Which bottle did you just buy and why?

Picked up another bottle of Buffalo Trace - this time I purchased the massive 1.75 L bottle.

Why?

For $43 - it's a steal!

@FMichael, picking up a "handle"? That is ambitious. I have a few handles on hand, but God, is that a lot of whiskey!

I finally pulled the trigger and put my money down on the barrel head and bought a bottle of Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel 103 proof. This is much better than the standard CR.

I'm writing this as I drink it, so bare with me it's not organized, sorry.

It's light in color, sweet up front, the sweetness tastes contrived like a sweetener was added. The sweetness fades quickly, which is a good thing. The sweetness is a syrup flavor. There is a spicyness to it which I like, likely from the 103 proof, nice tingle. This is very smooth whiskey for 103 proof, very little barrel oak. It has a medium thick mouth feel, not dry it's wet. Sweet Rye I like that.

This mash bill, 64% corn, 31.5% rye, and 4.5% malted barley. I don't know how the CR process differs from how bourbon is made, but I would expect more rye flavor. This sounds like a criticism, it's not, this is good whiskey. There is a lighter rye flavor to it.

Light nose , clean, light citrus, little sweet not too much, like a wheater. I enjoy the nose but there's not a big nose on this one. The finish is decent, medium long.

It may not sound like it, but I actually do like it, 85/100. Is it worth what I paid, maybe, I don't know CR well enough. I know bourbons that I like better and know well, for the same money, but I am making a commitment to drink quality Canadian whiskey. Will I buy another bottle, probably, depends how fast the bottle goes.

This is a quality whiskey, very good, easy to drink. Tastes much better than the standard CR. I think CR fans well love it!

Two bottles of Cutty Sark Prohibition. I do find Prohibition to be full of flavors and a bit too sweet. But it is also the best malt base you can pick for great vatting at a very good price. I am looking forward at a lot of fun!

@Robert99 I couldn't agree more, great base for vatting. I cut it 7:1 with Laphroaig 10y Cask Strength.

@Benancio I am supposed to put my hand on a bottle of Laphroaig 10 CS in a month. I will then try your vatting. Here's one for you: 50% Prohibition, 30% FC Confederation Oak, 10% HP Dark Origins, 10% Eagle Rare 10 yo and then let it sit for at least a few days.

@Victor I was at that same grocery store a little over a week ago, and they were out of Buffalo Trace.

When stopping off to buy some groceries I went to see if they had gotten anything new in stock, and not only did they have their standard 750 ml bottle, but that behemoth 1.75 L as well.

Like I said - I'm really enjoying that bourbon, and for $43 how could I pass that deal up?

Thank you for the input gentlemen. And thanks for the tip maltmate, I'll be sure to check whiskybase out. Going to the store tomorrow, I'll report back.

@sengjc , thanks for the link.

Weird.

Well I just got back from a little shopping adventure. I went to a great store in Athens with a great selection of whisky. I came home with a bottle of springbank 10. I was going for amrut peated CS but springbank has a certain allure that is hard to escape. I really loved the longrow red so I'm sticking to Campbeltown.

@maltmate302

I order from the same guys too, really great service and deliveries are real quick and reasonably priced.

They sure seemed to have a good stock and nice pricing. Unfortunately it's a real hassle to import to Sweden given our rigorous laws and taxes regarding alcohol.

@sengjc I wish I started buying from them ages ago. I don't even know if its legal to import it into the UK but I've had no problems so far.They even sent me a 20ml free sample of Auchentoshan 23 year on my first order and a Glen Keith 21 year old on my third order. Seem like good genuine guys who are in it for the whisky more than the money. Do you know anymore about the legality of what we're doing . I'd hate to stop having to buy off them now

Just bought a bottle of Glenmorangie Companta. It has gotten exceptional reviews, it is fairly difficult to find, and I believe it fits wells with the flavor profile that I prefer. Can't wait to open it!

Maltmate, as long as nobody says anything it's alright, no?

