Went to a neighbourhood liquor store I rarely go to to get Maker's Mark as that has been reported to be the closest commonly available thing to Chinese rice wine. While there I noticed a whole shelf dedicated to vermouth. So my wife enjoyed a Polish vodka martini while I had my ritual rum and Coke.
I don't know bourbon at all. All I know is my wife's friend said it, and they drink a lot of rice wine, and Maker's Mark is said to have a distinct taste.
LOL, distinct maybe. But not at all like any rice wine I've had... Chardonnay for me tonight until now when I'm going to have a small draft of Lagavulin 16 year before bed - it went on sale in NH a week or two ago and went below $80/bottle so I got one. Sadly it's late and I can't play any music on DIY gear. My DC 6EM7 amp is the house amp for now and it's quite nice even at less than 2wpc...based on a design by one of our many regional tube gurus. But even at that it's too loud to listen without headphones, which I'm not a great phan of... But the amp is VERY nice...thx to GK!
Tonight I'm drinking Fat Yak original pale ale.
On the rice wine, are we talking spirits? ie the generally over proof stuff? I've had the cheapest stuff and some of the best. I've never tasted any western spirits that are like Moutai or some of the other top shelf ones. The cheap stuff, any number of cheap western spirits may be similar. Kinda like Bacardi rum
pretty much just alchohol with no flavour
Tony.
On the rice wine, are we talking spirits? ie the generally over proof stuff? I've had the cheapest stuff and some of the best. I've never tasted any western spirits that are like Moutai or some of the other top shelf ones. The cheap stuff, any number of cheap western spirits may be similar. Kinda like Bacardi rum
pretty much just alchohol with no flavour Tony.
Bourbon (at least the kind from smaller distilleries) do vary a LOT in taste. Check out my standard triplette, Lexington, Larceny and Breckenridge; they are miles apart i taste.
Btw, I sipped a glass of standard Famous Grouse, yesterday evening.
(There was once a cheap whiskey sold in our state-owned liquor shops in Sweden. It was called Standard Selection, but was quickly renamed Standard Solution ...)
Moutai and top shelf don't compute. We had a $100 bottle with dinner in Beijing and the difference between that and the $1 for 100ml bottle in the supermarket was not obvious. There was a $40,000 bottle in Shanghai at the No. 1 Market.
BTW Moutai is made from sorghum so any resemblance to bourbon would be difficult.
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Ah, Famous Grouse. I have always liked that and thought it good value for money. Many years ago I took part in a trade mission, promoting tourism in Atlantic Canada to Europeans. There were about 90 of us on the trip, and back then KLM was flying nonstop between Halifax and Amsterdam, so we flew to Amsterdam for a small trade show near there, then went to other countries. The flight was a red-eye and so the first day was unscheduled. I wandered around Amsterdam all day and got back to the hotel kind of late. I went to the hotel bar and saw a bunch of folks from our group but they were just packing it
in. In Canada one is expected to tip bar staff, but there the gratuity was built into the price, so all these Canadians were shoving cash at the bartender. Now a Dutch guilder back then was worth about $0.75 Canadian, and the coin was about the size of a Canadian quarter, and the bar was kind of dark, so not only were they tipping needlessly, and well, but they were also tipping more than they thought they were. So they all cleared out and the young bartender was positively giddy from people giving him money. So I go up to the bar, and I see they have Famous Grouse so order a drink of that. The bartender looked surprised and said "Oh, you know Famous Grouse? Most people don't know it, it's very good!" So I agreed, and the only other person left in the bar spoke up with a strong Scottish accent and said "Famous Grouse? Oh aye, it's a pleasant little whisky," like that was a bad thing. I agreed and said as how "pleasant" is something I like. The bartender had already put ice in a glass, and he looked me in the eye and said "On the house" and filled the glass to the brim. I think the Scotsman and I played some darts, and later I had a minor problem with a Mountie, but that's another story and is about rum not whisky.
