So, what are you drinking now?

@Nock, the very same bottle. I have not detected variation in the bottles from this 60.1% batch. I do allow these bottles to rest for months after they travel. This particular sample was from an already tapped 60 ml clear bottle. The original bottle was not gassed. It was stored in the carton while the fill level declined through use. This bottle has been open for less than a year, opened in August and now empty. The sample was from the bottom half of the bottle.

This was a fun exercise. Nozinan and I have engaged in a couple of video tastings where we sampled from the same bottles. We should explore that option.

@paddockjudge that's really interesting that your favourite is macallan cs. Is that the one they call final cut?

A friend came over last night with the heel of a bottle of standard Bushmills, and we did an impromptu “whisky around the world” session. It went:

• Bushmills Original: my friend brought this over. Of all the “bottom end” or “entry level” Irish blends, this is probably my favourite. Soft, fruity, with no rough edges. Very smooooooth
• Lot 40 CS 12 year: after the soft beginning, this was like a delicious punch in the mouth. My friend never drinks Canadian whisky and he loved this one.
• Stagg Jr, Batch 9: at least I think it’s Batch 9. 65.95% abv. I added about 1/2 teaspoon of water to mine. My friend would not and he had a hard time with it. It was his least favourite whiskey of the night.
• Ardbeg Corryvreckan: neither of us added water to this. I’m really enjoying this bottle and air exposure opens it up beautifully. The cherry notes are more prominent after a few weeks of air. All my friend said after each sip was “wow, this is really good.”

Ok, so it wasn’t totally around the world as I have no Japanese, Indian, South African, or Singaporean, etc. whisky....

@Nock, I believe our Sherry Palates may be more closely aligned than other genres of Malt or other varietals.

@RikS the Macallan CS to which @paddockjudge refers is an NAS North American-only release which was available between about 2010 and 2013. Depending on when and where one bought it it sold for between $ 55 and $ 100 (USD). I bought one for $ 65 total in 2011 and two more just before they disappeared in 2013 for about $ 90 each. I would happily pay $ 120 each, and maybe $ 175 each, for a couple more of them now.

Those US and Canadian releases of Macallan Cask Strength constitute one of the Greatest Hits among malts, as evidenced by how much people talk about them in a nostalgic and legendary way now that they are next to impossible to obtain.

@RikS, Not Final Cut. This particular batch of 60.1% abv was packaged in 750 ml bottles. I've obtained bottles from Canadian jurisdictions only: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec. Retail prices were between $72 and $100 CDN and harvested from 2013 - 2014. The bottle from Quebec was priced a bit higher. I believe it was purchased in 2015 by @Robert somewhere in the Montreal area. @Nozinan picked up six for me in Alberta, that was four or five years ago.

I was attempting to upload a pic, but no-can-do today from my (t)rusty old iMac nor my hand-me-down IPhone.

As for it being my favourite, that could change. My whisky adventure is far from over and it would be a thrill to discover a new favourite single malt, one which I can also afford to purchase in multiples and continue to enjoy after it too has been discontinued.

@Nock - I haven’t owned an official bottling of HP for several years. Too much batch variation frustrated me. I have owned several Independent bottlings, mostly from the Society. I happpily accept the variation from cask to cask for the uniqueness and cask strength that I don’t get from the Distillery bottlings. (Hopefully, it doesn’t sound like I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth.)

In general, I find PX to be drier and nutty compared to the sweet, rich Oloroso. That is the case with this Single Cask Nation bottling. A beautiful example of what HP can be.

@OdysseusUnbound you are correct that your Stagg Jr. is batch #9. It is from the fall release of 2017. I keep obsessive records of all the releases.

