Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@RikS So you should do just the opposite. Open the bottles you get so you can control the amount of unopened bottles you have.

Longrow11 Pinot Noir CS: I was on the road (83N) when I saw a tanker completely blow up on the other wide of th highway (83S). I could still hear the "pop pop pop" and only one ambulance was there . The vehicle was covered in flames and smoke extended at least a mile. Not to trivialize this tragic accident, but I bought this expensive bottle because, well,I was still in one piece. I think I'll save it for a special occasion.I hope the casualties were not too bad---or that that there somehow weren't any.

I blame @odysseusunbound

This is his blog post.

ontarioscotchlover.blogspot.com/2019/06/…

I’ve had my eye on the Classic Laddie for a while. I really liked the Laddie Classic that is almost gone now, and last summer my BIL and I opened one of the old 10s.

After reading the blog post, given we were in the LCBO for other reasons, I made the decision.

I hope to open it with my BIL in the next day or 2, about. A year after we opened the 10. After that, maybe 3 reviews, with the Laddie Classic, the Classic Laddie, and the original 10 H2H2H. If only I could find some of the new 10...

Not a whisky, but I just bought a bottle of Appleton Estate 15 Year Old Rum. Why? Well I’ve got a bottle of one of the supposedly better “dosed” Guyanese rums (El Dorado 15), and I wanted something of a similar age, but in a different style to do a H2H. From my very limited knowledge, the addition of sugar is prohibited in Jamaican rums. Both the El Dorado and the Appleton come highly recommended by the only rum blogger I follow; the Fat Rum Pirate. We’ll see.

Well, I am now back from our European vacation. It was an amazing 16 day excursion. We visited Vienna, Melk, Prague, Seiffen, Munich, Fussen, Salzburg, and back to Prague. All the rich history and amazing food aside . . . here is what I came back with in the way of whisky in no particular order:

1) Amrut Blackadder Raw Cask 61% Sherry Cask finish BA2015/21 bottled August 2015 bottle 102 of 370.

Why? I have read many good things about the Blackadder Raw Cask range. I have never been able to get my hands on a bottle. The store proprietor assured me it was a peated version of Amrut finished in Sherry Casks. Now that I am home I don’t see anything on the label to indicate it is peated. This could be a huge miss on my part. I hope not! I won’t wait long to find out.

2) Laphroaig 13yo 53.9% 2005-Jan.2019 Williamson by Berry Bros & Rudd for Potstill Austria Brianas Choice Nr.8 cask No. 800137

I purchased this from the same shop as the Amrut. The store is Pot Still in Vienna. I highly recommend it. Probably the best selection of whiskies I saw. This was a cask they had selected. Supposedly “Williamson” is a “teaspooned” Laphroaig. That means Laphroaig sells the cask but adds a “teaspoon” of something else so you can’t call it a single malt. Thankfully the store had an open bottle which they allowed me to taste. It was extremely good so I picked it up. Looking forward to cracking this.

3) Glenfarclas 105 60.1% 1 Litre

I picked this up at the boarder crossing of the Czech Republic and Germany. It was tax free and only €32 for a 1 Litre bottle. You really can’t beat that in my opinion. My only budget buy. I have had some very good batches of the 105 . . . and one not so great. I certainly hope this is a good one.

4) Glenfarclas 1989 Jakob I. 46% 1989-2019 (30yo) 3600 bottles ex-Oloroso Sherry

I actually was on the lookout for this bottle. I first heard about it from Horst on Whisky.com. It is supposedly a Germany exclusive release. Basically, a 30yo Glenfarclas at 46% for just under €200 was a no brainer. Super excited to have it.

5) Octomore 9.3 5yo 62.9% (133ppm); 25% 1st fill ex-American; 25% 3rd fill virgin oak; 20% 2nd fill Riversaltes; 20% 2nd fill Syrah; 10% 2nd fill bourbon. 100% Islay grown Concerto barley harvested in 2011 from Irene’s Filed, Octomore farm and distilled in 2012. 18,000 bottles.

I adored Octomore 8.3 as well as 6.3 so I wanted to see how 9.3 held up. Love Octomore.

6) Port Charlotte Elements of Islay Pl4 61.2% Speciality Drinks Ltd bottled 2015 from Two Chateau Margaux Casks

I have long wanted to try the Elements of Islay series. I asked Pot Still if they had any and they sent me to another store (which had this). Well done Pot Still! I opened this last night and I am already in love. I tried it beside the PC7 as well as the Port Charlotte 10yo. I think I still slightly prefer the PC7, but this is right behind it.

Lastly, I picked up a tasting set of the Elements of Islay. It has PI6 (Port Charlotte), Lp10 (Laphroaig), Cl12 (Caol Ila), Ma3 (peated Bunnahabhain), and their generic “Peated” expression. I am really looking forward to trying all of these.

