Blanton's Original

@Victor Checked out your list "Standard Bourbon List, or Twenty-Two or Eleven Standard Bourbons For The Desert Island" and noticed you had Blanton's Straight From the Barrel at #9. You have to give me tips on adding water to stuff with 50-70% ABV. I always ruin 'em with too much water...

But I'm really starting to fall for these bourbons...

Very nice review for a very nice bourbon. This beauty will shine with a few months of exposure to air - hard to believe that there will be a big improvement, but if you patiently wait, you will be amply rewarded. Yes, the bottle is an absolutely brilliant design. Must have piece for the shelf.

@Rantavahti, thank you for your very nice review. I am glad that you have been enjoying your Blanton's Original. Concerning the addition of water I just suggest careful gradualism. When I add water, it is literally 2 drops at a time. But then I only add water sometimes, maybe about 1/3 of the time (more frequently for the purpose of review writing), and usually then only for the very high proof products, which, for me would mean over 60% abv. But I am sure that you can get some interesting variations in flavour from adding a couple of drops of water to a 46.5% abv bourbon whiskey.

Having been raised Roman Catholic, the Blanton's bottle reminds me a lot of a glass version of the ciborium, the gold-plated vessel in which the sacred Eucharistic wafers are stored. The ciborium would be slightly different in that it would flatten out toward the superior (uppermost) aspect and covered by a lid which would usuallty be flat or close to flat. Some designs of ciboria will have significant curvature in the upper half of the vessel, though, rather than being flat.

Wow! If you remember the old tv series of "Maverick", you must be in your 60's! I do and I am. I use a lot more water in my whisk(e)y than you guys, normally knocking the strength down to low-mid 30's ABV. Then I let it sit for 20-30 minutes before tasting, which usually takes an hour or so. I find I get all the flavors out of a whisky that way. Longer doesn't seem to help, just like too much water, there is diminishing return.

I live in Finland, which is the promised land of reruns of reruns. Well, at least it used to be in the 80's and 90's.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Usually I've used the 1-2 drop method with 46-50 ABV's and it seems to work out fine but with over 50% ABV I have struggled trying to find a good balance.

Blanton's is a good dram plain and simple, just what bourbon should be.