So, what are you drinking now?

@Nozinan I wrote 59% ABV on my sample bottle of M & H STR Cask. I'll have to check it when I visit my sister again. I don't recall its being labeled as part of the Apex series.

I would love to try whisky aged in pomegranate wine casks! Or blueberry wine casks, or raspberry wine casks, or Slivovitz casks, or....

@TracerBullet @BlueNote @Victor - I have a similar 'problem' every Birthday and Xmas with my partner. She gets grumpy with me because 99% of the time I'll specify a whisky (or five ha!) or request vouchers for whiski when she asks what I'd like.

She likes to buy surprises (her family are this way too) so she thinks I'm a dead bore because I'm so fussy. I say, I know what I like so why not take joy in giving me that?!

Like Victor says, were the boot on the other foot, I'd be quite happy to get her exactly what she wanted - and bonus, it makes shopping much easier, right?!

I guess I 'don't get it!'

@RianC I have no problem if someone wants to surprise me with a gift. Just please let it not be whisky if they don’t know my tastes. And really, at my age, just remembering I exist is appreciated.

I received a very nice birthday gift through the mail this week. I have been assured it is not whisky. Point proven.

@RianC, for years I left hints for birthday gifts. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that socks and shirts and coffee mugs with corny slogans are perfectly good gifts to receive……..because I now buy myself a birthday gift, every year. Two years ago it was a bottle of brandy, something I would not likely get as a gift…..

@Victor well, I will be sure to save some of the M&H apex pomegranate wine cask for you. And if by some chance I don’t see you in the 2 decades it will take me to finish the bottle, there will be plenty from the bottle currently waiting to come from San Francisco…

@Victor I hope you enjoy the KWM Glenfarclas in good health and happiness! I look forward to seeing a review or commentary on it, if you get the opportunity.

@Victor It's interesting...my fiancee claims to not really know what I like best Scotch wise, but both times she has hit home runs with her gifted bottles to me...Talisker 10 for Xmas 2020 and Auchentoshan Three Wood this past Christmas. Two of my favourites in the 'affordable (at least by Ontario standards) and actually available' category.

As I think about it, she is probably consulting with my friend before buying, as I provide similar consultative services for whisky selection for my friend's wife when she buys a bottle for his anniversary gift each year.

@Pudge72 I found the Glenfarclas 25 CS which you gave me to be very nicely balanced, with good body and a rather clean sherry influence. I enjoyed it very much

That's a wonderful sign of good flow and good non-verbal communication between you that your fiancee tunes in well to what whiskies you would want without consulting you directly.

My sister has given me quite a few whiski gifts over the years. I have liked every single one of them. What Julie gave me was the license to buy whatever and as much as I wanted. That worked out well. Very well.

@Victor I have a similar understanding with my wife. I don’t care how many pairs of shoes she buys, and she tells me to just get whatever whisky I want (within reason of course. I don’t have any $4000 Port Ellens in my cabinet).

@paddockjudge - just the one ...?!? They look lovely!

In fairness, she'll usually oblige me and recently actively encouraged me to start buying 'investment' bottles when I told her how much some of them sell on for. When I have some spare cash to 'invest' I might take her up on it ha!

Last night another Jose Cuervo Reserva De La Familia Extra Anejo (the glass from the night before smelt divine and almost rum like) - I'm beginning to think one could describe it as a 'cacao' bomb! Followed by a Mortlach 15 - love this! Restrained sherry and I was also getting some Bovril (beef stock) vibes - lovely but certainly unusual - and it seemed very heavy on the malt after the tequila, which is all good!

Had some friends over last night and opened the Kilchoman Small Batch. Batch No. 5, Sauternes cask/Bourbon Barrel/Sherry cask, 48.3% ABV (Cask Strength). I picked up a few days ago. It’s got the Kilchoman DNA with a decent peaty punch. The Sauternes and Sherry cask influence round it out nicely. I like this one enough to see if I can grab another bottle before it’s gone.

On Friday night, went over to my brother-in-law’s for dinner. After dinner, had some drams from his cabinet;

Glenmorangie The Original

Dailuaine SMWS 41.142 (13 year - May 2007) "Jam-packed with darkness". After 11 years in an ex-oloroso American oak butt, transferred into a first fill Spanish oak PX sherry butt. 57.5% ABV.

Ardmore SMWS 66.193 (7 year - Sep. 2013) "An engine starter for cold mornings" from a 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrel. 61.3% ABV.

Ardbeg 10

Ardbeg Wee Beastie 5 year

Laphroaig 10 year

@RianC enjoying both those bottles at the moment too and I think your descriptions are spot on.

I would never have purchased this Tequila had it not been for connoisseurs recommendation’s here so thank you all those who commented.

