Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Nozinan Moutai is a top rated brand. It became famous during the meeting between Nixon and Mao. When US/China diplomatic relations were thawing in 1974.

@Hewie your not far off ... my memory "lighter (Butane) fuel".

@BlueNote LCBO the supply is low for the 2018 release and the price is standard at $160 Canadian. The new listing for the Lagavulin 12, 2019 with the new label "rare animal series" by Deagio, is $180.

ZYN has it listed for $148 but with taxes and shipping cost the prices would be similar. Also, I had the benefit of gift cards which reduced my out of pocket cost for the bottle.

These two will be my last of 2019 and the iron whisky curtain has descended for 2020. Mind you it's my 40th in February so there may be some wiggle room

I have Connosr to blame/thank for these purchases. The Finlaggan was bought after seeing a good review and then seeing the very competitive price. Also, it's young, CS Islay whisky so ...

I've never even tried Ballentines and hear good things. I happened to see it for £14 and thought why not?! Even if it ends up as a mixer that's no great loss.

Edit - that's a coffee with cream causing the mug stains in case anyone was wondering/judging lol

@RianC fashions and participants come and go. Current active Connosr participants are mostly Ballantine's Finest positive. It was not so a few years ago on Connosr. Times change.

There was a time when Connosr members bashed Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist. The opinions of men are quite diverse.

@RianC I just finished a bottle of Finlaggan. The price was right and I quite enjoyed it. I'm not sure, but I think I've read somewhere that it's young Bowmore. Someone else may be able to confirm or debunk that.

As for the Ballantine's: a nice, hefty tumbler, a couple of cubes and you're good to go.

Cheers.

My mother-in-law gave me a Society gift card for Christmas, so I just ordered an 8 year (Feb. 16th, 2011), heavily peated Inchmoan SMWS 135.15 (Loch Lomond) from a second-fill hogshead called "Back to the suture" (57.4% ABV). I bought it because I love the other Inchmoan that I have, this one is heavily peated and with these tasting notes, how could I not order it...

Tasting notes: "Monstrous, youthful and hair raising stuff! A patchwork of farmyard, hospital, peat stack, tar bucket and chimney. Not for the faint of heart!"

Celebrating New Year’s Eve, Korean style.

We’re going to a friend’s house for dinner and they are Korean. I haven’t tried flavoured soju ( I do not like the plain stuff) so I took a chance.

There is a bottle of Prosecco coming along as back up.

Happy new year everyone!

@bwmccoy Mothers in law get plenty of bad press. Yours sounds like a jewel. Happy New Year to you and yours.

@Nozinan I’d say you were wise to take backup. How did it go?

@BlueNote - yes, I’ve been very fortunate. My mother-in-law is awesome.

@BlueNote the Strawberry was not too sickening. The Apple was not great. I did not try the peach - that will be another day.

The Prosecco was bubbly.

My last purchase of 2019, I hope to keep my 2020 purchases to a minimum (barring any BTAC/PVW allotments) Hopefully this 13 year Kavalan will be opened in 2020.

@Astroke virgin oak - that’s a long time in that climate. I look forward to hearing what you make of it!

@Nozinan I assume they charred the barrel as it is fairly dark and Kavalan is always natural colour. Only 77 bottles survived the cask.

@Nozinan

Maybe someone already mentioned the pronunciation of this baijiu, but I hadn't seen the post yet. Anyway...

二锅头 (Pinyin: Er Guo Tou; poor phonetics: R Gwoh Toe)

@ajjarrett Are you talking about the Moutai on the previous page? The stuff on this page is Korean. But interestingly, the Korean writing does not say Chum Churum. It says Sun Ha Li. This, I believe, is a sub brand of chum churum.

The unflavoured stuff has the name Chum Churum in Hangeul (Korean letters), as you can see...

@Nozinan

Oh, I love soju. Soju + beer, with KFC (Korean Fried Chicken Garlic or Sweet and spicy) = Happiness.

As for the name pronunciation, I was referring to the Baijiu 白酒 that you mentioned you had forgotten how to pronounce.

Let me add a screen shot.

二锅头 (Pinyin: Er Guo Tou; poor phonetics: Are Gwoh Toe)*

*correction from my original reply, just to stay consistent with the other words.

@ajjarrett Forgotten is generous. Was I ever able to pronounce it properly? Even when my brother's mother in law explained it?.

I like so many Korean things. Korean medical dramas, most Korean foods, and the language is beautiful. I wish I could say I liked Korean alcoholic products. But I have never tasted a Soju I like, and I tried Makgoli and didn't like it either. The only palatable product was a beer that I tasted in Hong Kong, which stood out because the other beers had been less tasty.

No, when I go to Korea, I suspect it will not only be a vacation for me but for my liver...

@Nozinan I know this is off topic, so I will keep it short. I started watching Kdramas in 2002, when I lived in China, with the 'classic', or now classic, Winter Sonata, and never stopped enjoying many Kdramas, and other things Korean.

Getting back to the drinks. I never had the flavored soju. Just the regular stuff, that might have been marketed as "fresh" or "clean" tasting.

@ajjarrett I've tried plain and flavoured, Jinro and Chum Churum. No luck.

I blame @paddockjudge.

And also the many coincidences that kept bringing me close to LCBO stores that had the Boutique-y advent calendar on sale at half price.

Finally, at a funeral, I broke down. On my way home I stopped in (just to look, you understand). Once I held it in my hand it was over.

This is the list of the contents. I look forward to tasting and reviewing them.... and to having a whole bunch of extra sample bottles.

The latest batch of Laphroig 10 CS because I loved the last batch so much. And it's cold and I want some peat!

@casualtorture if I lived where all of these expressions were readily available all the time, maybe my collection of unopened bottles would be a lot smaller. As would my FOMO and FORO.

@casualtorture not a bad one in the bunch. You'd almost certainly have said the same thing if your first bottle was from batch # 001 or batch # 002. I've stopped chasing batches of Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength because I have five different ones in my cabinet and I have confidence that they WILL all continue to be good.

@Nozinan Hopefully this one will last until Spring. If this one is as good as last year's I may go buy another. There is a particular store here that always gets a nice quantity of these every year and doesn't mark them up past retail.

@Victor Laphroig seems consistently good from what I have experienced. Granted I have been legal drinking age for 5 years so my experience doesn't go back that far, but other than the "Select" I can't think of one that I didn't like.

@casualtorture I don't know a distillery more consistently good than Laphroaig, an individual whisky more consistently good than Laphroaig 10 year old Cask Strength, or a better value for money in Scotch whisky than Laphroaig 10 yo Cask Strength at US prices.

Consistency in whisky is not everything, but it is a lot and it is rare.

You know @Victor, you’re not wrong.

But personally I think when it comes to consistency in quality and price value, Glenfarclas is REALLY tough to beat.

@CanadianNinja Glenfarclas is most certainly well priced. I've never had much problem with quality from their offerings, but I hear many sulphur complaints from others, e.g. with some batches of the wonderful 15 yo. I can get very excited about Glenfarclas 15 and 40 yo. Others, yes, they are OK, but I'll probably never buy a bottle of any of them.

If we're talking about consistency, let's not forget Amrut. Not a lot of distilleries would have me plunking down over $120 on spec.

@Nozinan as you know Amrut is a top 3 distillery for me. I've encountered only one bad bottle of Amrut, owned by @dbk, but it was a genuinely bad bottle. That is one more bad bottle than I have encountered from Laphroaig.

I consider Amrut second only to Laphroaig for consistency of quality, but Amrut is far superior to Laphroaig in having a far broader range of quality products.