The Eagle Has... well, you know...

How old do you have to be to know the origin of that declarative? How old do you have to be to swap out a word for "Beagle"?... How old can you be to not give a shit?

Okay, so, instead, I'll say this: Catching Up With The Eagle

Seems I'm a little late to the party (again... didn't I just post something about that a second ago?)

This week, I've adopted another New God: Eagle Rare 10 Year Single Barrel Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. Go, me!

Well... new to me. Out There, it's old news, but, hell... This is definitely a Better Late Than Never move.

It's yet another concoction from Buffalo Trace in Kentucky (owned by Sazerac, Metairie). The deal is they only do single barrel -- no blending -- aged for 10 and 17 years, respectively. Both are considerably longer than most bourbons. The marketing ploy is a retailer can pick a barrel for their exclusive, and Eagle slaps on a label of that retailer. To boot, because of the single barrel's unique qualities, the booze is always going to be a bit different. I got this store's exclusive barrel's bottle at Blackwell's in San Francisco.

Insanely complex, it has so many things going on that you might miss something if you blink. As such, it probably goes with... everything. Even better, it's very easygoing (Molly at Blackwell's said that was a factor in their barrel pick). Dealmaker: Just thirty freakin' bucks for the 740ml. (They have liters for fifty. No lie.)

Given my recent alert that Son of Bourye has been discontinued and BevMo's now asking seventy dollars for Campfire, the Eagle is feeling like... High West revenge.

(Seriously, when is the Park City icon of the liquor renaissance just going to get it over with and rename themselves High Price Rye?...grrrrrr)