Which bottle did you just buy and why?

A few new ones.
I had another weekend down in Cornwall walking the South West coast path with a couple of mates and during a lull in proceedings I managed to get over to whisky shop I had always fancied visiting. It was no disappointment so I will definitely be back. Very difficult not to spend too much.

Anyway why these? The Loch Lomond single grain was twenty something pounds and I always like a grain knocking about for blending or occasional sipping anyway. Seemed like good value and Loch Lomond seem to be producing some interesting stuff at the moment.

The Springbanks need no explanation although I haven’t had a fifteen for a couple of years and always liked them.

The Campbeltown Loch is a blend of all five Campbeltown malts and it is lovely. Seems to get good reviews too. Again good value at around the £40 mark.

Finally the Ardnamurchan AD/09.22 cask strength 58.4% was purchased as @Wierdo was kind enough to give me a sample of Ardnamurchan and I thought it was a cracking dram. It seems they are producing good whisky at a sensible price so happy to give them my £££

@Timp Tim, Tim, Tim, there are rules on this site about porn, you know.

I didn’t actually buy it, a friend brought it back from Hawaii. He got it at Costco in Maui. I’m trying to figure out what it is. I’m thinking Caol Ila, or possibly Bowmore. It’s bottled by Alexander Murray at 50%. Anyone know what it is?

@BlueNote some speculate "Peated Bunnahabhain", or "a 8-10yr old Caol Ila".

whiskybase.com/whiskies/whisky/…

@BlueNote A patient of a doctor I am covering wanted to show me a bottle of Trader Joe's malt, but he could not find it. Sometimes these store brands can be hidden gems.

@fiddich1980 Thank you. I just tasted some Port Charlotte 10 and there is certainly a similarity.

@Nozinan Agreed. This one is very decent and cost my friend $40 US.

@Timp I've heard good things about the Ardnamurchan CS!

I've not seen a Springbank 15 anywhere other than auction sites for at least a year, so that's a great find.

I keep meaning to ask you apparetly there is a good whisky shop in Devon called 'the Whisky Barn' have you ever tried it?

@fiddich1980 I don't have a peated Bunna to compare. My bottle of Toiteach has gone AWOL, ie down my throat.

@Wierdo glad you have heard good things about the Ardnamurchan, will draw a sample off for you. I wish I had kept a note of the sample you sent. Which one was it?

Thanks very much for the steer about the whisky barn down here. Do you know anyone who has been? Difficult to track any info about the business but I will contact the chap to see if they are operating etc.. Stuff on Facebook and twitter but no website I could find. It did occur to me that it might be the way with them. If you can’t be bothered to get in touch no joy? Anyway will let you know. Cheers..

@BlueNote, I'm in total agreement with you, some of @Timp 's post s/b redacted. All of that whisky in one pic is definitely pornographic.

@paddockjudge Haha, do I hear the distinct sound of the pot calling the kettle black?

@Timp the Ardnamurchan I have is the AD 04.21:03 I've still got about half left actually. Often when I like a bottle I kind of nurse it until I have a replacement. It's the standard bottle and they've done away with dates now so it's just the Ardnamurchan AD. I think the cask strength releases have a higher peated malt content. Apparently the buzz is that the Ardnamurchans to really look out for are the madiera cask release or Paul Lanois. But they tend to fly off the shelves very quickly.

I heard about the Whisky Barn on the 'it's all about Springbank' Facebook page. I think from what I can tell he gets a decent allocation of Springbank so a few of the people on that page would mention they tended to buy from him and get good service etc. Never used him myself so no idea if it is actually a good shop or not. I just heard a few times it was so thought I'd mention it as it's in your county. Although I appreciate Devon is a sizeable place!

I'll send you a message with the phone number if you've haven't got it?

@Wierdo thanks for that. Enjoyed the sample you sent. A nice bottle. Certainly a distillery to look out for.

Cheers re the info about whisky barn too. Yeah they seemed to have a lot of pics of Springbank bottles so that makes sense. Will let you know how I get on.

Thompson Brothers were holding 3 bottles for me which I arranged to have delivered today. Pictured are a Glenallachie from a Sherry cask and a Loch Lomond Inchmurrin which is the fruity unpeated version of Loch Lomond.

The reason there are 2 not 3 bottles in the photo is that as I was lifting them out of the box I didn't have hold of one of them properly and the cardboard tube holding the bottle came open and the bottle fell to the floor and smashed. It's the first time I've cried since my kids were born!

The bottle that got away was an Aultmore from a red wine cask. I was planning to crack that one tonight and was really looked forward to it as I've never had an Aultmore before and very few red wine cask whiskies. It smelled absolutely delightful evaporating from my kitchen floor

@Wierdo - I think I might have licked the floor!

Seriously, sorry to hear that. I would have cried as well!

@Wierdo -

Let's hope England put a smile on your face ...

These two lovelies ...

Heard that the CS Bunna is a top whisky and better than batch 1, which also tempted me. I like a sherry monster to have some character and not just sweetness and this should fit the bill nicely! I got the Edradour simply because I could! I have one, still unopened, from the previous release but as they sell so quickly I grabbed another - just over £50 for a quality sherry monster is a decent deal in 2022! Check out that colour ...

I was busy at the auction as well and grabbed, yet another, bottle of old JW Black. This one is from the 70's and might be the oldest bottle I've managed to get my hands on. I'd had my eye on a few other bottles but bids were quite high overall yet this one was relatively cheap.

