So, what are you drinking now?

@Victor - sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing.

@bwmccoy, Tales is a huge affair. 16,000 attended in 2016, probably 75% professional bartenders. Don't know the numbers for this year, but it never seemed crowded. In addition to the public events there were many By Invitation Only very large private industry parties. Even my one polyanna-ish sister-in-law enjoyed herself immensely. talesofthecocktail.com has an astronomical amount of information about the event.

...we all reflected mightily on why it was that among the thousands of constantly drinking people over days at at time that no one seemed noticeably drunk. Then it came to me, "These people are all professional bartenders-- those whose profession it is to be the adults in the room where booze is consumed. They are almost never the drunks. They are the people whose responsibility it is to bounce the drunks."

I'm drinking the last of my lovely Springbank 10. Sad to see it go. The last bit of this bottle seems to have less sweetness than the first 2/3 of the bottle. But that gingery pepperiness is still there. Lovely stuff.

Last night, Glenmorangie Quinta Rubin.

Tonight, 14 year Glenlossie (SMWS 46.43) - "If I were a carpenter...".

Tonight, Aultmore 18 year (Feb. 1997) SMWS 73.72 "A ray of sunshine"

Good "Ol Talisker 10. This bottle was opened nearly a year ago and is about half full - and it is just fantastic.

Whatever I'm drinking I'll need a full bottle to catch up on all of @markjedi1's reviews today

@GoodVintage I had some catching up to do myself and spent the whole of the month July (well, almost) trying some American stuff. It was good fun. Some great stuff among them too.

@markjedi1 is hitting Serge-levels of review volume here! All we need now is a charming 15th-anniversary rant against the industry's woes and it'll be neck-and-neck. :)

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Last night, my whisky club took a little tour around the Hebrides in the form of a few vatted malts: Rock Oyster, Six Isles, and a "Double Barrel" Bowmore + Highland Park 10 Year. They were all quite good, and each had its fans among the group.

•The Rock Oyster was good but not as salty as I'd hoped, so I personally found it a bit disappointing.

•The Six Isles was my favorite. Zippy and fresh!

•The Double Barrel was very good too, and it had the most "weight." A steal at $30. Awful, awful label though—the front looks like the back!

And on top of all that, it was fun to mark up a little map of Scotland with all the places we tasted. A fun night.

Rutte Old Simon Genever 43% abv (Special US export strength? I see 35% abv on a couple of the pictures online). 100 ml sample bottles were given out at Tales of the Cocktail. I picked up several. This apparently unaged grain-based spirit tastes somewhat spirity but has some very interesting nutty features along with the juniper, mace, celery, and botanicals. Rutte is a small Dutch distillery.

Wild Turkey Rare Breed 112.8 I do like WT and love the old WT-03RB this is just a little hotter with the alcohol showing more. Still like it as a reasonable priced cask strength but wish I had stocked more of the lower strength ( a common theme for everything whisky related.)

@MadSingleMalt Sounds like fun. That's a shame the Rock Oyster didn't stack up - I've looked at it a few times but haven't been confident enough to buy one. I had a bottle of The 6 Isles and I too enjoyed that young vatted malt.

@MadSingleMalt, Happy Blended Malt!

I'm at a hotel in Montmagny, Québec on my way to New Brunswick. I only bought a small bottle to get me through and my choices were mediocre (Jack Daniels Old no.7), not very good (Jameson) and "I'd rather not" (JW Red). So I'm drinking Jack on the rocks. I don't ever remember Jack having such a strong banana note. Maybe it's the freshly opened bottle, or batch variation. It's not unpleasant though. Cheers!

I am enjoying a dram of Amrut Portonova. Great dram. One of the best in my cabinet.

@OdysseusUnbound, batches of JD Old No.7 are all over the place. It has surprised me several times by being good when I expected it to be terrible...and terrible when I got used to a previous good batch. You never know what you are getting with JD until you taste that batch.

@NamBeist I've been curious about that for the longest time. Anything you can compare it to?

@noch @Nozinan once wrote in his review that Amrut Portonova could be compared with Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban on steroids. Who am I to disagree with the doctor? Portonova is a powerful whisky which I love because of its spicy fruitiness . I have written a review about a Glenrothes of the creative whisky company. This whisky is great too and has a port finish too. I prefer the Portonova, but the price quality ratio of the Glenrothes is impressive in my humble opinion .

@nooch I have made a typo. You will find my answer to your question above this remark.

@OdysseusUnbound,

there may still be some good picking available at NB Liquor retail outlets. Three to four years ago there was good selection and excellent value to be found on NB store shelves. Further East is where selection and value might be found.

@paddockjudge I'm just outside Shediac. I can see the Ocean from our house. The NB liquor near us is tiny and in a gas station, so we'll venture in to Shediac proper tomorrow. I'll keep my eyes open.

@OdysseusUnbound, I've stayed in Shediac. Great seafood.

@OdysseusUnbound, if you venture into NS you might find some treasures.

@paddockjudge @Victor I was in Shediac in 2008. They had extremely inexpensive lobster. The only link I can make with whisky is that, although it was about 2 1/2 years before I started exploring the spirit, my brother in law (@Nosebleed) and his family were on the same trip.

@paddockjudge We will be spending time in Halifax and Digby, so I hope to find something special there. Maybe something I can't find in Ontario like Arran or Clynelish.

My mother bought a bottle of Jameson in Shediac and I have to say it's surprisingly good, for Jameson (I'd rate it about 83/100) Very little of the nail polish remover smell I usually get from this. More vanilla fudge than usual. Very pleasant. Cheers !

Longrow CV paired with some 86% dark chocolate. The bottle is nearly finished and will be missed. Gonna have to give Longrow Peated a spin.

Danfield's Limited Edition 21 yo Canadian whisky, followed by Ardbeg Corryvreckan L13 240.

This is my first taste of the Danfield's in about 2 years.

This bottom-of-the-barrel batch of Corryvreckan is getting better now with close to 2 years of air exposure. It is all ash on the palate at this point, but that is much better than the big-sour it used to show. @BlueNote, I doubt that you can find any batch of Ardbeg Uigeadail which is not better than is this batch of Corryvreckan, for the first year and a half that it is open. I have always preferred Uigeadail to Corryvreckan, even the better batches of Corryvreckan. Now Ardbeg Supernova, all of them, that is what Corryvreckan is supposed to grow up into. No more Supernova, Ardbeg says, so we will see many new special releases over the coming years, some of which would come close to Supernova in style.

@OdysseusUnbound, Jameson is another classic of enormous batch variation. Glad you got one of the good ones. I've seen both very good and very bad batches of standard Jameson myself.

@Victor My fondest Ardbeg memories are of the long gone 18 year old Airih Nam Beist. I should have stocked the bunker back when.

I finally got a bottle of Arran 14. I didn't take to it on the first pass, even after letting it sit in the glass for almost 1/2 an hour. It seemed a bit bitey when I was expecting fruity. The next day, however, all was forgiven and I'm now a believer. I think I just had a bad taste bud day. You said it was good and you were right, as usual.

Cheers.