While I was at 'my' liquor store today, Nikko gave me a sip of Hirsch Selection Special Reserve 20 YO American Whiskey. A bottle had broken open in transit and its aroma was rich and enticing.
A sip led me to buy a bottle for $79, me thinking all the while about the old saw that says a fool and his money are soon parted.
The bottle says that this whiskey is distilled from Bourbon Mash and is called 'Illinois Whiskey', but also says it was bottled in Missouri for Preiss Imports. I kept looking on the bottle for it to say that Mark Twain his own self had drunk from this very bottle.........but I haven't found that piece of information yet.
This whiskey was matured for 20 years in 'USED' cooperage ('used for maturing spirits........without saying what spirits) that was then 'secreted' in Illinois. Neither do they fail to mention that this whiskey has in its ancestry the great Hirsch bourbons and ryes of days gone by.
How could a connysewer such as my own self not give in to such a grand introduction? And there was Barleycorn woofing, 'Get us some, get us some!' Damn dog is always eager to spend my money, whilst he keeps his own in his smelly socks.
Well, I drags my sorry ash home, thinking I have been 'had' yet once more. Still, that one little ole sip I had courtesy of Nikko was quite nice. So I open my new $79 (groan) 'Illinois' whiskey, which, according to the label, is turning out to be a 'classic' American treasure.
Well y'all, turns out my first impression was sound. This IS an excellent whiskey. It has a soft sweetness and rye 'kick' that work together like Laurel and Hardy, that is, each seeming to work agin the other but pulling off something great in the end. (Did you know that Oliver Hardy was born and raised in Georgia and that his birthplace, Harlem, Georgia, has a nice little museum in his honor.................and that he was born only a few miles from where Blind Willie McTell was born........nobody could sing the blues like Blind Willie.......just ask Bob Dylan, who sang about him).
Anywayhow, I like this whiskey a whole bunch. It is a very high rye recipe, but 20 years in the wood (used wood to be sure) has given it an almost delicate sweetness with mild tannins and a complementary amount of dryness toward the end.
That I am a foolish fellow has rarely been in debate. I would contend, however, that I have no regrets about spending this $79. Now, if I can find them smelly socks belonging to that silly assed dog, I will recover some of the $79, since that self same dog has also been sipping and singing the praise of this here whiskey longside my self.
Come over my house tomorrow and I will let you see for yo self if you like Hirsch Selection Special Reserve American Whiskey what was aged secretly in used barrels in Illinois..........probably by aliens!!