Tonight my father in law and I had Lagavulin 16 to start ( very happy with this new bottle ), followed by a few drams of Octomore 7.1

A good evening. Cheers.

I’m enjoying the penultimate dram from my bottle of KWM Cask Glenfarclas 25 yr old at 50% ABV. I’d forgotten about it until @Victor and @Pudge72 were commenting on it. Lovely thickly sherried stuff.

Herbie Hancock on the TT.

@RianC, they’re investment bottles only if they remain unopened

Yep, one bottle followed by another a year later

Tonight, Glenrothes SMWS 30.108 (12 year - Feb. 2008) "A Taste of Home" - Refill sherry butt - 64.3% ABV.

Followed by Ledaig 18 year (2001) Gordon & Macphail's Connoisseurs Choice single cask - Refill Sherry Butt - 56.3% ABV. So good, I had to have a little more.

@bwmccoy I like the sound of that Ledaig.

Tobermory has a nice friendly little visitor center, the kind where the staff are not overrun with whisky tourists all day and you can spend some leisurely time tasting their various offerings. Much different from many of the big Speyside and Islay visitor centers where they are buried in tourists all day every day and where if you don't book the expensive tour, you aren't going to be tasting anything very interesting. I'm looking forward to a return visit to Mull and and tasting some more of their distillery only Ledaigs.

@BlueNote - The Ledaig is a great whisky! Isle of Mull (along with Arran and Campbeltown) are on my list of places to visit on my next trip to Scotland! Haven't been able to fit those in on my previous trips.

A Blast From The Past, Glenlivet Nadurra, 16 YO natural cask strength 55.5% abv. first fill American Oak (bourbon) Casks. Batch 0712U bottled 07/2012. This is my second favourite batch of Nadurra, the 11/11 batch is my favourite.

Thank you @cricklewood

@bwmccoy You'll love the Isle of Mull. Arran is on the agenda for our next trip.

Last night (Monday), Fettercairn SMWS 94.10 (13 year - Aug. 2007) "The gentle beast from the east". After 11 years in a refill ex-bourbon hogshead, transferred to a 1st-fill ex-Pedro Ximenez sherry hogshead - 56.0% ABV.

Last night (Tuesday), I finished off a sample of Caol Ila 18 year Unpeated Style. Bottled 2017. 59.8% ABV

Finished with Glen Scotia SMWS 93.148 (12 year - Feb. 29th, 2008) "Tour de force". After ten years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, it was transferred into a first fill port hogshead - 56.4% ABV.

@bwmccoy Those high strength unpeated Caol Ila bottlings are a thing of beauty. If they were more regularly available, I'm sure Darth Diageo would make even more money. Do you find that you still get a bit of peat/smoke with them? I've found unpeated CI kind of reminiscent of a certain Campbeltown malt.

@bwmccoy @OdysseusUnbound I've only ever had a small sample of the 15 year old unpeated Caol Ila and I thought it kind of resembled Hazelburn 10.

@BlueNote @OdysseusUnbound

I've tried one of the 15 YOs and a 17 YO unpeated CS Caol Ila. Both excellent. Both obtained relatively inexpensively. I have another 2 15, a 17 and an 18, and my expectation is that I will never be in a position to buy another bottle. I can save some for you if either of you ever come to visit.

@Nozinan If I ever do manage a visit, I promise not to stay for more than 2 weeks. I have to leave enough time to get up to Sudbury

@BlueNote Sudbury is home to some of the world's best people.

@OdysseusUnbound @BlueNote - I'm not sure I got to spend enough quality time with the unpeated Caol Ila. I only had a 1oz sample and I shared some of it with my brother-in-law. He loves peated Caol Ila and I had him taste it blind. He didn't care for it. He thought it tasted young. I didn't think it tasted young and I liked it, but not sure I liked it enough to buy a bottle. I didn't detect any peat / smoke, but I loved how the barley was front and center.

Last night (Wednesday), GlenDronach SMWS 96.34 (11 year - March 2009) "Stroll Through the Seasons" - 1st-fill ex-bourbon barrel - 60.2% ABV.

Tonight, while playing on-line poker with my brother-in-law and friends, started off with the next to last dram of Glen Elgin 14 year (2006) The ImpEx Collection - Cask #9800012 (ex-bourbon barrel) - 52.5% ABV.

Finished with another bottle that is almost gone as well, Dallas Dhu 1980 (29 year) Signatory Bottling (Distilled Oct 31, 1980 - Bottled Mar 17, 2010) Cask # 1855 Bottle # 108 of 154.

Last night I had just a finger of Four Roses Single Barrel (Warehouse: PN, Barrel No: 13-1K). A great sipper! I have had this opened for a while and forgotten how much spice there was in the finish. Sadly, this bottle is almost gone.