So, what are you drinking now?

Budweiser Jim Beam Copper Lager! Why? Because it is the May Two-Four Weekend!

May 24, 1819 was the birthday of Queen Victoria. In many parts of Canada the Monday before/on 24 May (Queen Victoria's birthday) is a recognized holiday; however, "Two-Four" is a colloquialism used in parts of the former British colony, Canada, to describe a case of beer containing twenty-four bottles/cans of beer. This phrase has become part of the Canadian lexicon. It has been used for such a long time that the current generation of beer drinkers no longer recognizes "two-four" as the birthday of a long-dead queen, but as the informal commencement of summer and a form of tribute to that Canadian staple, the two-four of beer.

I picked up my two-four and I must say Budweiser did a good thing boosting this beer to 6.2% abv. and enhancing the taste with bourbon stave aging (solid whiskey theme). To celebrate the former queen's 200th birthday, and also to welcome the long awaited b-b-q season, I have spent $200 on beef tenderloin, it was $10/lb, how could I resist?! There goes my whisky budget for the month.

Happy Two Hundredth May Two-Four!! !!!!

@paddockjudge

You can say that again!

@paddockjudge - what time is dinner?

@bwmccoy, dinner is at beer o'clock!

@paddockjudge - Perfect! That’s my favorite time of the day! See you then.

@paddockjudge So you’ve got enough beef tenderloin for me; what is everyone else going to eat? I do love a bourbon-influenced beer. I miss the Innis & Gunn Bourbon Barrel Edition, but I have a few Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard Stouts in the fridge.....and they’re over 12% abv !!! Yum!

Having some Jameson Black Barrel while I review some reports. Wife came home with a bottle of Five Farms Single Batch Irish Cream Liqueur as she is wanting an Irish coffee this evening. Never tried Five Farms, so looking forward to it...

A little side by side of red wine matured drams. Starward red Wine Cask (NAS 41% ABV) is from Aussie and fully matured in Australian Shiraz casks. A little astringent but oak spices and tannins follow through from nose to finish. Dry and peppery underlying some nondescript red fruits. OK but a bit thin. Longrow Red 11 Y Pinot Noir (53.1% ABV) aged 8 years in bourbon casks followed by 3 years in NZ Pinot casks. Loads of fresh red berries, red apples, tobacco leaf, earthy-musty goodness, and a long vegetal-earthy finish. Quite fresh and bright despite the earthiness - a lovely combo. Not very smokey - the peat expresses itself more as tobacco and forest floor notes. Yum. Did I mention it is no contest.

Anybody familiar with Wild Turkey Master's Keep 17? I've had very few decent bourbons so I don't have a lot to relate it to but I struggled to finish my small pour of this. There is an artificial or 'chemical' note that does not agree with me. It reminds me of a wooden camphor box and it comes across very wood driven. Probably didn't help havng this after some Springbank 12 CS which has a decent amount of sherry influence. What are your thoughts on this WT MK 17?

For our club night last night, the host & birthday boy shared a bunch of older bottles. That 1979 blended-at-birth single cask was a gem, but my favorite was the Talisker 25!

@MadSingleMalt very cool to try some whisky with a bit more age on it - and a generous host. What was the theme of your club night this time?

@MadSingleMalt, that's one hell of a lineup! ***** Five Stars

@Hewie, I have a bottle, it's a fucking mess.

@paddockjudge Phew - I'm pleased to hear that from someone I trust. I think I'll pass on the rest of the sample to a mate ha ha.

@Hewie, note of interest, the low abv of 43.4% is actually barrel proof. Master's keep is a very, very different Wild Turkey....you've got me pouring one now. The nose has a lot of maraschino cherry juice, dirt floor, a hint of mentholatum bordering on analgesic rub, a fair amount of rye spice and the obvious vanilla from many years in new oak. The entry is easy and silky, the landing begins to heat up a touch. Oak tannins dominate, cherry accents can't overcome the bitter wood. a mild peppery tingle persists and resonates through the exit and continuing to echo in the dry and mildly sweet finish.

