Get Up from Your Rocker--Saturday Swigs #1

Unlike my previous few columns, this one will be quite brief. As I mentioned, I'll be starting a whiskey blog soon for the express purpose of having a little fun with whiskey reviews. I have a strong (one might even say cask strength) preference for scotch and bourbon, but I'm sure I'll select some Irish, Canadian, and a smattering of other stuff along the way.

I'll go into greater detail later about my reviewing methodology (yes, I have one). If the subject interests you at all, let me give you a little taste of what to expect with these reviews.

Swig of the Day: Old Grand-Dad 114 Barrel Proof Bourbon

Bottling Info: Distilled and bottled by the Old Grand-Dad Distillery Company, Frankfort, KY (OGD owned by Jim Beam); bottle is marked Lot #1

Glass: Glencairn

Served: Neat. Always.

Pour: 1 oz.

Nose: Straightaway, the nose on this is gonna rouse your tired bones from the rocker. OGD comes on with a strong--but harmonious--mixture of vanilla, caramel, and citrus, as well as pronounced hints of tobacco.

Taste: It breaks out of the gate with a citrusy sweetness carried over from the nose, and then it bolts sharply around a peppery oak bend.

Finish: I hope you're settled in your saddle, because you're in for a lingering, leathery finish of tornadic proportions.

Overall: Put it this way: you'll eye your empty glass with yearning, the glass raised in front of you as though in tacit toast to the next dram. (Or, if you're looking for something more objective, 5 out of 5.)

So, concrete flavor descriptors deployed amongst mixed metaphors, witticisms abound. That's my style. After all, for a pursuit so pleasurably subjective, it's the only way for me to do this.

If you enjoyed this, check back soon (hopefully) for my new blog: "From the Sweet to the Peat."

Read: Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2010, the single greatest book on whisky ever written, by the single greatest reviewer of whisky there ever was.

Watch: Big Bad Love (dir. Arliss Howard, 2001)

Listen to: Django, by Luis Bacalov (particularly the theme song, which is simply unforgettable)