So, what are you drinking now?

@Victor I'm seen @Nock's post the 7yr Bourbon the cost he stated in the post were "too go to be true". The BiB regulations have always intrigued and tempted me into picking up a bottle. I have tasted the Evan Williams White BiB at a bar. It was a solid standard but on the dull (bright) side. Do you have any experience or recommendation for Rittenhouse Straight Rye BiB or the the Jim Beam Bond? Those are brands currently, available in my area.

@fiddich1980 I highly recommend trying Old Grand Dad BiB if you're looking for something at 50%. While I think 114 is better, the BiB still a tasty bourbon.

@Nozinan I'm looking at something which would be a daily dram but, BiB. I don't remember seeing a 100 proof version of Old Grand Dad at the KRBO only the 80 proof? Old Grand Dad was the drink in the movie "Giant", with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and a very young Dennis Hopper.

@fiddich1980 the BiB is available in Calgary. Not here, sadly.

@fiddich1980 I like Rittenhouse BIB Straight Rye, but I find it usually to be a little rough around the edges as a sipper. Excellent cocktail whiskey. Oddly the one and only bottle of Rittenhouse Rye I've had at 80 proof was a mellow little gem and a beautiful, albeit thinly textured, sipper. I haven't seen that one for sale in years, other than maybe a few left-over bottles abroad.

I very much like what little I've had of Beam Bonded Bourbon (which is a product only offered for maybe the last 3 or 4 years now) a lot, and am a big fan of Old Grand-Dad BIB. Most BIB bourbons deliver good value for money and robust flavours. I've read @RianC's disappointment with his second bottle of Evan Williams BIB compared with the first. I've only worked with one batch of EW BIB, which I greatly liked, and bought several for gifts and for the future. Variation to the lesser among batches is always a serious possibility.

@Victor - Yeah I most likely will buy a single barrel, which was my plan before I stumbled across all those Laphroaigs! I've had the small batch before and liked it a lot - I think I've described it as bourbons Yin to Wild Turkey's Yang.

Last night, my wife and I had @jordytropp and his wife over for dinner. After we had a 2014 bourbon barrel aged Cascadian Dark Ale, we went through 4 Caol Ila samples that I purchased a few weeks ago.

35 year, ex-bourbon hogshead (46%) from Wemyss called “Smoky Nectar”. Distilled 1983, bottled 2018.

17 year, ex-bourbon barrel (55.4%) from Gordan and MacPhail. Distilled 2001, bottled 2019.

16 year, Sherry Cask (55.8%) under the Port Askaig distillery name. Distilled 2001, bottled 2018.

14 year, Sherry Cask (53.7%) from IB Maltbarn. Distilled 2004, bottled 2018.

While all 4 of them were very good, there were 2 stand outs; the 17 year from G&M and the 16 year Port Askaig.

After a 2014 Malbec Washington State red wine with dinner (Steak, prawns, polenta and asparagus, followed by a triple coconut cream pie for dessert), we had a whisky that @jordytropp brought over;

Laphroaig 10 year Cask Strength, Batch #6, bottled 2014, 58% ABV.

Thanks @jordytropp and his wife for the wine, the pie and the Laphroaig!

Another great night with great friends!

Shared in a very nice dram of Macallan 12 YO 43% over Facetime with @paddockjudge. Tonight the nose was brilliant, maybe as good as the first time I tried it.

@bwmccoy, mmmmm polenta!!

@bwmccoy Who's the chef? That meal sounds FABULOUS! Also, creamy or grilled polenta?

@jordytropp I noticed the Barbancourt 15 in your cabinet. Any impressions on it?

I spent yesterday helping my mother slowly cut back the garden, most tomato plants have yielded their bounty barring a few but the chili peppers are still in full swing, we ended up smoking and roasting a bunch for future sauce projects.

In the midst of this I was holding down a conversation with @paddockjudge, the kind that leads you down many paths, we talked work conflicts and then branched out to politics and then some, the whole thing lightened with a good dose of humour. In parting he jested I should have both a French and Indian whisky in tribute to our conversation.

I am always up to the challenge

Whisky Légendaire young French Single Malt finished in Vin de Paille casks. While the sulfur was a bit more present tonight, it has a lovely Madeira like oxidized and dried fruit note, almonds and nice acidity.

