I'm Aaron Goldfarb, an author ("Hacking Whiskey" and the upcoming "Brand Mysticism"), journalist, and the current writer-at-large for VinePair. AMA about the stranger, more embarrassing aspects of the modern whiskey industry, drinking culture, or ...

Most you've spent on a single drink and/or bottle?

In Copenhagen I remember miscalculating the exchange rate and accidentally buying a few $300+ USD bottles of rare Belgian lambic. They were tasty at least. In America I've gone overboard a few times in buying vintage spirits at places like Mordechai's in Chicago and The Office—but never much more than $100 a glass. I've *tried* extremely expensive bottles before—notably the million dollar+ Yamazaki 55 Year—but I can't recall spending much more than $500 for any single bottle. How bout you?

Bar mark up was $250 for a bottle of the Bruery's Black Tuesday, I believe a year or two old. We split so i paid half. Note: this was at a time it was much, much, much harder to come by even in SoCal. A+, no caveats.

I remember (fondly?) the early years of Black Tuesday and how much I had to scramble to get some.

What is your favorite bottle of anything alcoholic, for $40 or less?

What would you say is the most hyped up yet least actually good brand in the whiskey industry?

What is your favorite little known whiskey fact?

Great beer continues to be a great value and, if you can find it, just about everything is under $40. Russian River Pliny the Elder, Heady Topper, the wild ales of Jester King. Heck, a tankova pour of Pilsner Urquell was like 50 cents USD last time I was in Prague! You could have 79 of those and still meet your criteria. Spirits-wise, you're really going to have to look at rum to get under that $40 mark. I noticed just the other day that Appleton 12-Year-Old is only like 30 bucks. Try to find a 12 year old whiskey for that cheap these days.

You're going to cause a lot of publicists to yell at me if I answer this question. But the fact is, most of the most hyped bourbons these days are, in fact, good—but the secondary market has made them way overpriced for what they are.

The first one that comes to mind is that Buffalo Trace's Wheatley Vodka has the same mashbill as Pappy Van Winkle. I mentioned that as an aside in an article last year—but maybe I should have made a bigger point about that because no one seemed to notice or care. So maybe that's not that fun of fact...

I noticed just the other day that Appleton 12-Year-Old is only like 30 bucks.

Shhhhh, don't turn bourbon people onto rum, it'll ruin the good thing we got going!

Your secret is safe with me.

Conversely, what is the least hyped/most shit-on yet actually good brand in the whiskey industry?

Wow, that's a tough one. I think a lot of the craft whiskeys that were shit on years ago have finally come into their own. Something like Kings County Distillery, which was making youthful, grainy bourbon aged in teeny tiny barrels year ago, is now making legitimately delicious stuff.

And no one shits on Charbay, but it continues to remain way underheralded in my opinion.

What’s the best bourbon and why is it Wild Turkey?

Yes.

Dumb question, but is it meant to be had neat or on the rocks? I've only ever seen it in shots/etc.

It's perfectly fine to have neat, though I might spend a little more on their Russell's Reserve line if I wanted to go that route.

F/M/K: Willett, Wild Turkey, Wilderness Trail?

Ooh, tough one as I love them all:

F: Wilderness Trail
M: Wild Turkey
K: Willett

Is this foolishness all the fault of Bruichladdich’s brilliant orgasm of special editions like Yellow Submarine et al?

No one brand can be blamed for the foolishness of the whiskey industry. And today, I'd say Bruichladdich is one of the least foolish brands. They've been releasing some great stuff lately!

Are alcohol experts actually good at blind tasting drinks?

Yes and no! Blind tasting is the best way to remove preconceptions and actually taste things. So, no, even experts aren't good at always knowing what we're drinking blind and numerous times I've been shocked to see that I loved something blind I thought I hated, and visa versa. Try it if you've never done it before.

How humbling is this? I was already pretty skeptical of my own tastes and perceptions before I ever was a booze enthuse. So I just accepted that branding worked and just don’t pay too much for it even though I had the means.

