So, what are you drinking now?

Tonight, a Black Irish Coffee Manhattan, thanks to @YakLord.

1oz Irish Whiskey

1oz Cold Brew Coffee Infused Whisky

1oz Amaro

Dash of Coffee Bitters

Dash of Orange Bitters

Rated a couple of open bottles tonight;

Clynelish SMWS 26.161 (8 year - April 2012) "Put the pebble to the petal!" - 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 60.9% ABV. Rating: 86.

BenRiach SMWS 12.43 (28 year - Nov.1991) "Desire lines" - 2nd-fill ex-sherry butt - 54.8% ABV. Rating: 95.

Reviewing some long-opened bourbons:

1) Johnny Drum Private Stock, 50.5% ABV, from KBD, the Willett people. This, my second bottle of JDPS is so far quite inferior to the first, which was purchased 10 years ago. This one tastes like very tannic Heaven Hill distillate. My hope is that long years open will mellow this out. It's drinkable now, but it could easily be great w/o the heavy tannin

2) Old Weller Antique 107, 53.5% ABV, that glorious only bottle of OWA107 I managed to get with the 7 year age statement, bottled c. 2008. SOOOOOO good

3) Pure Kentucky XO, 53.5% ABV, another KBD product, this bottle open about 8 years. This second bottle of Pure Kentucky XO was not the equal to the outstanding first one I had, but air has been good to it, and it is very enjoyable to drink now

4) Old Forester 75th Anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition Bourbon, 50% ABV, a one-off released in 2008, and my favourite Brown-Foreman product to date

5) Old Forester Signature, 50% ABV, a bottle open for 9 years. I was so displeased with myself that I bought 2 bottles of this 10 years ago. Long opened, this first bottle has mellowed in ways that make it more acceptable to me

6) Breckenridge Colorado Bourbon Whiskey, 43% ABV. This bottle was given to me by a friend who visited the distillery about 8 years ago. I've never been as crazy about it as he has, but I like it OK, and open bottle time has done well for it. N.B. This one, produced at 9,600 foot elevation in the Colorado Rockies, uses water made from snowmelt, and has a rye content of approx. 37.5%, a contender for the highest rye content bourbon around

Let's change gears:

7) Franzac Extra, Grande Champagne Cognac, 25 years old, 40% ABV. This bottle was a gift from a friend 6 years ago. I wasn't too impressed with it then, but it has relaxed and I am enjoying it very much now. An Old Dog has learned New Tricks

8) Tullamore D.E.W. 10 yo Single Malt Irish Whiskey, 40% ABV. This one was purchased about 9 years ago and the bottle was opened right away. This is Cooley Distillery malt. When first opened I considered this bottle to be one of the subtlest and most nuanced whiskis I had ever tasted. It is still quite enjoyable and still quite refined. Jim Murray called this "the best whiskey I have every encountered with a Tullamore label."

Casual Friday!!!

@Victor - I’m joining @Victor in a little Friday afternoon day drinking, but it’s for research purposes so it’s ok. :-)

I have a new (to me) cocktail that I plan to make later today. The cocktail calls for low- to no-peat Scotch whisky, but I don’t really want to use 4 oz (for 2 cocktails) of Society whisky for this, so I tasted through my open “other” scotch whisky to see if any of them will work. I tasted a small pour each of Glenmorangie Dornoch and Glenmorangie 10 Original (have a sample that I thought I might combine with the Dornoch, but no, they are too different). I also tried a little Penderyn Legend (I know it’s not Scotch, but thought it might work, but after tasting, no!).

The ad for the cocktail ingredients suggested Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2011. I have Islay Barley 2010 unopened in the cabinet. I’m debating if I should use this as an excuse to open it up. I’m leaning in that direction at the moment. Final decision to be revealed later when I make the cocktail.

I also had a wee afternoon pour today and have been 'whisky snacking' on and off all day. Reason, kids went to the beach with their Mum so I've had the house to myself and she's gone out this evening too! Solitude is a rare companion these days ...

