What is the next bottle you purchase or open?

Purchase: Glenfiddich Malt Masters Edition Open: Aberlour 16 double cask

Stopped at an unfrequented liquor store on the way home. Small scotch selection, BUT found a bottle of Sonnalta PX and some old bottles of Balvenie 15YO, including 1 with an older label design (cask date of 1987) and casked in 1989, bottled in 2008. Very happy.

Picked up a bottle of English Whisky Company Peated Whisky tonight. God that's a mouthful. I'm just going to call it St. George's, like it should be.

@Onibubba Very nice finds! I'd be incredibly happy with those

Rosebank Chieftains 1990/2011, 55,7% abv Hogshead : tasted it at the recent Limburg Whisky Fair and loved it. A dealer in northern Germany is keeping one stashed away for me until my next visit to Kiel.

I was planning to pick up a bottle of the Talisker 57 North, now the the LCBO has it in stock, but I couldn't believe the price! $175 CAD? When you compare it to the prices of the other cask strength whiskies, you have to wonder what the mark-up is...

@YakLord, hard to figure, isn't it? And that $ 175 is for 700 ml. The Niagara Falls, Ontario, Duty Free was selling 1,000 ml bottles of 57 North for $ 67 CAD five months ago. That is $ 250/Litre vs $ $ 67/Litre. If I were you I would be trying to get some through Alberta, since the US doesn't have any, and it is prohibitive to accept a foreign mail shipment into Canada.

@Victor - according to the duty free shop website, they still have it - 1L for $64.99 CAD...if I was heading through Niagara Falls on my way to the US, and was then planning to be out of the country for more than 48 hours, I could pick up a bottle and be fine, but alas, I am not...

The pricing is even more ridiculous when you compare it to the Glenlivet Nadurra 16, or the Arran Cask Strength 12, or even the Springbank Cask Strength 12...why so much for a NAS cask strength?

@YakLord, why indeed? And at slightly LESS than cask strength, in all likelihood.

I don't think the Talisker 57 North is cask strength - I think it's simply diluted to 57%, is that right?

@YakLord...with such a discrepancy in price (and the extra volume in the duty free bottle) you would still likely be well ahead of the game to get the T57 at the duty free, even if they dinged you the full duty on the way back into Ontario on the same day.

The LCBO really does seem to have a problem with NAS cask strength whisky pricing with almost all of them being horribly disproportionate to what is charged in the UK. As a guide/reference, a decent/good pricing of a bottle at the LCBO is if the price of the bottle is less than double the tax-in price at The Whisky Exchange (disregard the currencies, and just look at the numbers). The T57 is almost TRIPLE at the LCBO (175) vs. TWE (59). Other particularly bad gouges are Corryvreckan, Uigeadail, and Abunad'h.

@Pudge72 The higher the ABV, the higher the price, regardless of it's retail price anywhere else in the world. Bastards.

I just opened up a 1972/2006 Glen Grant for Boisdale Cask #1983 the other night. It's been interesting and not like what I'd have expected. Very much a good summer dram.

@talexander, that must be correct that it is diluted to 57%. They 'fixed' it at 57% ABV to match the latitutde of the distillery. The odds of its coming at that exact strength out of the cask are remote.

@Victor Just as a side note, shipping booze (other than wine) within the boundaries of Canada is still illegal for some ridiculous reason. So unless our friend opts to drive all the way to Alberta himself, getting one's whisky in other areas of Canada is probably harder than getting it in the U.S.

@HeartlessNinny - or I can hope to get assigned a file out in that neck of the woods. Last time I was out there I picked up a bottle of the English Whisky Co. Chapter 6, which isn't available in Ontario. I may, in fact, be out in BC later in the year...

@HeartlessNinny, yes, I am aware that Canada does not allow interprovincial shipping of spirits. If I were living up there what I would be doing would be to make arrangements with people who are traveling the roads, whether regularly for work, or for family or other recreational reasons...sort of a pipeliine, of sorts,...to carry some product regularly with them on these runs. People doing one another favours.

@Victor Ah, my mistake. I wish I knew enough people to create such a network myself, but sadly I do not. I'm not sure what I could do in return anyway — there are few prized Canada-only bottlings, after all.

@HeartlessNinny - list of a few prized Canada-only bottlings for your perusal.

