What up foll? I'm coming to your place for drinks!!!!!!!!!!
looking good...down with the scottish steez...highland park like what? dallwhinne to the DOME!
I love that peety, smokey taste...wife hates it. she asks me to brush my lungs. but, on our wedding she gave me a bottle of scapa, as it is from Orkney, where sirgareth the kitchen knight came from (so is Highland park.)
ahh, whiskey.
RIP Gareth... Hope you're drinking the ultimate whisky upstairs.
Wow 41 is no age. I'll raise a wee dram over the festive season to Gareth.
In a whiskey-R bump, it'll be a dram of this:
Got into the practice, as you do when your friends are all making real-world moves and visits become less frequent (+ Covid), of keeping a bottle from each of them at home, so every time they visit, we can continue the project. This one from me old mate Casso from Navan.
Wow 41 is no age. I'll raise a wee dram over the festive season to Gareth.
In a whiskey-R bump, it'll be a dram of this:
Got into the practice, as you do when your friends are all making real-world moves and visits become less frequent (+ Covid), of keeping a bottle from each of them at home, so every time they visit, we can continue the project. This one from me old mate Casso from Navan.
My brother is a whiskey aficionado and he thinks this is the best. I'm a cheap beer man and the most sophisticated I get is an extra spicy Bloody Mary, so I'll take his word for it.
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,904 Posts
Milam & Greene Triple Cask has been my favorite lately
Have to say this is lovely btw. Aged in different casks and it’s made a delicious sweet smoke flavour.
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,904 Posts
Another one that I got recently. Joseph Magnus Bourbon (triple cask finished) is a straight bourbon whiskey aged in white oak and finished in Oloroso sherry, Pedro Ximénez and Cognac casks.
Nikka's Taketsuru is my jam, or used to before it became impossible to get (geographical reasons including). I heard they changed the formula but this was always the go-to solid Japanese whiskey that never disappointed.
Repping something local, there is an Icelandic whiskey called Flóki. No idea whether it tastes good or not.
"Colour: Rich gold. Nose: Spicy heather, red berries, vanilla, notes of star anise, oats, cinnamon. Taste: Sweet fruity, cherries, berries, notes of oak aromas, savory. Finish: Long lasting, sweet, cereals, allspice."
Looks nice, will add to wishlist. If you get to taste it beforehand, let us know.
billbradleyYou want BBQ sauce? Get the fuck out of my house. 2,904 Posts
A friend of mine was in a bourbon collecting group in Houston before he passed away 4 years ago. He and some friends dug hard for rare whiskey bottles and entered the lottery drawings to get the mega raers when they became available. Some of those shops may only get one bottle of a particular rare and there are 100 guys lined up to buy it usually. So the lottery program is pretty common around the shops that carry the high end bottles. When you buy a barrel pick from a particular shop you get a lottery ticket that can be used for one of the drawings. This shop I visited yesterday carries bottles that have been selected by the Bourbon Hounds of Houston sometimes also. They had the two below so I picked up one of each.
Lee W Sinclair Four Grain (Barrel selected by Ryan's Liquors) Rebel Cask Strength (Barrel selected by Bourbon Hounds of Houston)
Nikka's Taketsuru is my jam, or used to before it became impossible to get (geographical reasons including). I heard they changed the formula but this was always the go-to solid Japanese whiskey that never disappointed.
Found a bottle of this in Bakewell today, of all places. Not opening it until I've lost 20 lbs
Did a dry January and then went and got a dose of the old COVID plague. I just realised that I finished my last dregs of Whisky making Toddies when I was sick.
Being a Scottish dram lover but living in Finland sucks as its so expensive here.
Need to visit home and get me some duty free Springbank and Glenfarclas.
Damnation, too many posts have out-of-date img links.
New discoveries for me this Chrimbo are Arran 10yr and Glenallachie 12yr (Billy Walker of Glendronach fame in the house). The Glenallachie 12yr is a smooth, rich beast with complex flavours and enough cask strength to take a drop of water without diluting the experience. Highly recommended and easily ousts similar Aberlour & Glenfarclas bottles for me. The real find is Arran though: it’s crisp and clean with some citrus notes, and in the same way that a G&T in the sunshine is paradoxically both thirst quenching and thirst provoking, I always want to reach for the glass once I’ve put it down: this is my only crit. Perhaps because it’s a 10yr it doesn’t leave a long aftertaste. I’m still getting flavours from the Glenallachie for several minutes after I’ve swallowed the whisky. The Arran is there in a hurry with a taste unlike anything I’ve ever tried before, but it’s delicious beauty is fleeting.
What the Glenallachie and the Arran have in common is that they put many older age statement whiskies to shame, and the Arran at its price is amazing value: that will surely change though.
in concept i agree with you i have plenty of bottles but am not super down for peat (blasephemy)
in reality its the subtle tones of the sea salt minerals from islands..and also local manure
My scotch has iller poop nuances than yours
They dry the barley maltings with peat smoke IIRC, it’s not soaking in the distillate.
I’m down with Port Charlotte 10-yr-old Heavily Peated. Probably my #1 dram right now. I think it would convert those who’ve been put off by Laphroaig or Laga.
Forgot about the international whisky question. The LCBO has the Nikka Pure Malt blended malts now, and while expensive, they're really good. The red in particular. Highly recommended. It appears that Nikka will have a table at the Whisky Live show this Friday, which means the opportunity to taste the whole line.
Word is that Nikka have just been bottling Ben Nevis (they own the distillery) and selling it as Japanese whiskey. I’ve always steered clear of Japanese whiskey as everything I’ve tried has just seemed like a Macallan rip-off, and the price? Fuggedabowdit. I’ll stick with the real McCoy.
