So, what are you drinking now?

Tonight I attend a Whisky Society "Preview" tasting;

25 year (Aug.'87) Glen Ord (SMWS 77.28 - "Tropical Nights") from a new charred oak second-fill hogshead

17 year (Apr '95) Glen Grant (SMWS 9.69 - "Turkish delight and fragrant Thai rice") from a refill hogshead

10 year (July 2002) Ardmore (SMWS 66.42 - "Snorkelling in the bath tub") from a refill barrel

18 year (Apr '95) Laphroaig (SMWS 29.139 - "Why do fools fall in love?") from a refill barrel

21 year (Dec '91) North British grain whisky (SMWS G1.11 - "Iced mulled wine and Sorrento Limoncello") from a refill butt

All were wonderful, but the Glen Ord, Ardmore and North British were my favorites of the night. The Glen Ord was absolutely stunning! The Ardmore and North British were just so unique that I had to order a bottle of each.

Tonight it's a dram of Dalmore 12yr old. What can I say I needed a non-thinking end of a tough work week wind down whisky. :)

My first ever dram of Pappy 23!

4 Roses 2013 LE Small Batch, and 2013 GTS. The Stagg wins by a nose.

Watching The Great Gatsby, the 2013 version not the 1974 one. The remake is not bad at all and has many cinematic similarities to Moulin Rouge! which isn't surprising since they have the same director. Started with Eagle Rare 10 then quickly moved on to my most favorite (at this point in time) bourbon, Willett Family Estate 6 YO.  I love Moulin Rouge! the movie like I love Willett Family Estate. They are both most very entertaining and captivating. 

@maltygirl I always found bourbon to go down very well with Breaking Bad.

@maltygirl: Good call on the Willett. I've got their 3 yo rye and 6 yo bourbon. Both exceptional whiskies. The 6 yo is among my favorites as well.

Currently drinking a bit of Bowmore Darkest. It wasn't love at first sight, but this stuff has grown on me a lot. Delicious stuff.

On Friday night, attended the annual Whisky Society "Whisky Extravaganza" event in Seattle. In no particular order, I sampled;

19 year (09/1993) Glenfarclas (SMWS 1.170 "Gingerbread man selling sweet delights") Refill hogshead (an unusual Glenfarclas since it wasn't from a Sherry butt. Not bad, but didn't do much for me.)

27 year (05/1985) Glenburgie (SMWS 71.35 "Having a rose petal bath in the Glasgow School of Art") Refill hogshead (Absolutely wonderful dram!)

12 year (06/2000) Highland Park (SMWS 4.178 "Eating ice cream in a humidor") First-fill barrel (Interesting, but in order to decide if I like it or not, I would need to spend more time with it.)

10 year (12/2000) Glenmorangie (SMWS 125.59 "Spun sugar on polished wood" Second-fill Sherry butt (very nice)

10 year (June 2002) Bruichladdich Port Charlotte (SMWS 127.32 - "A manly dram") Refill barrel (Not as "big" or "in your face" as I was expecting, but still very good)

Lagavulin 12 year old and Talisker Distiller's Edition (was hoping to taste Talisker Storm at the Classic Malts table, but they didn't have it, so I tried these classics instead)

Ardbeg Uigeadail and Corryvreckan (Consistently great whisky)

Monkey Shoulder (This one didn't do anything for me)

11 year Bowmore - The Classic Cask independent bottler (not my favorite)

20 year Strathmill - The Classic Cask independent bottler (very nice)

24 year Bunnahabhain - The Classic Cask independent bottler (another very good dram)

20 year Glen Keith - The Classic Cask independent bottler (this one didn't do anything for me)

22 year Glencadam - The Classic Cask independent bottler (my favorite from this table)

Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams (Very good. - My wife and I attended the Seattle Glenfiddich event in 2011 and each wrote our dreams on one of the virgin American oak casks used to finish this whisky. It was great to taste the final product.)

Hood River 1910 Rye Whiskey - 12 year 100% Rye distilled and aged in Canada, bottled in Hood River, Oregon, USA. (Not bad, but somewhat lacking, in my opinion.)

Hudson (NY) Manhattan Rye Whiskey - (Very nice).

Hudson Single Malt Whiskey (This one is made to the same standards as U.S. Bourbon, but uses malted barley instead of corn. It was sweeter than a traditional Scotch single malt, but not as sweet as a bourbon - Not bad.)

Hudson Maple Cask Rye (This is not a flavored whiskey. A maple producer in upstate NY ages maple syrup in casks that previously held bourbon. Hudson then takes these casks and ages their Manhattan Rye in the barrels that previously held the maple syrup. This was my biggest surprise of the night. I do not like flavored whiskey, so even this one isn't, I was afraid that the maple would be over-powering and too sweet. It wasn't at all. This was a very balanced whiskey. In fact, I didn't really taste maple at all. The maple seems to have slightly rounded off some of the spiciness of the Rye. I would like to try this one again to be sure, but I thought it was excellent.)

Laphroaig Cairdeas 2013 Port Wood Edition (This did not live up to my expectations. Not bad, but didn't blow me away either.)

15 year Glenlivet (1997) from McGibbon's Provenance (Very good!)

After the event, a friend opened up a 13 year (1990) Mortlach (SMWS 76.35 - "Cordite and roasting tins") a bottle that he has had for over 10 years. This was excellent! I was honored to be one of the ones who got to share a dram from this special bottle.

A great night with some wonderful friends sharing some great whisky!

