So, what are you drinking now?

@Victor - 12 months or 12 weeks? Did you get an advance issue bottle? (I wouldn't be surprised!) ;-)

What I noticed more than anything was that much of the sherry had vanished. The soap, more like spray cleaner to be specific, was slight but definitely there.

Do you have any recommendations regarding the optimal time to spray with P.P.? My usual practice is to have two or three drams, let the bottle sit for a week or two, then gas it. I don't use it at all on those whiskies that, according to sources, benefit from oxidation and bottle time. I'm going only by instinct here. Should I use it from day one, as you say?

It was an oversight on my part that I didn't gas this one sooner. I usually make it a point to use P.P. on virtually all peated whisky.

@WhiskyBee, no, you are quite right, I was thinking of the release date of the Galileo. It has only been about 12 weeks for the Ardbog. It seems much longer with all of the attention it has received.

I do about what you do with the gas, modifying my approach with the whisky in question. When in doubt I tend to gas early. I figure that if I do gas immediately that after pouring a few drams over a few weeks that I will get the equivalent of waiting a week or two and then starting the gassing.

I will begin a big decanting program in earnest very shortly, when my glassware arrives. Decanting is a good and very clean option, except that the storage requirements for the smaller bottles can become great. For a quick fix I use the gas. So far, after almost a year of gassing 165 bottles, I am quite satisfied with the results.

@Victor and @WhiskyBee I have had my bottle of Ardbog open since June 16th. No gas. My bottle is now half full. Having a glass right now. No soap. Still nice and sharp. Sherry notes are great. Still much better then Galileo. I honestly can't tell that there has been much of a change. Usually I don't notice a change until after the bottle reaches the half way point . . . but that is me.

@WhiskyBee sorry you are getting soap notes. That is very unfortunate.

@Nock - I might be part of the problem. I didn't care for this bottle well. I didn't gas or decant it, and I polished off slightly more than half the bottle in the first couple of weeks. I'm especially ashamed that I was so neglectful of a special-release Ardbeg. I've treated the other five Ardbegs in my cabinet with TLC, and they're all still crisp and fine (but then, I go through bottles of Uigeadail fast enough that they never have a chance to go bad). Let my experience be a cautionary note: this is the worst that can happen to the Ardbog if you're lazy with it.

Please note, however, that the soap is slight and, as I mentioned, it's still a very good dram. It's the breakdown of the sherry that surprised me more than anything.

A busy work week ahead, so just a tiny dram before bed tonight. Having some Johnnie Walker Swing for the first time in several weeks. For a middle-shelf blend, this is just about as good as it gets. If you're not a single-malt snob (which I can be on occasion), I highly recommend this one (cheap plug: see my review). Very rich and malty, and about as robust as a 43-percenter can be. If you like JW Green, you'll like this.

Last night, Springbank 12 Cask Strength, followed by 13 year Bunnahabhain Port Wood Finish (Murray McDavid Bottling) and finished up with a 16 year Caol Ila (SMWS 53.173 - "Glowing Embers on the tongue").

Tonight, Tomatin 12 (Spanish oak casks), Tomatin 15 (traditional ex-bourbon oak casks), Tomatin 18 (Oloroso Sherry Casks) and finishing up with Talisker Port Ruighe.

@WhiskyBee got any sample bottles? like 30 or 50mL. Maybe compare the preserve vs decanting. See what works best. Id be intruiged, a mate of mine is about to invest!

Oban 14 - down to the last one or two drams worth. Trying to curb the bottle opening, so I'll finish it off in the next few days so as to not feel too guilty about opening a new bottle of something.

Old Overholt... again! Going to follow it up with some Johnny Drum Private Stock ; )

Tonight it's Clynelish 14yr old. Wow this is a great whisky. :)

@Volks - Not a bad idea. I have a couple of 50ml bottles, plus about a dozen 200ml bottles from purchasing some Diageo Classic Malts three-packs. I just poured some into one bottle of each size to see if that makes a difference.

@PMessinger Agree with ya on the Clynelish 14 yr...It'll always be a staple in my cabinet.

PC7: My local indie. found 10 bottles of this masterpiece 'out the back', so, of course I had to have one. If I'd been flush, I would have purchased the lot! "It must have been there for years".

This is a lovely Whisky with the most sensational mouth-feel and explosive finish ever! I do like it a lot, in fact, you could say, 'it has my name written all over it'; high praise, indeed!

