Welcome to Nice Sipper
Sagamore Spirit Rye
Continuing July 4th weekend rye tastings with Baltimore’s own, Sagamore Spirit Rye Whiskey. Sagamore is a relatively newer distillery that focuses its efforts on Rye, a hearty grain that the early Maryland settlers were able to grow in the subpar soil conditions as forests were cleared for farming during colonial times.
Russell’s Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey 6 Year Old
Kicking off July 4th weekend with some new rye reviews. Today we will be sipping a Russell’s Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey aged for 6 years. As the namesake brand of father/son master distiller duo, Jimmy and Eddie Russell from Wild Turkey, I am expecting great things from this release. Will it live up to the expectations?
Trader Joe’s Kentucky Bourbon
Private labeled Buffalo Trace or 1792 Bourbon? Or just another internet tinfoil hat theory? Today we sip the very affordable Trader Joe’s Kentucky Bourbon to see if what people are saying is too good to be true or not.
Penelope Architect Build No. 2
French Oak finished and/or aged whiskey seems to be my preferred picks, does Penelope Architect Build No. 2 meet the standard?
Weller Special Reserve
After quite a bit of a hiatus, Nice Sipper is back with a review of the much hyped (and price inflated) Weller Special Reserve. Is it worth all the fuss? If so, at what cost?
Old Forester 100 Proof Bourbon
Not only will we be talking about the Old Forester 100 proof today, but we also have a special Halloween video titled “The Sipper: The Death of Value Bourbon” that was a lot of fun to make, so we hope you enjoy it!
Hazelburn 10 Year
Hazelburn is one of three brands of Scotch from the Springbank Distillery. While the other two, the Springbank and Longrow have medium and heavy peat profiles, the Hazelburn is the unpeated, triple distilled version within their portfolio of whiskies. Let’s check out this Hazelburn 10 Year together….
Buffalo Trace Bourbon
Buffalo Trace Bourbon is a staple bourbon for many people. It used to be readily available at nearly every liquor store that sold any other bourbon besides Jim and Jack, but then demand spiked ahead of the supply build up and this little gem got put allocation. Let’s see if this old faithful holds up.
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel is a limited release which puts the base Elijah Craig Small Batch bourbon into a second barrel for additional aging, except this one is a toasted barrel instead of the Level 3 char used for the Small Batch. A lot of distilleries have a Toasted Oak release these days, but are they worth the extra money?
Cardhu Gold Reserve Single Malt Game of Thrones: House Targaryen
In honor of this past weekend’s debut of House of the Dragon on HBO, we have a special review for one of the bottles from the Diageo Game of Thrones Scotch series, which came out a few years ago. This, of course, is the House of Targaryen bottle, a Cardhu Gold Reserve. Warning, this review may be combustible…
SMWS 71.80 “Powershake”
Our next review is going back to the world of independent bottlers with another Scotch Malt Whisky Society release. This one is 71.80 “Powershake” which, according to the internet, comes from the Glenburgie distillery, owned by Pernod Ricard and predominantly used for blending. Let’s see if this release belongs in a blend or if it can stand up on its own as a Single Malt expression….
Mortlach 12 “The Wee Witchie”
Our next review will be for a bottle that I first had the first summer of COVID when I started exploring various 12 year old expressions from distilleries that I had never tried before. The Mortlach 12 “The Wee Witchie” from The Beast of Dufftown.
Mossburn Vintage Casks No. 21 Benrinnes 10 Year (Distilled in 2008)
Hitting up another independent bottler for a Speyside single malt scotch review — Mossburn Single Malt Vintage Casks No. 21, a Benrinnes 10 year old distilled in 2008 and bottled at cask strength. I have never had a scotch from Benrinnes before, so let’s see how it tastes….
George Dickel Bottled in Bond Aged 13 Years (distilled in Spring 2007)
Heading back to Tennessee to try a George Dickel Bottle in Bond. I remember liking the 11 year old release back in 2020 so let’s see how the 13 year old released in 2021 sips….
Bain’s Cape Mountain Single Grain Whisky
For today’s review, we are exploring a new part of the wonderful world of whisky, South Africa. This is my first South African whisky but since I have a lot of followers from the area, I wanted to say thank you and what better way to say thanks, than to do a review of their home country whisky…..
Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm
We are heading back to Islay for the next review to sip a bottle that was sitting on my shelf unopened for a while now, Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2007 Rockside Farm. This is an interesting whisky from Islay, which is known for its peated Scotch, as this is an unpeated release…..
Jack Daniel’s Gentleman Jack
Next up is Gentleman Jack made by the iconic Jack Daniels. I know I'm supposed to give deference to good old King Jack, but, oh well…..