2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar

Blanton's Single Barrel - JJ's 5th Edition - 3 Tslats & a Carrie I know I am going to get a little bit of grief for this one. Mostly because of some feedback I have gotten already with folks speculating on what the Christmas Day pour will be. "I'll bet it's...

Lagavulin 11-Year-Old Offerman Edition Charred Oak Cask So, Christmas Eve is here, and our journey is almost over. I hope you have enjoyed the ride. I took a little detour today back to Scotland, and for good reason. I have noted before that I am not a fan of the...

Buffalo Trace Single Barrel - 11th Edition - Egg Pie's Birthday Batch This was our one and only barrel of Buffalo Trace for 2022, so of course it has to make the top three spirits in the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar. Another great pick by my June think...

Knob Creek Single Barrel 17h Edition - MQS75 Sometimes good is just, well, good. When we were searching through library bottles to add to the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar I stumbled upon a small glass vial. It was labeled MQS75. It was a small 1/2oz vial...

Rockfilter "Fence Jumper" Organic Bourbon Whiskey Sometimes the strangest things happen at trade shows. You meet new people. You try new things. You have engaging conversations and you start the process of developing a relationship that will undoubtedly have some...

Codigo Anejo Single Barrel Tequila - JJ's 1st Edition About five years ago I was given an opportunity to purchase a barrel of Codigo tequila. We received the sample kit and got set to make the selection, then the program was halted for a reason we don't know to this...

Remy Martin XO Cognac I thought I would take the opportunity today to offer you something really extraordinary. It is a bit outside most of your enjoyment preferences, as I know there are not many cognac drinkers in our array of customers. However, as this 2022...

Maker's Mark Private Select Barrel - JJ's 3rd Edition Back in June, when Myself, Tom, Ted and Carrie drove to Kentucky for barrel selections, the second day of our journey was chauffeured. This was great for a variety of reasons, but mostly because I was tired of...

Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Heavily Peated Single Malt Islay Barley 2013 "Tom seriously put a heavily peated Scotch on the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar." That is what you are saying right now. If you know, you know. I am not the biggest fan of peated...

Woodford Reserve Private Select Barrel - 2nd Edition I really debated where to put this in this year's Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar but settled on here thinking we could sell a few more bottles before Christmas. That being said, it is sold out, so we have no...

Frigate Reserve 21-Year-Old Rum It's Tiki Thursday! Rum is the answer. And today we have something a lot of you probably haven't tried yet! Frigate rums were introduced to us a few months back and it was agreed that they were pretty darn good. That being said, it took...

Old Tub Bourbon Whiskey - Bottled in Bond Once in a while in our journey of adult beverage discovery, we need to step back and truly appreciate the work that is being done by some of the top bourbon makers to offer what I like to call "History in a bottle". This is...

Codigo 1530 Artesanal Mezcal This is the one that did it for me. It finally convinced me that I could actually love a smoked spirit. I dislike peated scotches. Largely most mezcals that I have tried taste fine, none of them really get my taste buds dancing. Most of...

Brenne French Single Malt Whisky This was mostly a staff pick for the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar. I can honestly say, that until it was suggested to me that we need to add this to the line-up, I hadn't tried it. Further, it was mostly our female bar...

1792 Full Proof Single Barrel - 9th Edition When selecting the Sunday Sippers for the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar I wanted to have whiskies that were memorable and enjoyable right down to the last sniff. Everything we put on this list is there for a...

Dewar's Double Double 21-Year-Old Scotch First off, as I am preparing to write this, I realized that yesterday's bog did not post. Sorry for that! I was having website issues yesterday morning while prepping and for some reason it left it sitting there without going...

Three Chords Single Barrel Bourbon - JJ's 1st Edition We spent the majority of our time in 2022 seeking out new barrels for you to enjoy, but probably said "no" more than we said "yes." For a variety of reasons. 1)Some of the barrel samples we tasted just weren't very...

Glacial Lakes Runabout Rum Single Barrel - JJ's 1st (and only) Edition I love to collaborate, and this has been a collaboration in the works for a few years. It all started with a bourbon barrel selection in 2017 that became what you are experiencing in your glass...

Bushmills Single Malt Aged 21 Years On our first Whisk(e)y Wednesday of the 2022 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar, we decided to go big with one of our most exciting Irish Whiskies on the shelf these days. It's exciting for many reasons, but mostly because it is...

Codigo Reposado Single Barrel Tequila - JJ's 1st Edition About five years ago I was given an opportunity to purchase a barrel of Codigo tequila. We received the sample kit and got set to make the selection, then the program was halted for a reason we don't know to...

Benjamin Chapman 7-Year-Old Canadian Whisky Fitting that we chose this whisky on Repeal Day. American Bourbon was still in a bit of infancy at the time that Prohibition started, so most of the distilleries ceased production and died during prohibition, except for...

Knob Creek Single Barrel Bourbon - JJ's 18th Edition This could quite possibly go on record as the longest we had ever waited for a single barrel to show up after making a selection. We actually did this selection during birthday month of 2021 at around the same time...

The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch - 16-Year-Old French Oak I have always had a love-hate relationship with Scotch. So, when selecting items for things like the Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar, or even making a recommendation to a customer, I often find myself...

Old Elk Single Barrel Bourbon - JJ's 2nd Edition We all have our strong suits when it comes to picking whiskies. We all bring something different to the table when doing a selection based on what we like to drink ourselves, or what we like to recommend to our...

Kirk and Sweeney XO Rum - V3 I thought I would kind of start off with a little bit of a bang. It's Thursday. And for many years we have rereferred to Thursday as Tiki Thursday and all things Rum! You will sense a bit of a theme with each day of the week as we progress...