My first purchase (which you can’t see) was a bottle of Laphroaig Quarter Cask 48%. I picked it up on the first night in Vienna and it was my go to dram for the trip. One night 4 of us sat around toasting a group member’s birthday. It was a hit (if far more powerful and peaty than what they were expecting). I ended up bring back about 250mL of the liquid in a small wine bottle my wife discarded from our mini-fridge.

For all of you worried about bringing back whisky to the US from overseas – don’t be! Last year each person was allowed to bring back about 3 Liters per person. This year I looked up the law and found out that had been reduced to 1 Liter per person. Not wanting any trouble I declared how many Liters of alcohol my wife and I had (about 4.5 L). I was prepared to pay a few dollars in duty. From what I could tell it would be about 3% on 1.5 Liters of alcohol (although I don’t know how they calculate the value? Maybe what you have receipts for? Clearly I would want to pay on the €32 Glenfarclas 105 and not the €200 Glenfarclas 1989).

Our customs official paused for half a second and waved us through. Easy. I believe Eric Wait is correct (on his youtube page) that the US government really isn’t that interested in how many bottles you are bringing back – provided you are not doing so to sell them. That isn’t a problem for me. I plan to open all of mine.

@Nock Excellent purchases indeed. I almost got a case of whisk(e)y envy. But what distracted me from that is how you started the story, I couldn't help but think of Chevy Chase in Lampoon's European Vacation. HA!

@Nock beautiful acquisitions, as usual. Bravo!

@Nock I don’t want to minimize your accomplishments. And certainly your bounty is beautiful.

But I have to remind you that last year, within about 48 h of meeting you, @paddock judge and I crossed back into Canada (which has much more expensive alcohol duties) with close to 18 newly purchased bottles, and quite a few sample bottles (some in gun cases) , also with the wave of a hand.

I consider @paddockjudge to be THE whisky whisperer.

@Nock Well done on your purchase. It looks like you truly had a great vacation

THis was a bad weekend for someone who doesn't want to buy whisky.

KWM had a big flash sale for the long weekend. First I saw the IB Linkwood I bought being sold for less than I paid for it in the fall. I like this bottle so I decided to pull the trigger. Then, @Paddockjudge poured Shelter Point Rye for me and it was fabulous...I ordered 2 bottles (at 20% off) for each of us.

Unfortunately, an Amrut I was thinking about slipped through my fingers. My BIL was picking up some Benromach 10-100 I had bought, and he snapped a photo of Naarangi for $119 ($115 on the website). I took no notice of it until this weekend when I was discussing Amrut Madeira Cask. it's a limited release going for $159 st KWN+M and not on sale. I looked back at the picture and it was $128. Sadly, they are now sold out.

Picked up a bottle of Octomore 07.3 5yo 2010. The why? My last two trips to Islay I have tasted various Octomore releases at Bruichladdich but have never picked up a bottle. The 07.3 is one of the higher rated releases and I enjoyed it when I had an opportunity to try it. I also had not seen a bottle in a long time so I snatched it up.

@TracerBullet I got this one on sale, thanks to @cricklewood’s recommendation, and @nosebleed’s persistence.

I opened it in May. Delightful whisky.

@TracerBullet 7.3 is one I missed out on.

My experience with both 6.3 and 8.3 is that they needed a lot of air time to get to a place where I really enjoyed them. When I first opened the bottles I was disappointed. I am sure other people like them straight away . . . but for my 2 cents air really improved the experience. My theory is that the flavors are so dense that they need time to settle down. A common review I read about Octomore is that it isn't as peaty as people expect. For me both 8.3 and 6.3 (and PC7) exploded with peat after over a year of being open. Hope to hear your take once you open it.

@Nock interesting observations

I found on the 7.3 that the peat was much more evident on the palate than the nose.

A shame I didn’t know you’d missed out on this gem. I could have sent a sample with @victor when we opened it.

@TracerBullet you've hit a gem, I know I've waxed on about this one before but there is just something about this release, it's big intense stuff yet still dangerously drinkable.

@Nozinan I'm glad I didn't steer you wrong on this one and that you've enjoyed it.

@Nock Folks tend to overhype the "peatyness" of Octomore, there are plenty of more "immediate" in your face peaty whiskys than Octomore (a lot of Ardbeg and some Indy Caol Ila for ex.). That said there is a persistence and you're correct "density" to the Octomore style especially in the .3 releases.

The 6.3 had this persistent earthy grip under the sweet top layer while the 8.3 is about that dense ashyness, they totally need time open to cut through that. The 7.3 had hints of both of those facets but balanced on this perfect minerality, the sweet wine casks are in the perfect proportion as well. The 9.3 comes close to this, I think their use of a portion of refill casks along with a reduction of the peating level was the secret.

