So, what are you drinking now?

@Nozinan , most definitely, you might have to tweak the rest of the ingredients since the abv is much higher. I don't know if you'd want to allocate any of your supply for drinks since it's been hit pretty hard already

@Hewie trolling? Not sure what you mean.

@cricklewood I did procure a spare bottle. Perhaps on your next visit you can demonstrate myxology.

@Nozinan just joking. There are some on here who would give their left nut for a bottle of 57 North and you're suggesting using it in a cocktail

@Hewie Yeah, but a better whisky makes for a better cocktail. A good Old Fashioned or Manhattan hits the spot after “one of those” days.

@Hewie I don't drink cocktails in general, but am always willing try them.

There's a difference between using an affordable (though hard to get affordably) and replaceable whisky as a mixer, and using something like AP30 (which we may never see again in stores) in gingerale.

Bladnoch, of the Armstrong era, I would never put into a cocktail.

Having a glass of Basil Hayden while sitting down to watch Logan Lucky. The movie should provide an amusing couple of hours, and the whisky a pretty tasty companion. I know Basil Hayden is sometimes considered a bit of an underwhelming bourbon, but I like it.

@Nozinan @OdysseusUnbound fair enough. I guess I'm one of those people who also grimace at the thought of using expensive bottles of wine in cooking (as chefs are want to tell us to do). I'd much rather enjoy the quality stuff unadulterated and use something lesser in the mix. A bit like some of the vattings people share on here - the sum is not always better than the parts. But, as I've said numerous times, we should all drink what each of us like and how we like it. Do report back if you try it out.

@Hewie I'm with you. I don't like to waste good stuff. And I don't like to use up my "alcohol allowance" (liver - wise) on something where I won't taste the nuances.

There are people on this site who will make lesser bottles into cocktails and that's perfectly all right. I think it could be a collaboration. Someone to take my less enjoyed bottles so I can focus on things I can sip.

Quickly checking my emails whilst in Washington DC for the holidays. Had a few nice drams (but not too many) - best was an Elijah Craig Single Barrel that was the exact same barrel that won Whisky Advocate's #1 Whisky of the Year. A fantastic, seriously complex bourbon. Also purchased a Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Barrel Proof (66.somethingsomething %), John J. Bowman Virginia Bourbon (50%) and Kentucky Peerless Rye Barrel Proof. Looking to also buy today a Four Roses Single Barrel, Barrel Proof (Potomac Wine & Spirits exclusive, chosen by them).

@talexander If you have a chance, you should check out the Columbia Room - you will not regret it.

Happy New Year to all...may 2018 be too short for all of the fun and good times you experience...jr

Last night, celebrating New Year’s Eve at my brother-in-law’s house;

Balvenie Doublewood 17 year old

Ardbeg 10

Talisker distillery only bottling

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy New Year!

New Year's Eve dram was Old Pulteney 17. I'd forgotten what an excellent dram this is. Maybe the sweet spot in affordable (barely) Pulteneys.

Happy New Year one and all. May 2018 be healthy, happy and drammy.

My 2nd to last dram of Kilkerran 12 - this one sure is changeable and I'm glad I've bunkered another.

It's all marshmallow and lemon drops tonight.

@RianC I agree. This one is a pleasant surprise every time you go back to it.

@BlueNote I have to say I wasn't as enthused. It's fine, and I certainly would accept if offered, but I don't think it gives me anything I can't get from a Springbank 12 CS.

Well, I opened a Springbank 16 Local Barley last night. It was interesting to say the least...probably the most off-the-wall dram I have ever had. I'll have to go back to it but initial impressions were of rotten vegetables, fermented grass, and machine oil atop an undercurrent of honey and vanilla. I mean this in the best best possible way!

@JayRain Thanks! Alas, I did not get a chance to check that one out...

Kilkerran 12. One fat dram the other night killed off my bottle, after the middle half of it mysteriously disappeared during a recent evening when my girlfriend had some friends over.

It was good. I'll buy it again. But not today.

@KRB80 So, the vaunted Springbank is not infallible. Do us a favour and report back after you have given it some time to settle down.

@MadSingleMalt One more good reason to keep the wives and girlfriends well supplied with white wine and vodka. My wife, who has been slowly acquiring the taste over the last 5 or 6 years, has taken a shine to the Pulteney 17 she allowed me to buy for Xmas. So far she has not caught the peat bug.

It is cold. Deep cold.

Less than a week from closing on our old house and the furnace still isn't working properly.

My car needed a jump today, and I JUST managed to get it to the shop to change the battery.

Here at home the old furnace is working properly but we have a walk-out basement and while it is warm on the second floor, it is chilly down here. I'm wearing my BBQ outside in the dead of winter sweater.

My clinical fellow was in a 20 car pile-up coming into town on NY day. Thankfully he and his wife are OK but his car is totalled and he is a bit shaken. That means I have to see all the patients he was going to see this week (plus a few of the ones I was going to see on my own).

But he was also supposed to present a talk that is broadcast to a number of centres, and now he can't. Guess who has one night to read the paper, make sense of it, critically appraise it and prepare a presentation from scratch?

If anything ever called for a cask strength bourbon.....

Booker's 2015-02 to the rescue!

@Nozinan, My 2013 Honda CorRyVreckan required a jump start at 5:30 this morning. On the way home from work I picked up a new battery. It was safely installed before dark. There were no batteries to be found in my fair city last week and probably none next week as overnight lows will be -30C for three nights, brrrrr. Recharging my system with some high-rye boosters, Wiser's Legacy and Dissertation....cask strength will soon be required.

Well, it's 2 am but the presentation is prepared and sent off and the Booker's was really good tonight!

@Nozinan Yikes! So sorry to hear! Good luck today!

@talexander Thanks, and I'm on call tonight!

Enjoying a SMWS 68.10 Delicious, delightful, decadent! And it lives up to the name, will have to get another bottle as sadly with this colder weather its almost gone.

@BlueNote - I've had a couple of drams of the Benromach 15 and whilst it's early days, first impressions are excellent. Lots of fruit, toffee, musty, leathery malt and a softened sweet peat/licorice. The ginger note at the finish is a delight.

So complex and it is another of those chameleon malts. The 10 shifts around and this is like that and some . . .

My buddy took me to a nice cocktail lounge in Windsor: The Blind Owl. I had the following:

• Boulevardier: made with Lot 40. A wonderful cocktail.
• Macallan 12 Double Cask: a non-sulphured bottle. Very nice. Not $100 per bottle nice, but I didn’t hate it.
• Lot 40 Cask Strength: wow!!!! I was glad they had this. It keeps me from having to open my bottle. Worth the $20 I paid for a generous pour.
• Laphroaig Quarter Cask: disappointing after the Lot 40 CS. Very two-dimensional. Lots of smoke and generic barley sweetness. Good, not great.

@OdysseusUnbound - That Lot 40 CS sounds excellent! I had a Qtr Cask couple of years ago and it took me a while to get into. I have one in the stash I may open later this year (it was £25 in a supermarket for a good while a couple of years ago).