BOOZE TALK: WILLETT SINGLE BARREL ESTATE RESERVE

AUTOPSY IV NOTE: This is a feature we’ve kicked around a little and RSV finally decided to give it a go. Since drinking is as integral to the culture of ninebullets as music is it would only make since that there should be booze reviews/discussions here from time to time. So, what do you guys think? Should this become a semi-regular feature? Let us know in the comments.

I shop at a local chain of liquor stores, here in Texas called Spec’s that has been around for a long while. They even have a cartoon rabbit with glasses as their mascot/logo. The Spec’s Warehouse in downtown Houston is an icon and until 2008 was the largest liquor store in the world. I love shopping there because their selection is amazing. Like many of our readers I am a whiskey aficionado who appreciates everything from American bourbons to Irish whiskeys so a large selection is very important to me. I read reviews online, talk to friends, and generally know what my next three or four bottles will be when I walk into a liquor store. With all this I usually give the whiskey guy a polite bit of conversation and purchase what I intended when I walked in to the store. Until Christmas Eve last year I had never let one of the whiskey salesmen talk me into buying a bottle I hadn’t already intended to buy.

I went in to Spec’s on Christmas eve to get whiskey for the annual party because it’s sort of a tradition that I bring the whiskey and was planning to just pick up either a bottle of Clontarf Single Malt, which is my preferred house whiskey, or a bottle of Knob Creek, which is the backup house bottle. I was eying a bottle of Sam Houston Very Small Batch because it’s a nice whiskey when the salesman approached. Now usually this where I spend a few minutes looking at ~100 bottles of whiskey which is out of my normal price range but one has to be polite. Now this time was different. The salesman wanted to tell me about this whiskey he tried last weekend and didn’t describe it like he had just memorized the marketing materials. He was impressed by it’s flavor both straight and mixed and it was less than 45.00 for the bottle. I decided to give it a chance and walked out with a bottle of Willett Single Barrel Special Reserve.

Back at the party I poured some into a whiskey glass and added two cubes of ice, swirled it, noticed the long legs (yes I know how to describe whiskey), put the glass up to my nose and inhaled deeply. The first whiff is strong and has hints of honey. In fact I’d say the first nose is stronger than the whiskey. It’s a 94 proof whiskey and has a nose that is only slightly less than Booker’s which ~120 proof. However the first sip wasn’t harsh at all. It was amazingly smooth and rolled over the tongue in a very welcoming manner. The start is smooth and fells good and the finish is a burst of tartness with hints of vanilla, oak, and honey all the way through. It is not only an amazing whiskey for a price it deserves a place in your liquor cabinet and may well be my house whiskey for a while.

You may be asking yourself “We are all drinkers and that sounds good but how does this tie into music?” Well I got to thinking, this weekend, while drinking out of the third bottle of Willett’s I have purchased that what this whiskey needed was some music. So I put together this compilation of songs that should take about the amount time it takes to consume two decent pours of Willett Single Barrel Estate Reserve. (that’s four fingers and two cubes of ice per pour, cleaning your glass in between). With as smooth as this whiskey is I decided to go with a low key playlist to accent the flavor in your mouth and the warmth in your chest as you sample this amazing Kentucky bourbon but it is still bourbon so I didn’t go easy listening. You’ll get it if you are a whiskey drinker. So go get yourself a bottle of Willett Single Barrel Estate Reserve, come back to this post, play this little mix, and enjoy your newfound whiskey.

Track Archive

Autopsy IV added track: Murder City Devils – Rum and Whiskey