I don’t know how vodka snobs can keep being pretentious about their tastes after how everyone gets wrecked when they do these blind

I wouldn't say it's humbling. But it is eye-opening. And there's nothing wrong with being manipulated by branding either! If drinking a pretty, expensive bottle makes you feel happy, well who cares if it might lose a blind to a bottom shelf bottle.

So you see periodically people on youtube and other sources getting accused of non disclosed promoting. Do you think this happens where people are on the payroll for these brands while pretending to be independent channels? Or unofficially where maybe a brand might helps secure certain bottles to these individuals even if they are not monetarily supporting them?

Part two: how important is the secondary market? do you think brands are aware/:doing things to profit in that space (ALA Metallica selling tickets secretly on the secondary market to make big $$).

Absolutely, and this is a massive massive problem these days, especially with the rise of influencers. I've never heard of any writer on a brand's payroll per se, but brands will lavish (often poor, underpaid) writers with bottles, bar tabs, meals, trips, gifts, etc. Influencers, especially ones that have risen to fame by making drinks (ie "drinkstagram"), are even more susceptible, as brands might literally pay them to design, say, an Old Fashioned using their products or something. OK, they're not on the permanent payroll, but what is the chances they shit on that brand's products in the future? They won't, because they want continued opportunities for paid work from that brand.

I would say, all you can do these days is figure out what writers, podcasters, personalities, and influencers you enjoy, respect, and trust the most, and then continue to follow them. Or just consider everyone a pathetic shill, because we all are in different ways. :)

Brands are, of course, aware of the secondary market but I don't think it matters to them as much as we might think. Something like Fireball creates the massive massive bulk of Sazerac's revenue for the year. So why worry about the fluctuating price of Pappy? At the same time, all these Weller extensions obviously wouldn't exist if not for the secondary market, so who knows?

I would say, all you can do these days is figure out what writers, podcasters, personalities, and influencers you enjoy, respect, and trust the most, and then continue to follow them.

u/Onepopcornman - speaking as somebody who reads a ridiculous number of whisky reviews, let me echo and support what Aaron has said here, while adding a qualifier.

We of course want to know to what degree a given influencer is biased in their ratings and notes as a result of connections with the industry, either directly or indirectly (for example by getting free samples), and avoid influencers who seem to be notably biased.

But that is only half the battle. The other half is finding influencers who have personal tastes and preferences which align well with your own tastes and likings. An influencer could be 100% independent of industry influence and still not do you much good in following them, if their tastes and yours are badly misaligned. And that does happen.

The only way to know how well somebody else's tastes line up with yours is to follow them in detail over an extended set of reviews, as much as possible comparing their impressions of a given drink with your own reactions tasting the same drink.

That takes a lot time & effort - but in doing so you will probably begin to get a decent sense re: how much pro-industry bias or influence coming from the secondary market is seeping into their reviews, as a byproduct of becoming familiar with their body of work. Especially so when you compare and contrast multiple such reviewers.

I'll just add that literally everyone in the industry, from prestige writers at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal down to some Instagrammer with only 2,000 followers gets free bottles. But Roger Ebert got to go to the movies for free and I doubt Bob Costas pays to watch baseball games. You can still be critical.

An additional problem is that drinks writers/influencers pal around with their subjects (distillers, brewers, bartenders) more than any other category of press.

How do you feel about brands sourced from MGP?

Some are good, some are bad, many are average, a few are great. There’s no shame in sourcing, only shame in not admitting you are.

Do you ever worry about the health impacts of alcohol consumption?

Everyday. But it helps me worry less about climate change, nuclear war, the rise of facism, and the Yankees postseason chances.

What’s you best bang for you buck whiskey?

I like nice whiskey but find that at a certain point I’m paying more for the name on the bottle then what’s in the bottle.

