Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@OdysseusUnbound I have never owned a bottle of Weller Special Reserve, though I have tasted it 8+ times over the years. That is another one which, if you don't like it a lot at first, will probably benefit from long air exposure.

Like everything else from Buffalo Trace, with the exception of standard Ancient Age, Weller Special Reserve is highly allocated and only somewhat rarely offered for sale in my region of the US. I never bought it because I had found the lion's share of the reviews of it to be lukewarm. My own experience of it has been mixed, but insufficient for me to want to buy a bottle of it over the last 13 years. No doubt if I could get no other Weller bourbon I would be very happy to have a bottle of Weller Special Reserve.

@BlueNote - in re-reading my last post, if it wasn't clear, my "really nice" comment was in response to your purchase of the 20 year Tobermory.

@Wierdo - I'm anxious to try the Copita glasses. I mostly use Glen Cairn's and I also have tulips, but these are my first Coptia glasses. I think I will compare one whisky in all 3 glass types to see if a favorite emerges for nose, palate or both.

Glenfarclas 21. Why? because I have never had this bottle before and Master of Malt had it for sale at £79. Cheers.

@Timp 79 quid seems to be a very good price!

@bwmccoy Please report back on the results of your glass types experiment.

@MRick - Will do!

@Victor price probably was the clincher. A happy victim of MoM direct marketing! Always liked the 15, 12 and 10 so should be worth it. I also like family owned companies and Glenfarclas have a lovely ethos that the distillery is under the guardianship of the current family members involved. The story of one of the Grant family in the past being offered a blank cheque for the business and turning it down always warmed me to them.

The Chronicles 41 is gettimg tougher to find and the Deanston 12 fills in a gap on my Deanston journey. I've only ever tried the wine and sherry finished versions.

@bwmccoy Thanks, that's exactly how I read it.

Looking forward to the results of your glassware experiment.

@Timp Good score on the 21. I had a bottle a couple of years ago. I still prefer the 15. Let us know what you think.

@BlueNote will do.

Today’s purchase courtesy of my lovely wife is a bottle of Dartmoor Whisky Distillery Oloroso cask 46%.

I have been interested in this small distillery for a while as they are located just a few miles from where I live and they cleverly employed the former Springbank and Bushmills Master Distiller Frank McHardy as their consultant when setting the distillery in 2017. Springbank has always been one of my favourite drams so I knew the advice from Frank would be up there with the best.

I was chatting with one of the owners Greg Millar today and not only do they use a local Dartmoor spring for the reducing and distilling water, the barley comes from a Dartmoor farm and is malted only 90 miles away in Wiltshire. In these days of global supply chains this is a very local concern.

They produce a Bourbon cask, red wine cask and Oloroso cask whisky and are only interested in full maturation so no cask finishing going on here currently.

Everything is distilled in their alembic cognac still sourced from France and the beer wash is sourced from a local brewery. I imagine this is because they are restricted in size in the building they are in however I will find out soon when I visit for a proper tour of their facilities.

I have tasted the bourbon cask before and it’s young but does have fruity top notes and a nice sweetness that is mirrored in their new make. This Oloroso cask whisky we purchased does have similar new spirit intensity as it’s only four years old however the cask is a good one and has the sweet Sherry, raisin, ginger spice, marzipan and a hint of coconut flavours you might expect.

I thought the long finish was one of the highlights and look forward to exploring the bottle more fully when I crack it open.

Definitely a distillery to look out for in the future, as the spirit will only improve as the maturation time lengthens. They also have some interesting casks on the way such as Madeira and Pineau butts. I had never heard of Pineau before and it’s a mix of cognac and grape must, giving essentially a sweet vin de liqueur.

Being a sucker for sweet things this looks to be a lovely combination with their new make. Looking forward to this one appearing in a few years.

Cheers.

@Timp Always good to support your local distiller...as long as he is producing good, drinkable whisky. This one sounds good.

