What was the last bottle you finished?

@Nozinan Whisky shared taste better.

@fiddich1980 I've also had the benefits from some of those bottles. That Timorous Beastie left a lasting impression on me of a style of whisky we don't see much anymore.

How did you find the Bunna 18? I had the opportunity to try this label style twice and really loved the profile.

@fiddich1980 That pic gives me agita!Great bottles...

@cricklewood The Bunna XVIII excellent, 2012 bottling. Thankfully, I still have a spare in the bunker.

Nose: Barley and Demerara sugar, sherried, spices(clove, allspice, cinnamon, ... ), touch of lemon, dunnage warehouse, earthy soil floor. boteles, sweaty sock

Taste: salted caramel, dark chocolate, leather, walnut oil, black pepper, red berries, lemon tangerine, chilies, oily mouthful

Finish: long leather, autumn forest floor, black pepper, tannins with a lingering spicy sweetness

Overall: balanced harmony, complex, right amount of heat which ties the flavours together. Cons: the cork on the last few opening before decanting to a reference sample broke.

I've read complaints that current batches are sulfured. I have a recent batch which I have not opened as yet.

@fiddich1980 Your description is spot on from what I remember. I snagged an old batch for @Robert99 in Calgary right at the point they we're changing the label/box design. I've heard rumblings of decrease in quality but i'm not sure if it's founded or not, it has become rather scarce since then. My contacts out wast haven't seen a bottle on shelves in a while.

Casa Noble Crystal (blanco) tequila. I like Casa Noble's distillate very much, but found that with both their Crystal (blanco) and their reposado a lot of air time was excellent for them and much to be desired. The Casa Noble Anejo I have bought from 2 batches. The first was celestial music; the second, and current, only acceptable. I would buy it again, but the disappointment in going from bottles of that first batch to the second was large. My confidence in trying it again stems from the quality of their underlying distillate.

I find that 100% agave tequila in general ages/takes air very well, and holds up for years, often much better than at first bottle opened. Tequila takes air better, I would say, than does whisky.

I find that blanco tequila gives a wonderful contrast to the flavours from wood and grain. But you have to like vegetal flavours to like the taste of agave. It was an acquired taste for me as I think that it would be for most whisky drinkers.

celestial music!

@MadSingleMalt, or alternately, in the long form: like the far-off sound of silver bells gently tinkling in the cold winter's night's air. Just a short few months away in Madison, Wisconsin.

I really hope to taste from another batch of Casa Noble Anejo that tastes just like that!

@Victor - I know it's small fry by comparison but I had some more El Jimador Reposado last week. Bottle's been open well over a year with about 150ml left and it tasted better than ever. I'd expected it to lose flavour and weaken, as would most spirits at that cost, but the opposite occurred.

@RianC tequila typically holds up very well in the open bottle, better than whisky, for sure. And, like whisky, it very often gets much better after it has some time to breathe the air. I am nearing the end of a bottle of 1800 brand Reposado I opened in October of 2012. It still tastes great too. That's another high quality inexpensive choice in tequila. (The Reposado hits the sweet spot. The 1800 Anejo is over-tannic for my taste.) 1800 brand is not a Jose Cuervo product, but the brand is owned by the same family that owns Jose Cuervo. I surmise different distillery, same owners.

I never pooh-pooh El Jimador. I always look forward to drinking it. It's quality tequila. I love it all the more that it costs half the price (in the US) of stuff that is often not as good. Good is good. Good and inexpensive at the same time is GREAT!

El Jimador is the junior brand of Herradura, both owned by Brown-Forman, the owners of Jack Daniels.

Just finished this beauty, Glendalough 13 year old Mizunara Cask. I know they are only finishing liquid from Cooley at this point but my wife and I have really enjoyed the Mizunara finish.

@TracerBullet, one could do a lot worse than finishing Cooley malt in Mizunara wood!

Last night I finished my Wild Turkey 101. It’s been my only bottle on our family’s east coast trip. The trip is winding down, and we’ll be in Montmagny, QC by the end of the day, Cornwall, ON, tomorrow, and home in the Greater Victoria Harbour area on Wednesday.

Cadenheads 12 year old Daluiane (sp) is on its way to the recycling depot. It was good and had all the right attributes (NCF, no added colour, cask strength) but found it too sweet for my taste. I like some bite in my whisky just so I know I'm drinking whisky. Wouldn't buy another one.

The bottle I just finished was one that oddly I didn't start! The Lagavulin 18 year old Feis Isle that @markjedi1 reviewed. Seen here with my brand new Lagavulin Glencairn! In the comments of Mark's review I mentioned that I'd love to get my hands on it and Mark very kindly sent me his bottle with a healthy dram for me to drink. Thanks Mark you're a good man!!

