Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@RikS, @RianC your descriptions of taking pause in coming to grips with the extreme spiciness of rye whiskey is exactly parallel to the way many people respond at first to the heavy peaty/smokey/briny Islay whiskies. There is acclimation required for new intense flavours. After a time and repeated experiences, it will be much easier to decide how much you, as an individual, like or do not like that sort of intensely spicy flavour profile. For me spicy rye was my whisk(e)y first love. I have some other whisky loves too.

The (insightful as ever) comments from @Victor remind me of the first-ever tastes of IPA beer (Tropical Torpedo) and peated whisky (Laphroaig 10) that I gave a house guest just yesterday. A younger dude, but not that young—anyway, he'd never had either, and both fairly impressed him.

Not surprisingly after he showed that he liked the hop blast, we found that he liked the peat blast too. Boom!

@Victor agreed. And having had to make a 180 on peat, I tread carefully nowadays until my palate has had some time to acclimatise to new experiences.

@MadSingleMalt Some of my friends suffer from fear of flavour. Their first reaction to food and beverages with strong, distinctive flavour is “eww, that’s disgusting.” And they will refuse to ever try it again. Nice to hear of someone with an open mind and a receptive palate.

Picked up a Lagavulin 16 at Costco on the island of Maui, Hawaii. .....why?..... Because it was $53 USD, almost half the price of it at the LCBO. Debated between this one and the Nikka Coffey Grain for roughly the same price.

@boatracer, nice going! I would like to be on Maui right about now....

@Victor it's great. First time to Hawaii, the scotch purchase was just a bonus.

@boatracer I still have a few aloha-wear shirts I picked up at Hilo Hattie's 20 years ago. My favourite places on Maui are Lahaina, the Kaanapali Beach Hotel strip, and the Four Seasons Resort in Wailea (nice Canadian origin company, that. Toronto is still the world Headquarters). Some day hit the Big Island, viz. the Island of Hawaii. The nature is spectacular, and that island is 2/3rds of the land mass of the entire Hawaiian archipelago. Mona Loa and Mona Kea rise farther off the ocean floor than the height of Mt. Everest. And, unlike the Rockies which rise from a high plain, those two peaks rise 13,000 feet from sea level in a very short distance. Down there you may be riding down the highway and the road just stops dead. "She", the Goddess Pele "came through" as the locals say. There is a huge layer of lava flow, and no more highway.

It is ironic that you got a bargain shopping in Hawaii. In general almost everything is imported there, so the prices of most things are much higher than on the mainland in the US.

I picked up a bottle of Laird’s Apple Jack for Christmas with the relatives. For me, I wanted to try the Glenfiddich Fire and Cane. I’m not a big fan of this brand but the reviews looked positive.

@DaveM

My uncle brought me back a bottle of Apple Jack years ago. I'm sure we brought it in our move but I have no idea where it is now. I got the idea after watching Alton Brown make an apple pie crust with it instead of water. Apparently the alcohol means less water which helps make a more flaky crust and the alcohol evaporates and leaves apple flavour.

Also, I should probably try a cheap apple brandy before opening my Coeur de Lion Calvados that I received as a gift in 2008.

@DaveM It's not bad - I don't love it but the combination of light peating with sweet rum casks works nicely here. However, the notes are otherwise firmly in Glenfiddich's wheelhouse so if you are not a fan of the house style, you might find it iffy.

@talexander This is very good for me to know...

Found a bottle of pappy van winkle 15... how much would you pay ? Help needed .. thanks in advance

@conorrob It's not how much we would pay...it's how much you feel you can pay. Here in Ontario it goes in the lottery for ~$150 or so.

$55

@MadSingleMalt That's close to equivalent...

@conorrob, as a speculation you should have no trouble getting half the $ 1,500 secondary market asking price for Pappy Van Winkle 15 yo. That's cash. In trade you could probably get $ 1,000 worth of goods via barter.

For drinking purposes I consider the Buffalo Trace PVW15 (released starting in 2011) to be worth as much as $ 200 to me. The Pappy Van Winkle 15 released prior to 2011 would be worth $ 300 to me for drinking.

Bottom line: $ 200 or less, a very good deal; $ 200-300 worth considering for conversation value and if you have none; over $ 300 I wouldn't pay unless either I wanted to resell it, I wanted to trade it, or I knew that I loved it. The woods (in the US) are full, though, of people who would hand you $ 600 or $ 700 in a millisecond for a bottle of it. The 15 yo is by far the best of the Van Winkle line, for me, and probably for most people.

The last bottle I just bought was Octomore 8.3 why because it's Octomore enough said.

Thanks @Nozinan @MadSingleMalt and @Victor. Really appreciate your help !

Also @PMessinger .. nice !

@conorrob such a nice looking bottle, too.

@conorrob I'd pay a couple hundred for a Pappy 15 - but it won't be hard for you to sell it for $1000+.

@PMessinger - Nice! I also see a bottle named Climax Moonshine . . .which is a great name

Here in a Pennsylvania the state store system just released the Game of Thrones whiskies. I picked up the Dalwhinnie and Lagavulin 9 YO. I haven’t had time to open them yet.

@PMessinger What is that Johnny Red doing there? Begone, evil spirit!

Just bought my second bottle of uigeadail. Why? Cause I'm running low, and Amazon had a "best ever" price today.

Now what I'll do is to keep the final 1/10 in the existing bottle and crack the new one. And in two months, it'll be interesting to make a HTH and see if there's a difference batch / air. (Of course, Murphy's law is fully anticipated...)

@talexander I know how you feel about the JW Red Label, I have a friend who loves it so I have it on hand for him. Lol.

@PMessinger You are a good friend!

@DaveM Nice haul!

@PMessinger Good choice on the Octomore 8.3, it's a beast and very ashy at first but rounds out with time. Let us know your impressions once you open it.

I was at a Companions of the Quaich dinner the other night and won a free bottle of Glengoyne 12 Year Old! Whoooo hoo!