Wild Turkey 101, though its price has steadily been creeping up. Old Grand Dad Bonded is a great value too. In terms of "nicer" stuff, single malt remains a superior value to bourbon. Something like Glenfarclas 25 Year is still under $200!

What's your favorite/default cocktail? Do you have one?

My default has always been a rye old fashioned (preferably with something interesting for bitters), but I'm not super knowledgeable or anything.

I really liked your article on Crown Peach, I'd just seen a poster for it and didn't know the back story going on. One of my stupid little prized possessions is a green Crown Apple bag I use for my RPG dice (crown bags have a long history of use as dice bags), and now I sorta want a crown peach bag...

People assume I lean towards whiskey cocktails, but that's not the case at all. I almost always and only drink whiskey neat. The only whiskey cocktails I really drink are the Sazerac and a classic Rick Dalton Whiskey Sour. When I'm having cocktails I much prefer agave, gin, or rum bases and typically shaken drinks too. Tommy's Margaritas, Palomas, Siestas, Gimlets, Daiquiris, and the like. And strong Martinis of course. I'm not a heathen.

And thank you!

I’ve been trying for ages to get my hands on a bottle of Blanton’s after trying it once. Can you recommend a similar bourbon that’s easier to find? (Or a better way to find Blanton’s)

The easiest way to get Blanton's these days is probably to fly international. I continue to see tons in duty-frees. The hardest way: this guy.

I'm not a huge Blanton's fan myself. It has the same mashbill as quite a few other Sazerac products though: Elmer T. Lee, Rockhill Farm, Hancock Reserve, and Ancient Age. Not that I necessarily see any of those a lot, but if you do.

Thanks for the AMA!

Do you have a most memorable sip/taste/glass that comes to mind? And what do you keep on your shelf for a regular, mid-week drink or to offer to guests (not a full-blown party)?

Not to get romantic, but the most memorable sips are always one that come at special places. Drinking Cantillon on a chilly Saturday morning at the dusty brewery in Brussels. Eddie Russell "thiefing" some Wild Turkey straight from the barrel to my Glencain one day back in 2014 or so. Drinking birth year wine at Rekondo in San Sebastian while on my honeymoon. If the best drink of your life happened alone in your kitchen, you need to focus on some other things in life. What's your all-time top sip?

I honestly run my house like a bar so any one that comes over can drink anything (or order) anything they want from me. I have too much alcohol to ever drink it all myself and it's fun to share and make cocktails for friends.

Miles and his ‘61 Cheval Blanc might disagree

Fair. Good food pairing too.

How big is your personal collection?

Big enough to be grounds for divorce.

Favorite Japanese whiskey?

Am I paying or is someone else? I did a Yamazaki tasting last year that included the 12, 18, 25, and 55. The 18 was the best in my opinion.

I think the Japanese rice whiskeys are a great value and much easier to find than the Suntory single malts. I like Fukano and Ohiishi.

Grab a Chita next time you fly international and there's a duty free. People pass over it because it's grain whiskey, but it's a sleeper.

And anything Chichibu of course...

I was involved in a whiskey tasting not too long ago, and the person running it was shitting all over the Japanese product, saying they were artificially aged through processes vs. barrel-aged, and were not "true whiskey". I don't know enough about the subject to counter this, so can you opine about what this guy was talking about?

Not true at all. There was a lot of other BS surrounding "Japanese" whiskey for a long time, however. Many Japanese distilleries were simply sourcing Scotch (or even Canadian or US whiskey) and bottling it under the name Japanese whiskey to susceptible customers. Finally last year some rules were put in place. But places like Yamazaki (Suntory) have been distilling their own stuff since the 1930s and it's completely legit and, often, delicious.

I bartend and wanted to take it a little more seriously and be more knowledgeable about the liquors or cocktails I'm making, any books you recommend or courses or videos or anything really?

"Liquid Intelligence" is my favorite drink-making book, though that's like grad school level. Jeffrey Morgenthaler's books (and blog) are a good place to bone up on basics and improve your game. The three Death and Co. books are good for basics as well.

