Which bottle did you just buy and why?

Just received the Longrow 10 years 100 proof. I love the Springbank style and the fact that Longrow is 100% peatsmoke dried. The CV was delicious in a weird way and the bottle wasnt too expensive (€59,-) so I figured this one was not gonna dissapoint. And after a few sherry/peat expressions I wanted a good strong 100 % bourbon matured winter warmer again.

Bunnahabhain 12. Reason: unchillfiltered, natural colour, 46.3%ABV, tastes great. Also good reviews from Serge, Ralfy and Connosr.

I don't buy too frequently, so my latest purchase is also one that I've already talked about here and there: The Charbay R5, distilled bottle-ready Racer 5 IPA. I bought it because I love IPAs and this sounded like an exciting whisky version of an IPA. Also because the descriptions you read of the legendary older bottlings of Charbay's hopped whisky (the LA Whisky Society stuff, the various bottlings that you can read about on Sku's blog) make it sound so damn awesome and distinctive. Marijuana smoke! What a great note.

Alas, the R5 kinda sucks. And no whiff of the wacky. There are precious few reviews of this whisky to be found online, and most just stand in awe of the whisky's very existence. I wish it had had a Ralfy review; maybe I would be now raving about the 2014 Cairdeas instead of complaining about the R5. Then again, it's the kind of bottle that I'd eventually buy because it's so intriguing and it's near-impossible to try before you buy--kinda like the Balcones Brimstone.

Nice topic, especially with the point about explaining why you made your choice.

@OlJas Well it takes a little guts to pioneer in buying original, rare, difficult to find or just plain weird bottles,, but like in all gambling, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose:) Still I think reviews of bottles like that are highly valuable for other consumers, as well as for the producers. I can remember making another topic about hopped 'whisky', it certainly intrigues me too (what would a Imperial russian stout whisky taste like?) so if I would have found that bottle I think I also wouldnt be able to leave it in the store. Especially if anyone told me there is a Marihuana smoke note in it :p

@BlueNote I bought that bottle years ago without knowing anything about it except for that it was from Islay so I figured it couldnt be all that bad. After the initial dissapointment of the abcence of smoke/peat I started to like the creamy profile and it started to grow on me. But it stll was the older 40% version so I guess I should do a revisit.

I just bought a bottle of Aberlour 12 Double Cask. The Abunadh is one of my favourites, so wanted to get something else by Aberlour and figured the 12 was a good place to start.

Just bought a bottle of Octomore 6.1 and Glenlivet Guardians Chapter. I bought them because I've heard great things about the Octomore, and the Livet heard great things. I'm drinking the Livet now as we speak.....lovely stuff, and, at 49%, it is very smooth. Hard to compare it to the XXV. But good nonetheless.

@StevieC I was contemplating picking up the Guardians, but heard mixed reviews. If you say it's good, I'll have to pick up a bottle. Cheers.

@StevieC, must be good stuff as some one cleaned the shelf on week #1 in my area.

I certainly want to hear what you have to say about the Octomore 6.1

I just bought a set of limited edition single malts from a friend but I haven't got a clue!! Willing to learn tho. They're limited runs because they were all bottled for military events and after a long career he'd collected quite a few but doesn't even like the stuff!

@Swingy

Care to share what the distilleries are? Sounds like you may have come into a goldmine, or a coal mine....

@Swingy Sounds like buried treasure. You have to fill in the details. Inquiring minds are whirling.

Ok. Can you post pictures on here...?

Bunnahahbain 12: for the same reasons @Bluenote bought it: 46.3%, NCF ,No E150 and Ralfy's Whisky of the Year a couple of years ago. He has never steared me wrong and I want to keep at least one of his yearly best whiskies to enjoy a few years down the road. Now to replace my Balblair 2002.

My wife picked up a 200 cc bottle of Canadian Club (I guess a standard bottling) that most resembles what my father used to sip, on ice back in the 1970s. Later my aunt told me myuncle already has a bottle of CC (of unknown type) which he is bringing over to dinner tomorrow.

Tomorrow night will mark the official (not actual) end of our family's mourning period and I hope a few of us will have a drink the way he used to (with ice in a tumbler), to honour his memory.

@PeatyZealot. Definitely worth revisiting the Bunny 12. It changed dramatically in 2010 when they made it a craft presentation.

@Nozinan. When my Dad died unexpectedly and prematurely quite a few years ago, my Mum gave me his sterling silver Parker 75 fountain pen and his bottle and a half of Bell's standard blended Scotch. I now have a collection of around 60 assorted fountain pens and around 50 bottles of assorted single malts. I'll never part with the Parker and I wish I had saved the Bell's. I love the idea that you are celebrating your father's life in an old school way with some good old standard bended whiskey on the rocks in a good heavy tumbler.

Best to you and your family.

Jack Daniel's Single Barrel. I was looking for a not expensive whiskey and I thought that I should give another try to JD. I am not found of the Old 7 but maybe a sing'e barrel could change my opinion of JD.

My bad....I revisited the Glenlivet Guardians Chapter twice.....NOT impressed. Worst spent $90 on a bottle. What a marketing ploy. Sorry about the mixed reviews everyone. I guess I was hyped up.

@StevieC Thanks, haven't gone out to buy a bottle yet so I'll steer clear!

ordered the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection off the LCBO Website. Fingers crossed that I get a bottle or 2

@JayRain How do you preorder bottles from the LCBO website? I'd love to know this..

@mscottydunc - signed up for the weekly Vintages newsletter - got a special e-mail f that...can forward to you if you want

@JayRain that would be fantastic. Still new to the site so not sure how to send private messages or give you my email

@mscottydunc

Here is the link:

vintages.com/vmail/palmer_en.shtml/…

You will have to set up an account.

Good luck...

@Robert99 And... did it? I always liked the Jack profile but the no7 is just too rough for sipping so this one made me a lot happier. 40 or 45%?

@BlueNote I tried the Toiteach lately and I really liked it, but it is heavily peated so I was kind of expecting that:)

A most excellent link, and 100% my own experience, on the realities of obtaining BTAC and Van Winkle whiskeys in the US:

redwhiteandbourbon.com/2013/10/…

Parker's Heritage Collection, 8th Edition, 13 year old Wheat Whiskey, 63.4% abv. Reasons? Multiple. 1) this is the first ever offering of barrel strength wheat whiskey, 2) I already like both the wheat flavour profile and the mild and mellow Bernheim Original, which is the diluted form of this same whiskey, 3) this is whiskey from the very first batch of Bernheim Original, 4) the early reviews have been good, and 5) I was lucky to get any of it. My county's inventory showed 4 total bottles 3 days ago, so I went to a store that had one and asked the manager about it. He told me that all of the bottles had been pre-reserved, but that I could have the one bottle he had in his store if the pre-reserver did not claim it the next day. He/she did not claim the bottle, so I bought it.

It is an expensive bottle by US whiskey domestic standards, though, coming at at $ 98 including the tax.

Octomore 06.1 because its Octomore. (:

@PMessinger How is it? I thought about picking this up but have never had an octomore before.