just eat & drink what you want.

I do however, that your merlot come from France, esp. from one side of a certain river.