The whisky? I wouldn't dare to review it, but I'd say in terms of scores I'd rate it similar to Mark, that is high 80s. The most surprising thing about the whisky was how unsurprising it was. More or less as you'd expect the 16 would taste if it was served at cask strength. Reinforces how the 16 is cut off at the knees by being bottled at 43%. The whisky was great, typical, unmistakable Lagavulin. The nose in particular I thought was fantastic. Did I like it more than the 12CS? That's a difficult one to answer as I didn't have them side by side to compare. But I think I maybe just prefer the simplistic, elemental power of the 12CS over this slightly more refined 18CS.

Back home after a pre-bat-mitzvah function (for my daughter). A few of us wanted something special, from a closed distillery.

I poured the last 50 cc of my Bladnoch 10 YO 55%.

This is the 4th bottle of Bladnoch i’ve Opened and the 3rd I’ve finished. Bladnoch continues to impress. Each of Armstrong’s bottles is a new adventure

Just finished off a couple of bottles. I only have so much room available for open bottles. Here are two I am sad to see go:

Amrut Intermediate Sherry (Batch 5) and Bruichladdich Isaly Barley 2009. I have a few back up bottles of the Islay Barley. I only have one Amruit IS left and it is Batch 2. If I am honest I slightly prefer Batch 2, but Batch 5 was fantastic.

Amrut

Just finished my Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2008. Delicious stuff. Sad to see it go.

Got this little beauty at the distillery last year and laid it to rest last night. Very tasty at 54.1%. Thankfully, I still have it’s companion Moine, finished in a PX cask. Wish I had two.

There are a few bare spots in the cabinet after spending a lot of time with my brothers and nephews in recent weeks. Inventory replenishment will be challenging as a some of these are difficult to source......but I'm up for the task!

@TracerBullet I am not sure if you were asked, or had mentioned this before, but where did you pick up this bottle of Glendalough 13 year old Mizunara Cask?

@ajjarrett At a local liquor store called Pine Orchard. Originally my wife and I attended a Glendalough tasting at a local restaurant. We got to taste the Poitín, Double Barrel, 7 year old and the 13 year old Mizunara finish. We purchased the 7 year old and the 13 year old through the restaurant because we had not seen it anywhere else. About a month later, we ran across Glendalough at Pine Orchard. The price was less than we originally paid and they had the 13 year old so we picked up two more bottles.

@OdysseusUnbound you seemed to have made quick work of that PC Islay Barley, speaks to it`s appreciation.

@BlueNote I love those small Bunna handfills, Muscat wine? Don't see that often!

@paddockjudge Damn...that's quite a dent in the cabinet, feel like you need a 21 gun salute for that!

@cricklewood, They weren't all full when we started, but they certainly are all empty now.

@paddockjudge WOW another Macallan CS down! I think your are single-handedly raising the auction price of those. I doubt other people out there are cracking open their hoarded bottles given the selling price and demand these days. Cheers!

@Nock Have you looked at prices online these days? For a bottle purchased for $73, crazy!

@Nozinan totally true. I regret not buying a few more bottles when I *absolutely knew it was being discontinued** but . . . that was when I was really trying to not be a collector. I was really just trying to buy what I was going to enjoy drinking. And at the time I had three bottles. How was I going to need more? Foolish!

Speaking of drinking . . . here are two more empty bottles from this weekend. Technically, I did decant the An Oa into a 200mL bottle and I managed to save 50mL of the Corry (your batch @Nozinan of 22/10/2018). I have a back up of the 22/10/2018 . . . but I will never be buying another An Oa.

To me the An Oa is a dumping ground for all the failed Ardbeg casks. If it wasn't good enough for the 10yo or the Corry or the Uig . . . put it in the An Oa! To me it comes off is muddled and boring. It is less peaty that the others. It clearly has some sherry casks, but not enough to do more than round off some edges. I just put it in a blind tasting of other 46% peated whiskies. I scored it in the mid 80's. Not bad. But for an Ardbeg I always expect more.

I finished a bottle of Mackmyra Skördetid at the weekend. Having been a little underwhelmed with several Mackmyras I've had in the last few years this was a very nice surprise. The partial aging in amarone casks lends a lovely soft fruitiness to it and it has great balance. The 46% ABV helps too - most Mackmyras I've seen have been closer to the legal minimum, which does nobody any favours.

@Nock I have one more bottle of CS Red Label. It was hiding in my cabinet (long story but purchased it years ago to share with my father-in-law). Checked the current pricing on it and now I am afraid to open it! The picture is not mine (I don't have a picture of my bottle available) but it's the same release.