Picked this up for the 4th of July to share with my brother. The name is funny, Old Tub, but from what I can gather it's a bottled in bond Jim Beam whiskey that is non-chill filtered (they say unfiltered but if you look closely there is a simple "barrier filtration.") Will be interested to see how it tastes. Only $25 so as long as it's not offensive I'll be pleased.

@Wierdo @MRick and @BlueNote - Last night, I was finally able to conduct my glassware experiment that I mentioned on the previous page.

I used the same whisky in all 3 glass types; Copita, Tulip and Glencairn. I measured pours of 1/2oz of whisky for each glass. The whisky I used was;

BenRiach SMWS 12.49 (10 year - March 2010) "Is this the way to Amarillo?". After 9 years in an ex-bourbon barrel, transferred to an ex-Tempest Old Fashioned IPA cask - 60.0% ABV.

Without water, the nose was very similar on the Copita and the Tulip (they have about the same sized opening at the top of the glass. The Glencairn opening is larger). The Copita and Tulip nose had a lot of alcohol notes present; more so than the Glencairn. The nose on these 2 types of glasses were "sharper" and I detected more IPA / hop oil notes with these glasses from the barrel finish. The Glencairn nose was more muted (not much alcohol prickle) with more citrus notes and less of the IPA / hop notes. I found the Glencairn to be the most approachable nose of the 3 glasses. There was no noticeable difference on the palate. Verdict; I prefer the Glencairn over the other two glasses without water.

With exactly 5 drops of water added in each glass, all 3 glasses nose different now. The Tulip is still harsh with alcohol notes predominant which is similar to when I nosed it without water; maybe a tad software, but not much. Copita has mellowed and I'm getting more notes of citrus and pine. The Glencairn didn't change that much and is still my favorite of the 3 for nosing, but with water, the Copita is much improved. Again, no noticeable difference on the palate.

Overall, my rankings are Glencairn first, followed by the Copita and then the Tulip, which was my least favorite by far for nosing. The only thing the Tulip did better than the Glencairn and the Copita was that the legs were more predominant in the Tulip glass.

Interesting experiment. I may do this again from time to time with different whiskies to see if I get the same result.

Been on vacation for the past couple of weeks as I had a bit of use-or-lose leave due to the pandemic. Got home and stopped in a local shop and they had the Kilchoman PX cask Spring limited edition release. Glad I picked it up because they were all gone the following day!

Just picked up a second bottle of the John Walker Celebratory Blend. It's a bit on the pricey side, but this is a really good old school blend.

@RianC, I would be very interested in hearing how this compares to some of those vintage JW blends you've been buying lately.

Just purchased a Caol Ila 9yrs Sponge edition no 32. 481 bottles. £99.

Sponge says.

We return to the malt whisky enthusiasts comfort blanket that is Caol Ila. For this edition we took a refill hogshead from 2007 and a rejuvenated ( de-char, re-char ) hogshead from 2011 and smooshed them together. The natural strength was surprisingly low so we left it where it was at 53.6%. The result is a 9 year old that is rich, oily, complex and hugely satisfying.

We suggest you enjoy it in a sun lounger in the rain wearing nothing but a pair of salmon-hide slippers to protect you from the midgies whilst thumbing an old 1st edition copy of Alfred Barnards legendary magnum opus from 1897 : Whisky Investment companies of the United Kingdom.

From the back of the bottle.

Please enjoy this new whisky sponge bottling of a 9 year old Caol Ila. It has been bottled at natural cask strength from a mix of two casks, a refill hogshead ( V07 ) and a rejuvenated hogshead ( V11 ). We did this because making potions is fun and it seemed the thing to do at the time. It has all the flavours of broiled Merfolk and French charcuterie accompaniments you’ve come to expect and love. To enjoy this fine young Caol Ila to the full extent, please remove the cork and place some of the contents in your mouth. You will then be able to fashion opinions, like a skilled bar person sculpting unnecessarily intricate ice spheres. Please resist the urge to clutter the internet with these opinions and instead, simply allow them to melt harmlessly away down the plug hole of your subconscious.

