The Whisky Wall (Beta) Whisky Forum

@ Stu_R, the three Highland Park 10 YO Festival bottles arrived in great shape, fantastically packed. You are now officially my new best friend and as promised, I'll be saving you a sample :-)

Alright already, ladies! :-) @scribe spot on reaction, buddy. You should be a goalkeeper :-)

@lost-in-thought it has had many other abbreviations and misprenunciations over the years :-)

Good question. I usually start with the good stuff to taste it "clean", so to speak, but would certainly be open to trying something lighter first. Noticed recently that it probably takes about 10 minutes for both the liquid and my tastebuds to get warmed up. Also, I like to have something on hand to move on to as well. There's usually a point where you focus less on whisky and more on the occasion, so (for me) I try to save the best stuff for later at that point. YMMV though ;) Nothing to regret from drinking most/all of a very good whisky if the time is right...

Always have a warming-up and try to drink lighter, fruity whisky before the Port Ellen. That way, the impact will be bigger.

I have have been saving an extremely expensive (for me) Port Ellen, 26yo from 1982 bottle for a special evening with a friend who is also a Scotch enthusiast. I was wondering how I should plan the tasting ? Should we only drink from that bottle ? Or should we warm-up our buds with other more "neutral" malts first ?

@brucefraser Yeah, these guys have given us some really solid info on the subject. I’m glad it helped you out as well.

These guys do casks in smaller sizes.. http://www.winebarrel.com/cart/index_dynamic.cfm I have a few bottles of glenlivet that my inlaws have given me that might be more interesting with a bit more time in wood..

my wife bought me a barristers bookcase for christmas.. it holds the whiskies, the glassware and various books

Porrohman, I do the same thing but I use 250s .. no reason just what I ended up with..(sadly I also tend to raid the historical stash for pretty flimsy reasons) Whiskies do change over time, the peaty phenolic whiskies seem to change more than others.. (but that may be perception since I am usually drinking peaty phenolic whiskies).. some time ago I did a blind tasting with three friends, two bottles of Ardbeg 17 one open for six months one opened fresh.. nobody but me know they were the same whisky two of them would have sworn the 6 month open one was a different distillery.

@Livvy-Turnbull Damn it all! There I go being presumptuous... I did think 'I bet she's not an Olivia' but couldn't think of another name that was shortened to Livvy... Lavinia didn't even occur to me! Ah well, never mind :)

Excellent discussion here fellas. @Beelzebozo asked a question I often wondered myself. As a result, I tended to only have a core group of whiskies open at a time and would only open a new one once an old one was finished off. I think I'll experiment a bit more and open a few more bottles after reading this topic.

@lost-in-thought hi Olivia....I'm a Lavinia...but we are all unique :-)

Almost all of my drinking is related to my blog. I try at least 5 new whiskies a week. It may sound funny, but I rarely drink "for fun". I mean, discovering and reviewing is more fun than emptying bottles of the stuff I already know.

Since I'm still discovering and have so many bottles, I try to taste something new every other night. If not tasting, I'm still enjoying at least two drams per day, after work.

I'll have a dram most evenings but rarely go beyond one or two. @lost-in-thought SMWS do some really nice bottlings, you get a nice broad choice and a chance to try whiskies from well off the beaten track.

A couple of drams maybe 2-3 evenings per week. I do, however, intend to use my SMWS membership a lot more...

@Livvy-Turnbull Maybe it's ladies called Olivia... I'm one of those too... :)

Good save... I also drink Ale, I'm lucky enough to live very near an excellent CAMRA pub which always has a good selection. But I wax ;) Lager drinkers, now, they may be a better target... Personally I think if you've a decent whisky it's a crime to put it in a cocktail, and don't care for sweet drinks, so I'm not sure I'd enjoy a whisky cocktail, but would try one. As long as it's not made with my whisky.

I don't drink enough! I try to routinely enjoy a relaxing dram or two a few nights a week, but I'd drink a lot more if I could!

@Livvy-Turnbull 41%? Erk. Wouldn't fancy a yard of that... ;)

@LeFrog IIRC the quarter-cask aging bit was a 6-month "zap" or so after the main aging of X years? Works for me though... ;)

Well, small casks work for Laphroaig Quarter Cask :-) @Porrohman I'm very interested to hear the progress, please keep us informed. Brave new world.

Interesting idea. If it's a tiny cask, you'd probably only need to age it for a few months... ;-) If it's a fresh cask, though, (don't know much of SMD, so not sure what you can get) then you'll probably end up with something more like bourbon, I guess. Also depends on where you store it, of course...

I agree - I am interested to see how the spirit reacts with the oak. As it is a small cask and the spirit is exposed to more wood I would have thought that it will mature a little quicker and there will be less time for that thieving angel! I plan to get the cask next month and will post how I get on if others are interested.