After lunch some Glenlivet 12 Illicit Still - Loving this! Big, fruit bomb of a whisky with a great mouthfeel and superb finish. 89

A little taste (or two) of Springbank 10 - noticeably more rubbery after the 'livet and distinctly dirtier. Just bloody good whisky. 90

Before dinner, Arran 10 - Surprisingly tame after the 'livet and SB but still enjoyable as ever. The nip was certainly more perceptible. One to open up with, really. 86

After dinner a fresh opened Ledaig 10 - Very good. Creosote and farmy style of peat with sweet spices and juicy barley sugar and lemon notes. Very sweet to sour then dry form. Seems to hit a peak ( with water) quickly then becomes a touch bitter. Straightforward but a great Islay alternative. 87

Now a real treat of a sample, ralfy's Port Charlotte Meteorite 12 (sherry hogshead @56.2) - I wasn't going to write about this just yet as I'm still enjoying it, but I couldn't wait to say how excellent it is. Tarry, treacley, slightly minty, creosotey, medicinal, farmy, salty with smoked cherry jam - and the sherry cask is as clean as two whistles! And the colour ... oh my! So dark. Easily my favourite, 92. Cheers @Timp

@bwmccoy Never met a Clynelish I didn't like.

I decided to open the Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2010 - 50% ABV. Cocktail to follow as soon as my wife gets back from getting her hair done, which could be hours for all I know. While I'm waiting, I'm having a small first dram from the bottle. This is so good. Initial notes of liquid barley, honey, vanilla, oily and salty with an earthiness in the finish; sage comes to mind, but not that sharp of a flavor.

So the new cocktail was ok, but not worth using 4oz of good Bruichladdich single malt.

The cocktail was the El Caballero;

Coat the rim of a rocks glass with cacao sugar.

2oz Scotch

1.5oz coconut water

1/2oz date syrup

3 dashes chicory pecan bitters

Stir the ingredients together except for the bitters with ice. Strain into the rocks glass over a large piece of ice. Add the bitters after pouring in the glass. Optionally, add a lime edge. I didn’t have any limes.

After that cocktail was a disappointment, my wife and I decided to have a Black Manhattan (Maker’s Mark 46).

Glengoyne 15 year-old as it's my daughter's 15th birthday today (the 5cl bottle was split with my father-in-law as we had birthday cake), and Dewar's 18 year-old, as it also happens to be my 18 year service anniversary at work.

Cocktail hour;

Started off with a Jerry Thomas Manhattan (Rittenhouse Rye BiB)

Followed by a Black Manhattan (Maker’s Mark 46).

In honor of Ardbeg Day at Feis Ile, finishing the night with a sample of Ardbeg An Oa - 46.6% ABV. Combination of PX casks, virgin charred oak casks and ex-bourbon casks.

Port Charlotte OLC:01: A 9 year old finished in Oloroso Cask. A light thin sweet sherry coat which accentuates a spicy, smoky, peaty ash, full on barn yard funk. It leans a bit too much on the hot side but, the dirty farm yard notes are lovely. Good to report that the Oloroso finish is subtle and does not dominate the Port Charlotte profile.

It would have been inappropriate for me to actually post a message 'now', when I was drinking last night, which is why I am posting this morning.

I drove three hours from Denver to Steamboat Springs. I packed the car of stuff my mother wanted to make sure came back before the house was sold. After that, I drove back to Denver, another three hours. I got home a little after 4pm. I was tired and ready to crash with light meal and a lot of youtube videos. After I turned on my computer I saw I got an email. The email was sent by (someone who I had mentioned in previous postings regarding whisky tastings) a neighborhood friend, Brian. He is the same age as my parents, and his daughter (second child) and I were in grade school to high school together. He was even our Assistant Scoutmaster, so have known him for many years.

Anyway, Brian's email contained to bits of information. A friend of his, who also lived in neighborhood for many years, just died. In addition to that, he included an email that was sent out by the father of childhood friend of mine. I learned that my childhood friend had a bike accident back in April. Luckily, he didn't suffer from severe injuries from the accident; however, when they did a scan, they found a tumor in his brain.

After all of the 'updates' Brian's email ended with, "Andy. this is the day for some Bad News, think we need a single malt?"

I was so tired after the car trip and packing that I wasn't thinking straight and I wrote a stupid excuse about not being up to drinking, followed with "can we get together tomorrow?".

After hitting sent, I thought to myself, "What the hell am I doing?" So I called, and said that I will be over in thirty.

