So, what are you drinking now?

PC7? My one experience of it was excellent!

I cannot imagine that there are any bottles of PC7 floating around for sale at this late date. What was that 5 or 6 years ago, when it was released?

@Victor - I agree. I loved my PC7! If still available, I would make sure to always have a bottle of that one in my cabinet!

Auction sites say PC7 was released in 2008. Eleven years ago already!

High West Rendezvous Rye, 46% ABV. This bottle has been open about 7 years. It was great for 4 or 5 years open. In the last 2 or 3 years I have started to taste a dill note in it. This is @Nozinan's "pickle juice". I do not care for pickle juice or any other form of dill in my rye whiskey. This is still good, but nowhere near as good as it was.

I liked PC7 more than I liked several of the Octomores.

Good work digging that release date out, @MadSingleMalt. I guess that it was 5 or 6 years ago that I was still encountering people with recently purchased bottles from which they were still drinking. .

@Victor I still saw bottles on the shelf only two years ago in a few stores. Asking price usually around $140-$200. At those high prices some still might be found on older shelves . . .

@Nock it is a great bottle, but that is a steep price.

@Victor I agree . . . which is why I didn’t go for it.

Tonight I am sitting here with a freshly opened bottle of Highland Park Valknut 46.8%.

My first impression (which is typically highly suggestible) is that this reminds me a lot of the Highland Park 12yo I was drinking back in 2004 when I first fell in love with peat. This is much thicker and richer than the standard HP12. Far more malty, peaty smoky, and powerful. I am very pleasantly surprised. I think I like it . . . I mean really like it. I can hardly wait to put it Head to Head with more of the HP range.

Interesting progression last night:

We were at a trivia night at a local pub with my wife’s cousins and I had:

• Standard Buffalo Trace: I don’t know if it was oxidation or just a bad bottle, but this was terrible, bitter, sour, and aggressively tannic. Blech.
• Bushmills Original: this was really nice. Soft, but nice. Honeycrisp apples, vanilla, cinnamon.

We then came back to my place and I lead a “mini-tasting” of:

• Lot 40 CS 12 Year: no one had tasted this before but they were all blown away by this wonderful “Canadian Scotch” (my wife’s cousin kept using this expression even though I kept saying RYE). I may have succeeded in “selling” some standard bottles of Lot 40 after this. Corby should pay me for the free publicity.
• Stagg Jr (Batch 9, 65.95%): a bit too powerful for all of them, save me, to drink neat, but it impressed nonetheless. There were at least two people who said “I never knew bourbon could be this good”. Most of them had only had Jim Beam White Label before.

@OdysseusUnbound It used to drive me nuts when friends would keep calling whisky from other countries "scotch" even after I corrected them multiple times. Now I just think it's kinda cute.

Had a lovely dinner of fried chicken, collard greens, and grits with a colleague and her husband. Started with a bottle of sparkling wine (I don't recall the winery), but I do remember we proceeded to a crisp and fruity "2018 Pax Trousseau Gris" and after dinner we enjoyed a dram of Hibiki Harmony. Really good whisky to end the evening that was full of very rich, dense food.

@talexander, taking the high road is seldom easy. There's no cure for cute.

I've on occasion asked the question, "do you drink whisky?" And received the response, "no, I drink scotch".

I think we need a thread for You Can't Fix Cute.

@Nock I don't have much experience with older versions of the HP12 but I did try the Valknut recently and I thought the nose was very closed even after a lot of time in the glass, the palate was interesting enough for me to eventually want to revisit, I found both the peat and sherry influence to be a bit heavier than what I've ever had in HP12 before.

@OdysseusUnbound, I love that bourbon Scotch stuff!

@paddockjudge @talexander @OdysseusUnbound

A few years ago I brought a bottle of Amrut Peated Cask Strength to a holiday meeting of my debating society. One of the leading members is the son of an individual who immigrated from Scotland. He knows Scotland very well. He is knows for his precision.

He referred to the whisky as Scotch. I was flabbergasted.

@paddockjudge isn't it Canadian bourbon scotch?

Beware the Ides of March! I was just out at a free commercial Bushmills tasting, because nothing says Saint Patrick's Day in the mind of my County's liquor administrators like whiskey from Protestant Northern Ireland Bushmills Distillery. I like to keep up on what the recent batches of mass market whiskeys taste like. We had Bushmills Original, Bushmills Black Bush, and Bushmills 10 yo Malt. This was not a very good batch of the Original, probably around 70 points for a score. I had gotten spoiled by liking my last 2 or 3 encounters with the Original. This batch reminds me of the Bad Old Days prior to that, when most of the batches I had tasted seemed wretched to me. Black Bush today was up to its usual high standards. Nice 87 point whiskey. Bushmills 10 Malt I first tasted from Tom Alexander's bottle back in December 2011. I didn't like it from that bottle. I liked it a little better from a later bottle. Today's sample tasted pretty good to me, the best yet. Maybe 83 point whiskey.