Do you have any thoughts on Sam Adams Utopias? I had forgotten about it until earlier this year when we saw it on a menu in Vegas. Had to try it just for the uniqueness.

I've always been a big fan and I have a modest collection of vintages of it—no, that weird shape does not store well! Yeah, it's probably a bit overpriced, considering you could get an extremely well-aged port for much cheaper, but it's definitely something any drinks fan needs to try at least once in their life.

I have a 2007 unopened bottle of Sam Adams utopia, with the collectors glass + original boxes and packaging... and given it's near infinite shelf life I'm on the fence about opening it now. If you have the following options, what would you do?

1. Wait for that 'special' occasion as I've been doing and then going 'nope' not special enough (needs to be big).

2. Sell it now, and use the profit to re-buy a newer bottle to try it.

3. Hold on to it and let it appreciate as a future auction investment?

This scenario happens to all drinkers and collectors, myself included. I'd open it on your next birthday or something. As you mention, it retains it's shelf stability even once opened. And, vintage Utopias is not something that has an extraordinary secondary market value, so I don't think it will ever fund your retirement. (As for me, I have a full vertical of Bruery 12 Days of Christmas bottles—when the hell am I going to open them all?!)

Sounds like you know what to do this Christmas.

Thanks for the ama, I've appreciated your responses to a lot of the bourbon/whiskey questions.

Thanks for joining.

Hi Aaron, my brother and I are going on a road trip that takes us through Nashville and the surrounding areas.

If you've ever been to the area, are there any bars/distilleries/breweries that you would recommend to try something interesting?

I haven't been to Nashville I oddly found myself there on election day 2016 (interesting times), but the Patterson House was a great cocktail bar then and still is from what I understand. Gertie's Bar is renowned for their whiskey list. Distillery-wise, Corsair has always done interesting, sometimes divisive stuff and, of course, there's Nelson's Green Brier who bottles the Belle Meade stuff that a lot of people like, and distills their own as well.

When do you think collectors and whiskey critics will finally admit that any bourbon aged >15 years just tastes like shit?

I have personally opened bottles of pappy 20 and 23 and they are much worse then lot B and the 15 year.

Same for all other rare bottles > 15 years.

Bourbon just absorbs to much oak in the barrel after that time to taste good.

How much longer will we see the "older is better" scotch whiskey mentality in Bourbon drinkers?

I think a lot already do. And I tend to agree with you. At the same time, though, I think most bourbon nuts today don't care about age at all. 4-6 year old stuff absolutely flies off the shelves. Hell, Blanton's is only 6 years old or so.

Thoughts on Weller?

Fine at retail. Not worth any secondary cost.

What's your opinion on Baijiu? After finally trying it I can say that while it's definitely worse than ouzo or malort, it's not all that bad conceptually.

Do you think there's room for an elevated, craft Baijiu to arrive in the same way that tequila or sake dramatically changed their stars over the last century, or is a sorghum based liquor just doomed to always taste like that?

I think it has pretty strong potential as a cocktail ingredient for sure.

Can you get the Vine Pair Twitter account to retweet this? https://twitter.com/DavidCovucci/status/1571643339858153472

Are you trying to become a drinks influencer? Congrats, you ARE one.

What state, aside from Kentucky, is producing unexpected quality with consideration to their clinate, water source, local grains, and distilling process?

This sounds weird to say, but I think New York distilling is a little underrated. It's not just Manhattan here. We have lots of farmland upstate with beautiful distilleries like Hillrock and Finger Lakes Distilling. Good water sources and unique grain varieties—last year I released a brasetto rye with New York Distilling. Other than that, it's the usual suspects, though I might also highlight Frey Ranch—great farm to bottle rye coming out of Nevada or all places.

What do you think is more likely? The bourbon boom will collapse and return to something resembling the market in the late 90’s early 2000’s?