Long story longer....

This was no tasting. This was about drinking and reflecting on friends and life.

Glencadam 15yo Glendronach 18yo Glengoyne 21yo Glen Garioch 15yo

I came home with...

Glendronach 18yo Glengoyne 21yo Glen Garioch 15yo

Yes, my friend really enjoyed the 15yo Glencadam.

Let me end with overused cliché.

"Life is short, and so am I" HA!

A touching story @ajjarrett.

This makes me more determined to sit down with some of my connosr friends and open one of the bottles that came my way via my much missed brother in law, @nosebleed, and toast his live well lived and sadly cut short.

@fiddich1980 cheers for posting this up. Got to get one now. The dirty farm yard notes are what I love in a quality Port Charlotte and from your description this sounds lovely.

@ajjarrett Agree with @Nozinan a very touching story and you are indeed right, life is indeed short. Whisky and reminiscing go together, particularly when shared with old friends. Regards.

@Timp This was a recent purchase courtesy of @Cricklewood. I requested that he open the bottle on a recent Zoom meeting. He did not say much about it on initial tasting. It is always interesting to watch someone's body language when they are tasting a newly opened spirit for the first time. It is what I miss when doing group tastings. His impressions were enough for me to request a second bottle. When I did receive the bottle my first comments on tasting were inappropriate and can not be revealed publicly. It justified my request for another bottle - the filth - is there. So far, I'm not disappointed with the Port Charlotte bottles I have had. They tend to improve over time as the fill level declines.

@ajjarrett, That was quite the taxing day, some tragic aspects, but a feel good vibe. Thank you for sharing.

Yes, life is short.

Nice to know there is another Whisky Scout amongst us...our ranks are growing.

Dib dib, dob dob....always be pre-poured.

@ajjarrett Thanks for sharing that touching story. The importance of whisky, and a whole lot of other things, pales in comparison to the importance of friends and family. Sometimes it takes a tragedy, a loss, and a kick in the ass to remind us of that.

Behind in my posting;

On Sunday, for the cocktail hour, my wife and I had a couple of Black Manhattan’s (Maker’s Mark 46).

Nothing last night (Monday).

Tonight, was in the mood for peat smoke;

Caol Ila SMWS 53.320 (12 year - Sep. 2007) "Raiders of the flossed ark" from a refill ex-bourbon hogshead - 58.2% ABV.

St George's Distillery English Whisky Company SMWS 137.7 (7 year - Feb 2012) "How to kill your dragon" - 2nd-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 65.5% ABV

Both of them hit the spot!

@fiddich1980 @Timp - Thanks to @Timp's generosity I was able to sample ralfy's PC Meteorite sherry cask 12. What a dram thAt was! I haven't been seeking out any peat bombs for a while but that was a perfect example of when sherry and peat can work perfectly.

I also opened a Ledaig 10. They both have that farmy quality to them, albeit slightly different, but it works so well. I keep wishing Ledaig would do another Amontillado cask so I might be able to grab a couple of bottles this time ...

Right now some Kenyan tea after a walk in warm and muggy conditions. Very refreshing!

I've been dabbling with a few different teas lately. This one is very lively and brisk (a 'builder's tea' - yeuck, I loathe that British phrase ha - some might say). It's a component of English Breakfast tea and, my favourite Yorkshire tea apart, that blend is proving hard to beat.

I know this isn't even remotely whisky related, and I apologise for the digression, but I'm having to keep whisky to a minimum at the moment and perhaps, at the age of 41, my Englishness and appreciation of of a well-made, refreshing cuppa is blossoming

@RianC With you on this one mate. Got into loose tea a few years ago and we now blend our own up as I love a good dollop of Lapsang in the morning to give it all a smoky kick. Not too much mind. Got some wonderful silver needle tea and blended it with some Yunan pine needle. Really fragrant and subtle. Love the way there are different names for the first, second and so on brews with the same leaves. Something we also do, just add another spoonful to the pot of used leaves and go again. Like whisky a whole world of geekery if you want it. Lol. Cheers.

Ps glad you liked the Meteorite, knew you would.