I want to like this bourbon, but I struggle with it. It is indeed interesting. Not at all a Brute of a bourbon for a barrel proof offering.

@Hewie

@Hewie I didn't like Master's Keep. With Wild Turkey get the Rare Breed. 101 is good too, but less refined.

@Victor You converted me to Rare Breed and WT 101, but I have to say, @paddockjudge ‘s description of Master’s Keep sounds fascinating.

Tonight was a few drams of Peat Monster, which is surprisingly more interesting with a few scant drops of water. I followed this up with a generous pour of Stalk & Barrel Blue, courtesy of my wife’s cousin. Not fantastic, but better than the last time I tried it.

At my Aunt and Uncle’s home. They just made a deal to sell their house. Unfortunately my uncle can’t drink tonight for unrelated reasons but we wanted to celebrate so I brought along a bottle of carbonated wine (yes they use an industrial soda stream-like process) from a winery in Quebec’s Eastern Townships where each wine is named “Frog” in a different language. I don’t remember which language this one was.

My little side-by-side tonight features Ardbeg 10 and Ardbeg Grooves (general release). I poured the 10 before I put my youngest to bed so the glass sat (with a jam jar lid on it – I’m classy like that) for 20 or so minutes before I poured the Grooves. They’ve been sitting while I started to watch something on Netflix. The 10 shows it’s typical cold, ashy smoke – like a cold chimney with coal residue or creosote build up. Slightly acrid but in a good way. The smoke is supported by some fresh, crisp fruit, and creamy vanilla. What a long residual finish – it just sits in the mouth. The Grooves shows some red fruit on the nose where the 10 was green apples and limes. It feels a bit softer and sweeter, more cooking spices compared to black pepper in the 10. Sweet fruit – grilled stone fruit maybe? The finish is less peaty and has a little more oak influence. The 10 is brasher and bolder, it is more coastal and raw. The Grooves more refined. Is one better than the other? I think not.

@Nock I had my first taste of that sample of Stagg Jr. Batch 3 (66.05% ABV). It's an interesting change of gears for me (from Scotch) but if I'm honest I'm struggling to love it. It's sweet up front but then I get a whole lot of artificial cherry - like a kids medicine flavouring, and lots of oak: vanilla and wood spices. It's quite drying on the finish (tannins). I'll go back to it again in a few days and see what my palate says then.

@nozinan Kikker in the Dutch language means Frog. However, the quality of Dutch wines are improving because of the climate change. Millstone whisky is Dutch too. Millstone is recommended.

My wife arranged to have a few of my friends (some from high school, one from medical school, and some from work) over to celebrate my 50th brithday (3 weeks after the fact). These were not hard core connosrs but some like whisky.

One of my high school friends, with whom I recently celebrated his appearing before the supreme court, wanted something peated. I figured it was a single dram so I opened with the Octomore 7.3 for both of us. Later he wanted another peated whisky (I was still on mine) so I poured him some corry which he liked. Another friend wanted something "like glenlivet" so I gave her Hibiki Harmony, and she liked it.

After a while my NP friend who had given me the JW Blue was ready for a dram so I cracked a JW Blue. Four of us had some. My oldest friend (my whisky mule from the US) declined to have some. I also poured some Hibiki for my friend from London, who, I believe, had never had whisky before (though he has picked up a few for me (and seems to have lost a Stagg Jr he was holding for me))and he chugged all 15 cc of it at once and then complained it was strong!

After almost everyone left my oldest friend stayed behind and we cracked and tried the Kirkwall Bay. I think I will need to spend more time on it before committing to an opinion. Has anyone out there tried it? It's an Orkney whisky but doesn't taste like HP so is it Scapa?

Bruichladdich 21 Cuvee 382

This was a big ol' sample that a guy on Reddit sent me a couple years ago in thanks for helping him find a store where he could buy Black Art 3.1 and a few other high-end Laddies that were otherwise unavailable to him. Funny how the whisky world works sometimes!

