What was the last bottle you finished?

@nooch That is fantastic!!! And good on you for the honesty!

Glen Breton Rare 10 YO at 43% and Ice at 40%. I had poured off 60 cc of each in July 2016 before giving the (still quite full) bottles to a Connosr friend. Tonight I officially "finished" the bottles by using 30 cc of each to review them, and then vatting the remainder of the 2 bottles together to see what will happen...

I’m at my in-laws’ for dinner and I just finished the worst bottle of CR Northern Harvest I’ve ever had and the best bottle of Forty Creek Barrel Select I’ve ever had.

Just polished off a bottle of Benromach 10 43%

@KRB80 Have you tried the 100 proof version? Quite a treat IMHO.

I finished A'Bunadh batch 49. Recently I also finished Amrut Khadambam and Laphroaig QC. I need to go through my almost finished bottles to make room for the one I ordered otherwise My cabinet will not be enough and my wife will notice how many bottles I have which in her language could be numbered as "Too many".

@Robert99 How was the 49. I'm slated to open it at the end of April.

@Robert99 N'oubliez pas, la femme est la loi.

@Nozinan Batch 49 is a typical A'Bunadh. Strong flavors, lot of pepper and wood spices. I would say it is an average one because it is not as well defined as the best ones are.

@BlueNote Indeed! It's amongst my personal all-time favorites.

I wanted to explore some of the best bourbon available, and made a choice of the Four Roses Small Batch. It surpassed most or the very basic bourbon I had before with a very smooth and mouth feel and inspiring some poncheon barrels. It lack a special edge though but I'm glad I got to try that one!

@TheHolyDram, I like your screen name.

I think that in selecting Four Roses Small Batch that you made an excellent first choice in surveying the field of bourbon whiskey. That one is easy and very well done. You can move up in intensity from there. If I were advising you in your exploration of the parameters of bourbon I would have had that one as maybe the second bourbon tried, with Van Winkle 12 yo Special Reserve 'Lot B' wheated bourbon the very first. Why the Lot B first? Because it is (usually) even more delicate in flavour structure than is Four Roses Small Batch, and does best on an extremely clean palate. Unfortunately all things Van Winkle are now very hard to get or very expensive...but, I can remember visiting the Summerhill LCBO in Toronto in 2011 and 2012 and being astounded in seeing 8-10 bottles of Van Winkle 12 yo sitting on the shelves for sale at around CAN$ 80 each. That is the largest number of bottles of Van Winkle that I have ever seen sitting on any shelf anywhere at any time. At that point in the US VW12 was already in the 'kill people, marry the store manager's daughter, or get very lucky in a lottery' stage. If that had been in the US then someone would soon have swooped in and just bought them all. But even as late as 2012 Canadians didn't realize what they were looking at on that shelf. I didn't buy any from Summerhill on those trips because I already had several bottles of that one. If I had known how scarce (and valuable) they would very soon thereafter later become I would have picked up at least 4 or 5 of them.

I know a lot of bourbon. If you'd like to chat privately with regards to further bourbon choices drop me a 'follow'.

@Victor Would Weller 12 be a good substitue in absence of Van Winkle Lot B?

@Robert99, good to hear from you, old friend. Weller 12 has a very solid fan following. I was originally not much of a fan myself, because the only bottle of Weller 12 I have owned took a very long time to open up and get to be truly first rate. The short answer to your question is "Yes", if you can't get Van Winkle, then Weller 12 is the next best thing in a refined well-matured wheated bourbon.

As you probably know, the Van Winkles get first choice of all of the barrels of wheated bourbon made at Buffalo Trace. All of the first choice barrels from Buffalo Trace go to Van Winkle with the possible exception of barrels dedicated to William Larue Weller, and any other yet to be seen special products. The only Van Winkle bourbon which might still be from Stitzel-Weller distillery is if there is some backlog of the 23 yo Pappy Van Winkle. I am unaware of any such backlog and expect that even the 23 yo Pappy Van Winkle now derives completely from Buffalo Trace distillate.