Definitely looking forward to trying this again, (remember that I did get to try it at Bruichladdich a few years ago). The store where I got this bottle had one more. Really thinking of grabbing that one as well!

I just picked up what may be my three last bottles for awhile.

• Maker’s Mark: just the standard stuff. Why? We just bought a “cottage” and I need a simple, tasty, no-nonsense bourbon to sip while sitting on my deck. My review of Maker’s here on Connosr was lukewarm, but I’ve tasted better bottles since then.
• Laphroaig 1815 The Legacy Edition: this one gets a lot of mixed reviews online, but my irrational love for Laphroaig got the better of me.
• Foursquare Premise Single Blended Rum: this Bajan rum (a combination of Pot Still and Column still) is aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, carries a 10 year age statement, and is bottled at 46% abv. The label explicitly states “Authentic rum, no sugar or other flavour has been added”. All the rum enthusiasts wax poetic about everything Foursquare releases, so when I saw it available online, I didn’t hesitate.

@Nozinan I would love to get a sample of that 7.3 from you some day. My hope is that it will come after the bottle has had some time to oxidize quite a bit.

@cricklewood - those are very interesting observations. Sadly, I went through my first bottle of 6.3 way too fast. I was honestly disappointed with it. I loved my bottled of the original 1.1 release. I thought 6.3 was all heavy malt forward and too funky. Now, I believe I just didn't give it enough open air time. I had tasted from a bottle of 8.3 in Scotland that was in the last two fingers. So I "knew" what it could be. When I opened my bottle of 8.3, again, I was again disappointed. It reminded me of 6.3. This time I left the cork off for several days at a time. And after about 5 months of this the bottle exploded with peat, and farm. I loved it. I am excited to have 9.3 now and compare it. I will probably crack it for my birthday in October.

I have begun the process of bunkering Arran 14. Even found one of the old labels. It may put me over my budget but it must be done before they are all gone forever!

@casualtorture nice haul, especially the old version of Arran 14. I have fond memories of those editions

@cricklewood yeah I forgot what the old label looked like until I saw this one. Nostalgia indeed.

Not my purchase but my Niece's partner just brought a bottle of this. He is very happy. I'm not up on my bourbon, but he is. He says it's hard to get hold of as it's not made anymore. The master distiller died apparently. He says he's not going to open it

@Wierdo Although tough to locate for retail price it is still very much available, although heavily allocated As a matter of fact there is a recent release called Elmer T Lee 100 (celebrating what would be his 100th Birthday) bottled at 100 proof verses the standard 90, which of course the speculators will ask the sun and moon for it. I have a bottle of the regular ETL pictured and have already negotiated a trade for it as it's value is better as trade bait verses drinking it. Hope your Niece's partner opens it as it has no value other than what secondary prices are at this time. ETL will be produced/bottled from Buffalo Trace mashbill #2 long after many of us are gone.

I'm not buying much these days, but today I bought a Port Charlotte Islay Barley - the new one in the hand grenade bottle. I plan to share it with my club buddies at our Port Charlotte night next month. I loved the previous Islay Barley I had a few years ago, so I was very happy to buy the new one for $53.

Ordered a Cooper's Choice 16 year old Ardmore just because I don't recall ever having tasted Ardmore other than in older Teachers blended. Not sure how it happened, but I ended up ordering seven assorted bottles on the recent KWM sale. That is me done for a while.

@casualtorture has the Arran 14 been discontinued?

@MadSingleMalt that is a fantastic bargain on the Islay Barley! And your are having a Port Charlotte night? I am drooling already. I will be very interested to hear about the line up and the over all impressions of the group.

@Nock, my club's Port Charlotte night will be in September, when we conduct all of our official business for the year. In addition to my Islay Barley 2011, another clubbie has pledged to share his old version of the same. And I know one guy has a bottle of the new 10 that I hope he'll bring out.

Our official new club bottle that month will be the 2007 CC:01 that I had to find a European site to buy from.

With all the different stuff Bruichladdich puts it, it's maybe not surprising that our club has featured their stuff so many times. All told, we only do 11 bottle picks each year, but in the past few years, we've had the Classic Laddie, Black Art 3.1, an Octomore night, this upcoming Port Charlotte night, and a pair of Laddie Local Barleys lined up for next summer.

@Wierdo yes apprently for 2-5 years while they wait for stock to age.

@MadSingleMalt I hope you do have an opportunity to try the new Port Charlotte 10. It doesn't seem to get a lot of love around here, but I'm on my second bottle and I like it a lot. This is the one in the new black bottle. Interested to get your club's impressions.