@bwmccoy, you always make me drool! That's about the right number of whiskies to sample too...relatively small portions, of course.

@talexander I love drinking bourbon and rye to Boardwalk Empire. I haven't got into Breaking Bad but plan on catching up on it during the holidays.

@hunggar Yes. I absolutely love my Willett 6 YO. I just about purchased the Bowmore Darkest (it intrigued me so glad to hear it became delicious) but instead went for the Glendronach 15 Revival. Haven't opened it yet but plan on during the upcoming holidays. I

Last night I opened a bottle of Powers Gold Label. It was pretty good after some time and a bit of water. I'll get to know it a bit better before doing a review on this one...

Laphroaig QC after a long and hard week end!!!!!!!!!

@Victor - very small pours. Maybe a couple of sips at most, which is plenty when sampling so many. (There were over 100 different whiskies available at the event.) With the exception of the 2 Ardbegs and the 2 Classic Malts that I sampled, I hadn't tried any of the others before. In hind-sight, maybe I should have skipped those 4 drams and instead tried more of the ones I've never tasted.

Port Charlotte Scottish Barley Heavily Peated. Lives up to the name. The barley really does shine through, and is is indeed well-peated. I believe this is a new release. Very nice.

Torn between opening my Laga 16 or Laphroaig CS Batch 004 for the upcoming really cold night. Leaning towards the Laga though.

While picking up my bottle of Old Potrero Single Malt Straight Rye earlier today, the shop owner offered me a sample Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky. I told him I never tried any Japanese whisky so I was excited. Nikka Coffey Grain was very nice. A delicate corn grain, tea and honey tasting whisky. It was a nice way to have Japanese whisky for the first time.

A commercial Balvenie Tasting with @Dramlette: 12 DoubleWood, 14 Caribbean Cask, 17 Doublewood, and 21 Portwood. It was my first taste of 17 Doublewood, and I certainly liked it. The sampled bottles of the other three were among the best I've had of those three as well. Current batches are looking good, based on these samples. The experience exceeded my expectations. After the Balvenie tasting, we dined at a restaurant and had a flight of Willett Family Estate Bourbons, named Thresher, Scrumpy Spice, and Double Bean. If you get to Acadiana Restaurant in DC, Willett Double Bean is the one I'd recommend.

Having my second dram of BenRiach 16 tonight; my first BenRiach. Still very undecided about this one. On the upside, it reminds me of a good Balblair, with all the earthy, funky notes I love about Balblair. On the downside, the earthy funkiness has a little too much "cow pasture in July."

I don't think I'll be gassing or decanting this one. A little oxidation might encourage the cows to move upwind.

@Victor the 17 doublewood is very enjoyable, isn't it! I was fortunate enough to attend a similar sounding Balvenie tasting hosted by Dr Sam Simmons last week. We were truely spolit though - he also brought along a hand-filled cask strength 1973 Balvenie which was absolutely magnificent.

@Whisk, yes, I was hoping for something exotic to come out at the Balvenie event, but the crowd was too big for that sort of thing, even if they had brought something along.

@Victor Ok Gene...now your just bragging! A Balvenie tasting with a 17 Doublewood and live near a restaurant where you can have Willett Family Estate flights like the ones you mentioned! Those are some crazy names...Thresher and Scrumpy Spice.

@maltygirl, if we hadn't gotten a bar-special dinner which included a decent beer each with it, the odds were high we would have had a second flight of Willetts. Best part: these flights were 3 Willetts for $ 13. We'll have some together when you come out here. Here, you can preview the menu:

acadianarestaurant.com/acadiana-menu_60%5…

Fantastic restaurant food also, by the way.

@Victor Just checked out their whisky menu...fantastic flight offerings.

@Victor That looks like an amazing place to eat . . . with the intention of drinking. Next time I'm up that way I must go there!

Currently drinking a newly opened 2nd release of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. Finally had the money and the opportunity to pick it up . . . so I did. Tasting it next to the first release . . . I think I like the 2nd release more! However, this will require more formal notes to fully evaluate.

@Victor - A dazzling array. You might suggest that they open a franchise in Chicago. ;)

Just started my Bowmore Journey on the way to trying Laimrig when I come into a bottle of it later this year. After over a week off due to a cold (likely a computer virus from a buddy down under) I tried the 12 YO and then (couldn't even finish the 20 cc pour) the 15, which was a little better.

Next time I'll try the 15 next to the 18 YO. Then I think I'll give what's left of the sample triad to my nephew, or maybe mix it all together...

@Nock, @WhiskyBee, @maltygirl it was after having been to Acadiana about 4 or 5 years ago that @Dramlette successfully lobbied her employer's restaurant to offer various whisk(e)y flights on its drinks menu. But where she works none of those pre-structured flights will cost anything resembling $ 13 for 3 drams. Acadiana is one of my very favourite spots in DC for both food and drink. It's a little bit of a traffic hassle from where we live to get there so I don't get to it more than a few times per year, typically.

@Nock, good to hear about the quality of the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof next batch! Makes me excited to eventually open mine up...of course I get very excited at the prospect of any whiskey which is at 68.5% ABV.

Talisker 10 Which I find to be heaven until I step up to the 18 Yr, a whole other level of heaven. Still the 10 yr hits all the right marks for me.

Bowmore journey, day 2. Started with the 18, poured 15-20 cc for me and another for my nephew. Drier than the 15. We poured a little to do a side by side.

Then I dumped them together, making it a 16.75... Of course, it's really technically still a 15. And also still a single malt.

Suffice it to say I hope the Laimrig is a lot better.