So, what are you drinking now?

@RianC

I have read and experienced that our tastebuds mature or that is certain tastes we appreciate more as we age, bitter flavors in particular, I remember when Campari went from being that cough syrup stuff I would use in drinks to something I craved regularly and making bicyclettes and spiking beer with.

Yet in some culture I would assume this is a taste one would acquire earlier, by eating things like cardoons, burdock, bitter melon, escarole and such.

@OdysseusUnbound that grapefruit pith flavour is definitely present in some corn heavy Canadian whiskys. I wonder if it's something that comes from the wood or the distillate. Some bourbons have it too but in much smaller doses.

Last night I made a soup out of the odd items in the fridge, ended being mash up of ribollita and caldo verde.

Since I was breaking rules I decided to drink a vatting inspired by @Nozinan comment 2/3 Stagg Jr. To 1/3 Lot 40 CS. It was stellar.

I had an Ardbeg 10 last night that I didn't even finish

I'm tired again today and have a sore throat to boot but luckily my taste buds seem fine and the whisky is a most welcome tonic! I've been returning to some of at @Wierdo's samples today and have posted a couple of reviews. An 11 year old IB Linkwoood, which was very sweet and unusual and a GlenDronach 15 which was just how I like a sherried whisky - leathery, spicy and complex with a wee waft of smoke.

Currently enjoying an OP 17, which just gets better and better and hope to have some Talisker 8 and Oogy later to round off the evening. That's assuming I don't pass out beforehand

@RianC I've always found these flavour description difficult to describe or put into words. Rancio the closest I've ever come to association in words is Porcini mushrooms or the sickly sweetness that one experiences from a rich port wine. The other is Umami the closest I've ever come to experiencing this flavour is from fermented bean curd and sea urchin roe. The bean curd being the intense version and the sea urchin roe the lighter expression of the Umami flavour.

It's Summer holiday time here and I've been away for a week with the family. Since we were going to the beach I packed some Tobermory 10 which I enjoyed in the sea air in the evening. As you can see you don't have to fight for space to sit around here - I had the beach to myself

Ahh bliss

@Hewie - Awesome images! New Zealand I presume? What I'd give for a few days lounging on one of them right now.

@fiddich1980 - It can be very hard sometimes, I know what you mean and I find if I try too hard my brain freezes. Often a taste or smell literally jumps out at me - sometimes with a clear mental image of something e.g. a beach bonfire or a specific fruit. Sometimes though, as was the case with the Brora I had recently, I know I'm smelling something unique that my brain doesn't quite recognise so it starts to 'run through the files' as it it were to get close associations e.g. I think I put baby sick, which it did remind me of, but it was probably something yeasty. Having just raised a toddler, baby sick was a more familiar note - does that make sense?

My nose definitely picks out more things more clearly than my palette though, which seems to be the norm?

@Hewie beautiful! I just might have to use this photo as a screensaver!

Enjoying an excellent single Barrel offering of Blanton's Gold, dumped in April of 2014. I participated in a Video Tasting with @Nozinan a few months back. This bottle was good then and it is better now. I score this at 93 today.

Tonight, my wife and I had @jordytropp and his wife as well as a couple other friends over for dinner and drams. We all drank different things at different times, but here is a list of what I had tonight;

Cadenhead's Linkwood 19 year 53.2% ABV. Thanks @jordytropp for bringing this one over.

Glen Grant SMWS 9.155 (22 year - Apr. 23rd, 1996) "Witches' night" finished in a first-fill ex-Pedro Ximenez hogshead after being matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead - 58.1% ABV

27 year Glen Garioch Single Cask #149 (Distilled 1989 Bottled 2017) from a refill hogshead 46% ABV. Thanks again @jordytropp

Balmenach SMWS 48.42 (10 year - Nov. 25th, 2002) "Grown-Up Ice Lollies" from a first-fill ex-bourbon barrel. A gift from one of the friends that we had over tonight.

Glentauchers SMWS 63.46 (10 year - Dec 6th, 2007) "A walk in the park" - Refill ex-bourbon barrel - 59.4% ABV

Caol Ila Distillers Edition Bottled 2002 - 43% ABV. Thanks @jrodytropp

Ardbeg Ardbog 52.1% ABV. Thanks for this one as well @jordytropp. Really appreciate all of the great whiskies that you brought over tonight!

Caol Ila SMWS 53.250 (11 year - Jul. 10th, 2006) "Smoked salt orange peel" from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 58.4% ABV

Ardmore SMWS 66.123 (12 year - Mar. 6, 2006) "A strong personality" from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 57.3% ABV

Caol Ila SMWS 53.241 (6 year - April 2011) - "Dense smoke over a tarry deck" - Refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 60.3.% ABV

Highland Park 13 year (Dec. 2004) "Stones of Stenness" from Single Cask Nation - 2nd fill ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry hogshead - 57.4% ABV

A great night with some amazing friends. It doesn't get much better than that!

@bwmccoy , a stellar line-up as always.

Had some time while waiting for my dinner to cook,worked my way through a sample flight I previously aborted some weeks back on account of palate fatigue. All Bruichladdich wine focused line-up

-The Classic Laddie Batch 16/004 (2016) 50% abv: a vatting of 84 barrels it's about 47% wine casks based on the vatting information online ( I love having access to this info...other's should take note)

-Single cask exploration 22 yrs old, 52.4% abv: Ex-bourbon finished in a Chateau Latour Barrel

-Black Arts 4.1 23 yrs old 49.2%abv: The usual malarkey of a top secret recipe but we know it leans heavy on wine/fortified wine casks.

