Your daily drams

@pirgo, if I could, which is to say if alcohol were not a factor, I would have about 60 daily drams. That, of course, is not practical...so...I will answer from the standpoint of what bottles I would (ie and assuming I could) likely restock immediately, if they were gone: Ardbeg Uigeadail, Thomas Handy Rye,...hell, there are dozens of them!

This is actually a bit of a tricky question, because most of the whiskies I would not want to be without are not generally available...some of my favourites which I would like to be drinking every day, eg Octomore Orpheus, Abraham Bowman 69.4% ABV Rye, etc. are whiskies of which I may never encounter another bottle available for purchase.

My daily drama that I find myself reaching for are a little more modest then most I would suppose. For scotch I really enjoy ardbeg 10 and Glenmorangie 10. For bourbons I can't get enough eagle rare 10 yo, old weller antique and old grand dad 114. I have some strange propensity to reach for black bottle as well when I want a blend.

I like to be able to have a daily dram of 'a'bunadh', of course, I don't, but it is a fine drop to have on hand and, surprisingly, is lasting longer now than when we first discovered it!

@pirgo I would second what @Victor said. If I could get Octomore every time I needed to replenish then that would be my daily dram, and at half the price as my admiral (wife) just said. That said any Bruichladdich or Kilchoman would also work. :)

@PMessinger @Victor While I agree that Orpheus would make a fine daily dram, I think there are very little people here that are financially situated to make such a feat. If only all of us were rich enough to pour a few drams of 30yo Talisker and not feel like your credit card is being shredded to pieces... I think one of the determining factors that make a whisky "daily" is the financial component. That's why more expensive bottlings fall into a "special occasion" category...

Replace-ability dictates this for me. I have other whiskies that I frequently enjoy, but I consider them "special" as they are harder to replace, either due to cost or availability. The standard players for me are:

Balvenie 15 (though it is pricing itself out of contention) Clynelish 14 Compass Box Oak Cross Laphroaig Triple Wood (or Quarter Cask) JW Green Eagle Rare 10 Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000

My 'daily drams' are constantly changing. I definitely go in and out of what you might call a '(insert bottle's name here) phase'. I've had periods where the only bottle I would reach for would be the Yoichi 15 yo. I once went almost 3 months with drinking nothing but Laphroaig Quarter Cask. And recently I'm reaching for my Ardbeg 10 more than any other bottle... in fact I just finished it!

@CanadianNinja I can definitely agree with that approach as well. Though I'm not really sure I have gone as long as 3 months. My system is to go one or two expressions at a time, this way I can take time to get to know my daily dram by changing up and not having dozens of bottles opened at once. However you have hit on a great idea multiple bottles of one expression over time to get to know a daily dram better. :)

What a great thread! Availability - tolerances - phases - affordability.

Recently, my most frequent contributions to the recycling bin are; Wiser's Legacy, W L Weller 12 yr-old, and Highland Park 18 yr-old.