Which bottle did you just buy and why?

A bottle of Barrel Bourbon, batch #4, because the owner of my favorite local store said it was excellent, and for $80 it should be. Then when I got it home I saw that it got double gold at the 2015 S.F. Spirits Challenge and I thought I got a good deal compared to those chasing bottles of Pappy for hundreds more.

Not even Sept and my Q4 whisky budget is blown.

Glenmorangie Taghta, High West Bourye, Booker's 2015-2 (on sale for $40 instead of the usual $50), Angel's Envy 2014 CS (Got an amazing deal $120 because the box had been broken).

Over past few weeks: Springbank 17 Sherrywood and Bunnahabhain 24 1988. I'm stocking up on older scotch because I suspect that it will skyrocket in value over the next few years due to scarcity.

For this reason, I'm passing on younger scotches and NAS scotches for the time being. They will always be around, albeit a little more expensive. I'm not happy with the way scotch prices have been rising.

Once my collection is depleted, if the prices have continued to rise unreasonably and steadily, say, five years from now, I will quite drinking scotch eventually. I don't like it when distilleries get too greedy (and, yes, we are talking about the huge corporations that run the distilleries).

I just received some Nikka Coffee Grain Whiskey from finedrams.com

Its something ive never seen in my neck of the woods and figured itd be a good one to try on that site. Glad I did!

I also got a sample of Yamazaki distillers select

@FMichael , I did indeed hit up Ace for some Laphroaig. I got the 2015 Cairdeas. They originally had the 2014 when I first took a spin through the site, but those are gone now. I snooze, I lose.

And the Ardbeg 10 is on sale for a mere $40. Plus they emailed me a $5 coupon when I first signed up. All told, with the cheap Midwestern shipping and no tax, it was a hair under $125 for those two bottles. Not too shabby! Thanks.

I just ordered the glendronach CS batch 4. I'm expecting it within a week. I'm really looking forward to trying it to see how it stacks up to batch 2

A couple of bottles of the latest New World Projects bottling dubbed "the Reverse Double". An exclusive bottling for Sydney's the Oak Barrel's Whisky Fair 2015.

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On a rum roll. Dictador 20 year (solera) and Diplomatico Exlusiva Reserva. The former is a long-time friend. The latter has only recently become available in Taiwan, and I snagged it for a good price at a recent whisky show.

A few half bottles of the Laphroaig 21 Year Old bottled for the FoL along with a couple of Laphroaig branded Glencairns.

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Lucked out on the first ballot but there was the second chance free-for-all - I had to jump in on the occasion.

Just got home from picking up my ordered bottle of GlenDronach CS batch 4. I'm saving this baby for a special occasion!

And I just read the initial post...

(See post above) The reason I went for the CS instead of the 15yr revival is that I have tried an earlier batch and found it no less than spectacular. I'm hoping that this batch is equally good

Picked up a bottle Kentucky Vintage because it was only $25, and Victor gave it a solid rating, and also a bottle of Evan Williams Single Barrel 2004 because those all seem to have been aged 10 plus years (all the newer 2005, and 2006 bottles aged 8 to 9 years, and don't seem quite as good).

I was up near our cottage in a slightly remote area and came across a bottle of Jameson "caskmates" edition aged in barrels that were used to age some stout from a local brewery. Even though I typically don't drink much Irish whisky, it seemed pretty intriguing as I am very found of various stouts. The idea of a "reverse" stout barrel age whisky peeked my interest. Looking forward to cracking into this soon!

@kfhene, I'm a big fan of stouts, but not a big beer drinker. I enjoy chewing beer, almost as much as chewing whiskey. Let me know how that turns out. Your discovery has peaked my interest.

...it has also piqued my interest;)

@paddockjudge

Good to know your interest hasn't peaked, given the 2 17 year old glendronachs waiting for you...

@FMichael > The Evan Williams Single Barrel 2004 is decent stuff, but not quite as good (IMHO) as the 2003. Regarding 2005 and 2006; I have been extremely disappointed with the 2006. At least in my part of Michigan, the 2006 appeared only 3-4 months after the 2005. As you noted, the age on the 2005 and 2006 are considerably less than 10 years. But it might be worth keeping an eye open for 2005 bottlings made specifically for a local retailer. One such grocery chain here in northern Michigan had such a special bottling of EWSB 2005 that was aged 10 years 3 months. After sampling a bottle, I found it far better than the standard bottling of EWSB 2005, which had been aged 9 years 1 month. That extra 14 months in wood really seemed to make a significant difference. Needless to say, I have added several of the special bottlings to my cellar. Also could not help but wonder why the EWSB 2006 was released so soon ? Are old stocks becoming so depleted that younger EW bourbon is going to be the norm?