From me. As he asked so nicely I thought I would! Will let you know how it is when it appears. Cheers.

After my friend let me try this I had to go get one for myself. Get ready for a glowing review whenever I get around to it.

@casualtorture I’ve got an Old Malt Cask 20 year old Tobermory that is superb. I seem to like everything that comes out of that distillery lately, especially the Ledaig. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that Tobermory of yours.

Pay day on weds so brought these two bottles online.

Both independent bottles both from indy bottlers I've not tried yet.

I've only actually been buying independent bottles for 3-4 years and the number of new independent bottlers that have sprung up in that time is incredible. Every month seems to bring a new indy bottler. And some of these indy releases are actually really hard to get hold off. Malt fans snap them up almost as quick as the latest Springbank Local Barley! I've tried without any succes to get hold of a Thompson brothers bottles as they have a great reputation. And Adelphi put out a release of half a dozen bottles on Weds and they were almost all out of stock everywhere within hours.

Anyway Na Braithrean (gaelic for brothers) seem to have built a decent reputation in quite a short time frame and getting hold of their bottles is actually not that easy. So I'm quite pleased to have got a bottle. They have a bit of a gimmick. They take a cask mature it for so many years, then split the cask. They finish half in one type of cask and the other half in a different cask. They call one the 'big brother' and the other the 'wee brother'.

The idea of their gimmick I suppose is that people buy both bottles and compare them. But in all honesty I can't see many people doing that. If I'd have brought both brothers it would have cost me £140 and who is going to spend that much on 2 bottles of the same whisky given a different finish?

The bottle I have from them is the 'big brother' a 13 year old Linkwood finished in an ex-Islay Sherry cask. Bottles at 52%. The wee brother which I passed on was the same whisky finished in a rum cask instead.

The second bottle I have is from another new indy bottler less imaginatively named 'the Single cask'. It's a 12 year old Teaninich (a distillery I've never tried) finished in an ex Laphroiag quarter cask and bottled at cask strength of 51.2%

Took a bit of a gamble with both these, let's hope it pays off!

Got a little more than I planned for in my pay packet and have been spending little lately so fancied a treat! After much umming and ahhing I opted for a G & M Mortlach 15 @46%. I've eyed the OB 16 for a while but there is a lot of chatter about later batches being inferior. When I saw this newish G&M release was at 46% I bit!

I also picked up a Mellow Corn to get the free delivery. Enjoyed my last bottle a lot and it's good to have a few unusual things on hand. And I think us UK buyers have to get it while we can, so to speak, where US whisky is concerned.

@RianC I’ve had that G&M Mortlach. I predict you will love it. The OB 16 is a bit of a weakling, IMHO. I hope your new hip settles down soon. I’ve known a few people who have had the replacement and it does take a while to normalize.

Cheers.

@RianC I've been eyeing that G&M Mortlach for a while but haven't quite pulled the trigger. Be interested to hear if it is any good?

@Wierdo We did a Mortlach tasting back in December. The G&M 15 and the OB 16 were the best of the six, although there was definitely a split in terms of preference between the two. I liked the OB 16 better, as I felt there was more sherry influence; the G&M was a bit drier, but still very good.

@RianC agree with the other comments, I think you will enjoy the G&M Mortlach. Very much enjoyed my last bottle. Yet to try Mellow corn but intrigued. Might have to stump up for one as a very fair price. @YakLord lovely flight of whiskies.

@YakLord @Timp Have either of you either of you tried any of the Signatory cask strength Mortlachs? I brought a bottle a couple of months back. 11 years old but am yet to open it. I'm hoping it will be a good one!

@bwmccoy the experiment you did with different glasses is actually really informative. Good to see the Glencairn come out on top as that is no doubt the glass most of us use the most often and the most readily available.

@YakLord - was the G&M Mortlach 15 @46 or 43%?

Looks an amazing line up!

@RianC 43%...it was a 2015 bottling. I know G&M has since revamped their line-up.