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I'll Drink to That! What is your favorite beverage to have with a cigar? Juice? Cola? Beer? Port? Single Malt Scotch? This room is for the discussion of beverages, especially alcoholic beverages that go well with cigars!

 
 
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Old 09-23-2004, 06:55 AM   #1
TrueBarrel
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Annapolis, MD
Posts: 187
Stagg '03 v. '04

Did a side-by-side last night undiluted. Although I've been drinking bourbon for some 20 years, feel that I have a pretty good "taster" and can differentiate and recognize all sorts of tastes, I've never been able to pin them down with specific identifyers ala Linn, Jazznut, Jim Murray, Michael Jackson, Dave Broom and others (i.e. I recognize a bunch of separate tastes that trigger taste memories, etc. but am not good at identifying or labeling them). So the below are more general thoughts rather than very taste-specific reviews.

What made comparing these Staggs so difficult was what I find to be the incredible complexity (sometimes almost impenetrably so) of the nose, taste and finish of both - my impressions of each kept changing so much as the boubon opened up in the glass that I could barely pin down one, let alone compare it to the other. I think Jim Murray may have pegged it when he says "Really, tasting notes are pointless in some ways: look for it and you will find it there." Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2004, p. 198.

That having been said, my initial impressions are that the noses of these two gems are relatively similar, with a prounounced spicyness surrounded by a complex interplay of myriad dried fruit and other earthy and woody flavors, and continually evolve on subsequent nosings after tasting. The versions differentiate themselves somewhat on the taste and finish. I find the '03 taste and finish to be somewhat cleaner and drier (e.g. the wood element seems cleaner, sharper or unvarnished) whereas the '04 taste and finish seem a tad richer (e.g. the wood element seems more polished) and more fibrous, and I detect a certain distinct leathery element in the '04's taste and especially in the finish.

The '04 is fabulous (as, of course, is the '03 but everyone already knows that!), and I could in no way declare one to be better than the other. It's a shame that I'm down to my last half-bottle of the '03.

I can't wait to hear other's comparisons of these state-of-the-art boubons. I never had the '02 Stagg, so I'd love to hear a three-way comparison.
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