@cherylnifer Of the '04, 05, 06 Evan Williams SB - I enjoy the '04 the most, but I've never had the pleasure of having the '03.

I'm guessing with the growing demand we're seeing younger whisky being introduced - hence so many '06 bottles on the shelves...Finding an '04 is challenging.

@paddockjudge I'll make sure to comment on it after I crack it open. Hopefully some good flavors pique up ! Lol

@Nozinan, again my interest has piqued. Pray tell, where doth this whisky bounty reside?

@paddockjudge

They doth reside at my house right now.

After wavering quite a bit, I decided to pull the trigger on the 2015 Elijah Craig 23 year. While my opinion of last year's wasn't as bad at many of the critics, it definitely was not in line with the price and I could rattle off two dozen bourbons that were on par or better for a quarter of the price. I'm hoping they learned from last year and were able to turn it around for the 2015. Worst case scenario, I picked up an '04 Evan Williams single barrel along with it.

After a frustrating search I finally found a bottle Yamazaki distillers reserve for 'just' €20,- over the price it started at last year. Why? I'm very curious about the Mizunara cask influence and the descriptions sound delicious :)

3 More Amrut Single (bourbon) cask bottled at 60%, from 2 different casks.

Why?

As mentioned before, the price came down from (I thought $140 but it was actually) $127 to $75 at the LCBO. I had bought 3 for me (and 2 for others) at the time and opened one. I have about 240 cc left of the first bottle.

It is a fantastic malt, with depth and complexity of Scotches 4 times its age. And it was running low at LCBO.

We happened to be driving back from a Mud Hero race and our course was set to pass one of the few stores that still lists multiple bottles on hand. My wife must have been in a good mood because she said we could stop.

I am hoping all the casks share a similar profile. @paddockjudge seems to like the bottle he has open from a different barrel. At this price I felt it was wise to solidify my personal inventory.

Amrut is now the single largest distillery in my collection in terms of bottles, surpassing even Aberlour with my A'Bunadh collection. Given the variation in barrel strength flavours (Port, Sherry, Bourbon, Peat), I'm comfortable with this situation.

However, if I pick up all my allotted bottles of the new FC release, Amrut may fall to second...

@Nozinan I'll admit I'm jealous. If I had the opportunity to get a few more Amrut I would. Can't wait to try the Peated Cask Stregth.

Ancient Age Bourbon and Fighting Cock Bourbon.

Why Ancient Age? I have never owned a bottle of standard 40% ABV Ancient Age Bourbon, despite having much experience with Ancient Age Bottled in Bond 50% ABV, Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star 45% ABV, and Ancient Ancient Age 10 Years Old, 43% ABV. This is at the bottom of the price and quality structure of products from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, and 750 ml cost me $ 9.43.

Why Fighting Cock? Five years ago I had a fabulous bottle of Fighting Cock 6 yo Bourbon, worth about a 90 points rating. Then 3 years ago I had a "meh" bottle of Fighting Cock, which would have rated 82 points. I want to see what Heaven Hill is putting out now, and without an age statement. Also, the bottle was on sale, and very inexpensive. Inexpensive 103 proof bourbon is always a good deal.

So, my overall motivation was that, for a couple of bucks more than the price of one cocktail, tax, and tip at a nice restaurant, I can try at leisure these two reasonably priced 750 ml bottles from first rate distilleries. For the price of that one cocktail I can afford to give away 90% of each of these bottles if I don't like them, or give them away just to be nice.

A bottle each of the Lost Distillery Company's Gerston and Stratheden.

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They were on sale locally and there is enough positive feedback on the web to warrant giving this bottling series a try.

Four Roses Single Barrel Limited Edition 2014 and Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition 2014. Been wanting to try both for quite a while, but never had the opportunity as they have always eluded me. I also recently read that the Single Barrel Limited Edition has been discontinued, and '14 will be the last bottling.

Took a trip to Fargo and grabbed a replacement bottle of Talisker 18.

@broadwayblue, did you buy them on the secondary market or were you able to find them in a store? If the latter, very impressive find.