Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Victor is like to try that one but alas, seems its not coming to Europe. At least not yet.

@RikS Jim Beam has been exceptionally slow to get into the barrel strength rye whiskey market. When they finally did, three years ago, with Booker's Rye, it was a doozie, but it was priced at $ 300, which seemed ridiculous at the time, until it fetched twice that 2 years later. Truly, though, if you want to get to know what rye whiskey can be, this Knob Creek Cask Strength Rye is the sort of bottle to try in order to get the full idea of the genre. There are others as well, of course.

@Victor I ordered a dram of Booker's Rye at the bar next to the Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown (apparently the oldest bourbon bar in America). Amazing stuff, but it was a pricey dram at $US60 (she said she was supposed to charge me $US80 but she took pity on a wayward Canadian).

@talexander so it was still $80...

@Nozinan Only if it was in Canada. But then it wouldn't have been the oldest bourbon bar in America! I should have told them that the ghost on our floor was covering my tab.

@talexander Currently $60 US is $80 CAD

@Nozinan Yeah, I know, I got what you were saying.....

@talexander If it was in Ontario, it would have been $160

No new bottle of George T. Stagg for me today. The odds were maybe 1 in 6.

Tomorrow's cluster-event in my county will be 100 bottles of Van Winkle 10 yo first come first served to the first 100 people in line. Then they will draw for 34 remaining bottles later. I will avoid this sure-to-be-crazed scene.

Arran 10 - I really shouldn't have but it was on offer on Amazon for under £33 with free delivery (which is great value for such a malt). I really enjoyed my first bottle and the 14 so keen to revisit this one.

Not bought, but received a bottle of Glenfiddich 12 from my wife’s grandfather. He gets antsy when he has more than 3 unopened bottles. I left the bottle at my mother-in-law’s, since that’s the only place I’ll be able to share it with him.

@OdysseusUnbound wow, if I got antsy with three unopened bottles....

@Nozinan Right!!???

Made a trade for this today, not even sure I wanted it, but it is the Kavafan Single Cask, supposedly aged 9.5 years.

@Astroke In my experience, the Kavalan Solist bottlings are incredible. Wonderful sherry casks.

@talexander Yes, I have tried a few samples, they were all very nice. Look forward to this one.

@Astroke It looks like it has no ABV.

@Nozinan I noticed that as well, very light gold on white 58.6. Of course on the container is a gold plaque 58.6%

@Astroke Enjoy it in good health!

@Nozinan I think I know a good place to open it :)

For all the Ontarians here, the BTAC lottery is open on the Vintages website.

After trying the triple pack of Glen Scotia I got for Christmas I found the Glen Scotia 15 on sale for a great price - too good to pass up. It seems that I continue to lean towards the offerings from Campbeltown. I must say that it irks me a bit that they felt it necessary to put "rich and smooth" on the front label

@Hewie it's to lure in the folks who are afraid. Nice purchase!

@Hewie Once allowed to breathe a bit and open up, that Glen Scotia 15 is a beautiful whisky.

Just bought (actually, just picked them up from a friend who got them for me) the following:

• Laphroaig Triple Wood: a bottle that is many a Laphroaigophile's bête noire but that I love. Not sure when this will be back in stock at the KGBO, so at least I have one bottle.

• Bruichladdich Classic Laddie Scottish Barley: My previous review of this whisky came from a few tasting of a friend's bottle, and at $50, I liked it enough to get one. Also, with the bottling codes, I'll be able to compare this one's DNA to the previous one.

@Hewie I enjoyed the Glen Scotia 15 a lot. But agree with @KRB80 it needs a bit of air in the bottle to open up.

I managed to get a bottle of the latest Springbank 12 CS. Had a right run around though. I went onto the Cadenhead website lunchtime of the day if release and it had already sold out. So I went to Master of Malt 'only 1 bottle left' I put it in my shopping cart and was browsing for about 5 minutes looking for something else to go with it for free delivery. In that time the last bottle had sold.

I checked loads of other sites and they'd sold out too. I eventually located a bottle at Berry Bros and Rudd.

I've never had this much bother buying a bottle of Springbank 12 with all the previous releases. They're generally available if you shop around a bit for a few months after each release.

I do hope the bottle flippers haven't turned their attention to it.

Follow-up to my bottle of Bruichladdich Classic Laddie: the bottling code is 18/283 if anyone is interested. Here are some quick facts:

• bottled in 2018
• a vatting of 6 to 11 year old malts.
• 77 total casks
• 5 vintages
• 7 Cask types
• 3 barley varieties
• 46.8% 6 year old whisky (2011 vintage)
• 32.5% 7 year old whisky (2010 vintage)
• 14.3% 8 year old whisky (2009 vintage)
• 2.7% 9 year old whisky (2008 vintage)
• 1.3% 11 year old whisky (2006 vintage)

So I know that doesn’t add up to 100% but they’re estimations. I also didn’t take into account the different cask sizes, so the percentages could vary. Some of the 2008 vintage is claimed as a 10 year whisky on Bruichladdich’s page as you can see in the photo. I know not everyone likes to geek out with this stuff, but I feel it’s a great move on the part of Bruichladdich.

Through a series of fortunate events I just got an Octomore 7.4 and an Octomore 8.3 for an embarrassingly low price. AND I have a 20ml sample of the Octomore 8.3 from a friend so I can taste it before opening it.

@Wierdo wow sounds like you had a right time trying to get your Springbank fix. I think this is a reality of the market currently, lots of people getting in on the action of flipping, auctions and the drinkers who want to bunker a few. It doesn't help that with everything Springbank youa re dealing with actual limited runs not those pseudo Highland park 20,000 bottles "limited" runs.

@OdysseusUnbound superb acquisitions, paying a decent price for Octomore helps keep it grounded. You have two interesting contrasts in style with those two editions, quite different the 7.4 transforms quite a bit with time, I think I know where you can obtain a sample of that so you can also try prior to opening.

Thanks for sharing the vatting information for your Classic Laddie as well, I love that tool, I think they should make it mandatory for NAS whisky, it really helps you understand what you are drinking. That said I am always surprised how different the batches are from one another, I am very curious what their template or guideline is for selection.

Amrut Naarangi, two bottles to add to the one I have open. Why? I tasted the first one I had purchased and decided that I wanted to have more of it available going forward.

The orange peel influence added to the sherry maturation is an interesting one, and one which I very much like. This is a rather dry sour and bitter orange influence in this one. I like this effect, and I also like sweet orange in whiskies too.