So all of the W.L.Weller products, with the exception of William Larue Weller, could be seen as Van Winkle also-rans. The Weller products are quite good, of course, but I've never had one which tasted very close to the Van Winkle products.

That said, I was astounded by how good @Benancio's "Poor man's Van Winkle 10 yo" recipe is. It is very very close to Van Winkle 10 yo. The Van Winkle products are different from each other, and for different moods. Unquestionably the one I like best, by far, is the 15 yo. But if I am not drinking the 15 yo I would most frequently be in the mood for either the ridiculously expensive 23 yo or the very well priced (from a dealer) 10 yo.

Ben's Blend for Old Rip Van Winkle 10 yo:

2 parts W.L. Weller 12 yo

1 part Old Weller Antique 107

1 part Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve 60% ABV

Yes, even including a Beam rye-containing bourbon, this really works.

And, Robert, you may remember that Van Winkle 12 yo was the very first whiskey I served to Maryse. She no longer "disliked all whisk(e)y" after she took a sip.

Lagavulin 16 yo, bottle finished today. I bought this bottle 6 1/2 years ago, in 2011. I've had fantastic Lagavulin 16 yo from more than one bottle in the past. This bottle was not that. I will likely stick to my 1 1/2 bottles of Lagaulin 12 yo and 1/2 bottle of Lagavulin DE. After they are gone I will likely buy more Lagavulin12 yo and/or more Lagavulin DE. Or some Independent Bottlings of Lagavulin.

Last night I finished the McClelland’s Islay that my wife bought me for Christmas. It was an interesting bottle. Review forthcoming.

Nikka for the Barrel, 51.4%, just poured the last dram from my 1 oz sample bottle. This bottle was opened December 19, 2015, decanted April 9 2017, the last time I tasted from it (and when I reviewed it). I gave it a 85. I think today it might be an 86 or 87.

Am I sad to see it go? It did take me a long time to drink it. I might have finished it sooner if I didn't have a hard time letting go.

This seems to be a solid performer. I have lots to keep me from missing it going forward, but I'm sure I will enjoy coming back to its sister bottle sometime in the future.

I grabbed a George Dickel #12 for the holidays, shared it with my family and friends, let me tell you it did not last long. Its such a Werther's Original. Its smooth like his history tells without trading off the flavors. Maybe short finale but I just poured some more.

@TheHolyDram - Would love to try some Dickel. Not easy to get this side of the pond.

Glenfarclas 15 and Eagle Rare 10 found their way into the recycle bin over the weekend. May have had a little dust in my eyes as they chinked their final chinks ...

@RianC In Ontario you could have got 20 cents for those bottles...

@Nozinan - In a Jack Bauer style - 'Damn it!'

@RianC He's Canadian you know....(well, the actor), and his grandfather is the father of Canadian Medicare, and was voted the greatest Canadian ever.

@Nozinan - How interesting! I knew Keifer was Canadian, as it happens - sure I read somewhere he may have been born in London or grew up there for a bit?

A bit like Lennox Lewis, although we claimed him as one of our own!

@RianC If you google "Mouseland" on youtube there's a video where he introduces a cartoon of one of his father's most famous stories.

@Nozinan - Well well! Couldn't help 'Cry Little Sister' playing in my head seeing that - definitely from that era.

@RianC Its crazy we get only 1 out of 4! I would definitely sip more of their kingsman to fuel me up before a hockey game

Just finishing two bottles: Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye and Russell's Reserve 6 yo Straight Rye (from Wild Turkey). The CRNHR had been open for 27 months; the Russell's Reserve had been open almost 10 years.

Enjoying the last pour of Rock Hill Farms. It wasn't easy sitting on this unopened bottle for 4+ years. Opened this past August and shared with some future whisky aficianados. The last dram from this most excellent rye-forward bourbon has been poured. As good luck, or good planning, would have it, a back-up is on the shelf. Perhaps it won't take five years to find another bottle.

@paddockjudge I am down to 1/2 bottle and a previous empty bottle now holds my Single Malt Cask Strength Infinity bottle. Tough bottle to drop in the blue box.