So, we made it through this week-long parade through the world of Booze We Can Afford, and what a fine collection this is, when I look back upon the whole roster: Thirty-six distinctive, wildly different examples of The New Booze ala 2014; a whole winter’s worth of affordable exploration, here on one website…BUT, as I should have bloody well known would happen, I immediately got emails – bunches of emails and more as each post appeared: “Why don’t you have scores assigned to these? I like scores, so I can remember when I go to the liquor store!”
Well…that’s been proven out so often, here in The Pour Fool, that I don’t know why I’m surprised, anymore. People like numbers, scores, ratings, digits. I don’t, as is the case with most people who work in the beverage trade, many of whom feel that Robert Parker has a spiky little cell with a busted thermostat awaiting him down in Hell. There’s a name that beverage trade folks use to describe those who buy based on numbers only: “Score Whores“, a dead-accurate, if terribly unkind, monicker which fits the worst of those folks like a bodystocking. For my own part, I just want to interject one thought: SCORES MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Even with Parker, who virtually created the 100-Point Scale frenzy, you have to read the accompanying verbiage to see how he really felt about the wines. In many cases, the wines he praised most lavishly were those that received lower numbers. Twitter, Fox News, and the “LOL/ROTFLMAO” age be damned, the best way to communicate information, human to human, is still just writing a good, concise English paragraph.
But, as I don’t just write this bloglet for my own jollies, here ya go: scores, 36 of ’em. And I will tell you now that finding some of the bottles shown here is going to be an Adventure. I urge you to embrace the quest, though, as your friends, your plastic, and your taste buds will, believe me, thank you for it.
The Gins:
Ford’s Gin: 94
Spring 44: 100
Bluecoat: 94
Master’s “Selection” London Dry: 93
New Amsterdam No. 485: 92
Eastside Distilling Cricket Club: 95
Prairie Organic: 94
The Rums:
Eastside “Below Deck” Coffee Rum: 97
South Bay: 98
Caña Brava: 93
Cruzan “Diamond Estate” Silver: 91
Cruzan “Diamond Estate” Dark: 93
Cruzan Single Barrel: 97
Sugar Island Coconut Rum: 90
The Tequilas:
El Jimador Blanco: 94
Espolón Blanco: 95
Tres Agaves: 94
Partida Blanco: 98
Tapatio Blanco: 92
The Vodkas:
Lotus: 91
Reyka: 99
Spring 44: 98
Ménage à Trois: 92
New Amsterdam: 92
New Amsterdam Pineapple: 92
Snow Leopard: 99
The Whiskeys:
Bowmore Legend Single Malt Scotch: 99
Lismore Speyside Single Malt Scotch: 92
Fat Trout Speyside Blended Scotch: 93
Spinnaker Speyside Single Malt Scotch: 92
Four Roses Kentucky Straight Bourbon: 96
Maker’s Mark Kentucky STraight Bourbon: 96
George Dickel No. 12 Tennessee Sour Mash: 98
John B. Stetson Kentucky Straight Bourbon: 97
Pendleton Canadian: 96
Stein “Big Buck” American Bourbon: 99
The Pour Fool 