Happy almost holidays! This is the time of year when most of us scramble at the last minute to buy gifts that no one wants. We’re here to help! The annual Bourbon Resource gift guide has several suggestions that should appeal to bourbon lovers. You’ll see that below, but before we get to that, a couple of notes:
VOTING IS STILL OPEN FOR THE READER’S CHOICE AWARDS
Voting will stay open on November 30. I’m striving to get the December awards newsletter out by December 7.
As a reminder: Readers have five bourbons from which to choose --- 1972 small batch, Elijah Craig small batch, Michter’s sour mash, JTS Brown, and the Maker’s Mark 46. The bottles selected had to meet two criteria —- they retail for $50 or less and are readily available at most retailers.
The 1792 (40%) and the Elijah Craig (33%) are one-two, with everyone else behind. If you still want to vote, click on the link below, which will take you to last month’s newsletter and the poll (I can’t transfer it to this month without losing the data:
DECEMBER AWARDS NEWSLETTER
Next month, we’ll hand our awards for Distiller of the Year and the Best Bourbon by price point, with a first, second, and third in each category. Look for all the details in December.
THE BOURBON RESOURCE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Note: The Bourbon Resource has not received any merchandise in exchange for mentioning the companies. These are recommendations based on research. Prices are approximations and can vary widely.
A personalized whiskey flight stave
Cost: $50
You can find these all over the internet, like here.
Bourbon drinkers love their stave because it makes it easier to track the bourbons on your flight. The only thing better than a stave is your personalized and engraved stave. The personalized versions run $50 and up but make for a gift worthy of any bourbon drinker’s bar.
Bourbon Balls
$40
This may seem lame, but they’re not. I love chocolate with bourbon (my waistline doesn’t), and there’s an excellent selection of these decadent delights. Woodford Reserve has two items worth considering, their Bourbon Balls and their Bourbon Dark Chocolate Caramels with Sea Salt. I’ve had the caramels with a deep, rich bourbon like Booker’s, Nulu, or one of the older Barrel Bourbons. I try to stop myself at three of those caramels. Or four. Maybe more. Who am I kidding? The Woodford brands, with 16 per box, cost about $40. Most distilleries have some version of bourbon candies, so this all comes down to personal preference. Whatever you buy, they won’t last long. For the adventurous, you can try making your own.
Tacky bourbon Christmas sweater
$50
If you’re going to have a tacky Christmas sweater, you might as well have one with bourbon in it.
This Weller sweater, however, is the least tacky you can get. Yes, it’s green or red with a tree (yuch), but it does have Weller and C.Y.B.P on the front (yay!) Talk about a conversation starter. You can also customize your own ugly Christmas sweater with whatever bourbon saying you want. And, if you just want a sweater for your Maker’s bottle, you can get one of these:
Nosing kit
$30
These are handy, whether it’s for those learning about bourbon or experienced drinkers who can’t quite pick up the flavors on the nose. These kits contain little containers you can smell to try to identify the scents. My kit has oak, cherry, corn, brown sugar, caramel, and black pepper. Others have a more comprehensive array of flavors. Kits start at $30.
Cocktail smoking kit
$30
I was in a local restaurant recently and saw the bartender use a smoking kit to make an Old Fashion. I’m not a cocktail person --- give me my bourbon straight out of the bottle! --- but the drink smelled terrific. It was also really cool to see that smoke rising out of the top of the glass. A gift for the connoisseurs of cocktails. And if they have a smoking kit, they could undoubtedly use a ….
Smoking jacket
$70 to $100
Ever see the Saturday Night Live skit, the Continental, starring Christopher Walken (above) as a would-be Lothario who never gets the woman? He wears a smoking jacket and wears it well. But I digress. If you’re at home with a nice smoky cocktail, add a little flair, panache, and flamboyance with a smoking jacket. This long velvet one looks nifty, but the jackets come in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Luxardo cherries
$20
What? $20 for a jar of cherries? Hear me out. Luxardo’s are the Ferrari of cherries. They’re made from marasca cherries which grow primarily in Croatia, though Luxardo has its factory in northern Italy, where the cherries also grow well. Luxardo refers to its product as the “original maraschino cherry.” It’s nothing like the sweet, sugary, bright red cherry you can buy at any market for $3. The Luxardo doesn’t use thickening agents or preservatives, and that dark red color is all-natural. So yes, paying six to seven times more for a bottle of cherries may seem steep, but it will change the life of anyone making, let’s say, a Manhattan.
Ice cube tray
$10
This isn’t the standard ice cube tray that produced 12 smaller ice cubes. This is one of those trays that produces large balls of ice that fit neatly in a rock’s glass. These larger balls melt slower, and they look damn good damn. You can buy just one silicon mold, like the Glacio in the photo, a pair, or a tray of six, like this set, on Amazon.
Bourbon Bottle Lamp
$75
Remember those leg lamps that were popular years ago? Bourbon lamps seem to be taking the leg lamp spot in popular culture. An emptied Blanton’s seems a popular choice because the wide bottle makes it easy for the light source. You can find an Evan Williams, a hanging bourbon barrel lamp, Woodford Reserve, and others.
A complete set of Blanton’s bottle stoppers
$89
It can take years to collect a complete set of eight Blanton’s bottle stoppers with each letter. It used to be much easier, but now that Blanton’s is so hard to find, it simply takes more time. Why wait? You can order all eight bottle stoppers from the distillery. So if you know someone who loves Blanton’s, who can get them a lamp, the bottle stoppers, and a …..
Blanton’s throw blanket
$35
There are lots of bourbon throws and blankets on the market, like this Bulleit blanket and this website that contains all sorts of brands. I’m calling out Blanton’s only because it meets with an unintended theme.
Custom bourbon driver headcover
$40
This is the sort of gift that makes golfers go, “Woah. Where did you get that?” A driver headcover keeps your clubs safe and shows your golf partners you love bourbon. You can find ones that already have a saying on them, like this one, or you can customize your driver head cover at websites like this. Either way, you’ll be the talk of the golf course.
That’s it for this month! If you’re an NBA fan, look at the Knicks Film School newsletter, the smartest commentary of all things New York Knicks and NBA basketball. You can click on the below button to learn more.
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Ray Marcano writes and publishes the Bourbon Resource monthly, and he’s president of the 32 Staves Society. He’s a bourbon lover and long-time journalist who freelances for some of the country’s largest media brands. He’s the former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a two-time Pulitzer juror, and a Fulbright fellow.