It is no secret that I am fond of distilled spirits. I have about three dozen bottles on the shelf. I have them categorized as either every day spirits or spirits that are to be enjoyed neat in a relaxed atmosphere. Included in the first category are the ones that I use for mixed drinks, for example Martinis, Manhattans and Sazeracs. I also drink them on the rocks as the spirit moves me, pun intended.

I am not a collector type person. I understand that some people have hundreds of bottles. If you take a trip through the liquor store you will see hundreds of varieties of just bourbon. My taste is bourbon and scotch with some really good rum thrown in. There are some varieties that are not extremely expensive, but they are hard to come by, at least at the local Specs. Every time I go there I always ask for three things: Eagle Rare, Old Weller Antique 107 and Henry McKenna 10 year old bonded. There is a guy there that knows my interests and will check in the proverbial "back room" to see if any of those are stashed there. They are never put on the shelf. So this time I got lucky and landed a McKenna and an Eagle Rare. As I was thanking him he mentioned there was one more in the "back room" that I might be interested in. It was a Weller 12 year old. I knew of it but never saw it on the shelf. Of course I took it.

I was intrigued because it is a wheated bourbon. Buffalo Trace makes the Wellers and the Pappys that are all wheated. I like wheated bourbons because they are very smooth for the most part. I keep a handle of Maker's Mark on the shelf because it is a wheated bourbon that is a very good buy.

So anyway, I decided to have a formal tasting and got things set up on the kitchen table. I wanted to have a couple wheated bourbons to compare with to make the experiment proper. So I chose Makers Mark and Old Weller Antique 107. It had been a long time since I did a "formal" tasting. I pulled out my notes and set to work. When it was all over, I thought the Weller 12 had a bit of spice on the palate like Antique 107 but the Maker's Mark did not. Life is good.