What is the next bottle you purchase or open?

@Victor Happy Thanksgiving!!

Just purchased Old Pulteney 17.

And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, @talexander!

Last night I enjoyed a wonderful "date night" out with my beautiful wife. We attended the "Whiskey in the Winter" event in our home city of St. Louis, Missouri (US). It was the first whiskey fest of it's kind in our area, with a selection of over 175 whiskies from all over the world were available for tasting, along with several gourmet food stations with dishes infused and/or inspired by whiskies. The food was great, the crowd even better, and though heavy on American whiskeys, all Irish whiskey brands were represented, and there was a large selection of Scotch whisky single malts and blends to choose from. With the holidays coming up and with a few whisky selections already on my Christmas list, we agreed to limit any purchases to one bottle each.

My wife ended the evening selecting a bottle of GlenGrant 10 year old. She loved the light, fruity, Speyside style of this one.

After much thought and over thinking about selecting just one, I picked the Laphroaig 10 year old Cask Strength. It was down to that and the equally excellent Redbreast 12 year old Cask Strength, and the peat monster in me won the closing argument!

Just recieved a bottle of Glendronach 1990, 20 year old this is the one for the bells this year

Hopefully it is Ardbeg Uigadail

I picked up a bottle of Black Bottle 10 over the weekend. A friend from the L&K society was interested in getting a bottle for himself and I knew where to find a few. So I bought a bottle for myself while purchasing one for him.

While checking out a small liquor store that opened near my home, I picked up a bottle of Tullamore Dew 12 year old blended Irish whiskey.

Some Glenmorangie Sonnalta PX just appeared at the state run liquor stores here in Vancouver. Too good to pass up picking up another bottle….lovely stuff!!

Thinking about popping for Glenfiddich Cask of Dreams and wondering if anyone has any idea if it is worth $100.

@BlueNote I haven't tried it yet, but I have not heard good things...

Thanks @talexander. I can't find any credible reviews of it. I think I will put that 100 bucks to better use. I'm due for a new Glenfarclas 17 which is about the same price. I might try another A'Bunadh batch or Macallan Cask strength, both in the same price range here.

I picked up a bottle of Peat Monster after the Compass Box tasting last night. I also picked up a bottle of Longrow CV as it's being discontinued and the owner offered me a good deal on it.

just cracked smws 53.165...

Just opened the PLOWED society bottling of a BenRiach 23 year old 1986 peated/PX finish (heard it spent 6 years in the PX cask). It's much more savory than I remember (all tobacco and leather and dried leaves). Also opened my last bottle of Caol Ila Feis Ile from this year, love this whisky but I was running curiously low on young Islays in the stash. it's an 11 year old from refill sherry and SO GOOD it's a little crazy. Finally, I recently opened a 1989 Littlemill 22 YO bottled for Whiskybox.de that I scored more by luck than anything else. It's not quite the fruit bomb that was the Whiskyman bottling (which thank goodness I have one more bottle of) but it's still quite good.

Hey @Pudge72! ...and all you Ontarians and nearby US residents looking for Talisker 57 Degrees North: there are a few bottle at the Niagara Falls, Canada, Duty Free store. At 0730 hrs this morning I purchased (3) ONE LITRE bottles of it for $ Can 67 each. I could not believe my eyes, both that 57 D North was sitting there on the shelf, and, equally, the price asked. Cheaper than in the UK. They are also selling ONE LITRE bottles of Wiser's Legacy there for $ 39.95 each. Totally amazing, in my book.

Just opened Talisker 10. Gonna pick up some Laga 16, and Laphroaig QC. I'm on a peat binge lately!

I'm thinking it will be a Johnnie Walker Black (brand new to whisky, and have never had. I should definitely experience the "king" of blended scotch).

So far I've had:

Jameson, JW Red Label, JD's O#7, and HP12. I've also got a bottle of Knob Creek 9 ready to go... Maybe I'll give it a try on Thursday. I was going to wait for a buddy, but I think I'm too selfish for that.

If anyone else has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them. :)

Suggestion @HughesDePayens? Yes. Everything under the sun. Try it all. I wish you an excellent and long whisk(e)y life.

@Victor That sounds like a lovely piece of advice. I'm excited to experience everything this world has to offer, much as you seem to have done. I was lurking around these discussion boards for a while and it seems you've got some incredible knowledge and experience to share.

Do you think there's a "right" path to take? Or do you think there's only one's own path, unique to themselves?

@HughesDePayens, "All roads lead to Rome". Your best path is the one which gives the experience most rewarding to you. Follow your inner voice, both in how you make your whisky choices, and also to whose advise you listen.

Becoming an 'expert' in whisk(e)y is like trying to become a physician specialising in every aspect of medicine: you can go on with all of your lifespan's time available, and there is always more to learn and to experience, and really insufficient time to do it all. The field is too big to continuously be in constant current update with it all. Skilled musicians and experienced whisky drinkers/critics have this in common: they don't do a lot of bragging. They know that their skill and their knowledge can always be better.

@Victor Awesome. My approach, up to this point, has been to see what's available in my area, and to put it all in a spreadsheet with the "vitals", then check here to see how people seem to rate it (generally). I've not been ignoring the low-rated ones, though, because I actually do want to see what makes them low-rated (got to experience the mediocre in order to truly understand the brilliant).

I'm going to do my best to just make my way through the spreadsheet to get as much variety and experience as I can. I've got a friend who's also just getting into whisky, so we're going to be sort of going through it together so we can discuss it as we go, as well.

Plus, reading and learning from the folks here doesn't hurt!

@T4sho3 Just purchased more Laga 16yr / family from out of town wiped me out. Saw a Laga 12yr there as well brought both home. I know how good the 16yr is so will try the 12yr soon. :)

@HughesDePayens, don't forget that whisky-love is a social hobby. The best way to get to sample a wide variety of whiskies without having to always buy whole bottles of them is to gather a group of buddies and share samples on a periodic recurring basis. Bar samples are a good opportunity to broaden experience, but they are expensive, and you don't know how long they have been oxidised. Some of them will be spoilt and give a poor representation of a good whisky. Better to get 4 or 5 friends, buy 3 to 5 different bottles each (to start), and then pass them around and share drams and take-home samples.

@Victor Awesome insight, It's great to have so many enthusiast share in such a positive in informative site such as this one. I've always enjoyed your recommendations and knowledge. Thank you :)

@PMessinger, I am happy to be of service.

Glendronach 21 , very lovely dram. you had best like sherried wiskey to fully appreciate this sweetheart.

@Victor Funny that you should mention this. I'd seen the 57N bottles at the Lewiston Duty Free, but when I mentioned it to several others I was advised that such a thing does not exist. Good to know that this is still out there and that I hadn't actually started to hallucinate bottles of scotch.

@HughesDePayens: Sound advise, as usual from @Victor! Sometime soon treat yourself to a bottle of the fabulous Highland Park 18yo. Whisky - My wife, the most moderate of women, declares that it is a Whisky yard-stick and is the only Whisky that 'gives her a cuddle'!...high praise indeed.

Cheers and Good Luck.

@A'bunadhman Thanks for the suggestion. I'm really enjoying the HP12 I've got open right now so HP18 is definitely going to be something I'll want to look into. I'll probably split the bottle with my buddy a few months down the road. I, unfortunately, live in Quebec, where our liquor is sold through a government monopoly, which makes it somewhat difficult to track things down occasionally, but I believe HP is a widespread enough brand that we'll be able to get it somewhere nearby.

Thanks. :)