The whisky was high-quality, sweet & salty, and "brown" tasting. Good stuff, but not really in the style I get excited about. The best thing about it was this unique "washing across the mouth" effect it gave at the start of each sip.

My personal enjoyment score was something like an 84. I could see it being 90+ for someone more into sweeter & rounder whisky.

Opened my 2008 Port Charlotte Islay Barley Heavily Peated. Sipping my first dram of it now. It was bottled in September 2015, so I guess it’s 6 or 7 years old. I have to say, I’m really liking Bruichladdich’s stuff these days...Young? Yes, but not “spirity” at all. No nailpolish remover notes, but the nuttiness of the barley shines through, and I really like that.

We did some yard work today and as a reward, we finished off what's left of Old Potrero Single Malt Rye...will need to get another bottle to replace this one.

@archivist, We've had a couple of wet days here. Normally I would do yard work, especially planting in the rain, but this weekend I just said f-f-f-fuhget it and had a couple of pours of John J Bowman...it is still raining...and the Bowman is empty.

So my wife’s cousin hosted the fireworks for Victoria Day and her husband and a few of his friends decided we should all bring some whisky and do a tasting. The host (my wife’s cousin’s husband) coordinated with everyone and laid out the tasting order. We had:

• Chivas Regal 12: This was terrible. I feel kind of snobby saying it, but there are less expensive whiskies I like more than this so it’s not a price thing. It was cloyingly sweet, like corn syrup with little to no other flavours. I was glad I only took a half pour. Even that was tough to finish.

• Wiser’s 35 (2018 release): This was terrific. It was my star of the night by far (more on that later). This tasted the way I wanted Seasoned Oak to taste. Soft Kraft caramels, just enough rye spice, loads of toasted coconut, fresh cut oak, sandalwood, and probably more that I missed because I was drinking outside from a rocks tumbler. Complex is the word that comes to mind. I have a bottle of this and a 40ml sample of it as well. I’m mighty tempted to open both. Spoiler alert expect me to score this in the mid to high 90s. Just wow !!!

• Knob Creek Single Barrel: What a letdown after the Wiser’s 35. To be fair, this was better than my previous bottle of KCSiB, but after that amazing Wiser’s 35, this didn’t stand a chance. There’s a slight white glue aroma, a bit too much oak, loads of vanilla, and a bit of tobacco. Sipped alone, this might be fine, but tonight it was just ok.

• Bruichladdich Classic Laddie: this is always a pleasant whisky for me. Not world-beating or life-changing, but I enjoy the interplay of sweet malt, nuttiness, bright citrus, briny notes, and icing sugar.

• Yellow Spot 12 (my contribution): fruity, sweet, minty, lovely. It serves as a perfect “intermission” whisky. I would have placed this before the Classic Laddie.

• Glenlivet 18: Very pleasant if somewhat subdued, but even on sale for $120, I’m not buying another bottle of this. Red grapes, nutty (hazelnuts), milk chocolate. Better than I remembered, but not that good. I feel like Glenlivet is just starting to get interesting at 18 years old. I’d love to try a 21 or 25 year old.

After everyone had tasted everything, we did an impromptu poll. Glenlivet 18 emerged as the favourite....but everyone was looking at me. My wife’s cousin’s husband (everyone got that?) talked me up all week because I blog about whisky. I’m not an expert, but apparently my opinion counts for something. And just to be clear; these guys all make way more money than I do and to them SCOTCH just has to win every time. So why was I the only one to choose Wiser’s 35 as the best whisky of the evening? Simple; complexity. It had a much wider range of flavours than any other whisky there. It wasn’t even close to my palate. “But it’s Canadian” I was told. Yeah, I know. “It’s corn-based!”. Yeah, I don’t care. To each their own, but wow, that Wiser’s really impressed me.

Dinner of steak frites, Caesar salad, chicken wings, and beef ribs. It's gin and tonic with dinner which, my wife enjoyed. A large pour of Collectivum XXVIII in a sniffer glass while, watching Dead Pool 2. I'm taking a liking to the Harris Gin. I wonder how their stock of aging whisky is coming along?