So, what are you drinking now?

Currently touring the Corsair Distillery in Nashville. @darekbell is the owner. I'll post a discussion after the tasting!

@casualtorture, did you speak with Darek? He is a Connosr member, you know.

@Victor unfortunately he's not here today.

@casualtorture, can you buy Grainiac or Insane in the Grain there? I think that some of Corsair's stuff is extremely difficult to find outside of the source.

A single dram tonight of Highland Park 18, on the advice of @Victor many moons ago to open the bottle a few months before it's expected to perform. My club is set o dig into this guy in June, so here we are. First one out of the gate.

It's nothing special. And yes, that's obviously @Victor's point: that it doesn't show very well when first opened. But in its current state, I would say this is nowhere near worth its typical price today.

Well, I guess I had to improve on that HP 18, and I did so with a dram of PC7. Damn that's good: so clean and lean and fresh. Great stuff.

It snowed. A lot by Toronto standards. No, they didn't call in the army this time. But I shovelled 2-3 times yesterday, and four times today.

Finally stopped.

Every muscle I know the name of and many that I don't are now sore.

I'm going to relax and watch the Olympics.

I scanned my cabinet and decided it's time to decant my Bladnoch 12 (opened in April 2015) into 4 oz bottle. There's just enough left for a 2-3 hour sit by the fire (channel), or sit by something...

I have also shoveled a lot in the last 2 days, but with a mechanical advantage. After a successful dress rehearsal for my 2 daughters who are in competitive dance I am starting the night with an Auchentosan 12.....and it definitely won't be my last dram of the night.

I was at a children’s birthday party and shared some Auchentoshan American Oak with my wife’s cousin-in-law. I’m honestly convinced this is the exact same whisky as McClelland’s Lowland Single Malt. Not bad, but not great. It has that same slight “wet cardboard” (feinty?) note that’s in the McClelland’s Lowland and Highland. Interestingly it’s not in the Speyside or Islay.

Tonight, Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2008 Heavily Peated 50% ABV

Bowmore 18 year SMWS 3.296 "Elegance and power" from a refill ex-sherry butt.

Dinner at the in-laws’ place tonight meant revisiting my bottle of Four Roses Small Batch. After Friday’s uninspiring Knob Creek Single Barrel, the Four Roses was a nice change. It’s very, very sweet though. Lots of caramel, coconut and floral vanilla. Time to dry out until next Friday.

After clearing windrows, then playing in the snow with my son, then shovelling sleet and scraping car windows, twice, I can finally sit and relax and finish @antihero's first published novel, "darker Things".

This requires cask strength and Peat, and tonight it's Laphroaig 10 YO CS, with a little water.

Chez @maddie, we had a tasting this afternoon/evening for 10 people, about 30 whiskies. I didn't feel like keeping track but one highlight I want to mention to @paddockjudge. One participant brought an unopened bottle of Canadian Club with a 1965 tax stamp on it. We opened it. It was enjoyable.

Caol Ila Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice 10 year

I'm don't usually have a whisky when I get home from work - if and when I have one it's usually later in the evening after dinner. However, tonight when I got home I helped myself to a Teachers (yes a cheap blend) with a huge block of ice. It was so enjoyable (still nearly 30C here) - the honey sweetness with wisps of smoke and a peaty tang was surprisingly good. I might be doing this more often!

@Hewie - A standard blend on ice in warm weather is nothing to be ashamed of @Hewie

I had to have my last bottle of Teacher's with ice at it was pretty grim without it! I think JW Red label works very well with ice, actually, and I'm also partial to whisky and Canada dry in the summer.

I have a 12 year old grain whisky in the stash that I'm planning to blend with but should it turn out to be a bit 'bland', shall we say, I'll be giving that the mixing treatment as well.

@Hewie, I'm a firm believer that we should drink what we want, whatever way that may be.. I have a couple of sample bottles of Alberta Premium 30 YO Rye tucked away, just in case @talexander gets another craving for AP 30 YO and Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

...check out this story....

supercall.com/culture/…

@paddockjudge Thanks. That was an entertaining read.

Tried a couple of new (to me) bars last night that have good whisky selections. One in particular was excellent, with table service (unusual in the UK) big open log fire which we sat right in front of and some ripe, old and unusual whiskys.

