So, what are you drinking now?

@Nozinan Hmm a recipe for an Italian dish from a German. To be honest I've only ever had it a handful of times so I don't have a good yardstick for what it should taste like. However, it was damn tasty. I did use a traditional recipe but heated the egg yolks in a double boiler for the sake of our friend who is squeamish about eating raw egg. I laugh when it says to dip the sponge fingers in strong coffee. What is strong? NZ strong or UK strong (no offense intended)

@Hewie Well, I don't know much about tempering eggs or the difference in what constitutes strong coffee (something I need today after last night's EPIC tasting), but I try to make my coffee more concentrated than americano but less than straight espresso. I also found a way to eliminate all alcohol (all of you please mute your gasp) from the recipe.

When my wife and I travelled to Italy on our honeymoon, I tried Tiramisu in a number of regions. I have to say my (or Heinz's mom's) recipe (as modified by me) held up very nicely (similarly to the way Legacy held up last night after the Bunnahabhain).

If you're inclined, I would be interested in comparing recipes over PM.

@Hewie, nice looking Tiramisu, good improvisation with the cookie jar. Let us know how it turns out. I am open to getting recipes from any origin as long as the result is delicious.

@Nozinan I too need string coffee. The stuff served by Via Rail is definitely on the weak side.

@cricklewood I had some espresso this morning. I'm not planning to take caffeine every day anymore. But I was referring to the coffee for the tiramisu, not for personal ingestion.

Raising a glass of Ardbeg Supernova SN2015 in honor of @Dramlette. A beautiful spirit and a beautiful soul.

@Nock, thank you very much for spending 8 hours in the car driving to and from the Memorial Celebration held for Julie yesterday. I was quite surprised and pleased to see you!

@Nock - Well said!

@Victor - Wish I could have been there.

A dram of Bunnahabhain XVIII at the last quarter of the bottle. It has pasted it's peak. The flavours are flattening and duller now and not as vibrant. Enjoying it with a dram of Bruichladdich Black Art 4.1 which is really, beginning to open up half way into the bottle. The air time on the Black Art has really made it's flavours pop. In the words of Bill Murray , "for that relaxing time make it_______ time".

@fiddich1980 Thank you for the very useful information about the Bunnahabhain XVIII. I will probably gaz my bottle after opening or after a couple of weeks.

My penultimate dram of Corryvrekan after a very pleasant day - and much improved on the week's start! 21 degrees here today . . . in February . . . in England!?! What better than peat, right?

I've had this bottle open nearly six months, which surprises me as I was getting through it a rate at the start!

I haven't trusted Lagavulin 16 yo since I bought a horrible bottle of it in 2011, which took me 6 years to get through, because I never wanted to drink from it. I had had excellent Lagavulin 16 yo from two different bottles prior to that wretched bottle of it which I bought. Well, 2 days ago I was out and had about 175 ml, two very large pours, of Lagavulin 16 yo at a restaurant party given in honour of my deceased wife Julie, aka @Dramlette. The restaurant's bottle was excellent, which was why I consumed 175 ml of it. When, if ever, the day comes, when I can trust that what I might buy will taste like bottle # 4, or bottles # 1 and # 2, then I would look forward to actually owning some Lagavulin 16 again. Trust abused is hard to restore.

@Victor

I am so glad to hear that you have finally had the chance to try a good Lagavulin 16yo again. And 175mL is certainly two very large pours!

Since I began tracking my bottle consumption back in 2010 I can see that I have gone through 5 bottles of Lagavulin 16. Of the 5 bottles one was stellar with an average rating of 94. Two were awful (for Lag 16) with an average rating of 78 and 82 respectively. And the last two have been “average” (for a Lag 16) with ratings averaging around 90 and 91. (each bottle was scored between 4 and 6 times). My fantastic bottle was from 2010. And while I scored it vigorously on 6 occasions, it didn’t last long. It didn’t last beyond a year. I then proceeded to have the two horrible bottles right in a row. The only thing getting me through those bottles was the fact that my wife loves to use Lagavulin 16 in two of her favorite cocktails (a travesty with a good batch, but I was happy to oblige with the off bottles).

And only now in the last year and a half I have found good batches again. I completely agree that a bad batch of bottle can turn you off for years. And trust lost is hard to repair. I am still there with Talisker 10yo. Trust is gone.

Tonight: I am tasting Springbank 10yo against 2 different batches of Springbank 12yo Cask Strength. This is my third bottle of the 10yo in 10 years. I want to like it . . . I just don’t. The 12yo Cask Strength batches (56.5% - batch 15, and 56.2% - batch 17) are both outstanding! I am gob smacked at how good both of these are. Shocked. Must buy so many more! If only they sold them in Virginia. Alas, I will have to hope to find some on my next trip out of state.

@Nock, we don't get Springbank 12 CS in Montgomery County, Maryland, but I have seen it recently in DC.

@Victor - I recently polished off a bottle of Laga 16 from a fairly new batch and it was excellent, and much better than my last bottle.

Now might be a good time to make that purchase?

@RianC it would be a good time for me to buy Lagavulin 16 if I didn't have 100 open bottles on hand. Who knows? I might buy one anyway. What's one more bottle to add to the 300?

The other side of the coin is that if I do buy one now it will likely wait in a very long queue to be consumed. If I do open and drink it soon, then 100 other whiskies will sit in the queue.

@Victor - I hope you're not after my sympathy?!?

