Drink of choice for serious listening?

Dasani sparkling water. Have you ever had Pappy Van Winkle? They raffle off a chance to buy a bottle at 47 Kroger Wine and Spirits. You don't know which year you get to buy until the day of the raffle, the 10,12,15,20 or 23 year bourbon or 13 year rye. 

@n80,

I'd save the money to put towards more lps.

1990 L’Angelus

Another chain, Cox's smoke shop does a better raffle for $10 you get a chance to win all 6 bottles. The proceeds go to charity. I think one of the reasons some of these bourbons are expensive , for instance the 23 year Pappy, is after 23 years the barrel is half empty and in Kentucky distilleries pay a tax on every barrel every year, that adds up. 

I have had Pappy 23. I’m not a bourbon high roller but I have a friend who had a bottle. His wife got it for him years before the Pappy fetish took off. He is totally a Scotch guy and really didn’t care for it.

I had a glass of the Pappy and a glass of my go-to Blanton’s. I would give the Pappy a slight edge over the Blanton’s but only barely. Would never spend that much money for it. Again, I’m not Bourbon connoisseur and am much more into Scotch, but I consider Pappy to be excellent bourbon but its current status is a fad/fetish. Tell people that something is hard to get and they’ll clamor for it. Sadly, Blanton’s is getting hard to get now too and prices are going up.

@slaw Its a fine balance. The drink can make the music better...and vice versa. ;-)

wcfeil, I don’t know much about wine in general. Have gotten into Italian wines over the last 10 years or so. I find that most of the time anything over about $50 is wasted on me, although last April we went to Italy for our anniversary and we splurged on a bottle or Amarone in Verona which was worth every penny.