Slainte!

Sherry & sherried whisky tasting this evening - Bruichladdich 1998 Manzanilla, Mortlach 16 yr Flora & Fauna, Adelphi Lidesdale 18 yr batch 3 (Bunnahabhain) and an 18 yr Glendronach PX cask from 1994. Delicious stuff.

My nephew moved in with us. After moving we cooled off and then celebrated with a small measure of Springbank 12 YO cask strength claret wood. It seems to get better every time. Sadly, only about 3-4 small sized drams left in my decanted bottle. Thankfully I picked up a spare in Calgary in December....never thought I would see this one again. Now it makes me want to pick up a spare spare....

@FMichael you are right Clynelish 14yr old is going to be a staple in my cabinet. In fact I'm having more right now. :)

Tonight it felt like a peaty night. Turning to Ardbeg Uigeadail L13 058. It is ok. Not a great or amazing Uigeadail, but solid. I actually enjoy Laphroaig 10yo CS Batch 004 a bit more.

Decanting the collection will lead to a lot of drinking of little bits of this, little bits of that...to fit the bottles. Currently, Talisker 10, Talisker 18, Abraham Bowman 10 Rye 69.4%.

Amrut Fusion: Only recently available here in Qld. I approached this Malt with more than than a little trepidation! It is, however, a very fine Whisky in a traditional style of flavor plus, yet spotlessly clean in a modern expression, that is both delicious and moreish! The aroma reminds me of a splendid sherried Auchentoshan, (as i recall it). This is a lovely 'drop' & yes, I was prejudiced...no more,though!

"Indeed, it may be said that until a man has had the luck to chance upon a perfectly matured, well-mannered Whisky, he does not know what Whisky really is!"

• N.M.G. (Whisky and Scotland, 1935).

@A'bunadhman, good to hear you got a good bottle of Amrut Fusion. The three samples of Amrut Fusion I have had could have come from three entirely different whiskies.

@A'bunadhman @Victor

I have to confess I've only had Fusion from one bottle, and I accept my next bottle (already waiting to take the place of the 1 dram I have left in a little glass bottle) may show batch variation, but I haven't yet heard of a bad one.

It was my first Amrut. I liked my second, Portonova, better, and my third, Intermediate Sherry, best. But I like them all.

I'll probably drink more of the Fusion because frankly, of the non-entry Amruts, it's the only one I can probably afford to buy regularly. I have a spare of the Portonova and IS, but as they were (supposedly) one-offs, unless they are re-released, I may have to put them away for a future when my palate has matured even more.

@Nozinan, we all would like to think that we pretty much know what we will get when we buy this or that whisky. It really is not that simple much of the time.

@Victor

There is a school of thought that accepts the inevitability of batch variation in non-branded whiskies (and some branded whiskies bottled decades apart). It's part of the nature of craft presentation. The smaller the batch, the more likely there will be variation.

I am more concerned that there should be consistency in quality of the craft than I am that each bottle should taste exactly the same.

Now if one batch tasted like chocolate and another like peppermint, I would wonder why it's all called the same thing, but as A'Bunadh (big company) and Bladnoch (mainly single cask offerings) have shown, if the quality is there, a little batch variation can do little harm.

@Nozinan, yeah, there is no way to get all the batches of any particular whisky to all taste exactly the same, no matter what you do...so, of course, celebrate the diversity, and hope that it is of equal or similar quality. But that's just it: so often "separate but equal" quality of the batches is just not what people are perceiving. Sometimes there is just a type of inconsistency with what many people, myself included, consider to be of inferior quality to most of that brand's production.

Redbreast 10 Cask Strength. Presently comfortably numb.

@Wodha Redbreast 12 yo. Point proven.

@Wodha - Enjoying some Redbreast myself tonight. Also feeling no pain.

Black Raven Brewery (Redmond, WA) Trickster IPA followed by a Manhattan with Old Overholt Rye

Ardbeg 10 cleansing my palate of the Connemara Turf Mor. A peaty party in my mouth.

Celebrating the arrival of some Karuizawa from K&L in California by opening the 1999 13 year old cask #869. It's really magnificent stuff - a bit of that malty, fudgy stuff from others at this age, a hint of the dirty sherry, and a backdrop of loads of sticky sweet fruits.