Joking aside, I do see your point! That said, if you really enjoyed the Laga 16 you tried as much as it sounds, then perhaps it would be prudent to snag a bottle when you know the quality is high?

100 . . . 101 . . . meh

@Victor

That bottle count sounds like a problem that can only be remedied with plenty of help and a concerted effort. I did pick up a bottle of Springbank 12yo CS when we tasted at your sister’s house last. That batch (#15) edges out the more recent batch #17 by a hair. I certainly hope there is more around. I want to stock up on this like I stock up on ECBP and Stagg Jr. when I see it. Amazing expression that is worthy of following very closely.

I would love to get your nose and palate on it (along with others like @paddockjudge and @Nozinan) to see if you guys get any sulfur. I get what I would call “mustard” and “farm yard” and I adore this style. It is almost a sour animal note – but in a good way! (I love saying that). I can’t detect any peat myself. But then I tend to love my peat. The more peat sensitive might disagree with my assessment.

@RianC I would agree with you about buying now . . . except for the fact that I think the variation in any bottling is batch to batch. I don’t think there is any such thing as consistency. Especially when you are talking about Diageo (who own Lagavulin). They are going to put out what they put out (period). If you happen to find a good batch then lucky you! It certainly does happen. But I have tasted too much variety from too many distilleries. Ardbeg releases about 4 to 6 batches of Uigeadail each year. You can easily get a good batch and then get two off batches in a row. I have no clue how many batches of Lagavulin 16yo are created each year. My guess is way, way more 6.

These days I have to ask myself, “am I ready for this $100 bottle to be off in quality?” I would never encourage anyone to pickup a bottle of Lagavulin 16yo (and I am a fan). In Virginia it is now over $100. I would always suggest Ardbeg 10yo or Laphroiag 10yo as an alternative (always around $50 or so). When Lagavulin 16yo is on point it can be smoky elegance in a glass. The refined big brother on Islay. But, having had to deal with a few not-so-great bottles . . . it makes you gun shy.

Oh, and so we are clear – every off bottle of Lagavulin 16yo I have bought has been in Montgomery County! (granted I have bought two that were good there also).

I really just want @Victor to finally get a good batch of Ardbeg Corryvreckan. The two bottles he has owned have been the worst I have ever tasted (and I did own both myself). That is some rotten buying luck I tell you.

Dang, picture went with the wrong post . . .

?

@Nock I have only tasted from one bottle of Corryvreckin (this one was purchased last fall by my BIL on my behalf) and I am quite enjoying it. Maybe I will bring it to taste with @Victor when I see him.

@Nozinan When you get a chance please let me know the bottle code on your bottle of Corry. I keep track of that stuff. I will be curious to see if I have your batch or not.

@Nock - I don't disagree with you about batch variation - we always take a slight gamble, unless we know exact batch numbers.

I did quite a bit of digging re. the Laga 16 as I had a bottle 2 - 3 years ago that was definitely below par. I noticed that many reviews around that time expressed similar disappointment, suggesting a general dip in quality. Diageo must notice this and I suspect they paid a little more attention to the casks they were using, as reviews from more recent batches all tend to be quite good.

This is very much a 'totem malt' and it certainly pays for its perception to be generally positive. Even Macallan dropped their stripper range when the flak got too much

Oh and $50 for Ardbeg - that's very good and is a total no-brainer compared to $100 for Laga 16. In the UK, Ardbeg 10 is around £40 and the Laga 16 £50, so not such a big difference. My recent bottle of Laga was on sale for under £40 (which is very rare) and certainly influenced my purchase!

@RianC

Even Macallan dropped their stripper range when the flak got too much

Yeah but the 12 Year Old Brimstone Cask, er I mean Double Cask, isn’t exactly an improvement. The Macallan Sienna was actually a good whisky, it was just insanely overpriced. At least it was in Ontario where it sold for about $180/bottle. In Ontario pricing, I likely would have bought Sienna at $100-$110, but NOT at $180.

@OdysseusUnbound - Don't get me started on Macallan I can't see me buying a bottle anytime soon put it that way! But their change in line up had to have been influenced by the amount of negative feedback, surely?

As it happens I've been given a mini-bottle of the Gold for a bday gift. I'm sure I've tried this once before at my golf club and it seemed OK - we shall see . . .

@RianC Wow! £40 for a Lagavulin? I would certainly be willing to take my chances on that. Well done. I did pick up a bottle in Heathrow when I was there a year ago. I think it was £43 and duty free. It was from the new 2017 releases and was fairly good.

In case no one has noticed Lagavulin has stopped putting the little red sticker over the cork as of the end is 2016 and beginning in 2017.

@RianC Macallan Gold is the "Glenlivet Founder's Reserve" of the Macallan line-up. If you could bottle mediocrity and indifference, Gold would be it. Come to think of it, perhaps bottled mediocrity is the best way to describe Macallan Gold.

I love it when @Nock is active on Connosr.

@MadSingleMalt, hear, hear!

@Nock - Yes I noticed that but only after my bottle arrived (from an online source) and I panicked thinking I'd got a knock off bottle!

Just opened the Cotswolds: First impressions are a lovely fruity nose off-set with some oak and tickly spice. A little spirity but not in an off-putting way with marzipan and a slight waxy, musty note that I'm struggling to pin down. Sure I read that they mature their barrels in a cave that was used to age rum in Liverpool. Seems odd, if so, but might explain it?

Tastes similar to the nose with a short but pleasant finish - I'd say it sits somewhere between a light Speyside and an Irish.

The cork made a tremendous popping sound!