So, what are you drinking now?

@RianC sounds like you found a good technique to throw into your repertoire, care to share the recipe by PM?

Talisker 18 this is one I haven't seen in Canada, I've never had the pleasure of trying it.

I suppose you could say I've been in dreamland. I've just finished my bottle of Ardbeg "Dark Cove" and Oh My God! what a delighful experience it was, this, along with Corryvrekkan is my favourite Ardbeg. beautifully sweet and smokey and a massive taste explosion in the mouth. i want another asap.

I had a few days in Speyside in September, visiting The Macallan and Balvenie distilleries. we stayed at the Highlander Inn and what a surprise, it was laden with some of the finest whiskies and what stole the show was The Carn Mor, 18 year Caol Ila. Now, what i want to know, has anyone out there sampled The Craigellachie "Copper Dog" as i'm tempted by this, albeit a blended malt. rsvp.

@cricklewood @BlueNote - I will do a review once we're acquainted!

And a PM will be coming @cricklewood

A dry night tonight - first day in a new job and had a lot to take in. An early night beckons.

I'm consoling myself by drooling over the two new arrivals . . .

@Nozinan Noorden?

I opened two bottles: Wiser's Dissertation and Stagg Jr 66.05 ABV, batch 3 2014 release. The Dissertation floral rye, baking spices, wood and touch of tobacco. Flavours popping after intial sharpness - signs of something complex. Stagg Jr has a wall of dark cherries, dark fruit on the nose. Palate flavours are muted by the barrel strength. Finishes on cola and rich pipe tobacco. The flavours and form are tight on first tasting. I suspect that both will get better with oxidization and time.

@JayRain What about Noorden?

Was that the Indonesian restaurant that you went to on the double date?

It is fantastic (along w their sister restaurant Little Sister (pun intended)

@JayRain It was Little sister...

A little behind on my posting...

Saturday night - 23 year (April 1993) Longmorn (SMWS 7.164) "Carefree contentment" from an ex-bourbon refill barrel

Sunday night - Kilchoman Sauternes Cask Matured

Last night - 18 year (Sep 1997) Royal Brackla (SMWS 55.40) "Playful mouth-tingles" from an ex-bourbon hogshead then finished in a first-fill American oak Pedro Ximenez hogshead. After that, finished the night with Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2008 Heavily Peated.

Redbreast 15

I plan to share it when my club when we do our annual Irish night in a few weeks, so I figured I might as well open it now and get a jump on things! It didn't wow me, but I was prepared for that after reading plenty of opinions that it's no real improvement over the basic 12 or the 12 CS. Worth the $75 I paid? Maybe. I really look forward to drinking it side-by-side with those other Redbreasts when that next club night rolls around—I expect the comparison to really highlight whatever the extra years of aging bring to table.

While I was at it, I also cracked a little cheapo flask-style bottle of basic Jameson. Same reasons. As always, totally decent stuff for the money. It seems like in the Irish whiskey world (unlike scotch), blends aren't considered so far "beneath" malts and are therefore of pretty decent quality on average.

@fiddich1980, that's a nice contrast, the Dissertation gets so good with a little oxydation. My first bottle went very fast once it hit that sweet spot, I shared quite a bit with friends.

@bwmccoy, how was the Kilchoman Sauternes?

@BlueNote - sorry, I forgot to say thanks for your comment a few days ago. Yes, that Springbank and the rest of the drams that night were top shelf!

@cricklewood - the Kilchoman Sauternes is excellent! Perfectly balanced. The Sauternes doesn’t mask the Standard Kilchoman character; it adds a little sweetness, some dark chocolate and a layer of complexity. Highly recommend it!

Trying out my new Highland whisky glass. I wanted something that would look pretty in the glass and also test the glass' ability to focus aromas.

Amrut single (bourbon) cask fit the bill perfectly.

@MadSingleMalt - Agree about Irish blends. They are generally of a better quality than the 'standard' Scottish counterparts.

Tonight, Caol Ila Gordon & MacPhail Connoisseurs Choice 10 year.

@bwmccoy, thanks for the info, I have heard good things about that Kilchoman edition.

I'll keep my eyes out if I can still find a bottle, although that might be hard, both it and the port cask became hot ticket items. I'm hoping they have another similar release in the works eventually.