@Victor, thanks for the heads-up. I'll be sure to wear my orange vest at the St. Paddy's Day Parade on Sunday ;)

The 2 week drought is over! Between my cold, basement flooding and exhaustion (due to rescuing my basement - luckily the collection was nowhere near there) I have had neither ability nor inclination to have a dram since I shared some Balvenie with my uncle on March 1.

Tonight I BBQed some steaks, we had a nice dinner, and afterward as we let things settle before dessert, I went down to bring up a dram. I was inspired by @RikS posting about finishing his A'Bunadh batch 61, so I pulled out my batch 49 (as I turn 50 soon so I will be opening the batch 50). I noticed it was time to decant it into a 120 cc bottle, and about 40 cc or so was left, and that is what I'm enjoying now as I am about to try my luck at HQ Trivia...

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

@bwmccoy - Sounds lovely! Reminds me I have an IB CI 12 that I've had for a few years now - I really need to crack that one . . .

Currently having a blend of Chivas Regal 12 topped up with some Macallan Gold. Quite a good combo and a definite improvement.

@bwmccoy, @RianC, Caol Ila produces a very tasty malt. While I love it with the medium peat with which it is usually associated I also credit Jim Murray's comment that he thinks that Caol Ila is even better without the peat...meaning that he is also one who likes the flavour of their naked barley-malt.

This I believe, too, is the reason why @markjedi1 declares Caol Ila to be his favourite Islay malt.

@RianC and @Victor - after a long work week, I was so tired last night that I knew I would only have one dram, so I decided to have one of my favorite open bottles. I’ve never had unpeated Caol Ila, but would love to try it. Caol Ila is one of my favorites as well, I just can’t tell you exactly why. It just always seems to hit the spot every time I have it!

Here’s an abbreviated version of the Society tasting notes for the Caol Ila that I had last night;

Burnt heather, huge plumes of dense and earthy smoke, salty rocks on the coastline. Fine ash rained down on a fishing trawler’s tarry deck. Trays of smoked mackerel. Bloody Marys abundant in Worcestershire sauce and spicy Tabasco but also margaritas with smoked tequila and plenty of fresh lime. A packet of balsamic vinegar crisps and barbecued pork ribs as we watched the flickering flames reflect on the nearby rock pools.

Last night met with an old friend and since we had a lot of catching up to do, we had a simple nachos and beer supper and then had a couple of drams.

I bought a bottle of Jameson Black Barrel for him since it came highly recommended on Connosr and I figured it would be more within his wheelhouse.

I had a chance to sample a couple of drams and I have to say it's quite a nice sipper, I thought the low abv would hamper the palate but it still kept its own, a little astringency as well but in this case it is balanced and welcome.

@bwmccoy @Victor - I'll have to seek out some unpeated CI as well; seems to get rave reviews on here! I find the OB 12 to be at least 'very good' every time I've had it - it's one of those that I never find mind-blowing but the bottle always disappears fast! CI seems to have a style of peat that really hits the spot for me: coastal, medicinal and smoky with bags of lemony malt.

@cricklewood - I really enjoyed my bottle of Black Barrel. It took a little while to open up but it was such an easy sipper once it going. My Dad bloody loved it!

Bit of an eclectic mix today. After my Scotch 'blend' I had an Evan Williams WL BiB over ice before dinner alongside a St Peter's ale with a dinner of roast duck crown, cauliflower and broccoli cheese and green beans.

I was tempted by the tequila as I watched my little lad maul a chocolate ice cream for desert and had a little pour of Jimador Reposado. I'm now having some Yeni Raki (@45%) over some ice as a digestif - loving the sweet anise and my lad was transfixed when it turned milky! I'm a magician !

@RianC I might just pick up a bottle for myself but I'm hesitanting between Black Barrel and Powers signature, there's only about 7$differencd between. The two but the Powers is pure pot still, 46% and UCF.

There's so few reviews of the Powers signature around and most compare it unfavorably to Redbreast or Powers John Lane, which doesn't really help me asses it's own value. Might just take a chance

@bwmccoy, @RianC, @Victor, I've had my share of unpeated Caol Ila from @Nozinan's cabinet. It is a beautiful whisky, one that belongs in every malt-lovers cabinet.

@cricklewood - I'd probably take the gamble on the Powers if I were you.

I have a Power's 12 that I plan to open over the summer but haven't actually tried anything 'Powers' yet; that said, the pure pot still, NCF and 46% certainly suggest 'better things'.