So, what are you drinking now?

@MadSingleMalt Yeah, I've certainly seen mixed thoughts and some pretty creative names for it on Reddit . To be fair the three times I've sampled it have all been from the same bottle. Zippy is a good descriptor for this one - it's also got a little aniseed and maybe pickled ginger to offset it's mustiness. I guess I'll just have to buy my own bottle and give it another good go!

@Hewie, I thought about mentioning those nicknames it's earned on Reddit, but I figured we'd keep things polite around here. :)

Glenmorangie 10 year.

@bwmccoy a classic

Started with a horrid cold today so attempting to self-medicate with a large Ardbeg 10.

It's getting cold... And uigeadail is becoming my go to again. Just keep finding it the perfect combination of components....

Next purchase is likely going to be an amrut though.

@RikS I'm all in favour of an Amrut. I highly recommend Peated CS if you're looking for a winter dram.

I'm getting ready to move and have all my bottles packed up—except one that I left out for myself until we get settled in the new house: my own all-Campbeltown solera bottle. Its breakdown is probably something along these lines:

•70% Springbanks (various)

•15% Longrows (various)

•10% Kilkerrans (various)

•5% Glen Scotia (all 12-year disco cow, because that's the only Glen Scotia I've opened in years)

•0% Hazelburn (because I've never had my own bottle of Hazelburn to pull from)

Good stuff! It basically tastes like a great young modern Springbank. I'd like to taste it side-by-side with the 10/100 Proof, as that's the one it most reminds me of.

I chose this as my one bottle to have available during my move because I need to make room in it for a whole slew of Kilkerrans I plan to open this fall.

@MadSingleMalt When is the move? Sounds like soon if you've packed all the bottles away.

I don't know what your planning but I can highly recommend the Sudbury Whisky Moving Company. I employed SWMC when I moved and lost only one mini glencairn out of all my bottles and glassware (and I take the blame for that one). It only cost me a few drams of 12 YO Springbank, Redbreast 12 (both CS), and a wee nip of Macallan CS.

@Nozinan Oh yes, I tried that once and it was really good. It's on the list, together with fusion and intermediate sherry - did you have any experience of those latter ones too?

@MadSingleMalt Last time I moved - granted, it was international - they didn't let me pack any alcohol! "No flammable liquids, or batteries, allowed...."

Thankfully, I didn't have any very interesting in the stock in that house, and... well... the husband of the lady who helped with my house had a lucky day! I gifted him quite a few bottles.

@RikS My movers were the recipients of all our old beer and coolers...

@RikS I have enjoyed both Fusion and IS. I barely remember the Fusion as it was so long ago. It was my intro to Amrut and a great intro it was. My most recent experience with IS was last X-mas when @paddockjudge and I split the cost of a bottle as a gift for @nosebleed, who is our "agent" in Calgary. He opened it while I was there and it was GOOD.

@Nozinan Right. So, they all made it on the list... and now they all STAY on the list ;)

I'm just moving down the street, later this month.

Fill some empty wine cases, toss 'em in the trunk, don't let anyone else handle them, move them into the house and claim a display area of prominence before the girlfriend can object, done.

@MadSingleMalt Later this month? A long time to be without the collection... I don't reach often but I think I had it available for all but a day or 2.

If only it were that easy. We used a lot of boxes, made a few trips. The CEO of SWMC would be able to recall the details better. Service included organizing the bottles and glassware into the cabinets. I think, in retrospect, it also cost one dinner of wings...

@RikS, the most relevant item of information about Amrut Intermediate Sherry is that it is the # 1 Top Rated Connosr whisky whose price is under $ 600. (i.e. # 6 rated with the top 5 generally unattainable at an affordable price.)

If you don't like your bottle or 6 I will happily take them from you.

I regret not getting a bottle or two of amrut IS when I had the chance. $100 in Calgary. I figured it would always be there. Now it’s discontinued. Argh!!!

@nooch DIscontinued?

@nooch It's more than $100 for sure, now, but the Amrut website still lists it as a standard part of the range

@Nozinan in listening to the whiskycast podcast I discovered that they are replacing the portonova and IS. Both are being at least temporarily discontinued. They are also expanding the distillery. Right now they produce 300k L a year. They’ll be able to produce 900k when all is said and done.

@nooch Looks like I may need to go on a hunt then... and perhaps enlist @Nosebleed...

Make that Amrut Intermediate Sherry # 5 Connosr Top Rated, rather than # 6.

Discontinued? Yikes! I suppose I better get cracking on getting some more, before I have to wait years to see another batch made. I just recently opened my last bottle of Intermediate Sherry recently, and they can go quickly.

Tonight, Aultmore 18 year (Feb. 1997) SMWS 73.72 “A ray of sunshine” from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead. Juicy with summer fruit salad flavors on the tongue, and then a cooling and refreshing finish of black currant iced tea.

Followed by a newly opened bottle. Highland Park 13 year from Single Cask Nation. “Stones of Stenness” was distilled in December 2004 and matured in a 2nd-fill ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry hogshead. It was bottled at cask strength in January 2018 at 57.4% ABV. Cask #76 yielded 294 bottles.

Nose: Nutty peat reek with fresh pears, warm applesauce with cinnamon, straw, damp seasoned oak.

Palate: Rich, dark chocolate covered espresso beans, toasted hazelnuts, floral peat smoke.

Finish: Long, warm and lasting with lingering smoke, rum soaked sponge cake and hints of white pepper.

This is one of the best Highland Parks that I have ever tasted! Love it!

A wee side-by-side of Kilkerran 12 and Springbank 10 in the glencairns tonight. The Kilkerran is brighter and fresher, or zippy as @MadSingleMalt would say. Lots of those sooty lemons. The Springbank is deeper and rounder, with more of the garage flavours. They are both delicious and sit beside each other as sisters rather than cousins. I'm hard pressed to choose one over the other but the depth of the Springbank edges out the Kilkerran tonight.

@Hewie i agree with the kilkerrans zippiness and all, until the finish which I find a bit table-salty... Did you perceive any of that in yours?

@Victor i know... Just need to overcome my pricing frustration. €100 in London and €45 in Madrid...

@RikS I don't find it overly salty. Yes, there is some brininess but it's not overbearing or distracting - but I do enjoy the coastal elements in a whisky. Although it's a couple of years older I also find the Kilkerran a bit more spirity than the Springbank.

@Hewie i wonder if it's my batch or me then. I agree that the springbank is the better of the two.

@RikS, that Madrid price is an outlier which cannot be trusted, and which acts only as false hope. The only way you are likely to see a price like that is if some store does a 50% off closeout on stock.