Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Timp - you're very kind! I hope that post didn't come across as a hint!? it, genuinely, wasn't meant as one! I'm slowly building up a stash of samples for you and @Wierdo but my current slow drinking pace is preventing me from opening many more bottles. Patience ...

@ajjarrett @paddockjudge - lovely looking set of bottles you have there. You're giving me armagnac envy

And I totally agree about the wooden boxes - Classy! That said, I have to keep the bottles out of them lest the contents begin to smell of fresh cut pine and glue.

@RianC I will have to take that smell of wood and glue dynamic into consideration. So far no smell that I can detect.

@RianC, If I wasn't on the wagon I would raise a glass of Armagnac and wish you a happy and healthy 2022. There's no doubt in my mind, you are not going lie down and surrender. Give 'em hell!

@RianC haha no hint taken mate. We can do samples anytime. No problem. Just concentrate on getting better. Hope the taste/ smell is improving.

Had a sample of this at my favorite local shop where they consistently pick great barrels, and bought immediately. Great stuff. They had a sherry finish one as well that was not as good.

@casualtorture interesting. I notice that they don't say whose whiskeys they are bottling.

@Victor Pretty sure it's MGP. All it says on the website is: Distilled in Indiana, Corn 75%, Rye 21% & Malted Barley 4%.

@casualtorture I went onto their website and read their story. They make it sound like they had a falling out with MGPI for lack of "backbone", and went elsewhere for sourced product. Often with these sourced brands we really don't know the origins...which is too bad, because knowing that information is just more for the knowledge base when comparing products and quality. . .

@Victor yeah, I would love to know b/c it's very good. I do know this particular bottle is an 8 year old. I'll have to ask the store owner if he knows where it is sourced from. But totally agree, most independent Scotch bottlers divulge the source and I think the standard in the US should be to disclose the distillery.

A friend of mine has decided to liquidate his collection. In addition to a few open bottles he invited me to pick out, I bought a couple of sealed bottles from him as well.

Russell's Reserve Single Barrel 55%. Why? Because it was the last bottle I picked up for him on my last trip out west, and also because he said RR is really good and really hard to find at the best of times. Looking forward to opening it with our friends.

Auchentoshan Valinch 2011. When it was available in Ontario (at a reasonable price I believe), I shunned it as it was NAS (Thanks a lot Ralfy!). When I tasted a sample (Thanks for real @Astroke) it became one of my whisky regrets. I've wanted to own a bottle for a long time and now that I have it, I will have to enjoy it.

My fourth purchas of armagnac arrived the other day.

The 1975 vintage Darroze (with an abv of 48%) is to celebrate the year I was born and adopted. I purchased 12yo blend Darroze with an abv of 43% because I think it is essential to the process of appreciation. I also think I will find it a good dram and worthwhile to always have it available to me.

Valinch & Mallet Fettercairn 11 year, Cooper's Choice Ardmore 2003, Carn Mor Glen Elgin 11 year. Just because I'm not drinking this month doesn't mean I'm not buying. Also, I have a serious willpower crisis whenever the good sales come up.

@ajjarrett I'm so jealous of that 40 year Armagnac ! If only more of us had access to such lovely offerings. Oh well, we'll have to live vicariously through you.

@OdysseusUnbound

Well, as long as it isn't on the same level of 'living vicariously' as my sister-in-law livng vicariously through her children having them to cheerleading as early as pre-school. She is worse than the mother of Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp version), oh how I miss the orignal Oopa Loopas.

I got lucky with the age of the 1975 Vintage. The website/store that I obtained this bottle didn't state the age, so I gambled. It also didn't state the Abv, so there again, I gambled. Nevertheless, just like many Americans on their addictive 'Sports apps' I gambled; however, I think I am the true winner here. HA!

@ajjarrett @OdysseusUnbound There are too many spirits for me to properly taste each one. if I did not live and taste vicariously through others I would be despair...

There are 2 ways to live vicariously. One is to make your children do the things you always wanted to but couldn't do. That's not the good way. The other way is to take pleasure in the experiences of others (passively living vicariously). That is what I must do.

@Nozinan

I completely agree. That's why I enjoy the 'older' forum format such as Connosr, while you never find me on FB (FuBar), Twit, Instacrap, or other social networking sites.

@Nozinan The only "living vicariously" I plan on doing through my kids is giving them something I never had: the opportunity to start their adult lives without debt. I don't blame my parents for not paying all of my post-secondary tuition; they didn't have the means to pay for all 3 of us kids to get university educations, and when they started having kids in the 1970s, good jobs could be had with a high school education.

As for living through @ajjarrett , I'm definitely "passively" practicing that. Like every other human I know, I have a limited liver capacity (and bank account) so I enjoy the descriptions others provide.