I know I always say this but 2023's whisky budget is going to have to be slashed yet I always find a justification somehow

@RianC nice score..Did you try the 2021 Bunna? If so what did you think?

My wife has got this one ( with advice clearly!! ) for my Christmas present so looking forward to seeing what it’s like. As you say reviews have been good so thought it worth a punt.

Those Edradours are lovely. Only have one bottle in the cupboard, might have to rectify that given your post

Eau Claire "Single Malt", batch 5 lcbo.com/en/…

I've been fooled a coupe of times into buying NAS/3 year old Canadian malt whisky north of $100. LCBO marked this one down by ~25%, so it seemed like a reasonable risk. Based on the first pour, I'll say it's not as bad as some of the other new distillery offerings I've tried... but it's also not as properly aged "real" (Scotch) single malts around the $75 price range. It has some good qualities but it's still a young spirit (finishes a bit hot even at the low 43% ABV). I'll wait for this distillery to release a ~10 year old before buying another.

(Shelter Point remains, for me, the clear winner in the Canadian malt whisky category and is very good at 10 years of age).

@bwmccoy I have to confess. I did dip my finger!

@Wierdo That happened to me once. I bought a bottle of Benromach 10 YO 43% to bring to a party. It was not opened and the hosts, despite being of Scottish descent, did not drink whisky. I was invited to bring the bottle home. As I was opening the car door it slipped through the bottom of the carton and smashed on the driveway. I recovered some very fragrant pieces of glass...

I was really P-Oed! I went out and bought another bottle (I think they were some crazy price like $60 art the time) and opened it and reviewed it... but overpoured it seems... Hence the name of my review: Never pour angry.

connosr.com/benromach-10-year-old-whisky-r…

@Nozinan Benromach 10 has jumped around in price here in Onterrible. When I reviewed it in 2017, my bottle cost me $59. I predicted on my now-defunct blog that it would jump up in price and it did. It was $79 for a long while and it has recently dropped to $69. I wonder where it will end up next? Side note: I think I'm the only person on earth who doesn't mind the newer Benromach labels. Oh, and the whisky's still pretty darned good too.

@RianC Glad you got your CS Bunna! Buddy of mine had his delivered to someone else (shipping issue on their side) and Bunnahabhain has been less than helpful in resolving the issue. He has had to resort to denying the charge on his card.

@OdysseusUnbound

I miss your blog...

@Nozinan It became too much work to maintain, and I was also dealing with a ton of spam being posted in the comments, spam emails, etc. It would also give me anxiety when I hadn't posted a review in two weeks or more. The blog ultimately became a source of stress and frustration and that's the opposite of what I want from whisky.

@OdysseusUnbound That is completely understandable. But I still miss the blog. That says more about the quality of the content. It doesn’t suggest that you made the wrong decision.

I picked up the following today:

• Laphroaig Cairdeas Warehouse 1: I’ve heard this one is just a Cask Strength NAS Laphroaig aged entirely in first fill ex-Maker’s Mark casks. Just? An all ex-bourbon CS Laphroaig sounds good to me.
• Laphroaig 10 Year Sherry Oak (48% abv): I have one of these already but it’s a decent price for a higher strength Laphroaig 10, and the Sherry does not dominate if memory serves me.
• El Dorado Port Mourant Cask Strength: this was a chance find. There were several of them sitting on the shelf and I couldn’t bear to just leave them all there so I brought one to a loving home.

@OdysseusUnbound - I'm behind in my posting, but a friend of mine shared the Laphroaig Cairdeas Warehouse 1 with me on Saturday night in a blind tasting with three other whiskies. All they told me was that all four whiskies were peated and all from ex-bourbon casks. They asked me to rank the four whiskies in order of preference and to guess which distilleries they were from. I didn't know if they were all Scotch or if they were all from Islay. They were.

I correctly guessed the distilleries for my two favorites. #1 was an 11 year Caol Ila from Single Cask Nation (58.3% ABV). A close second was the Laphroaig Cairdeas Warehouse 1 (52.2% ABV). I immediately recognized it as a Laphroaig, just without the sherry, seaweed, iodine influence. The distillery character still comes through. I really liked it. It was a very close second to the Caol Ila.

From there I didn't do so well. My third favorite turned out to be Octomore 5.1 (59.5% ABV). The peat was so different that I thought it was an Eastern Highland distillery, but not Ardmore. I guessed a smoky Benromach. However, my friend said the peat for Octomore 5.1 is from an Eastern Highland source (I haven't been able to verify that), not from Islay, so I was on the right track or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

My fourth favorite turned out to be a Lagavulin 12 (56.5% ABV) from Diageo's Special Release last year (2021). The whisky was fine: they all were. It was just my least favorite of the four. I thought it was a Kilchoman Machir Bay Cask Strength and I like Kilchoman and Lagavulin and ... Ok, I like all Islay distilleries that I have tried, just in varying degrees.

It was a fun, yet humbling exercise as most blind tastings are.

All of that to say, if you haven't tried the Laphroaig Cairdeas Warehouse 1 yet, I don't think you will be disappointed. I liked it a lot!

@65glenfarclas I'll second the Shelter Point. I've got a cask strength 10 year old at 57.3% that's right up there with the best of them. The 7 year old Ripple Rock at 47% is a good one too.