So, what are you drinking now?

Blanton's The Original Single Barrels. A change of pace and it is Thanksgiving for our US neighbours. Vanilla and floral brown sugar on the nose. Chocolate and coconut with a spicy palate. Drying finish.

Glenlivet 18 now! $30 off at LCBO this weekend. Province wide. That never happens. Buy ‘em while you can gentlemen.

Two sets of drinks: first after Thursday's US Thanksgiving dinner, our family group had: 1) a home vatting of Macallan 10 Fine Oak, Glenrothes Select Reserve, and maybe a splash of Macallan Cask Strength, 2) Glen Moray Port Cask Finish, 3) Macallan 12 Sherry Oak, 4) Hancock's President's Reserve Bourbon, 5) Rowan's Creek Bourbon, and 6) Bastille 1789 French Blended Whisky. The group liked the vatting and the Hancock's the best. Even as novices they could tell something was wrong (sulphur) with the finish of the Glen Moray.

Friday morning, @Maddie and I attended the free tasting at North Charles Fine Wines and Spirits, close to Baltimore. It started at 8:00 am, and I was a little nervous because we didn't get there until nearly 0815 hrs! These folks pour out their Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection allocations free to their customers each year on the day after Thanksgiving. I asked them how many allocated bottles they expected to pour out that day and I was told "19". We had:

1) 2017 release Old Rip Van Winkle 10 yo. This was the sweetest ORVW10 I have tasted

2) 2017 release Van Winkle Special Reserve, "Lot B" 12 yo. This was also an unusually sweet release of this one.

3) 2017 George T. Stagg uncut standard bourbon

4) 2017 William Larue Weller uncut wheated bourbon

5) 2017 Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye uncut straight rye whiskey

6) WhistlePig uncut Barrel # 1 Spirit of Mortimer (their deceased first pet pig) Boss Hog Rye (14 years old?)

7) WhistlePig uncut Boss Hog Rye Third Edition (15 years old?)

8) WhistlePig uncut The Prince Boss Hog Rye (they were selling this for $ 500 per bottle)

9) WhistlePig uncut 10 yo Private Barrel Rye

10) Belle Meade 10 yo uncut Single Barrel Bourbon

11) Belle Meade 10 yo uncut Single Barrel Bourbon, different barrel

12) Belle Meade Single Barrel Bourbon Cognac Finish

13) Belle Meade Single Barrel Bourbon Madeira Finish

14) Willett Family Estate 4 yo Rye (MGPI distillate)

15) Mars Iwai

All were interesting. The Mars Iwai was a bit of a yawn in that company. I didn't much like the Cognac Finished Belle Meade, but the other three Belle Meades were very fine. (Belle Meade is from MGPI as the source) It was a great treat to try three different Boss Hogs together! The Stagg and Weller were solid and representative, as usual, but this year I actually liked the Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye the most of the three uncut BTAC whiskeys.

@Victor _ I'm moving to North Charles

@paddockjudge the store?

Drinking Johnnie Walker Black and Dewar's 12, currently in the Dominican....I know everyone feels so bad for me right now. Really missing some of my Canadian drams like Lot 40 and Wiser Legacy.

I opened a Laphroaig Cardeas Madeira. I'm starting a new policy of pouring a couple of sample bottles to try after bottle is finished. It would be interested to compare the end of a bottle to it's first impressions. First impressions: distinct veneer nose of sweet syrup madeira with the Laphroaig soot and ash underneath. Taste wise: standard Laphroaig iodine, medicinal, just a subtle amount of sweetness then .... bonfire heat, peat on the way down. Decent Islay medium finish.

I had a very busy day which started 7 am yesterday. Minimal sleep, now tons of paperwork, and a new patient in the am whose daughter suffers from entitlementitis.

On my last chart now, kids in bed, and a small pour of Lemon Hart 151 in my snifter with just 2 drops water.

Oh the molasses....

