So, what are you drinking now?

@RikS - Funnily enough I had a peak at ASDA 's whisky today and saw the 10 for £25! I've never owned a bottle but have tried it a fair few times and quite like it. I'd have it over 'fiddich 12 anyday and reckon if they did it @46% NCF etc it would give Arran 10 a good run for its money.

Maybe it's my mood but I'm finding this QR to be poised and elegant. I expected a sweety shop type whisky but this is balanced, and while it leans to the sweet for obvious reasons, everything is in perfect harmony. I'm having a second now and adding some water which hasn't improved it though, seems to have made the spice take over a tad.

@RianC Agreed, the port makes for a nice, but different, experience to the 'sweet' ones I tend to try which are more tilted towards the sherry side. As for the standard 10, I don't think it'll blow you away, but it's definitely a perfectly pleasant expression, and at £25 it's certainly worth it. That said, HP12 is also at £25, so I suppose it's a 'mood' thing: a tilt towards sweet barley, or adding just a touch of smoke...

Ardbeg Uigeadail L5939704082014 14008246 17:51

Big family dinner, lots of in-laws and my sister in law making spring rolls, salad rolls, Beijing duck and more and basically there are smells all over the house. My uncle and i needed something bold and this is what he chose and I poured.

It is windy and chilly in Ontario, Canada. This calls for a Lagavulin 12 CS, 2017. The sweetness of late harvest white grapes, mild lemons, sweet peat, and a warming hardwood smoke with a sprinkle of pine forest.

A broken cork on my Bunnahabhain 18yr has forced me to decant the remainder into a smaller bottle. The excess amounted to a decent dram. It is a glorious dram after airing for about 1/2 hour.

Having the Laphroig Cardeas 2018 fino with my boss and a couple coworkers downtown. It's nice, the fino compliments the traditional Laphroig smoke and ash pretty well. I don't think I'll buy a bottle though. Glad I sampled it first.

Last night's second dram ended up being a Laphroaig 10, which was perfect because the fog really rolled in to the point I couldn't even see past the cypress trees -- which is practically in front of the yard.Tonight, I went with my old standby, the Old Potrero straight rye...just can't get enough of it!

@archivist - my dram last night was a Laphroaig 10 as well.

Tonight, went over to a friends house to celebrate his birthday.

3 year 2 month Copperworks (Seattle, WA) Single Cask Release #16 New French Oak cask Char #1, 58.9%

8 year Strathisla 57% from Gordon & MacPhail

29 year (Dec 1984) Clynelish (SMWS 26.102 - Pomanders in a lady's parlour) 56.0% from a refill ex-sherry butt

Glendronach 18 year Allardice

25 year (December 1991) Trinidad Rum (SWMS R10.1 Carnival concerto) 63.4% from a refill barrel

18 year (Dec. 1984 - bottled Oct 2003) Highland Park (SMWS 4.96) 56.1%

15 year Glendronach Revival

22 year (Dec. 1992) Springbank (SMWS 27.110 - Horse harness and mescal 'worms') 52.6% from a 1st fill ex-sherry hogshead

26 year (1990) Auchentoshan from the John Milroy selection bottled 2017 from a refill hogshead

10 year (May 1992) Allt-A’ Bhainne (SMWS 108.7) 59.4%

22 year (June 1995) Springbank (SMWS 27.111 - A coal bucket of marshmallows) 48.8% from a refill ex-Sherry hogshead

31 year (1980 - bottled 2011) Old Pulteney 43% from Gordon & MacPhail

41 year (1970 - bottled 2011) Speymalt from Macallan 43% from Gordon & MacPhail

29 year (Sep 1985) Longmorn (SMWS 7.116 - It's good to arrive) 58.5% from an ex-bourbon refill hogshead

31 year (Nov. 1984) Miltonduff (SMWS 72.50 - A Nomad's tent) 54.4% from an ex-bourbon refill hogshead

27 year (Jan. 1990) Bladnoch (SMWS 50.95 - Magical moments) 59.8% from a refill ex-bourbon barrel

24 year (Dec. 1989) Caol Ila (SMWS 53.210 - Fantastic stuff) 53.3% from an ex-bourbon refill hogshead

20 year Laphroaig (SMWS 29.241 - A perfect moment) 49.3% Feis Ile 2018 bottling

18 year (May 1998) Laphraoig (SMWS 29.208 - Bonfire on a rocky island shore) 51.7% from a 1st-fill Pedro Ximenez hogshead

12 year (Jun 2002) Port Charlotte (SMWS 127.43 - Kissing a smoker) 65.0% from a refill ex-bourbon barrel

Finished the night with 3 ports

Taylor Fladgate Very Old Single Harvest Porto 1967 (50 year old)

Dow's 1985 Vintage Porto

Graham's 1985 Vintage Porto bottled in 1987

Of the 3 ports, the 1967 was by far the best.

Of the whisky, the stand outs were too numerous to mention. A great night with some great whisky and even better friends. Doesn't get much better than that!!!!

@bwmccoy so just a quiet night then Quite an impressive line up - and all the better when shared with good friends.

@bwmccoy, where to begin? That's a stunning lineup with many rare gems. How good were those G & M's?!

@Hewie - yeah, just another Saturday night... Not! I’m very fortunate to get to enjoy my friends unbelievable collection.

