Glen translates to valley.

glen was a cool guy and doesnt afraid of anything...

WOW. i was at a food trade show recently and there were a couple booths offering tastes of sake. now, im no stranger to sake, or so i thought, but these were unlike anything ive ever had before. i guess til now ive only had cheaper american-made sake, which doesnt hold a candle to the high-end japanese-made stuff i tried. there was one brand, born, which was just absolutely incredible. they had two types of jumai daiginjo (the highest grade.) one is aged 5 years at ive cold temperatures and it bottled at a whopping 30% abv. you wouldnt know it, though, its incredibly smooth. its so intensive to make they only make 600 bottles a year. i didnt like it quite as much, tho, as the other one, which i think was aged only a year. still smooth, but incredibly floral and fruity. wow. i wish i ccould buy it, but they said the company is currently only marketing it to restaurants, where theres someone to pair it with appropriate foods. i did manage to find another junmai daiginjo, tho, from dassai, which is also incredible, but not as good as the born. my wife was still amazed by it, though, and shes no stranger to sake either.

easily the best thing i tried at the show...

mmm, sake...

Wow this is old

love scotch and alcohol good thread

mmm, new bottle of lagavulin...

Never had good Sake, just cheap ~$20 bottles at random Sushi places. I normally enjoy it when I have them, but I would love to have an actual "good" drink of saki.



For sure one of my favorites. Bought a bottle of the Lagavulin Distillers Edition 2000 (I think this was the name?) about a month ago. Was certainly a very fine scotch, but overall I didn't think it was really any better than just the traditional Lagavulin 16. If I'm remembering correctly, it was a little bit sweeter and less peaty than the Lagavulin 16.

Been continuing to try random cheaper/blended scotches every now and then...Most recently was the Dimple Pinch 15 Blended. Certainly nothing overly special with it, but at $30 you can't be expecting too much. Still, wasn't any worse than something like a Glenlivet 12, Dewars Ancestor, or other cheap single/blended scotches. Unique bottle too, with a rounded triangular form to it.

you should definitely look for the dassai, its really good. not terribly expensive, either. ~28. cant vouch for brands other than dassai or born, but look for a junmai daiginjo. thats the highest grade of sake, although even within that theres different levels. the dassai i got grinds the rice down to 50% of the grain. when i picked up another bottle at a local asian liquor store they told me they have pricier dassai ($75) which grinds it down to 20%. not for casual drinking but i definitely want to try it sometime. hopefully itll compare to that born one i had. mmm... but definitely look for junmai daiginjo. anything classed as that should be good. i had also picked up another brand to try which was also about $28, but it was only a daiginjo. wasnt bad, but clearly not as good.


pinch aint bad for a blend.

I'm really partial to Four Roses small batch. It's about $35 for a fifth and compliments my stogie smoking quite nicely.