So, what are you drinking now?

@Victor put in a few drops of Laphroaig !0y Cask Strength.

Michter's toasted barrel... Seems to be getting a bit edgier as time rolls by.

An impressive lineup consisting of the following Diageo releases: Talisker 25 Year Old (2011 bottling), Port Ellen 35 Year Old (14th Release), 1988 Strathmill 25 Year Old and Brora 35 Year Old (13th Release).

The standouts are the Port Ellen and the Brora with the Brora just that bit better, a real masterful whisky. The Talisker is outstanding as well.

A dollop of Smooth Ambler Old Scout 7 Year Old Rye Whiskey.

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Sweet nose on this one with freshly varnished wood, a very bourbony rye. Starts smooth and finishes long. Quite a bit of alcoholic heat and some nasal burn.

Just finishing the last dram of my bottle of Blanton's Original. It's been open 7 or 8 months and has become excellent now and I'm sad to see it go. Anyway onwards and upwards I'll think I'll open a Blanton's SFTB next.Should be fun!

Springbank 10 yr single malt, 46%. My first new Scotch in a while. A bit pricey for me at $64 but I am really enjoying it. This is really only my second single malt scotch. My first was Laphroiag 18 yr that I bought about this time last year. The Springbank seems to be a bit less smokey though that bottle of Laphroiag is long gone so I don't have a near term reference.

@Bilbo161 I'm glad to hear your enjoying the Springbank 10 . This is not normally considered to be a beginners malt so you obviously have a good palete. . The choices you have made for your first two purchases have been highly unusual , they are both challenging whiskies but also 2 of the best. You are right in assuming that the Springbank isn't as smoky as the Laphroaig. The barley is peated to a much lesser degree with the Springbank. In fact the Laphroaig is generally one of the most peated expressions you can get. If you enjoyed the Springbank best you could try a Benromach next. If it's the Laphroaig try Ardbeg or Lagavulin. Enjoy your whisky journey!

@maltmate302 Thanks for the compliment. I don't know about my palate though. I know I like what I've had so far. I will say that after that Laphroiag, the blends I was trying just didn't do it for me. The flavors were not aggressive enough for me with Black Bottle and some of the JW blends I tried. The J Walker black seemed kind-of the antethesis of the Laphroiag it was so smooth which isn't to say it was bad....just not my favorite. I went looking for something in between and think the Springbank ended up a good choice.

@sengjc that's one of my favorite sipping Ryes. It's a sweet n spicy rye, delicious.

Eagle Rare 17 yo Spring 2012, 45% abv. Sure, 90% of the time I'd take a bottle of William Larue Weller, George T. Stagg, Thomas H. Handy Rye, or Sazerac 18 Rye over a bottle of Eagle Rare 17 yo bourbon. Still, I really like to have it around. 17 yo Bourbon is getting harder and harder to find.

@Benancio, I don't currently have an open bottle of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength to mix with the Cutty Sark Prohibion Editon. One day very soon I'll give Laphroaig 18 a go in its place.

Having some Jameson Caskmates Irish Whisky aged in stout barrels. I'm going to attempt to break down the flavor profile for the first time on here....

I wasn't sure what to expect but this is actually one of the smoothest variants of Jameson I've had. I don't know if I'd say I taste the stout but there is certainty a different dimension going on here and I like it.

At 80 proof its very drinkable, has a slight caramel/toffee/chocolate nose to it and the taste has a slight bit of a smokiness and some salted caramel but overall a little light in the mouth feel.

For $30 I'd say this is very nice.

Still sipping around the North American region: Bernheim Original wheat whiskey

@Benancio

You are right, it is good although the I was expecting a drier more herbaceous profile for a rye.

Last week at WhiskyLive Toronto, I had the pleasure of enjoying the following:

Jim Beam Signature Craft

Jim Beam Distiller's Masterpiece

Booker's (63.95%)

Bakers

Maker's 46

Storas 21 Year Old (a blend from Grant's exclusive to Ontario)

Balvenie 12 Year Old Single Barrel (#3228)

Eagle Rare

Macallan Ruby

Glenrothes Sherry Cask

Glengoyne 21 Year Old

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

Evan Williams

@talexander, nice list!

What was your take on the Storas? I presume Booker's was part of the Big Man series.

@paddockjudge The Storas was OK. A little sulphured to me. Not sure it's worth the price. The Booker's was part of the bourbon masterclass. Oh, and I also had me a Canadian Club 20 Year Old, which is coming back into the LCBO very soon (Imma get me a case, yo.)

@talexander, I'm pleased to hear the CC20 year-old is of a high standard. The last release (2015) was a cut below BRJ (bar-rag-juice). It was so fucking BAD I had to buy one more to keep as an example of the worst Canadian whisky I have tasted in at least ten years. I must admit the CC20 from 2013 and 2012 were absolutely stunning...go figure.

@paddockjudge Yes, the last bottle I had was 2012/2013...

@Benancio, OK I am drinking some Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition with about 5-10% Laphroaig 18, 48% abv added. It doesn't take a lot of Laphroaig to take dominance over Prohibition. On the other hand, what I think you get here is an incredibly zippy blended Scotch whisky, mostly because the Prohibition is so zippy. It's a nice combination which will appeal to people who require a little more peat than the Prohibition has on its own. Certainly adding the Laphroaig emphasizes the more sharp and bitter elements of the whisky over the sweeter elements.

I like Prohibition both without and with Laphroaig augmentation.

