So, what are you drinking now?

Cocktail fail; Eggnog fizz.

1oz Eggnog, 1/2oz Rye, 1.5oz club soda. The club soda waters down the eggnog and gives it a weird consistency / texture. Won’t be making this one again.

@bwmccoy without failures, how would you recognize success?

If you sell the best malt whiskies singly, they will not be available for the blends. This is a common pattern, separate the good stuff to create premium products, leaving the standard product without its best components. Diageo is getting top dollar now for some of those malts which used to go into Johnnie Walker blends. It is no wonder that that 92% or so of Scottish whisky, BLENDS, has gotten a lessened reputation among discerning drinkers than it had when the best malts went into their blends. Even early in my own lifetime there were ZERO single malts being sold. Single malt Scottish whiskies are kind of a recent fad, really.

@Victor I'm pretty sure Glenfiddich and Macallan have been available for decades, but I think the proliferation of single casks and the wider range of single malt expressions has occurred even in my short time exploring.

@Nozinan sure, available for decades, but NONE were available 67 years ago.

@cricklewood I suspect the biggest change in the taste of the blends of today compared to those made decades ago is mostly due to the higher percentage of grain whisky in today’s blends. I’d guess the malts used hasn’t changed that much. I’m not speaking of shuttered or demolished distilleries.

After the cocktail fail earlier, my wife and I just had Jerry Thomas Manhattan’s made with Rittenhouse BiB. We’re now having Black Manhattan’s made Maker’s Mark 46 before grilling prawns, polenta and haloumi cheese for dinner.

@MRick the decline in quality of blends is not necessarily about the amount of malt involved. I think that it is mostly about the average quality of the barrels of malt whisky which are being used. Top barrels/casks of malt whisky being diverted to single malt releases? Then the average quality of the barrels of malt going into the blends goes down. It has long been a standard quip about what to do with inferior barrels of malt whisky---put them into blends. If, after you have separated out all of the top quality malt whisky into single malt releases, all you have is inferior barrels of malt, then the average quality of the blends will go down.

@bwmccoy Mmmmmm Grilled Haloumi "squeaky" cheese.....

@Victor If only all the single malts that were being pulled from blend duty to be bottled alone were of quality.... I have tasted a few that would have been best not showcased on their own...

@Nozinan you win some and you lose some. Human beings do make some mistakes.

@Victor When I taste with you it's definitely winning... hopefully in 2021...

@Nozinan I'll drink to that, hopefully in Toronto.

Finishing the night with a dram of lightly peated Allt-A-Bhainne SMWS 108.14 (7 year - Nov 2011) "An enjoyable curiosity" - 2nd-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 66.2% ABV.

@Victor A lot of casks sold to the blenders are very young. How do we know they’re inferior? Oh course, some argue that today’s casks are, in general, inferior to the glories of the past.

@MRick @Victor - I also suspect that the age and quality of the grain component in modern blends is a significant factor. Like malts, the best barrels of grain are sold as single casks or put into ultra premium blends, add to that the, arguably, declining quality in casks (due to higher demand) and you inevitably end up with something inferior.

There are still decent blends about but you really have to search for them.

I'm just having a pre dinner Red Label (80s) and what's really exciting me is this lovely sticky, toffee, barley-grain note. And sticky really is the word, in the best possible sense. It fizzes across and then sticks to the tongue, with this nippy peat attack and sticky, sweet grain. Relatively simple but so so good. I can't stop nosing it ...

If I could get a whisky this good for £25 now I'd have a case at least.

What's that quote from those magic eight ball toys "all signs point to yes"

I think the issue with blends is a combination of many factors, decline in quality and age of components. Scottish grain whiskys have changed a lot, a move away from using primarily corn to using wheat or a mix of both is a big factor.

The disappearance of the older coffee/double column units to focus primarily and more modern stripping systems.