Some of these releases have been available outside of Canada; however, they are often more scarce than the Sazerac Antique Collection or Glenfiddich 50 year old at LCBO stores....hope this helps.

Wiser's Red Letter, 150th Anniversary

Wiser's 18 Year Blended Canadian

Highwood Distillers Ltd Century Reserve 21 year old

Highwood Distillers CENTURY RESERVE LOT 15 to 25

Highwood Distillers 25 yr old 100th Anniversary Calgary Stampede Ltd Edition

Gibson's Finest 100th Grey Cup Ltd Edition

Alberta Distillers 25 yr old Alberta Premium Ltd Edition 100% Rye

Alberta Distillers 30 yr old Alberta Premium Ltd Edition 100% Rye

Forty Creek Port Wood Reserve

Forty Creek Port Wood Reserve 2012

Forty Creek Confederation Oak Reserve

Forty Creek Double Barrel Reserve

Forty Creek John's Private Cak No.1

Danfield's 21 yr old Ltd Edition

Corby Distilleries Lot No. 40, 2012

Pike Creek 10 year old

Gibson's Finest Rare 18 Year Old

Canadian Club 30 year old

@HeartlessNinny...there are more than you may realize. For our US friends, Alberta Premium 30 a couple of years ago, Glenfarclas 15, Lot 40 rye and Wiser's Legacy (iirc) are not available in the US. Plus many states/provinces (i.e. Ontario has a better selection than Quebec) lack certain bottles that other jurisdictions carry.

@paddockjudge, I see you beat me to it. Well played... :)

@Pudge72 - Visit From An Angel.

1974 was when I had my first taste of whisky. It wasn't exactly an hallelujah moment, quite the opposite. It is nothing short of a miracle that I ever had another sip. As a matter of fact, I damn near saw the angels that night.

Here we are almost forty years later and 1974 is again an important milestone on my whisky journey.

Angel's have been dealt a bad rap when it comes to whisky. Tagged as heaven's excise tax collectors, I envision them sitting in the rafters of barrel houses, sipping and snickering whilst they tithe each and every cask. Today I had a visit from an angel. Much to my delight, I wasn't a donor, but instead a very grateful recipient of a full, sealed, and immaculately preserved bottle, in the original carton, of Seagram's 1974 Crown Royal Limited Edition 750 ml bottle No.AHG398. Now that is a rare and prized Canada-only bottling!

I raise my glass and offer a well deserved toast to my special angel: may good health and great happiness be yours for many years and if you receive, in return, only a small fraction of the generosity that you bestow upon others, you will indeed be a wealthy soul in heaven.

@paddockjudge...hear, here to all angels, whether they are whisky related or not, and their existence and efforts on our behalf. A very impressive acquisition!

Just picked up Johnnie Walker Swing and Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban

@Pudge72 @paddockjudge Well, I suppose there are more bottles than I might have realized... Still, many of those listed are no longer available — not to me, anyway.

I can't help but think that any exchange program would have to include a kind-hearted American who is, for whatever reason, a real enthusiast for Canadian whisky. Since I know no one who fits that description, I guess that's that!

just cracked open my laphroaig cairdeas origin. a light but deft touch of peaty goodness. refreshing is the word that comes to my mind. balanced with some depth here upon first contact.

@HeartlessNinny...don't despair. Just remember that distribution of whisky product can be very uneven, so what someone might be raving about, and have access to, in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, or Chicago may not even be carried in Washington state. The most glaring example off the top of my head...buy a case of Glenfarclas 15 in BC and I bet you would be able to trade the entire case to Connosrites just in the NW US, as the 15 yo bottle is not available anywhere in the US.

I'm opening the Very Old Barton 6yr old. :)

Since picking up the Hakashu 12, I've managed yet a few more bottles. I picked up a Glen Garioch 14 year cask; Lag 16 and the new Balvenie 16 yr triple cask. I also went dusty hunting this past saturday and scored some nice old bourbons: 1970/1975 Old Forester BIB; 1972/1977 Old Forester BIB; 1968 Old Overholt PA Rye; 1969 JTS Brown; 1990/91/92 Old Taylor 6 yr; 1991 Colonel Lee BIB, and a 1990 Wild Turkey 8/101.

@Bourbondork Where did you get the Balvenie 16 Year Triple Cask? Saw this recently came out but seem to remember travel retail only.