So, what are you drinking now?

@paddockjudge, @JasonHambrey, @Astroke, et alii, I have no doubt whatsoever that excellent 'bourbon-analogue' whiskis can be made outside the USA. I am very pleased to see it, especially because your Ottawa-based North of 7 distillery is putting out the sort of high proof beverage that I prefer. I hear that the Aussies have been putting out some 'bourbon-analogue' whiskis for a while now as well. The USA has no right to control rye-corn-barley whiski aged in new oak any more than Scotland has the right to control barley-malt whiski. More whiski in the whiski universe is better. Who knows? Maybe in 20 years there will be more 'bourbon-analogue' whiski distilled outside the USA than within it...just as it is entirely feasible for the USA to produce far more malt whiski than Scotland...but that won't happen unless US tastes change a lot.

I am a universalist with respect to whiski. I don't care where it's made or the history of where it came from. All I care about is how it tastes, smells, and feels in the mouth. All of the cultural baggage of whiski is mildly interesting to me, but it is not why I drink it.

So, yes, I welcome North of 7 Distillery, and everybody else in this world who is working to produce high quality products.

@Astroke we have selected a barrel of rye from north of 7 and are tasting it every year until it is ready. Generally i find they bottle their rye too young (~4 yrs but getting older). Ours turned 6 in January and it’s already a step above the other ryes. We’ll probably let it sleep another year or two…if there is any left over (probably unlikely) then you can take some. Or use up your brownie points to steal from the liberal order of @paddockjudge….

@Victor it is interesting to read your interest is primarily in the experience of consuming good whisky.

While this is also important to me - I want to enjoy the drams I consume - a lot of my enjoyment comes from exploring the story behind the whisky, or the hunt for the elusive bottle.

The accumulation of whisky knowledge can happen any time of day. Even just before driving. I find it adds greatly to the experience.

For instance, the history of my bottle of Macallan CS and sharing the last few drams with @paddockjudge, as it is the bottle that brought us together, turns a great whisky into a phenomenal experience.

@Nozinan my interest in whiski is in taste, smell, and texture.

My interest in sharing whiski with others is in getting to be friends with the others.

Two different things. One about the whiski. The other about the people primarily, and with the whiski being secondary.

@JasonHambrey Hopefully, the Rye I ordered and should be here by Friday was 5.5 years and a respectable 50.5%. I will open it this weekend and give my thoughts on this thread as my reviewing skills leave much to be desired.

@Victor When shared in good company, a simple bottle of Grant’s or Tullamore DEW can be magical. Of course, a shared bottle of WLW or GTS would probably be even more magical.

I’m sipping some Lagavulin 8 year. I’m a fan of this expression; I’ve reviewed it at least twice (and at least once in a blind) and have rated it 90-92 pts each time. This bottle is a little different than the previous two. I’m very favourably biased toward Lagavulin but this bottle probably wouldn’t crack 90pts for me. Don’t get me wrong; it’s lovely but there’s more butterscotch/banana/vanilla than briny, lemony peat in this one. Still yummy but closer to 87/100 if I had to rate it.

Tonight, started with a "New Pal" cocktail. This is Fast Penny Spirits' take on an Old Pal. 1oz rye (Rittenhouse BiB), 1oz Amaricano Bianca, 1oz dry vermouth with a lemon twist for a garnish.

Next, a Greenpoint cocktail. 2 oz Rye (Rittenhouse BiB), 1/2 oz Green Chartreuse, 1/2 oz Sweet vermouth, 1 dash Angostura bitters, 1 dash Orange bitters and garnish with a lemon peel.

After dinner, Ben Nevis (SMWS cask sample) 11 year (Sep. 2009) 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 66.8% ABV.

Couple of nights back I had a wee taste of all my open bottles of malt. It was an impulsive thing after really enjoying a Tali 18 (and the simple pleasure of actually being able to drink and enjoy it again!)

Talisker 18 - this is a good batch. Love the profile and the balance is exceptional. I'll be adding to the pile soon, no doubt.

Mortlach 15 G&M - perhaps better before the Tali, but this is one rich whisky. Manages to be very sweet but without ever becoming too much. More Highland in style than Speyside, I'd say. Might even be enjoying it more than the Talsiker.

Glendronach 15 - holds up well here. Blonde tobacco and maple syrup with a pleasing, robust spice level. Such a shame they tinkered with the presentation ...

Ledaig 10 - my least favourite. I had some cork issues but even after replacing and waiting, it's not got much better. A poor batch, I'd say, with some overly bitter tannins in the finish. Not awful, but not up to my expectations.

