So, what are you drinking now?

Last night, finished off my bottle of Penderyn SMWS 128.7 (5 year - Mar. 2013) "Down the old fruit mines" - First-fill barrique (shaved/toasted/re-charred) - 61.1% ABV.

DOUGLAS LAINGS SCALLYWAG SMALL BATCH SPEYSIDE BLENDED MALT SCOTCH WHISKY

3 dusty old bottles unwanted at Total Wine reduced from $90 to $54, I had to try it. It’s fantastic!

I’m about to have another dram.

Happy 2020 everybody!

@Wodha Good to see you back!

@Nozinan Thanks! I need to get back to working less! Two more years until retirement! Then you’ll wish I’d just go away.

Now sipping some standard Bulleit that was left here after our New Year’s Eve party. Not too bad at all. Does anyone know if this stuff is still made by Four Roses?

@Wodha Wondered where you’d been these past couple of years. Good to have you back. I always enjoyed your input.

I broke down and picked up the 2019 version of the Peat Monster. Bottled at 46%,it's 35%Laphroaig+64% Caol Ila+1% Highland malt from French Oak casks. (Does that 1% add spice? What exactly does the blender do?)

The 35% Laphroaig part is immediately recognizable on the nose, but, after a few sips and letting it sit, I'm getting more of the Caol Ila. I love Caol Ila, but the official Diageo 12 year old just doesn't do it for me. The last two cask strength Caol Ila bottles that I had were off-the-charts good, and in this bottle I'm getting some of the orchard fruits and peat that I loved in a recent CS bottling. Actually, the fruits are also in the unpeated bottles of CI that I have had. In any case, I wouldn't write off Compass Box just yet...this is such an interesting mix of two different malts. I wish I knew more about the age and casks of the two main whiskies involved. In any case, this is more evidence that independent botlings--or blended independents--are the way to go with Caol Ila (with the exception of unpeated CS, which is from Diageo). I find the finish to be subtle, somewhat spicy, smoky, and long.. After all, I'm still tasting it after writing this. This bottle is a positive surprise.

@Jonathan And the price is right on this one too.

Canada uses "home game" advantage in Ostravar, Czech Republic to silence the Russians as 3,000 Crazy Canucks (and millions more in Canada) cheer on their native sons in an electrifying World Junior Hockey Championship Final. Congratulations on a hard fought 4-3 victory and a well deserved gold medal.

A toast to the lads with something cask strength, Wiser's 23 YO.

@paddockjudge that whisky was laid to rest in casks when the players were merely a twinkle in their parents’ eyes...

@Nozinan Well, at least 90.91 % of it was.

My first bottle-opening of 2020: Laphroaig Cairdeas Fino Cask. I meant to open one of my 3 (or is it 4?) bottles right away in 2018, but, well, life gets in the way.

Last night I introduced my 16 yo daughter to the Lord of the Rings while I sipped on Springbank 12 CS and Benriach 12 Peated Port cask. Tonight's as I prepare dinner I've discovered the delights of a Salty Dog - a gin drink made with my home infused gin with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice some soda water and a salted rim. Mmm.

Tonight, I finished off my bottle of Westland SMWS 133.1 (5 year - October 2011) - "Speakeasy sneaky peeky" Virgin oak barrell/Heavy char - 57.0% ABV. This was the best non-peated Westland single cask that I have owned.

Westland creates some spectacular whiskies. I believe @bwmccoy lives in the Seattle area, as do I. For the rest of you, if you are passing through town and have a couple of hours I suggest you visit Westland. And if you want something special try some of their single cask or cask strength.

www.westlanddistillery.com

Before dinner, made a Manhattan with Old Grandad 114.

After dinner, in honor of @markjedi1 ‘s birthday, Auchentoshan 16 year (Jan. 2003) from a 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 55.9% ABV.

Finishing with Caol Ila SMWS 53.298 (11 year - September 2007) "Tokaji and tug boats" - Refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 60.0% ABV.

@bwmccoy Another killer Carol Ila?