Amrut Naarangi (Sample thanks to @Nozinan) We know about this one and it's oloroso/orange cask secondary maturation. It's almost like a good cocktail on the nose, orange pulp/oils, leather, ginger, on the palate the orange is more discreet, a lovely dry oak and a slight hint of cocoa...but that could be the cookies I ate earlier

@paddockjudge @fiddich1980 - Thanks! I grilled everything on my Weber charcoal grill with some Hickory wood chips added for additional smoke flavor. I grilled the steaks and the polenta first. While the steaks were resting, grilled the prawns and the asparagus. The grilled polenta was topped with goat cheese, fresh basil leaves and tomatoes (my wife’s idea).

Kilkerran 12 year at half fill and 14 months since opened. The sweet lemon with brine and soft coal smoke are still present. There is sweet barley powdered sugar, touches of pink himalayan salt, and a lingering rosemary/bay leaf background.

@bwmccoy wow that sounds even more delicious with these details. Grilled polenta with goat cheese, basil & tomato, what a great idea.

I'm procrastinating, I've got a bunch of hot peppers to blitz in the food processor to turn into mash for hot sauce but I don't feel like doing nothing.

I'm having a dram of Balcones Rye in the meantime. What an amazing nose, malted rye funk, spices, it's even got a bit of dried apricots & apples.

@bwmccoy, the old timers would grill the polenta ...never mind...grill some thick slices of dry cured Italian salami with that polenta. Bacon takes second place to fried or grilled salami. A Chilean Carmenere or Lodi Zinfandel would seal the deal, naked Lodi Zin. I can't understand why anyone would mask this magnificent wine with oak.

Lodi Zin grapes made the most amazing wine....fifty years ago. These boxes were part of a shelf in my grandparents wine cellar. The boxes are from the 1960s. The old timers would bring car loads of grapes from california to Northern Ontario by rail.....Connosr hardcore has nothing on these guys! They were beauties.

Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask, Cask Strength, 57.1% ABV, and Kavalan Port Cask, Cask Strength, 58.6% ABV. Where I live these whiskies are Unobtainium. Never seen either one in this region. How'd I get some? I just picked my sister up at the airport from a trip to Vietnam and Maylaysia. She picked up Litre bottles of each of these at the Taipei airport, while waiting to change planes. Well done, @Maddie! In answer to your question, "Yes, you did buy the right ones." I've wanted a bottle of Solist Sherry in my world since I first tasted it in 2014.

@Victor Drinking vicariously through you, as usual....

@bwmccoy the Caol Ila line up was epic...thank you!

@fiddich1980 my collection is embarrassing out of date. Thanks for the reminder to put some time into it :) Barbancourt 15 is absolutely worth giving a go. I've moved on to other rums, but this one was a great foundational rum done right, and easily the best rum coming out of Haiti. Expect a balance of sweet and dry influences with a ton of cognac influence. I do wish the proof was higher than 40%. And if you ever come across an independent bottle at cask strength, it's absolutely worth a gamble.

@jordytropp Thanks for the the free back on the rhum. I'm currently working my way through the 5 Star, 8 year old version. I'll have to open the 15 year old and compare the differences and similarities.

@cricklewood - I can’t take credit. I just grilled the polenta. The rest was my wife’s doing and as usual, it was awesome!

@paddockjudge - thanks for the story about the oldtimer’s ways. “Simpler times” were anything but simple! It’s too cool that you have that label from the 1960’s. It has withstood the test of time. Looks like it is in mint condition.

@jordytropp - THANK YOU! for letting me know that those 4 Caol Ila samples were available and for making the arrangements to purchase them for me. Couldn’t have acquired them without you! Thanks again!

Last night, after a very stressful day at work (major upgrade to one of our software applications) and after a local, hazy IPA beer with dinner. Sat down with a dram of Dalmore SMWS 13.75 (11 year - May 2007) "Briny dancer" from a 2nd-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 59.1% ABV.

I cracked the Bowmore 15 tonight. I wasn't a big fan of the 12, but once had a glass of the old Darkest from a friend that was excellent. I'm not "feeling it" with this 15..The sherry finish is fine, but Bowmore's style of peat just isn't doing it for me. It reminds me of sulfur. I will let it sit a month or two, since maybe losing some of that Bowmore peat flavor will do the whisky a favor. Can't win 'em all...It's not terrible, but not what I was hoping for.