@RianC, @MadSingleMalt, yes, I understand your point about liking Irish Blended Whiskey as a category more than Scotch blended whisky as a category, and I am guessing that you find the Irish blended to have more, in the word of @MadSingleMalt, zip. And why is that? Pretty damned simple really: Irish blended whiskey is usually made with Irish Pot Still Whiskey, rather than with exclusively barley-malt, aka 'single malt' whiskey. There is more zip in the unmalted barley influence from 'Irish pot still' whiskey than there is from exclusively barley-malt whiskey. That zip holds up better against the grain whiskey influence to command the attention to the barley.

@Victor I was just about to write something similar! It's all about the single pot still....which I love...

@Victor, before I got to the end of your post, I expected your theory to be that the Irish distill the "grain" component of their blends to a lower ABV than do the Scots.

So you think it's the pot still recipe, eh? Does anyone know: Is it possible to get samples of pot still whisky and 100% malted barley whiskey that are otherwise "the same" to really compare the difference? I must admit, I've been skeptical of many reviewers' claim that they can distinguish pot still whisky from 100% malted barley whisky due to its oily character or whatever.

To put the question another way: Is Midleton the only distillery that makes pot still whisky? And if so, do they also make 100% malted barley whisky?

@MadSingleMalt @Victor may know better, but I believe Midleton is the only distillery in Ireland that makes single pot still whiskey. You could buy a 100% pot still whiskey like Redbreast and compare it to a 100% Irish single malt like Bushmills (or whatever). But just going off the top of my head right now, I'd say they are very different.

Thanks, @talexander.

So if only one distillery in the whole world makes commercially available single pot still whisky, and that same distillery does not also make any 100% malted barley whiskey, then how is that enough of a sample size to draw any conclusions from? Why do we ascribe all the qualities of Midleton's barley whiskey to its unmalted barley component as opposed to just being intrinsic qualities of Midleton's whisky?

An analogy: If the whisky world was different and every distillery in the world made pot still whisky except Talisker who was making 100% malted barley whisky, then would we give the 100% malted barley credit for the Taliskerness?

@MadSingleMalt That's a good question - I don't have the answer for it. I may be wrong and perhaps there are other distilleries in Ireland making single pot still. They do have different brands of single pot still that have their own flavour profiles (Redbreast, Green Spot and I think some that are branded Midleton), if that helps...personally, I find single pot still to have a nutty, berry fruit character whereas Irish single malts are a little more malty and cask-type driven.

@talexander, I've been doing some quick Googling in the course of this chat, and it looks like Midleton is indeed the only distillery making pot still whiskey, at least for now & until some of the newer outfits get stuff to market. I'd be happy to get corrected on that.

Not to belabor the point, but if you perceive certain qualities in pot still whiskey—but every single pot still whiskey you've ever had came from Midtleton—then why do you give the credit for those qualities to the barley recipe rather than to the distillery itself?

@MadSingleMalt Again, that's a good question. Midleton also makes blends that of course taste very different, but those blends still contain some single pot still whiskey. So I guess it's more accurate to say that I love Midleton's pot still whiskey, as opposed to saying I like it in general, since Midleton's is the only one I know!

Alright. Roger that, @talexander. Midleton's blends contain their grain whisky that they distill in column stills, so I hesitate to try bringing that additional variable into the mix here.

This was all a jump-off from a point that @Victor made, so I'd still like to get his take on all this.

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And back to the original original point, are basic Irish blends typically better than basic Scottish blends? If so, why?

Maybe Midleton's blends are just better!

Bushmills' blends are made from their own malt and grain whisky from Midleton—how do those stack up? (For me, I think Black Bush is totally decent, but I haven't had their basic white label in a long time. Plus, they now have those red labels and whatever else.)

@MadSingleMalt Well, my two cents is that I personally don't find Irish blends to be generally "better" than blended scotch. There seem to be fewer Irish blends though; and I can't think of very many that are old (the 18yo variants of Jameson and Kilbeggan are the oldest I can really think of). I like older Jamesons, some Midleton Very Rares (but not all) and Black Bush, but most others I find to be just OK (and standard Bushmills is pretty weak). I can think of more than a few blended scotches that I like very much, at various age statements (Royal Salute 21, anything from Ballantine's, anything from Compass Box, Black Bottle, Grant's, Black Grouse, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few). But hey, it's all subjective.

@talexander I'll have to side with @MadSingleMalt here. I feel like Compass Box is an outlier, but I find Black Bottle, Ballantine's, J&B, Grant's etc. to be very ordinary and uninteresting. There are a few I find interesting (Famous Grouse, Islay Mist 8, Teacher's), but there's a lot of mediocrity there, whereas I personally really like Bushmills Black Bush, Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition, Jameson Crested, Jameson Black Barrel etc... But then, maybe you're right; maybe there are just fewer Irish blends.