Or is it going to continue in popularity to the point brands dilute (literally and figuratively) themselves to the point the industry is a shell of its former self?

I continue to monitor craft beer to see what will eventually happen to whiskey, as "good" beer began to trend a little earlier than bourbon's renaissance did. And it would seem that eventually we'll see things level out where there are very few national brands, and just a lot of local brands that will never be acquired by Diageo or Pernod Ricard and will just make quality small batches than only people in their state drink and perhaps even know about. There's too many people investing in the business of bourbon right now for it to collapse.

Which wine varietals/regions do you think provide the best QPR in the $30ish range?

Wine is one drinking category where I'm hardly an expert. Read my man Keith Beavers' stuff for your wine answers.

What would you recommend someone who doesn't like whiskey starts with? I'm old enough to bruteforce my palette in to it I reckon.

Maker's Mark is always a good place to start. Pretty sweet and easy-drinking, not too bruising. Heavily sherried single malt like Glendronach can work too.

Hey what do you think about Texas whiskey, Balcones or Swift (my favorite)?

Also I make an amateur amaro that's really unique and objectively good, what's a good path to market?

Thanks!

Very promising for sure. Balcone's is great. Treaty Oak is a really cool facility. Still Austin is doing some good stuff. The temperature definitely leads to interesting aging. I haven't had Swift yet, but now I'm eager to try.

You walked into this one: read my new book! I wrote Brand Mysticism with Steve Grasse, the creator of brands such as Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry rum, Narragansett beer, and many others huge success story in the alcohol space. In it, we discusses his unique methodology for getting booze brands to have huge following and committed fan bases and serious longevity in the market. Oh, and many millions of dollars probably wouldn't hurt you in the meantime. ;)

Uh, would you consider investing in my idea? I can ship you a bottle, I bet you'd see the potential in the branding.

Message me on Twitter or IG. @ aarongoldfarb

I was gifted the Macallan Enigma, a 280-400 BP bottle, limited edition. Loved every drop.

Do you like single malts? Which one is your favorite?

Love single malt and I find myself increasingly drinking it more than bourbon as bourbon becomes more and more silly. Favorite distilleries would include Laphroaig, Bruichladdich, Springbank, Glendronach, and Highland Park, though they seriously need to improve their bottle design which looks like a bad tattoo.

What Scotch whisky release has you excited right now?

Off the top of my head, the latest Laphroaig Cairdeas installment was solid.

I once tried watermelon MD 2020 at the actual farm where the watermelon was grown. That Mad Dog hit waaay different. Do you find this phenomenon occurs with other spirits as well?

In the business, we call that "terroir."

How did Proper 12 Whiskey become popular ? How does the business work where someone who knows nothing about whiskey is able to market his brand , sell it, without the whiskey critics tearing it to shreds ?

The whiskey critics do tear it to shreds. The people that buy this sort of whiskey don't care.

Thx for the reply! It sounds like he had industry experts behind him, who mixed the whiskey with others (to claim the age ?) And then a great marketing team.

Yes, he was supported by one of the savviest mavens in the celebrity spirits space.

What would you recommend as solid entry points into Canadian Rye whiskeys? I've heard that that in terms of the ceiling of quality, Canadian just doesn't compare to whiskies from other countries, is that true?

They've always made great whiskey in Canada...they just haven't always released it. (A lot used to go into bland blends.) Alberta Premium and especially Alberta Premium Cask Strength are findable, affordable entries into the category.

What is the one thing you've drank that you would never touch again?

Curdled milk when I was 8. Also a Jager Bomb.

Do you think we need to worry about the Price-performance ratio of scotch and Bourbon in the Future? In Europe we see that Asia is getting more and more of the share also leading to higher prices. In the same time the quality of the barrels decreases (Sherry for example, or old american oak trees becoming more rare) but the distillers increase the Output and also release much younger whisk(e)y.

