What is the next bottle you purchase or open?

@Victor - I recently got a cask strength Glenfarclas 15 exclusive to TWE. Even more excited to try it given this discussion.

@msudukie, sounds yummy!

@RianC A couple of months! Slow drinker!

I have bottles in my cabinet that were opened in 2011. A bottle of something that I like a lot has a "short" lifespan of 10-12 months. Most last 1-2 years then I get to the last decanted 1-2 drams that I'm loath to part with.

@Nozinan - ha! I'd say average is around three months. Some longer but occasionally some go in a month or so. Now I'm thinking I sound like a gannet ;)

I usually have a few on the go at one time, but no more than four or five malts, a blend and a bourbon or two; I don't use gas to preserve so once they get to about a quarter left I tend to prioritise and finish those off. Apart from the occasional ale, or gin in the summer, whisk(e)y is pretty much all I drink. The bourbons tend to last a lot longer.

I'm guessing you have quite a few opened bottles and use a preserver?

@RianC Yes...my cabinet on Connosr is what is open

@Nozinan - That's an impressive array of choice! I'd spend half the evening looking at all my bottles . . .

@RianC , I am sure that both @Nozinan and I have spent quite a few "half the evening"s looking over the stash and deciding what to sip next. That's why we have those stashes, for variety...and to secure some favourites for the future. There is much pleasure in just 'looking over the stash'. Sometimes just looking at a bottle, remembering what it tastes like, and savouring the possibility of being able to have some right now satiates the impulse to actually drink some of it now. Fantasy-drinking, you might say. I can fantasy-drink the first five drinks without actually putting any of it in my mouth,..before I have an actual physical drink or two. The pleasures are multiplied.

@Victor Don't you feel sometime that a long time non attended bottle seems to be close like a freshly opened one. At least that what I encountered and that is one of the reasons why, when going back to a bottle, I have a tendency to have streaks.

@Robert99, if by "like a freshly opened one" you mean that there is a novelty and excitement to the experience, then yes, certainly that can often be the case. It may have been a very long time, several years, since I have sampled from some of those bottles. Sometimes the initial memory grows a little dim and needs refreshing.

@Victor Sorry, I made a typo or a grammar error. I meant "closed" as the opposite of "fully opened" and that is regarding the taste. I find that the first dram after a long period of nonattendance is inexpressive and that the whisky will come back to life after 2 or 3 pours. Of course, it is always a pleasure to rediscover a whisky close to your hearth.

Not sure if this has been discussed but is anyone hearing more about/seeing the Macallan Exceptional Single Cask bottles? Am sure they are over-priced but curious.

@Robert99 I find more that if the bottle has been closed (and gassed) a long time it takes a while to open up in the glass, but with time I does.

This week my club will—enjoy?—endure?—ARDBEGGEDDON. We always do something a little special for our Christmas meeting, and this year it's an eight-Ardbeg pileup:

•Ten

•Kelpie (46%)

•Dark Cove (55%)

•Perpetuum (46%)

•Ardbog

•Alligator

•Uigeadail

•Corryvreckan

That's the order I reckon we'll run through them, by the way. After toying with different options, I figured we'd just do the Ten first as a baseline, then our new permanent club bottle (the Kelpie), then work backwards, and then do the remaining "standards" at then end when we're all burned out. And I think Corryvreckan is probably the biggest palate-wrecker, so that works out.

I can't wait!

@MadSingleMalt I've tasted that 55% Dark Cove - it's fantastic!

@MadSingleMalt where might one find this club to attach oneself to said club? I’m in the niagara region and this area is bereft of anything resembling a decent club. I’m considering trying to get one started myself to widen the tasty tasting options

@nooch, we're in Madison, Wisconsin.

Most newbies to the club find us through word of mouth, but I've also connected with some local folks through Reddit who ended up joining. If you don't already know anyone in your area who'd be up for such nonsense, I suggest getting on Reddit, chatting on the whisky boards there, mentioning your location whenever it makes sense, and keeping any eye out for others doing the same.

Sites like Connosr are good too, of course, but Reddit has a larger user base.