A shift in buying public and attention. Actively pushing a mid market blend would require creating or looking to capture a new segment of the market. There's already a public for the bottom shelf blends, the deluxe blends also (although I question if that one isn't dwindling) but in between if you would offer something in the price range of good quality single malt. Would anyone bite? You'd need a boutique operation a la compas box circa 2016 since they've now pushed themselves into the deluxe realm (or further up their own asses depending on how you look at it).

Forgot to add in my rant that all previous posited theories and ideas are correct. Everyone is right (how often does that happen?) not that I had the magical answer.

I'm going to have a dram of Dewar's 21 double/double as a fitting option after all this.

@cricklewood Despite Glaser's pumped up view of himself and his importance to the whisky industry, his blends are generally very good, usually at a decent ABV, mostly non-CF and uncoloured. If he could do a good 46% blend at around $35-$45 I think the market is there. I have a bottle of the Great King Street Glasgow Blend Marrying Cask from KWM. It's very good, but it cost over $90. There a quite a few very good 10 and 12 year old single malts available for less money than that.

@BlueNote - Agreed! The cost of those two CB blends have always put me off buying a bottle for that very reason. I have tasted both though and liked them, especially the Glasgow blend, but at +£35? That's more expensive than an Arran 10, for instance, or not far off a Springbank 10!

@cricklewood's comment about having to break into an essentially new market is so true and the opposite situation from the 80s, when blends were made as good as they they could be to keep sales up.

Stranahan's Malt, Batch # 106, 47% ABV, Glenfiddich 15 Distillery Edition, 51% ABV, Tomatin 15 Tempranillo, 52% ABV, Mortlach 12 OB 43% ABV, Glen Moray Port Finish 40% ABV, and Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon 45.1% ABV.

@Victor How was the Tomatin Tempranillo? I think that’s the first time I’ve heard of a whisky finished in Tempranillo casks.

@OdysseusUnbound my wonderful sister 6 or 7 years ago picked up Tomatin 12, Tomatin 15, and Tomatin 15 Tempranillo. She let me taste all three and keep the bottle I preferred. Hands down it was the 15 Tempranillo. I was crazy about that bottle until long air exposure made it obvious that it was not as clean of sulphur as first 'unopened-up' tastes conveyed. At this point the sulphur is for me a serious defect and a serious distraction, but the quality otherwise is excellent. Interestingly Jim Murray says almost exactly that in his Whisky Bible, that this release is not clean of sulphur, but it is so good otherwise that it gets away with it despite the sulphur. That takes a lot of "so good otherwise" for Murray to make that comment, because he is every bit as sulphur sensitive as are you and I.

@Victor You have a great sister...

@OdysseusUnbound The Highland Park 16 Twisted Tattoo is primarily made up of ex-Rioja casks. Red Rioja is mostly Tempranillo.

@Nozinan yes, indeed...and some great friends.

Yesterday (Sunday), had a couple of Black Manhattan’s made with Maker’s Mark 46.

Tonight, had the last dram of Braeval SMWS 113.15 (9 year - Oct. 2008) "An apricot jamboree" from a refill ex-bourbon barrel - 61.6% ABV.

Also, had a dram of Caol Ila SMWS 53.325 (7 year - Mar. 2012) "When two powerful pearls meet". After six years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, finished in a refill ex-Madeira hogshead - 61.2% ABV.

Last night a very large pour of Bunna Toiteach a dha in my Taylor D glass. Think I preferred it like that. Nothing fancy, just a well-made peated malt with a hint of sweetness that was hitting the spot.

As a High School teacher I'm now on holiday. As mentioned in the "Which bottle did you just buy and why" thread I've just received the last of my Campbeltown wish list trifecta - Kilkerran Heavily Peated Batch 3. When it arrived at 11 am I couldn't help but crack it open. This is on the back of opening a bottle yesterday that I bought in store as part of a blind sample share with some friends. It too got opened before midday. I love holidays