Glenlivet 12 Illicit Still - very nice, orchard fruits and malt. A welcome sip after the finish on the Ledaig.

Arran 10 - this bottle is hitting its prime now. Gone is the wee nip and the fruity, honey combo works really well. I think Arran suits bourbon more than sherry and there's definitely a touch more of the latter in these newer batches.

Laphroaig 10 Sherry Oak - Really enjoyable and the combo works but the finishing method prevents the sherry notes from becoming deep and well integrated. Would be stunning with a few more years in the cask.

Springbank 10 - Almost forgot about this one hiding behind all the other bottles! Wow! Like the Arran, reaching its peak and thoroughly enjoyable - juicy, lemony, 'charcoaly' malt that is hard to put down. My aim to get one(+) when I see it available, is still on point.

Small pours (after the first!) but a real treat and good to see how some bottles have come on with some air. Cheers!

Last night I really fancied another Glendronach 15 - the maple syrup on the nose is wonderful! Solid sherried malt this. My head hurts thinking about their new presentation policy ...

Couldn't help having a Laffy 10 Sherry, afterwards. As above, a lovely dram, especially if one doesnt over-think it. As soon as you examine a bit deeper though the sherry 'coat' becomes quite apparent. It works though, so ... And hats off to Laphroaig for doing this. They seem to be doing some good stuff of late and their prices haven't yet become silly

@RianC someone is having nice evenings! It seems the Talisker 18 isn't so easy to find these days though...?

I had a funky Springbank last night too. First for over a year I reckon, and a nice reacquaintance! It is pretty unique.

@RikS - My partner and youngest have covid so I'm all alone in an evening. What's a poor, lonely boy to do ...

My Springbank 10 was a touch on the funky side when I first opened it - still good but a bit unbalanced. It's now blossoming so I should really start tucking it away while it's at its peak.

Speaking of blossoming - our cherry tree is looking particular lovely this year ...

@RianC If I had even small pours from each of my open bottles, I would need to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning...

Glenfarclas 25 yo, Cask Strength,52.0% ABV 25th Anniversary bottling for the Kensington Wine Market in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Thank you, @Pudge72, for this nice sample. I am getting to it 10 days shy of 3 years since you gave it to me.

G & M Linkwood 15 yo, 43% ABV. Always wonderful. This finishes off a sample given to me by my sister.

Aberlour A'bunadh, Batch # 68, 61.5% ABV, a sample given me by a friend; from a righteous batch.

John Milroy 3 yo Peated Islay Malt Whisky, ABV ?. This is really very good with strong and tasty peating and I would be happy to drink this any time. This sample from a friend doesn't identify the distillery. The peating here tastes to me most like Bruichladdich. Or it could be a peated Bunnahabhain. John Milroy has bottled a Staoisha peated 3 yo Bunnahabhain previously.

All these malts lately, ...you'd think I never drink any North American whiskis. The truth is that I like them ALL.

@Nozinan - Just the malts ... Just the malts

@Victor - I need to get myself some Linkwood - enjoyed what I've had and @BlueNote recommended the G&M bottling to me recently. Have you (anyone) had the Flora and Fauna bottling? See good reports, usually, and it's about £20 cheaper.

@RianC Even just my open malts...

@RianC I don't know about the F & F Linkwood. What I do know is that I have loved every single Linkwood I have ever tasted. Linkwood is at the top of my list for barley flavour quality in all malt whiskis, Scottish and otherwise. .

@Victor @RianC I've only had the 43% G&M Linkwood and it was excellent. I'm told the 46% version is even better. It's top of my list right now, just waiting for the right sale.

@Nozinan When you are 99 and ready to go, you could have a medically assisted death by alcohol poisoning from whatever special malts are left in your whisky cabinet.

@BlueNote at that age I would be paralyzed by indecision with so much left. Probably still some bottles from 2011…

Tonight, a couple of drams of Loch Lomond SMWS 135.35 (12 year - Nov. 2008) "Stellar stuff!" - After 9 years in an ex-bourbon cask, transferred to a new oak hogshead, heavy char #4+ - 54.5% ABV. The first dram was without water. The second dram with water. I love how the barley malt notes intermingle with the char influence from the cask finish. I didn't really have a preference between without or with water. It was only slightly different and I liked it both ways.

Finished with a peated Speyside dram; Allt-A-Bhainne SMWS 108.19 (7 year - Nov 2011) "Forget Convention!" - 2nd-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 64.6% ABV. Allt-A-Bhainne has the most unique peat flavor profile. It's a sweet peat with some mint (peppermint?) notes.

Last evening I had a Glenlivet 14. This was a Christmas gift from a good friend that knows I like scotch but doesn't know a lot about it. Not something I would go out of the way to get but it is not bad.