Stagg Jr. 67.2% (#1) 134.4 proof 2013 Fall

Stagg Jr. 64.35% (#2) 128.7 proof 2014 Spring

Stagg Jr. 66.05% (#3) 132.1 proof 2014 Fall

Stagg Jr. 66.10% (#4) 132.2 proof 2015 Spring

Stagg Jr. 64.85% (#5) 129.7 proof 2015 Fall

Stagg Jr. 66.25% (#6) 132.5 proof 2016 Spring

Stagg Jr. 65% (#7) 130 proof 2016 Fall

Stagg Jr. 64.75% (#8) 129.5 proof 2017 Spring

Stagg Jr. 65.95% (#9) 131.9 proof 2017 Fall

Stagg Jr. 63.2% (#10) 126.4 proof 2018 Spring

Stagg Jr. 63.95% (#11) 127.9 proof 2018 Fall

But my big question for you is the batch number of your Ardbeg Corryvreckan! No it doesn't say it on the label. If you will look on the back of the bottle down below the embossed "DISTILLERY" you will see some fine etched white numbers. There are many. The key ones to find will look like a date: 04/05/2017. Typically it is at the end of the first line. This tells you the date of bottle filling. It tells you the day/month/year. Below that is a time stamp (in addition to other numbers). If you can please share those numbers with us.

@paddockjudge - I, too, have been having trouble uploading photos recently.

@paddockjudge There is a good chance. It will require some serious sherry exploration.

Did we agree on the best Redbreast 12yo CS from our tasting? I believe I had B13, B14, B15, B16. I remember @Nozinan and I were in agreement. But it could have been the entire table. I don't remember.

@bwmccoy, I hope you were able to quench your thirst last night. lol

That 18 YO Laphroaig has me drooling. I hope to acquire a few of those in the years to come.

Off to help the youngsters with their home rebuild. The inside is almost complete. In kinder weather a new roof and skin will be applied. The young lad scored a nice one when he picked up this house in need of some TLC...only a 3 iron from the local golf club.

@Victor Just one minor correction: the Macallan Cask Strength was available in North America going back to at least 2002 and I believe the late 1990.

We never got the 10yo age statement in North America I believe. We got the NAS version. The 10yo version was for the UK and elsewhere.

But your prices are correct. As is the nostalgia.

@Nock thanks for the correction. My ignorance stems from the fact that I did not start studying the Scotch shelves carefully until 2010.

@Nock I also have a Batch 11 Stagg Jr (unopened).

The Corryvreckan batch etching is actually on the front of my bottle, below the label. The date is 16/11/2015. I can’t make out all the numbers below that...

@Victor thank you. The only Macallan that I can see in the UK is the 10 years old, 58% 1 litre bottle, and it goes for between $1300-2000.... sigh

Cotswolds - better after some air has got to it and I think this one really benefits from water. Fruity but quite bitter sour as well. The barley is strong with this one!

@OdysseusUnbound Well done! I don't have that batch sadly. I missed out on all the 2015 batches. The Virginia ordering system seems to move in clumps. We get everything from one year (2014) then they have enough stock for a while (all of 2015) and then reorder in 2016 which stays on shelves for a long while. There are still 2017 bottles on our shelves now. I assume we skip all of 2018 and soon be seeing 2019 bottles. Oh well.

@Victor Macallan Cask Strength has a special place in whisky journey. It was my first cask strength whisky. My priest introduced me to it sometime in the early 2000's. Possibly 2002 but certainly by 2003. All I was drinking at the time was Glenmorangie. He was a Macallan man through and through (he hated peat). He showed me that you could buy Macallan Cask Strength for just a bit more than the Macallan 12yo and have way more whisky because you could add water to it. And I then discovered that you didn't have to add water at all! That was eye opening and such and education. He was the reason I always tried to have a bottle of the Mac CS on hand.

@Nock I have a Corry L11 243 in my unopened collection. It was a random batch purchased with some other stuff online and delivered to me during the 2014 provincial election by my then mule.

I was planning to open it this year but then I had a steal of a deal opportunity (understand that in Ontario it's about $200) to get one for ~$95 in the fall, and I decided to open the newer one first. It's 16/03/2018 (L70173). It is very good.

