Resolutions for 2018.

@paddockjudge

So you've bough NO WHISKY for almost 2 years?

@Nozinan He said Scotch. I suspect he has shelled out a fair bit on Canadian in the last couple of years.

@BlueNote How could I POSSIBLY know that?

@Nozinan Oh Yes, I forgot there has been a lot of insider trading going on between you and the judge.

@BlueNote, @Nozinan, the vast majority of my whisky budget for the past two years has been allocated to North American whisky, in particular Canadian whisky. Over-priced and over-hyped $cottish exports do not excite me.... not the way they did a few years ago.

@BlueNote, @Nozinan, the vast majority of my whisky budget for the past two years has been allocated to North American whisky, in particular Canadian whisky. Over-priced and over-hyped $cottish exports do not excite me.... not the way they did a few years ago.

@BlueNote, most of my trades do not involve @Nozinan, although he has purchased many bottles in recent years on my behalf, and for that I am truly grateful. I have developed a small and reliable network throughout the continent and try to maintain active with these contacts. This occasionally requires a sacrifice to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with other traders. Those who always seek to optimize their trades seldom develop lasting relationships.

@paddockjudge Yes, that was important enough to write twice.

@BlueNote, he doesn't like to trade with me because he doesn't like getting the better part of the deal...

@paddockjudge I agree re: the over-priced, over-hyped Scottish product. My buying this year is going to be very selective and much more restrained than last year.

@BlueNote I think that people probably come to this hobby (or at least this website) in cohorts. Our cohort has been mesmerized by the whisky world and we've now come out the other end with, in many cases, a large stockpile and less cash. Some will leave the online milieu in order to reduce FOMO, and others will just sit back, live vicariously through others, and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

I am committed to reducing FOMO and living vicariously and focusing on enjoying, for the most part, what I have already.

@Nozinan I did not know that it was illegal - it was in my luggage.

Ongoing tracking will make your goal far easier to achieve....jr

@JayRain apparently anything over 70% is a hazard. I have a friend who is an airline pilot who has offered to bring back stuff for me because his bags aren't checked (he's not concerned), as I have some bottles of the 151 stuck in Halifax, but really, I'd be happy if someone would just put them in the mail...

@Nozinan "...focusing on enjoying what I have already."

Absolutely. I think many of us have enough on hand to survive a lengthy siege.

@JayRain, I can't say I'm missing any of my purged books at all, really. Everything was either read once and unlikely to earn a second go-round, or just collecting dust, waiting for a first read that might never come.

Plus, libraries exist.

@MadSingleMalt

This may superficially be off topic, but I've found the "overdrive" app for my iPad allows me to create an account at my city library and sign out ebooks. So far I've been going through a number of series of novels plus a few one-offs.

The books don't take up space (I can put a few on my device - up to 30), it's great for travelling, I can adjust the text size, and I can relax in a chair with a good dram of something. There, I brought it back to whisky.

@Nozinan: Thanks, but I expect to die in the distant, distant, distant future having never read a single e-book.

I like books.

Speaking of FOMO, have any of my Ontario friends heard anything about the 2018 BTAC/Van Winkle lottery? I contacted the KGBO, and they said the "invitations" for the lottery would go out in the e-newsletter. How far ahead of time do they usually send out notifications?

@MadSingleMalt

My preference is for real books as well, but my eyes no longer cooperate.

@OdysseusUnbound Usually it will be the e-letter just prior to them going on sale. The sale is usually 2-3 days after which we find out if we are lucky enough to spend $140 or more dollars for a rare bottle.

I think it's either this weekend or next, so I'll be going onto vintages daily and seeing if they have appeared for sale.

@OdysseusUnbound they send it out a few days before and you call on a Monday or something to add your name to the list. I think ontario gets around 7 bottles of each expression. In other words, the Vikings had a higher chance of winning this past weekend with 15 seconds left than we do. I still enter anyway. You never know!

@nooch No football talk !!! I’m still angry about Tomlin deciding to onside kick !!!! With TWO timeouts remaining !!!!!!!!

@nooch You can also order online - they don't charge you unless you win.

@Nozinan is that new this year?

@nooch No, that's how I've been "playing" since 2014...

@Nozinan any luck? By ordering online are you automatically entered in the draw?

@nooch Yes to your second question. As to your first question, in the fall of 2014 I won the right to a Handy Rye. I struck out in 2015, in 2016 the draw was held in 2017 and all I got were OWA 107s. I will not be aiming for low hangoing fruit this year. BTAC or BUST.

@Nozinan agreed!!!! Thanks for the insights

@Nozinan If you “order” 3 different products and you “win” them all, are you automatically charged, or do they ask your authorization to complete your purchase?

@OdysseusUnbound If you are in the enviable situation of winning 3 BTACs you can then choose which you want and pay only for that one.

I guarantee you, though, that should you win and decline any of the CS BTACs, knowing that there are people around you that would happily take them off your hands, it will not go over well.

So, just over a third of the year down... how's everyone doing with their resolutions?

As for me... so far, so good. Haven't bought any whisky at all this year, and have been working on paring down my store of opened bottles. Right now I'm down to two, so I consider that part mission accomplished.

I think I'll be limiting myself to three, maybe four, opened bottles going forward. Enough to give me a bit of variety, but not so many I'll end up with analysis paralysis and two shelves of opened bottles.

@Nelom

I think things are going well.

I have acquired 2 bottles so far this year, a not to miss Caol Ila 18 YO unpeated CS at a steal of a deal, and a Wiser's Red Letter. For the first I traded away a bottle, and the second was a gift, so it's beyond my control.

I am getting a bottle of Lot 40CS as a bottle to be named later (essentially the trade bottle came off the books last year), but I am selling (at cost) an Amrut single cask.

I've opened 2 bottles, a gifted Adelphi blended malt and an A'Bunadh, but I've finished 6 bottles. So I currently have 1 fewer bottles than I started the year with, and 5 fewer open bottles than I started the year with.

I am committed to picking up 3 bottles this month, but I hope to open 2 of them during the year.

How to make room for the expected Stagg Jr and NBC releases? It will be tough.