Jose Cuervo Reserva De La Familia Extra Anejo. Opened it a few weeks back but haven't really touched it since then. It seemed to have picked up a whiff of the box on pulling the cork but air has shifted it (I will be storing it differently from now on though and leaving the cork off a while).

A lovely nose with dark chocolate, tangy (almost nippy, like peat) agave, a little lime oil and a wisp of salt. Some oak notes come as it opens up. Taste pretty much follows on from the nose really but that 38% does it no favours in terms of depth. Still very tasty though and eminently quaffable. Not too much of a finish but some herbal notes and chocolate limes hang in there - it's quite 'fizzy' in texture.

Interesting that Ardbeg always gives me a tequila vibe and I also get chocolate limes, especially in the Ten. I'd be amazed if I saw that similarity with side by side pours. Where's my Ardbeg?

Random musings that I'm sure won't be unwelcome here! Could have put this in the Other Spirits Reviews thread in hindsight though ...

@OdysseusUnbound, @Victor, @Nozinan, you all make excellent points to support the enjoyment which whisky brings. For most of the last decade, and all of this one, my profile page has featured the tag line "Great whisky can be enjoyed by many, but GOOD WHISKY SHARED WITH FRIENDS BECOMES LEGEND." ....one for each of us...I think Lagavulin 8 YO would be appropriate.

OK @paddockjudge, I salute you with all 5 of these:

THE Balvenie 10 yo Founder's Reserve, 43% ABV, last released in 2010 and vanished from the shelves about 2012. This little cutie. which then cost me about $ 45 plus tax per, now is about 7X that as a collectible

wine-searcher.com/find/…

M & H Distillery (Israel) Elements Sherry, 46% ABV Yes, thinking of you too, @Nozinan . This little sample bottle has sat for 15 months and shows with greater depth for the interval.

M & H Distillery STR Cask, 59% ABV. I liked this one a lot 15 months ago when the bottle was first opened, and I like it even better now. Righteous concentration of flavours

Stranahan's Colorado (Single Malt) Whiskey, 46% ABV, Batch # 128, distilled 4-29-2012. This particularly caramel-sweet batch reflects the new charred oak aging of Stranahan's. This is my second of three bottles of Stranahan's Colorado Malt Whiskey. None have I purchased. All three were given to me by one particular friend who likes to repeatedly visit their distillery in Denver, and bring me back a bottle each time he does.

McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt Whiskey, 42.5% ABV, Batch W 09-01, bottled Aug 3, 2009. Clear Creek Distillery in Portland, Oregon has for years produced fruit spirits, and from the mid 1990s went into production of malt whiskey made from Scottish peated barley (reported at 40+ppm peating level). This is 3 years old. Their subjective level of peating flavour intensity? More than Bowmore, I would say. Maybe a similar level of intensity to Caol Ila. When I get to my sister's house one of my most anticipated treats is getting another taste of her Clear Creek Distillery Douglas Fir Eau de Vie.

Happy Earth Day, and happy Friday, messieurs!

@Victor, that's a line-up I would very much enjoy...and the whisky is not too bad either.

Cheers, my friend!

@TracerBullet Its the thought that counts. I’ve got a couple of “gifts” that I don’t know what to do with. I can’t bring myself to regift them or dump them because they are from friends whose intentions were nothing but good.

@BlueNote I absolutely agree. His heart was in the right place and I do appreciate the gift. Like I said, it isn’t a bad dram just maybe not exactly what I would normally get.

@BlueNote @TracerBullet it really is difficult for those who are not whiski fanatics to understand just how picky whiski connoisseurs tend to be. It just does not compute for them. There are whole landscapes of nuance which just do not exist for those who have not attentively traveled the 'water of life' road. If they were really to think about it, buying whiski for a whiski hobbyist is like volunteering to cook for a professional chef. I would be reluctant to do that, and, if I did, I would be extremely cautious in the way that I went about doing it.

When buying any sort of gift for a picky person I just ask the person what he or she wants rather than trying to surprise the person with something which I know, absent prior intel, is unlikely to fully please that person.

@Victor M&H STR at 49%? Is that one of their Apex bottling? Their classic uses STR bottles I believe but it is bottled at 46%.

I have tried the Elements Sherry cask a couple of times. Clean Sherry, and delicious. I will have to review it sometime.

I now own 9 different bottlings (2 different batches of one expression) of Milk and Honey malts, and most are excellent. I cannot wait to try the Pomagranate wine cask finish that will arrive in May via a nephew, and any other bottlings from a very innovative distillery.