@BlueNote There is simply nothing that compares to a cask strength peated Caol Ila

@BlueNote - this one is really good (I rated it a 91), but I’ve got another one unopened in my cabinet that blows this one away, so it’s hard to call this one killer. Not to take anything from this one and as @Nozinan said; “There is simply nothing that compares to a cask strength peated Caol Ila”, so it really is varying degrees of greatness. :-)

@Nozinan Cask Strength UNpeated Caol Ila is pretty terrific too.

@OdysseusUnbound - hopefully, one of these I can try the unpeated Caol Ila.

@bwmccoy I rated the Caol Ila 17 Year Unpeated CS 90/100. I rated the Caol Ila 18 Year Unpeated CS 91/100, and I bought a bottle of that one. I rated a G&M 10 Year Old CS Peated Caol Ila 90/100. It's obvious to me that whatever they're doing over there, it really hits the right notes for me. Even my last bottle of Caol Ila 12 OB (43%) was really nice. I didn't do a proper write-up or evaluation, but from memory, I probably would have scored it an 85/100 or 86/100. It's a shame that most of their whisky ends up in blends.

@OdysseusUnbound as recently as my childhood there was no Scottish malt sold except in all of those wonderful blended Scotch whiskies. In those days Scotch whisky meant blended Scotch whisky. It is a good thing that you and I are willing to drink blended Scotch. It doesn't look like those conditions could return, since blended Scotch is currently somewhat a moribund industry. This history still amuses me when I think of the now widespread malt snobbery.

Now, you could say that the best part of the blends wasn't being sold then. I would agree with you, 100%. The Scottish producers decided then that what the masses were to drink is the stuff that so many of our Connosr members now turn their noses up at.

@OdysseusUnbound Have you tried any of the Carol Ila offerings? They're the ones my spellchecker seems to prefer.

@Victor I’m only guessing, but I bet the blended scotch sold in the 1970s was of better quality than what’s being sold today. I’m open to blended scotch (or any blended whisky) if the quality is there. Or perhaps I should say “if it suits my palate”.

@OdysseusUnbound

A lot of things were different in the 70s, and the whisky world was no different. Part of it may have been the strains of grain used, and the percentage of malt in the blends.

I know Ralfy did a comparison of 1960s or 1970s JW Red with something from this century and there was a world of difference. A few years back I repeated the experiment using a mini purchased in Leduc Alberta and an old bottle we found in my father in law’s house. The latter was drinkable. The former was not.

I wonder what Lambertus would have been like in the 1970s....

@Nozinan Maybe only sub-par instead of “what the f-ck am I drinking?”

I’m sure I posted a while back about a bottle of Grant’s my wife’s uncle opened that I believe was from the early 1980s. It was much better than the current Grant’s, which is still quite passable to me, and sometimes quite enjoyable, depending on the batch.

Tonight, Westland Distillery (Seattle, WA) hand-filled bottle from Cask # 2549 aged 4 years 2 months. Mashbill using only Washington select pale malt matured in a 1st Fill Ex-Bourbon (Heaven Hills) cask - 60.1% ABV.

Finishing with Royal Brackla SMWS 55.53 (12 year - Aug. 2006) "The Old Curiosity Shop" - Refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 59.3% ABV.

I won't digress or gross you out too much but I have a wee problem with one of my toes, as in the nail is hanging on and there's a lot of raw skin from a huge blister. It basically looks like a toe from the walking dead.

Anyway, I just had to bathe it in TCP and go through a) the stinging of a lifetime and b) reliving past childhood traumas from the knowledge that a cut was about to get the same treatment

The ONLY thing I could possibly drink after that is Laphroaig 10 CS. Man, I'd forgot just how pungent that stuff is!

@RianC - That sounds awful! Definitely calls for a stiff drink! Hope your recovery is quick and as pain free as possible!

Last night, I finished off my bottle of Blair Athol SMWS 68.27 (9 year - Feb. 2009) "Bittersweet vibrancy" - Refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 59.1% ABV. This is a rare time that I am not sad to see a bottle empty. This particular bottling / cask wasn't bad per se, it just didn't do anything for me.