@RianC @Timp tea time? As I write this I am brewing a huge batch of a mystery tea my wife had somehow acquired. Huge leaves, with many large structures that look like buds. It has no English on the label, just lots of Chinese characters, plus a big single larger-font line, apparently the main identifier, which looks to be in Hindi. First tastes are similar to a typical green tea, but I remain completely puzzled by what this stuff is. I rather enjoy the exploration of these unknown commodities sitting at the back of my cabinet.

Yesterday I had lunch with my two sisters and one remaining brother-in-law. My BIL is a peathead with respect to taste in Scotch. I always like to do the rounds of his cabinet when I visit him. First up, and the outlier headliner of the show was a bottle my other sister @Maddie had brought over to the get-together.

1) Navazos Palazzi Cask Strength Single Malt, 52.5% ABV, 900 total bottles, from Spain. This was matured entirely in oloroso sherry casks which the label emphasized had actually recently held sherry which was just dumped for this product. How about that? Sherry casks from Spain which actually recently held maturing sherry! This was at or near (ambiguous seal) the beginning of the bottle. It was pretty good, though much less winey than I expected. It will be interesting to see how this bottle changes with more air exposure

2) OB Lagavulin 16. Yes I reckon that over the years I've had 8 samples of Lag 16 from other peoples' bottles, each of which was excellent. This in no way diminishes the fact that the only bottle of Lagavulin 16 year old which I ever bought rated in the lower half of Fair on an Excellent-Very Good-Good-Fair-Poor scale

3) OB Laphroaig 10, 43%, sturdy and good as always, so far. My BIL had 2 bottles of Laph 10 both open and both 80% consumed. I declined to sample the second one

4) Laphroaig 10 CS, Batch # 11, 58.6% ABV. Excellent as usual

5) Ardbeg Uigeadail, 54.2% ABV, also very enjoyable as usual. I didn't note the bottling date

6) Aberlour A'bunadh, Batch # 67, 59.8% ABV. This bottle was given to my BIL a few months ago by one of his daughters and was at this point about 20% full. Does this quick consumption of this bottle mean that my BIL loves this style? NO! He does not. He winters with my sister for 4 months a year in Arizona. When their social circle come over for drinks, they drink the A'bunadh...and will not touch any of the PeSmBr stuff that my brother-in-law likes to drink

7) Lastly, and of great significance to me, was another sample of Ten High, a $ 10 per 750 ml blended bourbon (= 49% grain neutral spirits w/ 51% straight bourbon) which my brother-in-law uses strictly as his "cooking whiskey". This is made at Barton distillery, which is owned by Sazerac Company. It has a 3 year age statement on it in reference to the bourbon fraction. I was excited and a little in trepidation that he had gone through that last bottle of his of Ten High which I had found surprisingly enjoyable as a sipper. This second newly opened bottle was somewhat different in effect but still adequately enjoyable as a sipper. I'd rate it lower half of Good on an Excellent-Very Good-Good-Fair-Poor scale. @Maddie and I went on and on agreeing with each other that this Ten High tasted better to us than most batches we've sampled of Evan Williams Black Label, which is a top 5 selling whiski brand in the US. Yes I'd rather take a chance on sipping Ten High than Evan Williams Black. I liked the Ten High better than quite a few of the bourbons I have tasted to date. My observation is always the same: one must actually taste the whiski to assess its merits, and not operate off of prejudice

Last night's experiment...you could definitely taste the Laphroaig influence, but I'm not sure it really did anything to make the beer better. I prefer the I&G Rum Finish, Smokin' Gunn (Bourbon Barrel and Maple Syrup), and Scotch Whisky Porter to this.

@Victor - was that the new laffy 16 or the older bottling?

I'm yet to open the new 16 ...

@RianC I've not tasted any new bottling of Lagavulin 16 yo. All the ones I've tasted over the last 10 years had been around for a while.

@Victor - Ha sorry, my bad as they say! I misread it as Laphroaig

@YakLord Great colour in that Laphroaig I&G.

@BlueNote It's definitely not as dark as the promotional photos I've been seeing on social media, and it didn't really live up to the hype. While you can taste the Laphroaig influence more so than you can taste the Highland Park influence in the Harviestoun Ola Dubh stouts, I didn't think it was as good as their previous Scotch Whisky Cask version, and certainly not as good as Vanishing Point (450 days in ex-bourbon casks).