It was a fun experience, none of these bowled me over but the finish on the black arts was superb, it lingered on soaked prunes, leather and earth.

A wee comparison of this Glen Scotia trilogy I got for Christmas. Very approachable whisky with some definite parallels with its neighbour Springbank. The Victoria carried a little heat but probably had the best flavour profile. However, I can see why the 15 has been getting good reviews.

@Hewie - Nice! I love doing those side by sides - great fun! I've been looking at something from these for a while and the Victoriana stands out for me but there aren't too many reviews out there.

@RianC All 3 were quite distinctive in their own right. The NAS Double Cask was a bit lighter and sweeter. The 15 a bit deeper and darker with more savoury aspects. The Victoriana had perhaps additional layers of complexity but given the significant price difference I'd probably take the 15. Here are some reviews I'd agree with thedramble.com/tastings/glen-scotia/… thedramble.com/tastings/glen-scotia/… Definitely worth trying out

Having a tiny (20 ml or so) pour of Glen Garioch 1999, bottled at 56.3 % abv. This is the first half of a sample from a friend who advised me to split it in to two tastings as he claims there is some sulphur that dissipates with time. And iirc, the sample was from a freshly opened bottle. There is definitely some tell-tale “spent match” on the nose, but it’s far from the worst sulphur I’ve experienced. My last bottle of HP 12 was more sulphured than this one. The rest of it is nice, lighter, brighter and fruitier than I would have expected with some milk chocolate in the mix...hopefully the sulphur will be gone when I revisit the rest of this sample.

@OdysseusUnbound I quite like most of what I've tried from Glen Garioch, particularly then entry 12 yr old, I split a bottle with my brother last year and we went through it rather fast. It had a good blend of both bourbon and sherry influence but I felt like it was refreshingly free of heavy handed oak.

Two quick dram in between laundry, cooking and trying to ring the cell phone company to figure out why I was charged for two phones I had not received.

1- A blend from our in-house mad scientist/blender@paddockjudge this one called "Dram of Desire" I believe this was the one he crafted for @RikS when he mentioned he was looking for an ideal dram that hit all the sweet spots and it delivers but when you look at the components they are all quality Macallan Cask Strength, Glenlivet Nadurra 16 and Laphroaig 18..Yowza! Big rich, chewy dark dried fruits, a bit of tobacco, citrus and just the right touch of peat. 2- Port Charlotte 10 Mk III, a bottle I purchased before the holidays and opened to compare to the previous edition, it doesn't quite have that elegant oak of the 2nd edition, it's a bit sweet but the palate delivers that hot tarmac and stuffy peat smoke. It helped ease the pain of dealing with customer service and explaining myself 3 times.

Sipping George Dickel No. 12 on a very stormy, windy night and finishing up leftover mac and cheese...

Little Book Chapter 2. Spoke with @paddockjudge and we were talking about it. Small pour, about 20 cc. Quite nice. Still need to "understand" it better. Only my second pour.

@cricklewood hey! Did you save some for me?

@archivist I sampled from a bottle of Dickel over the holidays. We were visiting friends who like bourbon, but only ever buy Bulleit, and they asked me for a recommendation while we were in the liquor store. I knew they wouldn’t let me pay, so I suggested Dickel. Tasty, yet inexpensive. Maybe it was the company or a good batch, or a combination of both, but I was thoroughly impressed.

How is your bottle of Dickel?

@RikS if you come visit there will be that and many more.

@OdysseusUnbound, George Dickel # 12 is usually excellent and a best buy, BUT I have tasted from two batches which were off. I don't recommend George Dickel # 8. Pretty rough in my book. The Barrel Select is very sweet corn whiskey with just a little rye (same mashbill for # 12, but # 12 is usually much drier, which I prefer.) I like the # 12 a lot, but sometimes it is off the mark, as with the time I insisted that @Nock buy a bottle. Wouldn't you know that fate was tempted? "You've got to buy this favourite of mine. It's great!". THAT was the worst Dickel I have tasted. .

@Victor I’ve lived that experience several times, and not only with whisky. I once saw a fairly well-known Canadian band (Crash Test Dummies) play live and was blown away by their performance. About a year later, they were coming back through town (Sudbury) and I told anyone who would listen how terrific they were in concert, even if you didn’t love their music on the radio or on CD (remember those?). As my luck would have it, their lead singer stumbled onto the stage more intoxicated than Captain Jack Sparrow in a rum distillery. He proceeded to slur through the band’s hits, off-key, forgetting lyrics, and insulting the crowd. I felt more than a little sheepish.

@OdysseusUnbound, yes, indeed, "Past results do not guarantee future performance."

@OdysseusUnbound Yes, but being a prominent Connosr member, I presume and certainly hope that upon seeing him you did approach to ask: what had he been drinking, and how would he rate it in terms of colour, nose, palate and finish?

@OdysseusUnbound The bottle of No. 12 I have is delicious, and it's my inexpensive "go to" when hosting a large gathering (for me, that's more then 6 ppl) - but @Victor is right in that some bottles are hit or miss -- though for the most part, these were just "meh" and I was disappointed, though I would then use that specific bottle to mix cocktails with. And I'm only out $15-$18 USD. I've never had a horrible bottle. What I like about the Dickel is the subtle char and not overpowering smoky scents, and tastes like a bit of brown sugar with some tobacco at the finish. You picked a winner it seems, both in spirit and in company. Sounds great!

@archivist, that 'brown sugar' is the Lincoln County Process which differentiates Tennessee Whiskey from other styles--- filtration of the whisky (Dickel omits the "e") through a thick layer of sugar maple charcoal prior to barreling.

It is no accident at all that it tastes sweet!!!