I haven't tasted from enough bottles of either Uigeadail or Corryvreckan to know what is a good or a bad batch. The 2 Of the former were recent bottlings as well. All have been good. If there are better bottles out there, that just means Ardbeg is making some GOOD whisky.

@paddockjudge It's such a fantastic whiskey, Little Book 2 hit the spot last night. That finish at the end of refined and peppery dark chocolate - I think that had to be from the Canadian whisky. Freddie Noe

@Nock that's a nice story about your intro into CS whisky. These memories and moments certainly enhance our enjoyment of particular whiskies. Funny how your priests motivation was primarily financial - that by the time you water it down you get more value for money. I've used the same argument myself in the past when tossing up between bottles but I would rarely add water to a CS whisky now.

Here in NZ, the whisky marketplace is fairly limited and the best buying is via online stores within the country. However, that means you have no idea which batch you are buying and sometimes the stock can be a few years old. I've bought a bottle of Springbank 12 CS with details showing a particular batch (old label, and %ABV) only to have a completely different batch turn up. I don't think many know about bottling codes - I was pulling all the bottles of Springbank 10 out of their boxes on a shop floor one day and showing the attendant why I was doing it. I think there were 4 different dates going back about 5 years.

@archivist, it's good to know you like Little Book chapter 2. For me it is not only delicious, but fun too! This is the kind of thing I concoct in my whisky lab. I have used CC 40 YO and WhistlePig (Alberta Rye) in blends. I hadn't tried using Knob Creek Rye, let alone the CS version which was unknown to me until I had read about L B chapter 2. I have blended numerous batches with varying ratios of the three whiskies which collectively make this wonderful cask strength treat. @Nock will get a kick out of this. I have created a spread sheet that is based on the 59.4% abv. I will now adjust my calculations because the abv has been deemed to be nearly a full degree of alcohol less. The volume of each component part varies, but there are upper and lower limits for each based on a 750 ml bottle (assuming that the abv. of each individual whisky holds true when blended).

Alberta 13 Yo Rye, upper limit is 530 ml, lower limit 200 ml

C C 40 YO, upper limit 190 ml, lower limit 50 ml

Knob Creek 8 YO Rye, upper limit 500 ml, lower limit 30 ml

I will attempt to attach a pic of my earliest ratios, from hand drawn calcs. ...the pic did not load.

Interesting Anecdote: The bottles for sale online at LCBO have a sticker on the outside of the box "Whiskey 58.45% alc./vol. 750 ml". The Liquor Control Board does their own QA. They will indicate when the original label is not in agreement with their testing results. In this case they determined the whiskey NOT to be 59.40% abv.

@Nock, I'll get back to you on the Red Breast CS determinations.

@Hewie - I was pulling all the bottles of Springbank 10 out of their boxes on a shop floor one day and showing the attendant why I was doing it

. . . and that's when they rang for the men in white coats

@RianC, Forty Creek Distillery has the bottle and batch numbers on the front of the boxes as well as the bottle label.

@paddockjudge I don't think.... that was for me @paddockjudge

@RikS, you are correct, it was intended for @RianC .... autopopulate.... and the Connosr 15 minute rule allows for a fix. Thanks. cheers.

A week late but though I'd raise a glass to the land of (some) of my ancestors so have opened a Powers 12. They won't mind

Not had a pot still for a while and straight away the nose on this is extremely enticing - sweet honey, some soft spice and that unmistakable 'flat-barley', coppery tang one only seems to get from pot still whiskey. And first sip . . . oh yeah! Why I don't drink this style more I don't know!?

I suspect that this will open up nicely as well over the coming weeks (months if I can exert some self-control).

@paddockjudge fascinating! Sounds (and tastes) like such great fun to experiment and blend - one of the things I enjoy reading are yours and other's posts on what you've come up with in your cabinets to create something you're excited to drink. I'm not there yet, I'm not even sure I have enough whiskies to play around with to sort out what would go well together and the amounts. Cheers to you and your whisky lab!

@RianC I'm intrigued. I've never tried Powers - would you recommend the 12 as the one to try first or something else in their offerings as a starting point?