2023 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar

Savage & Cooke - Savage Blends by JJ's - 1st Edition Well, we made it! Today is the final entry in the 2023 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar, and I sincerely hope you have enjoyed the journey. I never really know what people's expectations are on these things....

Compass Box - Metropolis It's Christmas Eve morning. It's also Sunday morning, so things are a little weird. I have to get this blog post done so that I have time to get the house picked up before the kids and their significant others descend on us this evening for...

Pinhook Vertical Series 8-Year-Old Single Barrel - JJ's Edition Today is the eve before Christmas Eve. In the last ten years or so, this is the day that I have marked on my calendar to get ready for all hell to break loose as folks secure their last minute gifts and...

Bomberger's Declaration 2023 - by Michter's This year has been really tough for allocated whiskies. If you aren't familiar with term, let me define it. Allocated Whiskey - Bourbon and other whiskies that used to collect dust on our shelves and now get "allocated"...

Codigo Barrel Strength Anejo - JJ's Single Barrel 1st Edition Here Skin IS Cinnamon - Click here before reading - Turn up the volume You are either going to thank me for this one, or hate me. If you listened to the song in the link above, or are listening to it while...

New Riff Winter Whiskey Bottled in Bond Considering what was going on last year at this time, it seems a little weird talking about Winter Whiskey when it really doesn't feel like Winter. When New Riff came on the scene back in 2018, there was much fanfare around the...

Don Q Gran Reserva XO Let's learn a little about rum today. We recently had a class in The Event Room at JJ's as part of a series of classes for Lifelong Learners put on by The University of South Dakota Sioux Falls campus. This class was lead by the Vice President of...

Kamiki Maltage Whisky - Cedar Cask Finish Today's entry is a little bit of a different twist than what we have enjoyed thus far. We have tasted tequila, rum, irish & scotch whiskies and of course bourbon and rye. But we have yet to taste a "World Whiskey". So what...

Orphan Barrel - Castle's Curse 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch When selecting today's Sunday Sipper, I toyed with the idea of doing either Castle's Curse or Dewar's 21-Year-Old Double Double. After having selected two of Whisky Advocates Top 20 for the calendar this...

Old Forester Rye Whiskey I was talking with a colleague the other day about the current state of the spirits industry. The conversation was largely about whiskey, allocated bourbon and such. But then turned to a conversation about the next big thing. It got me...

Teeling Irish Whiskey "Wonders of Wood" Virgin Portuguese Oak My Irish Blood is giddy today with this entry in to the 2023 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar. The Teeling family is steeped in distilling tradition, going back to the late 1700s when Walter Teeling...

Patron Ahumado Reposado Today's entry is a treat from Patron. More on that later, First I want to talk a little about price. We have always referred to JJ's as an "Enhanced Adult Beverage Experience". What does that mean? It means we are more than just a "liquor...

Yellowstone Single Barrel Bourbon - JJ's 2nd Edition When discussing our personalized whiskies, it's hard to really purport the relevance and the importance of these items without anecdotal support. It's why we do it. We like to tell stories. The stories behind the...

New Riff Single Barrel Bourbon - JJ's 3rd Edition - "Jane's Boys" Today is rough. My Mom, Jane Slattery, would have been 75 today. For those who are new to our world, Mom passed away on July 23rd, 2021 after a long battle with cancer. Growing up, Mom's birthday was...

Canadian Club Chronicles "The Speakeasy" 43 Year We like to throw some really old whisky in here occasionaly. Often it's too cost prohibitive to do so with Scotch, but Canadian Whisky tends to be a little more affordable to offer a taste of history. Canadian Club has...

Sunday Sipper - Glenglassaugh Sandend Occasionally we strike gold. We did with this one. All credit goes to Joe Schroepfer, our head of Store Operations at JJ's for selecting this one. We were getting down to the last few selections for the calendar and had a couple...

Paul John Nirvana Indian Single Malt Whisky I really don't want to take away from today's entry into the calendar, but I need to have a brief conversation about the current state of things in the world of whisk(e)y. Particularly with regard to global giant Sazerac. We...

RedBreast Single Pot Still PX Edition In the world of whiskey, there is a lot to choose from. There is a lot to get excited about. There is a lot to savor. This creates amazing opporunities for whiskey enthusiasts to embrace the spectrum of styles, shapes colors and...

Codigo Reposado Single Barrel Tequila - JJ's 2nd Edition What is this? What does it mean? Why is there a strange Spanish reference to wet pants? I'll explain. A few months ago, we had just selected our second barrel of Codigo Reposado Single Barrel tequila. After the...

Maker's Mark Private Selection #4 Those who know me, know that I look to use hyperbole and superlatives to describe our single barrel whiskies and personalized blends. I do that for a reason... Because are worthy of the extra emphasis that we place on their quality....

Taste the history in the 2005 Vintage Jamaica from Plantation on Repeal Day!

Copper & Kings Reserve Brandy Throwing a little bit of a curve ball at you today on this #MyWineMonday. When was the last time yupi tasted really good brandy made in the USA? I am going to venture a guess that the answer is never for most of you. Well, here's your...

Compass Box The Story of the Spaniard A couple of years ago, Jean and I were visiting Boston. We stayed at a hotel along the North End Waterfront, easy walking distance to all of the fun places we wanted to visit, eat and enjoy while there. One of the places I popped...

In today’s Calendar blog, we talk about our single barrel program and introduce, or revisit one of our favorite single barrel selections of late. Smooth Ambler Old Scout Single Barrel.

We kickoff the 2023 Spirited Holiday Countdown Calendar with an homage to the past and a glimpse of what is to come in quality bourbon from Heaven Hill.