@Nozinan I know how you feel. Some days you just deserve that little reward.

Highland Park valkyrie. The smoke is getting a bit more pronounced and its sweet liquorice goodness

After spending the better part of an hour with a pour of Forty Creek Heart of Gold, I’m having a dram of Wild Turkey 101. The WT is incredibly fruity after the HOG. Happy Friday all!!

Recently opened:

Longrow Red 13yr Malbec - my favorite of the three I have tried so far.

Springbank 9yr Barolo - also very enjoyable. I expect it to be even better in a month or so.

Springbank 13yr Single Cask (sherry) - now THIS is a phenomenal dram. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the 14yr Fino.

@KRB80 sounds like a nice line up there

Two or three drams of Yamazaki 12 yo, followed by Sazerac Rye. I do hope that the Japanese distilleries have recently upped their output sufficiently to ensure a supply of age statement malts 5 or 10 or 15 years from now.

Tomorrow at 11 am my 2 legacies are in a children's version of Wizard of Oz. With "plenty of time to spare" at 10 pm the night before I have been tasked with preparing 2 masks and sewing felt onto a vest to make a flying monkey uniform.

I need something bold to get me through this.... Stagg Jr. 64.75%

@Nozinan going above and beyond - good for you

@Hewie except I was concentrating so much I forgot to sip...so I had to put away 15 cc of a 20 cc pour...

Starting off tonight with a 23 year (Apr. 1993) Longmorn SMWS 7.164 "Carefree contentment". The name describes it perfectly. A great dram for a Friday night, after a long week.

@Nozinan such dedication to the cause is to be commended. I don't think I've ever returned 'leftovers' to the bottle

@Hewie Just to be clear, I didn't pour back to the bottle... I have a 30 cc master of malt sample bottle that I use as a "didn't finish" bottle. One time it was so long until I came back to it I had to figure out what I had poured in by taste and smell...

Enjoying a Saturday afternoon dram of Te Bhaeg after returning from doing some Xmas shopping. I feel unnervingly well prepared this year . . .

Boy, this stuff slips down very easily - it's getting better and better. The fire will go on soon and my partner has put up the decorations. Time to watch the football scores come in with a few nips and then tuck into some home made sticky pork ribs and corn which will be washed down with a London Porter ale.

Ahhhhh!

Tasting tonight! A vertical of Glenlivet 12-21, nadurra oloroso & peated plus Glendronach 21

Tasting tonight! A vertical of Glenlivet 12-21, nadurra oloroso & peated plus Glendronach 21

The oloroso noses like a nice grappa

Having a nip of CB Oak Cross while barbecuing some burgers. It’s good, spicy, refreshing but not incredibly “deep” if that makes sense. My original assessment stands.

@OdysseusUnbound - barbecuing? In Canada? In December? Fair play!

@RianC I bbq year-round. But there’s no snow where I am right now, so it’s not a big deal.

@OdysseusUnbound It is decidedly UN-CANADIAN to stow away the BBQ in the winter months.

In fact, since moving in September I've been going through BBQ withdrawal...the old Weber is being picked up from our old place this week, cleaned (these guys make a 10YO BBQ look NAS) and delivered to its new home at my uncle and aunt's house.

Tonight, my niece and nephews and a few of their friends and SOPs are here, and with Alberta beef contributed by my sister in law, sliced into filets by me, seasoned with the best spice ever (invented for their restaurant decades ago) I will be ending the drought and inaugurating our new BBQ, hooked up to gas 2 days ago. So exciting!

Now if I could figure out how to incorporate whisky into this somehow...

@Nozinan I totally agree with you! In fact, as a true Canadian, wanting to do BBQ in the middle of winter, I bought this summer a Kamado. So this winter, I will BBQ over charcoal like a proper Homo Sapiens Canadienis!

@Nozinan Beautiful BBQ! I have a Weber as well (3 burners). You could do a bourbon-BBQ sauce with something?