Dearly Departed Drams

We finished a bottle of Balvenie 21 Portwood the other night. I will miss that one.

I recently finished my bottle of Laphroaig 1998 8Y bottled by ACORN. This was the whisky that started it all for me. It will be missed...

Mine was a bottle of 15 yr old Laphraoig. Sorely missed.

I recently finished my Greenore (both the 8 and 15 year old). Not that they are exquisite, but it's the dram that got me started, so I feel there should be a bottle of Greenore in my cabinet at all times. Since I'll be attending the Cooley tasting tomorrow, I already know what I'll be getting...

My Balblair 97 has perhaps 1 drink left in it and tonight it will be gone with nothing in stock to take its place. It's not my favourite but I will miss it.

Finished the remainder of my Aberlour a'bunadh batch 26 last night. That was a good dram.

Ive just poured a glass of glenmorangie 10 yo origional. I have had about half a bottle left standing for 6 or 7 months and i cant believe how much its changed since my last glass.The citrus and spicy notes have faded away quite a bit leaving mainly a bannana, vanilla, creamy taste,which personally speaking is an improvement,not that i didnt like it before.Dearly departed? Not yet but wont be long,best nip up the road to the off licence,£20 a bottle,happy days.I love the way the whiskys changes and often improves the longer you leave them and let the air take its effect,even with the young ones like this.Just another reason to love whisky......

I recently finished off my bottle of Ardbeg 10 Year Old, it will be missed.

Just pulled the cork for the last time on my bottle of Macallan cask strength. Sigh. Actually, what am I complaining about? I still have two nearly full bottles of the Aberlour A'bunadh and the GlenDroncah 15 year-old Revival... I think I like my sherry casks.

Finished my 1 Lt bottle (duty free) of the Glenlivet 12 last night. Plan to finish my Greenore 15 year old next.

And the Greenore 15 is gone... Will be finishing of some Brookies today.

@markjedi1 As things stand, when I finish a bottle, I lose 6.7% of my cabinet. When you finish a bottle, you lose 0.4% of yours. Unbelievable!

@dbk, LOL, not really. Remember I have only 61 full bottles, the rest are half bottles, miniatures and samples. But yes, I have quite a few to work through still and I have just purchased a batch of 150 miniatures... Ouch.

@Markjedi1, yikes ... 150 miniatures ... now that's the way to start out ... if one were starting out !! Do you suppose those sample batches are available to folks in the States ? Happy sampling for the next year.

@AboutChoice it seems that there aren't that many varieties of small bottles available here. It would be great if some of the big names sold even half-bottles. I have too many that I discovered I don't really like that much. And also too many that I really do like, but are open at the same time. Their flavors will be dying in large part, probably, before I can finish them. I wonder if it it would be worth trying to put argon in the bottles like people do for wine?

I am about to finish up a bottle of Bunnahabhain 12. I have had this one for at least five years. The flavors are somewhat faded. Bunnahabhain 12 used to be one of my favorites, and I remember vividly the first time I tasted it, almost 20 years ago. From what I hear the recent bottlings just aren't as good.

@markjedi1 Still, even if not by volume, the sheer range of whiskies you have in your cabinet is something else! Like @AboutChoice I'd really enjoy finding a source of decent miniatures or half bottles. It's hard enough just finding a tasting where I live.

@paulrpotts A google search for "argon whisky" produces hits for, well, science fiction stories featuring a whisky from the planet Argon, also known as Space Fuel, e.g. "Artur poured himself a small shot of Argon Whisky. It was a 20 year vintage, brewed planet-side from natural ingredients. The end-result was a thousand light years from the high octane abomination known as Space-Fuel which was illicitly traded throughout known space." So, that's a niche an enterprising distiller could explore: whisky for sci-fi fans. They could even have the folks responsible for the Amrut Fusion label design the packaging ; )

@dbk, @AboutChoice, I had no idea miniatures are hard to come by in the US. Unfortunately, I am prohibited of shipping them out to you, sorry. Oh, and I just finished off my Macallan 10 Year Old Cask Strength. Great stuff!

Also, most of the miniatures that I collect are of such old age, that I do not plan to taste them. I simply collect them. The newer ones, sure, I'll give them a go in the next couple of months. That's what they are for. I also trade samples with friends in Belgium. I have 60+ samples of 3cl waiting to be tested :-)

There, I've cleaned up my cabinet. With a batch of 43 miniatures that arrived today, I didn't think it would be interesting to put those online in the cabinet as most of those are for collection purposes. So all you see in the cabinet now are the full and half bottles, the miniatures and samples that I do plan to taste/drink. I think it's only fair, eh? :-)

I just put my bottle of Compass Box Peat Monster to bed. I'll miss you, peaty friend!

I've finished off my Glenfarclas 12 and Balvenie Double Wood in the last couple of weeks, I will really miss the Glenfarclas.

Just emptied my 2nd single malt bottle today ... Ardmore Traditional Cask, which lasted about 10 months. Fortunately I've already replaced it, and there is no apparent difference between them. I really dislike throwing out these bottles ... and the corks ... they must be useful for something :-)

My 1st dearly departed dram, about a month ago, was Highland Park 12 ... which was already replaced as well. I supposed that I've now reached some sort of a milestone in my whisky career !

As @AboutChoice I also reached a milestone today in my malt-lover career. I finished a bottle of Glenfiddich 12 years old. It's certainly not the first bottle of scotch/malt that I kill. However it's the first one I finish since I seriously started to drink whisky and broaden my knowledge of the subject. As it's the malt that I've drank the most in my life, I'll probably won't buy it anymore (at least for following couples of years...never say never)...too many different malts to try out yet.

Finished off a Glenmorangie 12 Port Wood Finish, this was the one that got me started. Has been replaced by the Quinta Ruban which is not my favorite

@Cardinal I too prefer the old-style port wood finish, glad to finally know I'm not the only one!

Fare thee well, Bruichladdich Peat. Fare thee well.

Good friends helped me say goodbye to two more bottles tonight: the Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection 1997 Double Barreled and the Bladnoch 16 year-old 1992 from Murray McDavid. Both were excellent.

Found another bottle of the port wood finish at a local store ! I am a happy man@jiminorris

Retired my beloved Springbank 10 year-old tonight. Based on the frequency of my postings here, I'm on quite a roll!

Rowan's Creek. Tasty luxury must gift myself some more! Merry XMas to me, and to you!