@OdysseusUnbound Becareful when deciding on living 'through' me. I have high cholestrol, my COVID 15 turned into COVID 25 (pounds). And gravity has brought me down from a 5'6'' to 5'4''. oh no! As for organs having limited functions (no I am not taking a blue pill, don't think that) my stomach has limited function, which is why I watch Koreans and Japanese Mukbang videos on Youtube.

@ajjarrett Oh don't get me started on pounds. Let me just say that before Covid, I was on track to be under 200lbs for the first time since I had kids (I'm about 5'9" or 5'10" depending on the day and who's asking ). Aaaaaaaaand that did not happen. I will not publicly disclose my bodyweight at this time, other than to say it would be my ideal weight if I were about 6'8".

@OdysseusUnbound @ajjarrett The only way I could combat the Covid creep was by strict adherence to the new house rules. No beer (except Sunday afternoon) no potato chips-period, half the usual pasta servings, half the mashed potatoes and gravy, no sweet stuff (chocolate, cookies etc.) that one kinda fell apart with the Christmas baking, and 1 dram of whisky per day instead of 3 (zero for January). So far I am only up about 4 or 5 pounds from pre covid, mainly due to gym closures and increased couch riding. My wife never gains weight. She loves her potato chips, but gave them up for the cause. I pine for the good old days when we would buy 6 family size bags of Lays regular chips if they came up on a hot sale and scarf 2 of them down on a weekend. This deprivation will end when Covid-19 ends, which may be never the way things are going.

@BlueNote My wife is also immune from weight gain. She weighed less than 100lbs when we married and 20 years + 3 kids later, she’s still under 110lbs. Genetics are a funny thing.

@OdysseusUnbound Yeah, we're slaves to our genes. I blame my mother, she ate potato chips when she was pregnant with me and I was born with fetal chip syndrome.

@OdysseusUnbound I've been 6'2" and 150lbs since I was about 15. I couldn't gain weight if I tried.

@casualtorture That is a good thing. I have a friend like that; eats like a Sumo wrestler, loves his whisky and never gains an ounce. Mind you, he's a fitness fanatic and swims about 5 times a week.

@casualtorture if you could bottle that and sell it you would now be a trillionaire.

As a teenager I was 6' 2.5" At age 68.75 I am 6' 1". I am happiest at around 170 lbs, which is quite trim, but now weigh 40 lbs more than that. I've gained and lost 30+ lbs 5 different times over the course of this lifetime. I expect to get down to 190 or lower again within the next 2 or 3 years, but not likely until the semi-lockdown conditions are lifted. Under current conditions it is easy to eat and not so easy to exercise. I lost my 2 weekly basketball games 23 months ago because no one wants to play basketball wearing face masks. I relied on those basketball games for weight control. In January 2020 I was guarding a 16 year old son of one of the regulars,...so I was playing against someone 50 years younger than me. He was a very good shot and a very fast player. I got the better of him on 2 of the 3 days I played against him. As far as the physical body is concerned, it is use it or lose it.

So who's gonna do it? ...a Connosr discussion topic on weight?

What a topic!! Put on more weight this last few months than the whole lock down!! Think it's because I stopped running because of an injury and kept eating the same amount! Classic mistake. Anyway, back to this thread. This arrived today and looking forward to cracking it open. Ice cold and cloudy as it should be. A proper farm distillery. Cheers.

@Victor Weight woes? Body blab?

@Timp

Thank you! I felt a little strange getting people on a tangent. I was almost tempted to buy a bottle of something just so I could get back to the actual theme of this thread. I am glad I didn't have to.

So much to unpack from the idea of living vicariously.

I seem to be suffering vicariously from many of the ailments that people have mentioned. Unfortunately I am not immune from weight gain during COVID but I blame my wife's cooking. In fact when the lockdown started I lost 5 pounds from stress. Also I was not eating out when going to see patients (taking students to different restaurants was part of my "hidden curriculum"). I soon fixed that when I started baking bread (THANKS FOR NOTHING Lemony Snicket!). And then I discovered bread flour... I lost 5-6 pounds, then gained 12, then had stress again and lost it and now I am net 3-4 pounds up.

As for exercise, I used to get some biking to some of my patients. COVID killed that because of all the IPAC stuff I have to bring.

Chips @BlueNote? I'll see your chips and raise you popcorn. Not the microwave kind... the huge pot on the stove kind. Made with Ghee and instead of oil (for the pot) and butter (for the popped corn). We have kept Costco in business buying the big plastic "bottles" of kernels.

Beer? Well, I occasionally enjoy it but watching Korean Dramas and recreating or ordering the foods therein, I started to drink it with my food. Alcohol-free beer still has calories. Kind-of wish I hadn't cut out diet coke with caffeine...

And having opened a bottle of Nadurra 16YO, I can say I will be living vicariously through @ajjarrett for years to come when that bottle is done...

Yes, I agree, a new thread might work.