@Victor I'm also drinking Cutty Sark Prohibition with The Ileach Cask strength which is 5 year old Lagavulin. Lovely stuff. Prohibition is an excellent vehicle for blending with especially with strongly peated whiskies.

@Victor. You churched it up using Laphroaig 18y, sounds great. You're right Prohibition is pretty zippy, that's why I chose Laphroaig 10y Cast Strength, really zippy. I thought it kept an appropriate amount of the sweetness.

I'm drinking Willett 2y Rye. It's actually pretty good for a 2y old Rye. I expected something with a younger spirit distillation flavor. I can taste that it is young but it's pretty good. I prefer the more aged Ryes like Smooth Ambler 7y Rye or High West Rendezvous 16y / 6y blend. I prefer smooth older aged Ryes. I know you have some great old Ryes in your cabinet. What are those older Ryes like?

@maltmate302 I agree, sounds like a nice blend. Lagavulin yeah!

@Benancio, short question, long answer. Jim Murray is very accurate in his Whisky Bibles in describing the flavours of the Rittenhouse 21 and 25 yo ryes. They are astounding in the depth of their fruitness and the way they combine the flavours of rye grain and enormous amounts of oak. It's a beautiful style of which there are very few bottles around anymore, and at great price. I own one bottle of Rittenhouse 21 yo and have tasted from about 4-6 other of the Rittenhouse 21, 23, and 25 yo Ryes. The old Rittenhouses are bottled at 50% abv.

The other place you sometimes see the very old ryes is from Willett Family Estate bottles, but those are no more common now than are the old Rittenhouses. The Willett Family Estate bottles are, as you know, at barrel strength. The old ones are typically up near 70% abv. I've tasted some 23 yo Willett Ryes which blew my socks off. One of them, a private bottle named the Iron Fist, made me and at least 2 other people I know just double over in involuntary laughter when we first tasted it. "WHAT is THAT?". Unlike anything I ever tasted. Fabulous. Last I saw, a bottle of Willett Iron Fist auctioned off for about 2,100 euros.

The short answer to your question is that the old ryes have an astonishing depth of dark fruitness unlike anything else.

Nowadays Sazerac 18 yo Rye is one of the few old ryes anywhere on the standard market. That one is very beautiful, though I wish I could taste it at barrel strength.

And I do have some nominally intermediately-aged ryes which are old beyond their 10 years, from A. Smith Bowman by way of The Party Source. It takes a lot of evapouration to get a 10 yo whiskey up to 69.4% abv. That one is actually my favourite bottle that I own.

When whisk(e)y went exponential in its popularity starting in 2012 the old ryes just disappeared from the marketplace into the hand of collectors, and probably also some speculators.

@Victor, amazing! I've read that about the great old Ryes. I just want to hear it again. I enjoyed reading what you had to say. I hope some day to taste one of those great ryes.

The best rye o have is a Pappy 13y old rye. I just bought a 13y old Canadian Rye Lock Stock and Barrel.
It's hard for me to pass on any rye with an age statement greater than 6y.

@Benancio, not every barrel of old rye turns out magnificently, but most of them do.

You bring a smile to my face by reminding me of Van Winkle 13 yo Rye. One day I'll open another bottle of that lovely little number.

You and I will drink some rye together one day, Ben.

@Victor I look forward to that day. I suspect we drink quite a bit that day.

Elijah Craig 12, it has pretty good flavor but it's just very harsh and burning. Much more than I remembered from a bottle 4 years ago. Bad batch or trend?

@PeatyZealot, Jim Murray has retained his unflattering review of standard Elijah Craig 12 yo for a number of years now. The one bottle of it I have bought was a complete disaster for 2 years. From other batches I often find it "hot" and I almost never use the word "hot" to describe whisk(e)y. Lots of people love their EC12 yo and say so on Connosr. Sounds overall like some subtantial batch variation is in play here. You want my advice? For reliability from the new distillery, stick to the Elijah Craig 12 yo Barrel Proof. Those are almost always fabulous. Choice barrel selection. Nothing wrong most of the time (except the odd ringer barrel you hear about) with the 'old distillery' EC18 year old either, or, I hear, with the 20, 21, or 23 yo pricey products from that same distillery. There is to be a "new" Elijah Craig 18 yo coming out soon from the "new" distillery, but I will reserve judgment until I taste it. It will not be cheap...so it had better be good.

I am very sorry to hear that you got a not-so-good bottle. That is a lot easier for us in the US to brush off when it sometimes happens, because we don't have to pay much for a bottle of EC12 here.

Maker's 46.

Some Benriach Solstice 2nd Edition - a heavily peated 17 Year Old Speysider that was finished in port casks.

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A rather meaty, peaty malt that has balanced sweetness and a touch of salt. Despite being described as being heavily peated, it is quite tame. I can imagine those accustomed to the peaty Islay style will find this lacking in intensity, even bland and a little mild.

Finishes a little short but with a peaty, mineral lull that is quite pleasant. An easy drinking malt that can probably be paired with a hearty chargrilled steak.

Just opened my Talisker 18 which is one of the more expensive bottles in my collection, especially for a whisky not at cask strength . It's very restrained compared to the Talisker 10 , still peppery but not so wild. With the 10 I usually add a bit of water to bring it under control but the 18 needs none,.Its easier to pick out the flavours with the 18 ,if it was at cask strength it would be sensational. This is easily a 90+ whisky and one every Talisker 10 lover should try!