Heaven Hill Straight Bourbon

@Victor I am telling everybody around me that it is easier to find a bad Scotch than a bad Bourbon. Please, tell me I am right.

@Robert99,I would say that it is very difficult to make generalizations about questions like this. Who decides what is good and bad, and how many thousands of the products does a person have to taste to reach big conclusions on a subject like that?

That said I do think that you are right, but there are some bad bourbons, for sure. In the US these usually cost less than $ 15/750 ml. In the US if you succeed in obtaining a truly bad bourbon, you probably paid about the price of a drink at a bar for 750 ml, and haven't lost much. The true tragedies are the occasional bad batches of good whiskeys. The true low shelf bourbons don't get sold in Canada much, from what I've seen.

Nowadays it is VERY easy to find shitty Scotch if you smell and taste sulphur...much easier than bad standard middle-shelf bourbon, I would say. And you will pay multiple times as much for that bad Scotch as for US domestic bad bourbon. There is a good bit of suspect bourbon sold on MOM and TWE I would say, ones that aren't sold or aren't common in the US. But I haven't tasted many of those, and so I can't really say for sure how good or bad they are. 40% ABV bottling always makes me wary, though, because that is the strength in the US for cocktail whiskey. And if you get a bad bourbon in the UK you pay expensive import prices, so you HAVE lost some significant money there.

@Victor I was puting the price in the balance with a very North Americain view. You are right about the prices for Bourbon in UK and you could have add many other countries around the world like Australia for example. But when I read American commenting about price and quality, I deduct from their reaction that they are used to quality for a very good price. I have to add that it seems that in the last six months, the American whiskey industry wants to catch up with the world by increasing their prices.

I feel the Scotch are like the French in the '70 and '80 with their wine, a bit lazy with the low shelf and average products. I expect that the USA , with all the MIcrodistilleries popping every where , will rock the house a bit in the coming years. And with that demanding domestic market, it should be interesting. Of course, Scotlland will react and that will be good for the average quality of our dram. Call me optimistic if you want, I will take it as a compliment. But to be honest, I am talking about 10 years, in the meanwhile, with the increast popularity of whisk(e)y, we will have to pay more for sometime lower than average product. C'est la vie.

4.6 years after this bottle was opened there is marked improvement in the flavours. The fierce strident tannins have been much reduced, and the whiskey is far more sippable than it was. I would score this 75 points now. Still not elegant as a sipper, but with some more merit now, and closer to the mainstream in appeal of flavours. This remains an oak trip. If this were the only whiski I had to sip I would be glad to have it.

Life will surprise you sometimes, particularly if you have an open mind.

This $ 8 Litre bottle of NAS Heaven Hill bourbon was one of the most difficult bottles I have ever owned to drink. My my my, how long air exposure has changed it.

5.5 years after having opened it the ferocious wood tannins have disappeared and what remains in the mouth is a pleasant buttery sweet drink. The nose remains nothing to seek out, but is not repellent. In the mouth I would rate this bottle at 83 points today, I can actually enjoy sipping it, something I would never have believed for the first 4 years the bottle was open. Live and learn. There is always more to learn.

Correction: there IS an age statement in the fine print of the label of this Heaven Hill bourbon: 36 months.