It’s still peat season, so in an effort to make my (2nd!) bottle of Ardnamurchan last longer I took a punt on Kilkerran 12 and Port Charlotte 8yr Islay Barley (autocorrect really wants to change “Islay” to “Islam” LOL).
Laphroaig's single malt Scotch is a smokey stunner. Especially the 18 year old.
Interesting… I haven’t tried their 18yr, but had been researching the current ‘state’ of Laphroaig with a view to finding an expression that would in some way resemble the Scotch I used to drink in the ‘90s. Seems the cask strength is decent enough, but a lot sweeter than the core range, but everyone who drank any of the big names (Laph, Talisker, Oban, Laga, HP, Mac, Jura, Bowmore etc) in the ‘80s-‘90s agree that these brands are shadows of their former selves unfortunately and that the closest you’ll get to a decent one is through independent bottlers. Went to London a couple of weeks ago and picked up this:
It’s a three-quarters Laphroaig to one-quarter Coal Isla blend at 54.5% ABV, with some ageing in Sherry casks. I’m a big fan of peat + Sherry cask Scotch, but have to admit it’s drowned the Laphroaig profile - as I remember it* - a bit. But in a good way! Beautiful drink, really opens up with some water.
*it could be that no Laphroaig tastes as good as it used to these days, and if I really want a trip down memory lane I’d have to buy an old bottling (which luckily aren’t impossibly rare or prohibitively expensive).
Comments
RIP Gareth... Hope you're drinking the ultimate whisky upstairs.
RIP indeed.
In a whiskey-R bump, it'll be a dram of this:
Got into the practice, as you do when your friends are all making real-world moves and visits become less frequent (+ Covid), of keeping a bottle from each of them at home, so every time they visit, we can continue the project. This one from me old mate Casso from Navan.
https://www.benriachdistillery.com/en-gb/our-whiskies/the-smoky-twelve/
RE: Irish whisky, Teeling is a smooth drop.
Milam & Greene Triple Cask has been my favorite lately
Have to say this is lovely btw. Aged in different casks and it’s made a delicious sweet smoke flavour.
My current go-to.
"Colour: Rich gold.
Nose: Spicy heather, red berries, vanilla, notes of star anise, oats, cinnamon.
Taste: Sweet fruity, cherries, berries, notes of oak aromas, savory.
Finish: Long lasting, sweet, cereals, allspice."
Looks nice, will add to wishlist. If you get to taste it beforehand, let us know.
Lee W Sinclair Four Grain (Barrel selected by Ryan's Liquors)
Rebel Cask Strength (Barrel selected by Bourbon Hounds of Houston)
Found a bottle of this in Bakewell today, of all places. Not opening it until I've lost 20 lbs
Being a Scottish dram lover but living in Finland sucks as its so expensive here.
Need to visit home and get me some duty free Springbank and Glenfarclas.
New discoveries for me this Chrimbo are Arran 10yr and Glenallachie 12yr (Billy Walker of Glendronach fame in the house).
The Glenallachie 12yr is a smooth, rich beast with complex flavours and enough cask strength to take a drop of water without diluting the experience. Highly recommended and easily ousts similar Aberlour & Glenfarclas bottles for me.
The real find is Arran though: it’s crisp and clean with some citrus notes, and in the same way that a G&T in the sunshine is paradoxically both thirst quenching and thirst provoking, I always want to reach for the glass once I’ve put it down: this is my only crit. Perhaps because it’s a 10yr it doesn’t leave a long aftertaste. I’m still getting flavours from the Glenallachie for several minutes after I’ve swallowed the whisky. The Arran is there in a hurry with a taste unlike anything I’ve ever tried before, but it’s delicious beauty is fleeting.
What the Glenallachie and the Arran have in common is that they put many older age statement whiskies to shame, and the Arran at its price is amazing value: that will surely change though.
They dry the barley maltings with peat smoke IIRC, it’s not soaking in the distillate.
I’m down with Port Charlotte 10-yr-old Heavily Peated. Probably my #1 dram right now. I think it would convert those who’ve been put off by Laphroaig or Laga.
Word is that Nikka have just been bottling Ben Nevis (they own the distillery) and selling it as Japanese whiskey. I’ve always steered clear of Japanese whiskey as everything I’ve tried has just seemed like a Macallan rip-off, and the price? Fuggedabowdit. I’ll stick with the real McCoy.
Do eeeeeet!
You can’t just leave that hanging there
Interesting… I haven’t tried their 18yr, but had been researching the current ‘state’ of Laphroaig with a view to finding an expression that would in some way resemble the Scotch I used to drink in the ‘90s. Seems the cask strength is decent enough, but a lot sweeter than the core range, but everyone who drank any of the big names (Laph, Talisker, Oban, Laga, HP, Mac, Jura, Bowmore etc) in the ‘80s-‘90s agree that these brands are shadows of their former selves unfortunately and that the closest you’ll get to a decent one is through independent bottlers. Went to London a couple of weeks ago and picked up this:
It’s a three-quarters Laphroaig to one-quarter Coal Isla blend at 54.5% ABV, with some ageing in Sherry casks. I’m a big fan of peat + Sherry cask Scotch, but have to admit it’s drowned the Laphroaig profile - as I remember it* - a bit. But in a good way! Beautiful drink, really opens up with some water.
*it could be that no Laphroaig tastes as good as it used to these days, and if I really want a trip down memory lane I’d have to buy an old bottling (which luckily aren’t impossibly rare or prohibitively expensive).