Sorry—I feel like that advice kinda sucks. :) There is, of course, always random Googling too!

@MadSingleMalt that advice is pretty decent. I frequent a variety of blogs and connosr but not reddit. I’ll check it out. There is a keepers of the Quaich chapter in my area but when I enquired about details and coming out for an event they copied and pasted the ‘about’ section from their Ontario webpage into the email response. Not very welcoming.

Thanks for the advice.

@nooch, I gotta admit that I don't really understand everything about how Reddit works or how the boards are structured, but here's the main Scotch page:

www.reddit.com/r/Scotch/

And somehow or another, some locations have their own little local pages. Here, for example, is the "Whiskonsin" page for whisky fans in Wisconsin, where I've connected with some folks:

www.reddit.com/r/Whiskonsin/

Good luck!

@talexander I've tasted it too. I thought it was from @Victor but I could be wrong. I think you let me try a Supernova....or was it the other way around?

@Nozinan, what you said sounds right. You and a group did taste some Dark Cove 55% from me. Maybe @talexander has also tasted some Dark Cove from another source, since he was not at Horseshoe Valley with us in May 2016. Another possibility is that perhaps I had some with him earlier than May 2016.

@Victor @Nozinan No, I tasted the 55% Dark Cove at an Ardbeg Day event at The Caledonian in Toronto. It was earlier this year when they released the Kelpie, so the brand ambassador (whose name escapes me) poured a few different expressions (some standard, some Committee Releases).

@MadSingleMalt Nice. I'd be happy with just the Uigeadail and the Corry, the rest would be icing.

Thanks @BlueNote. For me, I've had the standards plenty of times so it's really the "icing" bottles that I'm excited about—especially the Ardbog and the Alligator. Those are being cracked open by fellow club members (not me), so this night will be my one and only chance to try them.

I would add Dark Cove to my "most excited" list too, but that's my own bottle and I know I'll have a whole winter to enjoy it. I expect it's great too—the chorus above from the likes of @talexander and @Victor is hardly the first high praise I've heard for it. I hope to add my voice to that song too.

@MadSingleMalt Look forward to hearing from you after the event.

Slainte.

@BlueNote, I just hope that anyone on this side of the living hears from me after this event. :)

@MadSingleMalt Not the time to invoke your DNR order.

If all goes well, I will be trading in my Forty Creek Heritage bottle for a bottle of Johnnie Walker Green. I've been wanting one for a while as it's not a bad blended malt, and I've heard the new release is pretty good. I'd like to try it H2H with the Island Green, which will help me decide if that one is worth pursuing when abroad (I think it is).

The FC Heritage was "disappointing" when I tried it.

I saw Old Pulteney 21 in a gold tube at a small random shop in NYC. I know some older bottlings of the same age statement are seen to be of higher quality. Any intel on the OP 21 green vs. gold tube versions?

All went well, almost.

I had traded a gifted Chivas 12 for the FC Heritage. I added $4.95 from a gift card to trade it for the JW Green. I was all set to try it tonight next to the Island Green, before a rough day tomorrow in which I would be on-call.

Then - disaster. Not "my Benromach fell through the box and crashed on the pavement" disaster, but close. When I came home I checked the call schedule and it turns out I'm on call tonight. There's nothing like dashed hopes...

Been busy with the newborn and couldn’t find the time to take pictures of some recent acquisitions - words will have to do:

• another bottle of the Ardbeg Uigeadail for casual drinking.

• another bottle of the Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 Year Old (current release) for casual drinking.

• a 1 litre bottle of the Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 Year Old, an older bottling that I was gifted.

• a bottle of the Dailuaine Flora & Fauna 16 Year Old that was on sale.

• a bottle of the SMWS 1.204 “Blackberry lemon pavlova”, a 20 year old Glenfarclas that was on sale by the Society.

• a couple of bottles of the Arran 18 Year Old (distillery standard release) that are on sale.

• a couple of 1 litre bottles of the Laphroaig Quarter Cask that are on sale.

• a couple of bottles of the Glen Moray 18 Year Old, just released in Australia.