On another note: I've been eyeing AnCnoc12 and Mortlach 12 (but would buy just one of them). I know next to nothing about them, even after reading reviews, but they are both affordable and seem like good ""beginning off the night:" whiskies for a tasting. Any recommendations?

@Jonathan The flavor of that Bowmore peat came back to me: it's McClelland's Islay (and also the Legend)! I bought the McCleland's at least twice while I was learning about peat. Unlike most people reading this, I did not hate the Bowmore at all and only hoped that my bottle would hold up (low abv, peat, x Time) . There are a number of notes that I really liked with McC Islay. I liked the 12 a little bit better.

A friend treated me to the slightly older Bowmore 15 Darkest, and I loved it. Is it possible that the quality of the peat smoking was the problem with the new 15? Are they using a different barley than they did with that Darkest? I'm much less knowledgable about whisky and the details that go the craft of peating barley. Considering what I've heard about the best Bowmore bottles, I'm surprised by the distillery's history: Black Bowmore (the very best?); FWP (Worst); also, that bottle they have the nerve to call a Legend. Why has a distillery with such a legacy been so chaotic?

@Victor how is that bottle of Virgin Bourbon doing? 7yo and 101 Proof . . . really, really hard to go wrong. The only problem? It only shows up here in Virginia with blue moons. On my last sighting I bought 7 bottles. I hope it will last until the next sighting.

@Jonathan My advice is to give that bottle of Bowmore 15yo Darkest plenty of air time. I loved my taste of @Victor's bottle in 2013 and so I picked one up. When I opened it . . . I was horribly disappointed. After over a year of sitting opened at the back of my cabinet it blossomed into something amazing.

Ever since I like to open a fresh bottle and pour half the contents into . . . my old bottle that still has 4 or 5 fingers at the bottom. It is my own Bowmore 15yo solera bottle. And it works wonders. Since 2013 I have opened 4 bottles of Bowmore 15yo . . . and they have all had the same issue. I like to do this same thing with rye whiskies.

Right now I am sitting here sipping a freshly opened bottle of Port Charlotte 2007 CC :01. I just opened it last night. It seemed really tight. So I left the cork off all night. I will probably leave the cork off for another few nights. It is still really tight and subdued . . . at 57.8% . . . my experience tells me to give it time.

@Nock, yes, that bottle of Virgin Bourbon 7 yo, 101 proof, which you gave me has held up very well. I think it's better now than at first, and it was good at first. I haven't consumed much of it, during these 3 or 4 years I've had it. I like it fine. It's just the dozens of open bottles. I do understand why you are fond of it. Jim Murray scored it at 96.5 points. "Pretty good" for a $12 to $15 purchase,...or has it gone up to the $18 to $20 range? Oh the rising prices of whiskey!

Tonight, packing for a business trip and sipping on a dram of Glen Scotia SMWS 93.106 (13 year - March 2005) "Red diesel". After 12 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, transferred to a 1st-fill Port hogshead - 58.6% ABV.

Just returned from the hospital - mother and baby are fine and well. Phew!

I'm tucking in to a couple of double cheeseburgers and a pour of Laphroaig 10 CS before having a well earned kip! First impressions - waxy, oaky (nicely so), surprisingly fruity and as sterile smelling as the floor I've been napping on. This is TCP with a lemon wedge, not whisky! Awesome, cheers

And a big shout out to the staff at St Michael's hospital - they couldn't do enough for us and made the delivery, when it eventually came, as good as could be (we were moments from a Cesarean). I was in bits!

@Victor I still will occasionally find the bottle on shelves here in Virginia for $12.79 plus tax. So no price increase. I am not surprised that you haven't consumed much considering how many premium bourbons you have on hand.

I certainly wouldn't put it up with Jim Murray's 96.5 rating. BUT this is one of the many whiskies where I learned to read him. Sentences like, "Big, uncompromising, rugged . . . yet with a heart of honeyed gold." I can get him a little bit here. For me Virgin 7yo Bourbon hovers around 85. A totally solid bourbon made far better by the price. I put a freshly opened bottle from the new batch in an inexpensive-blind-line up in August . . . and to my shock it scored a 90 over bourbons like Blanton's and E. H. Taylor BiB. The power of blind tasting. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying it is better than these others . . . but on that night, in my mood, a fresh bottle, not really knowing what was what . . . I really liked it.

@RianC Congratulations!!!!!

I guess your next night's sleep will be in 18 years...