Mortlach 16 (F&F bottling) - My first try of a ML and I was very impressed. Really rich sherry matured dram but also with a little smoke and lots of complexity - nods to the 'farclas 15 but perhaps a little more 'dirty' if you know what I mean? Enjoyed it a lot. Don't think this bottling is around anymore unless you want to pay £200! Feel I got a lucky dram there!

Springbank 15 - Wow. Lots of salty driven funk going on. Certainly one to unpick which is hard to do in a bar with a rocks glass but very unusual - possibly the saltiest dram I've ever encountered. Toffee, malt, some peat and fruits packed in leather.

First night out in a good while and felt like a 'real person' again for a few brief hours! If anyone ever visits Bristol let me know and I can point you in the direction of a couple of damn good whisky bars.

@RianC I'm very hit-and-miss on Mortlach but that one is one of the best.

@talexander - Yeah it was a real surprise and perfect with the setting. The new range seems overpriced so i'll be staying away but anyone whose bunkered some is sitting on a beaut!

@RianC I tasted the new stuff a couple of years ago when it was launched - the older expressions were very good but the new standard was not great and way overpriced. My issues with Mortlach tend to be that it is overly sulfured and bitter, but that F&F 16 strikes a nice balance. There's also a G&M 15yo that is pretty nice.

@RianC, unsulphured Mortlach is one of my favourites too. Thick and juicy. Too bad Mortlach is, as @talexander rightly says, hit and miss. Some are sulphur-ruined. Most are now ridiculously expensive.

I am continuing with some Tequila drinking today. After finishing off the last of my Cazadores Extra-Anejo I am moving on to two top favourites: Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia Extra-Anejo and Don Julio 1942. Wonderful, wonderful.

Went over to a friend's house last night;

Macallan Edition #3, followed by Macallan Edition #2. While both are very good, I preferred the nose on #3 and the palette on #2. Not that you could go wrong with either one... or both.

I opened a bottle that my wife gave me for my birthday last week. Kilchoman Suaternes Cask Matured. Distilled in 2011, bottled in 2016. This whisky spent the entire 5 years in the Sauternes Casks. It is semi-sweet, smoky perfection.

Springbank 15. This one never disappoints.

With dinner, had a Balvenie 17 year Doublewood. Honey, vanilla, sherry notes.

After dinner, my buddy opened a bottle that his wife just gave him. A 24 year Springbank from a single Sherry cask (specially bottled for the Whisky Foundation by The Maltman independent bottler). Distilled July 1992, bottled April 2017. Cask # 212214. Was expecting a sherry bomb, but that was not the case at all. This was a complex, perfectly balanced dram. Every time we nosed or tasted, we kept finding something new. A truly wonderful whisky!

Springbank 12 year Cask Strength. Another stunning dram from Campbeltown.

Finished the night with an 18 year Bowmore (SMWS 3.296) "Elegance and power" from a refill ex-sherry butt. Now this is a sherry bomb; a peaty, smoky sherry explosion.

Another great night with great friends, great food and great whisky. Can't think of a much better way to spend a Tuesday night.

My club got together on Monday for Lagavulinpalooza. We drank the 8, the 12, the 16 and the Distiller's Edition.

When our votes were all counted, the DE barely edged out the 16 to take the crown. They were pretty similar.

I was alone in picking the 12 as my favorite. But think I'm the group's biggest fiend for high-strength peat, so that's not surprising. And it was the 2011 version, which has sometimes been nominated here on Connosr as one of the best from the past few years. I can't say it was any different from the 2014 version I'd had previously, but it's been a few years and I'm going entirely on memory. Plus, the club member who shared it has had it open (though nearly full) all these years, so who knows how much it might have deteriorated.

The 8 didn't get too much love, and I was glad to see it emptied.

@MadSingleMalt I have reviewed 3 releases of Lag 12 and I scored the 2011 91, same as the 2013. The 2015 I scored 93. I should note I have never had the opportunity to try the 11 and the 15 H2H.

I did find the 14 to be less enjoyable.

Last night, I killed off my bottle of Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength USA West Coast Tour 2017 Edition. This was excellent whisky. Going to miss it.

@RianC For any Ontarians here who are interested, that 16yo Mortlach F&F is in the LCBO/Waddington's online auction (which starts on Monday Feb 19)

@bwmccoy A 24 year old Springbank sherry cask IB? I’m speechless. Not to mention the rest of that killer lineup. Wow, this should be in the epic tasting thread. Good one, brother.