Absolutely. And the Asian market seems more willing to overspend on "luxury" whiskey, which is what has led to a lot of these clickbait scotches (as I once called them) being released. At a certain point, with prices going up and quality going down, it becomes time to switch to rum. Or brandy.

That point earlier in your life when you were like "you know what, I like whiskey soooo much that I'm going to make it my career to write about it", were you sober or drunk at that moment?

I was poor and underemployed. So probably drunk.

Any lesser known (preferably peaty) JP whisky you can recommend? I discovered yoichi a number of years back in a supermarket in rural Japan and liked the taste. Not usually something you see at the duty free in Narita.

It might not be lesser-known to you, but Mars is still flying a bit under the radar and their higher-end stuff is really good. I enjoyed one aged in cherry blossom casks just this week—Mars Iwai Tradition Sakura Cask.

Do you know Horst Lüning of whisky.de fame?

I do...but I don't really.

Is it true that to be called a bourbon it has to be distilled in Kentucky?

No. Anywhere in the U.S. can legally be bourbon.

Big fan of Hacking Whiskey, thanks for pulling that together!

Just mixed up a 1.5oz sample of a BP Poorer Man’s Pappy (2:1 Maker’s Cask and Larceny BP A121). If I like the blend I plan to scale it up to ~850ml and use it to fill an ex-Weller Ten-30 barrel that I’ll age for another year or more. Any thoughts? Also considered blending up the Old Cousin Touchers (ewww) recipe, but Antique 107 is fairly hard to come by for me.

Thank you!

Sounds very cool. I would just say: be very careful with tiny barrel aging, as it's very easy to ruin it all. Taste frequently.

Got it! If you haven’t seen the Ten-30 barrels before, the concept is really cool. It’s a piece of a barrel head pressed into a steel canister, designed to mimic the surface to volume ratio of a full sized barrel and allow long term aging. I have several already in-the-works, but this will be a more ambitious blend than I’ve done before.

Ah, no I haven't. Very cool. I'll investigate more.

Thoughts on tiger thiccc vs price is it worth it?

I have not had it. Sorry.

I bought a bottle of Bowmore 30 year old for $3000 CAN (2200 USD). Please be impressed ?

I'll need to try a dram to be fully impressed.

What exactly is it about bourbon that makes it so much worse than scotch?

Even the cheapest bottle of scotch from a supermarket seems to be nicer than a fancy bourbon, but I can't put my finger on why

Bourbon has a lot more wood/char influence, which might be what you find off-putting.

I've noticed that a lot of scotch is matured in bourbon barrels, and it does tend to be these that I dislike, so that definitely sounds about right!

Which is your favourite scotch? I'm currently working my way through a bottle of Tullibardine Sovereign, was a complete impulse purchase during a mental breakdown but it's actually quite nice

I like Laphroaig, Bruichladdich, Highland Park, Springbank, and Glendronach.

I have the same question in reverse. Why can I tolerate bourbon but not scotch?! Alternatively, how do I learn to actually taste flavors in bourbon, and not just feel like my mouth is burning. I would love to appreciate bourbon neat, but haven't gotten to that point yet.

Bourbon is typically a lot sweeter and has more approachable flavors (caramel, vanilla, etc.) that we are used to. Start with lower-proof bourbon first, or add a few drops of water to both lower the proof and make the alcohol heat go away.

IMO bourbon is not a whiskey and shouldn’t be called so. Thoughts ?

It's distilled from a grain mash. Of course it's whiskey.

what are your thoughts on alcohol advertising vs alcoholism recovery?

I'm not sure I have any thoughts on that. All of us have been inundated with beer commercials since the day we are born and with social media there's even more of it. So you have to be careful and aware—yes, booze is a drug. All I know is that drinking Bud Light never ended with me partying with Spuds Mackenzie like I would have thought when I was younger..

it seems disingenuous to dismiss the harmful nature of such advertising while benefiting from it.

and closing with a joke? damn, dude.

I wasn't dismissing it. Booze is harmful, the playful ads of my youth even more harmful.