@Alexsweden it seems to be ok. Sengjc gets it delivered to Australia and they've got some of the strictest border controls in the world .I first started buying abroad from a company called ewhisky in Germany. They were advertising in the UK on the Amazon site. Being on Amazon gave me an extra layer of security because if anything went wrong they could sort it out. If it was illegal surely Amazon wouldn't put it on their website. I assumed that it could be something to do with mutual EU membership. That went well and gave me the confidence to order from Whiskybase. The worst that could happen is you'd have to pay a bit of tax on it in your own country. If you have any doubts send them an email . They do export to Sweden I checked. In fact I ordered again last night Glengoyne 18 for 44 pounds instead of 70 in the UK. Really big savings. I order a few bottles at a time to make my postage costs a bit cheaper.

@maltmate302

but check the bottles carefully. At such low prices...is it the real stuff?

As it is said, there are more bottles of Johnny Walker sold in India alone every year than is produced in Scotland...

@Nozinan they are a very legitimate company. The prices for the more independent distillers like Glendronach and BenRiach are the same as in the UK. It's the Diageo type of brands that are cheaper. It's not cheap just at whiskybase ,its cheaper all over Germany and Holland. We are at the higher end of whisky prices in the UK and due to the Greek economic. crisis the pound is at a 7 year high against the euro.

@Maltmate302 Glengoyne 18 is $200 in Montreal and mail orders of alcohol is forbidden by the law and if I travel I can only bring back 1.14 l of alcohol. Talk about a tough place for an amateur! I went on whiskybase and I was curious about the Glengoyne CS. If you get the chance to taste it, I would be curious to ear what you think. Enjoy your luck!

An older bottling of the Macallan 30 Year Old Fine Oak - the price was just a fraction of what these go for today so it's hard to say no.

Also a bottle of the Laphroaig 25 Year Old Cask Strength 2008 Edition - these are getting scarce and they taste amazing.

@maltmate302

Yeah they are good people, been getting stuff from them for years now.

As far as Australia goes, it is all good to import alcohol for personal consumption. Not too sure the UK though.

If you want to know, probably checkout your Customs webpage to see if there are any prohibitions or restrictions placed on the importation of alcohol.

@Robert99 I already have a bottle of Glengoyne Cask Strength and its an excellent spicy sherried dram .I also have another 2 bottles put away which shows what I think of it .No hint of sulphur either. I would probably mark it at about 90. If you get a bottle I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed

@sengjc - where did you find the Macallan 30 in good old Aus? Vintage Cellars are great for the 2008 Laphroaig (and they have 20% off 2 or more purchases at the moment as well. I wanted to try the Macallan 30 Fine Oak but the prices are insane from what I can see! :-)

Balblair 02, 46%ABV, Natural Color, Non Chill-Filtered, 10y and Ralfy's 2013 Whiskey of the year. It has all of the things he likes in a scotch. That's a good enough reason for me to take a chance and buy.

First dram is very nice, Malt forward, Little Sweet, Little Spice, Crisp Fruit, nice long finish. Set back and Enjoy.

Cheers,

Recently, I purchased a bottle of Bookers batch 2015-01, which came in a natural color wood box. While downstate last weekend, I encountered a bottle of Bookers batch 2014-08 that was displayed in a white wood box. It was not the anniversary bottling. Is there any relevance to whether the box with Bookers is white or natural ?

@GlenS

Yup, the Macallan 30 Year Old was indeed found as an "old dusty" in good old AUS.

Unfortunately, I can't find any of the Laphroaig 25 Year Old Cask Strength 2008 Edition in any of the Vintage Cellars in Victoria. Which state's Vintage Cellar have you come across these? Yeah the 20% off would certainly make this a steal.

@cherylnifer, the white Booker's box was the standard for many years, until recently. If you had bought Booker's 15 years ago, it would have been in that same white box.

I am not sure whether the darker boxes are only for the current 2015 run, or represent an on-going change.

@Victor I've only ever seen them in the natural wooden box up here in Canada

@Victor, @cherylnifer, In Ontario Batch 2015-01 is also an all natural wood box and standard labels on bottle (without Big Man Small Batch label). Delicious batch of bourbon, 128.7 pf butter tarts.

@sengjc - Queensland (Brisbane to be precise). I did pick up three of the original release (the 40% ABV 25 year old). The cask strength however I haven't seen for some time.