@paddockjudge - the G&M’s did not disappoint! I was surprised how much flavor the ones at 43% had. Why can’t all 43% Whisky taste like that? Big, glorious, complex flavors! The 8 year Strathisla, while not 43% was amazing. Tasted much older. The Old Pulteney was incredible. I love Scotch from the early 80’s. They just don’t make whisky like that anymore.

@bwmccoy well what a way to celebrate a birthday, and to share the bounty!

@bwmccoy How the hell do you do that without ending up in an alcohol induced coma? It would take me days to recover from that much alcohol. Nice lineup though.

@archivist -Indeed!

@BlueNote - VERY small pours over several hours was my only saving grace. :-)

Tonight, Highland Park 13 year (12/04) a Single Cask Nation bottling from a 2nd-fill ex-Pedro Ximenez Sherry Hogshead. Cask #76. 294 bottles. Stunning!

It's been a long weekend here for Labour Day. Ironically, I'm working my way through a pile of marking exam scripts - so to help things along I'm having a wee pour of Springbank 10 followed by a small Springbank 12 CS Batch 6. I've been sick for a week so maybe my senses are still a bit out of whack but the 12 CS has a distinct strawberry jam note jumping out at me tonight - unusual but pleasant.

@Hewie Those high proof whiskies are very helpful when it comes to paperwork, aren't they?

Enjoying some Laphroaig QC at 48%. Bottle's been open since June, 4 months, and I'm really appreciating how good it is! For someone who never thought I'd like Laphroaig a few years back, now sipping from a bottle that's often available for about £30, I'm a bit blown away...

@RikS, if you're in a market where Laphroaig QC is one of the cheapest Islay single malts, it's hard to top for the money. It's not my favorite, but it sure delivers bang for the buck.

@MadSingleMalt Yes, I wouldn't say that it's my favourite. But as you say, for $37USD it certainly has a place. Compare that with another 'go to', the Uigeadail, it's $72USD.

I'd really like to try the Laphroaig CS one day, but that one is completely prohibitively priced here. I was also curious as to the Laphroaig Lore (which is just north of double the price here to the QC) but frankly, as I tasted it at the London whisky show it gave me a bit too much 'bitter' finish. Though, that sampling almost doesn't count as I was fairly inundated by impressions by then...

@RikS ha ha "inundated by expressions" - I think we can read between the lines there. I agree though that it can be hard to get a good impression via one small sample. A local bottle shop has a range of bottkes open to try but they use tiny plastic sample cups with no head space - virtually useless but better than nothing I guess.

@Hewie hahaha well... Yes.... Even if making good use of the spitoons, some expressions i just couldn't bear the though of spitting out. And with even miniscule amounts escaping the "less fancy" ones, if I were to say that one was unsffected after some 40 samples in one afternoon... I'd be rather cavalier with the truth!

@RikS, 40 is a good number...biblical.

@Victor indeed so my learned friend. And we expand its meaning from appearing to depicting the most tEsting times, to now also apply to the most tAsting times. Id have gone for forty days and forty nights of temptation had it been an option, a veritable whisky flood :)

Copper Fox Distillery products. Not today, but at the end of last week, @Dramlette and I toured the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Virginia. Copper Fox makes malt whiskey, rye whiskey, gin, and one whiskey called Belle Grove 1797, which contains, among other grains, oats. Jim Murray refers to their distiller, Rick Wasmund as a "mad scientist". Wasmund does a few unusual and innovative things, like make a malt smoked with peach wood and including peach wood chips in the barrels during aging.

The distillery is a charming place, more charming than I had expected. Absolutely the best part of being there is that all of their malted barley comes from their own floor maltings. Someday maybe I'll get around to putting up pictures on Connosr. All of their grain and wood is also local. This is a quirky old-school kind of place doing very untraditional things.

Do I like their products? Yes, though none of them would be top favourites for me. I probably like best their standard (single) malt, which is aged for only 2 years. 2 years in Virginia, is, I guarantee, more maturation than is 3 years in Scotland.

My wife is hosting my son's school's parent council budget meeting. One of the parents and the teacher on the committee came early specifically to try whisky. My daughter's old French teacher asked me what is my favourite of the bottles. I reached for Amrut Peated CS and poured it for them (I didn't have any and now this particular bottle is almost 1/3 gone and I have yet to taste any of it).

Then they wanted to try a different type of peat and one of them likes Laphroaig, so I poured some of the 10 YO CS batch 5. it went over well...

A Guinness West Indies Porter with a Quinta Ruben whilst sat in front of the log fire winding down after a long term. They're a match made in heaven - they don't always work but it's a nice feeling when a new beer/whisky combo comes off!

@RianC, I don't know anything about that West Indies Porter, but in my experience, good old Guinness (or one of its direct competitors, like Muphy's) is the only beer that goes well with whisky.

And damn is that a good combo.

@MadSingleMalt Yup. And say what you will about it being a "mainstream cliché", but plain Ol' Jameson with a proper pint of Guinness is always a treat. Of course, you could hipster it up a bit and sip something like Kilkerran 12 alongside a pint of Nickel Brook Cheeky Bastard Stout if you wanted to, but either one works for me.

@OdysseusUnbound @MadSingleMalt - agreed! I'm no 'craft beer aficionado' but I do like to try new ales and try and match them to whisky.

I generally go for English style IPAs with peat but this porter/stout with sweet whisky is a definite must try!

fyi - the West Indies Porter is a 6% bottled Guinness that's bitter chocolate malt all the way. Very nice if that's your thing. Sure I read it was initially brewed for the US market so you should be able to find it should you wish.