Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Astroke Could I have that little bit up the neck from the shoulders of the bottle? Seriously, that is a holy grail aquisition. Sadly, your picture is about as close as I'll ever come to one of those. Congratulations.

@Astroke when I open up one of my two remaining bottles of VW13 Rye you are welcome to a 4 oz sample. My advice to you if you get 120 ml or more from me or from others is to drink 1 oz of it right away, and then keep the rest in the back of the cabinet for 2-3 years. That is when the nose assumes divine and overwhelmingly lush proportions.

For me VW13 Rye is about an 88-89 pt whiskey at first, then a 93-96 point whiskey after about 2.5 years with some air into the bottle.

Gifts from friends!

Never had anything from Benriach before.

@casualtorture Looks like you picked a good one for your first.

@casualtorture Nice friends! A good ECBP can be great!

@casualtorture there's no such thing as too much ECBP. I think I've got about a dozen bottles of it stored away, more than I have of any other single whiski. Of all of the batches I have only encountered one single batch of it which was inferior to its usual superlative quality, and that was one of the very early batches. I stocked up on so much ECBP because it became immediately obvious to me when it first came out that THIS was the new US whiskey opportunity, after the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection whiskeys, the Van Winkle whiskeys, the Parker's Heritage Collection whiskeys, the Old Forester Birthday bourbons, and the Abraham Bowman whiskeys all became scarce and expensive collectibles. ECBP was a high quality American whiskey which one COULD, albeit usually with some effort, still obtain in the USA at a reasonable price.

I have great admiration for Heaven Hill for continuing to be willing to be price competitive. They still generally have the best pricing and give the best value for money of all of the US brands-- hell, for that matter, for all of the WORLD brands. Not that all of the Heaven Hill products are great in quality. They are not. Like all big brands they have a LOT of batch variability. A bottle of Evan Williams Black Label, for example, can be totally "MEH! Who wants to drink this thin beverage?" to VERY good, if you get lucky. But it costs so little in the USA that even a bottle that needs to be consigned to cocktails is no great loss of invested capital.

@Victor Agreed! I think this is my 5th bottle, I generally get a new one after I finish an old one, but the prices are starting to creep up here. 2 years ago $70 or $80 was going rate everywhere. Now most places it is $100 or even $110, although there are still a few places that will sell it at 80, but it goes fast when they get it in!

What I love about ECBP is how it is consistently excellent. A really good bottle of JDBP trades blows with ECBP, but I've had some underwhelming samples of JDBP, I've never had an underwhelming sample of ECBP.

I do respect HH for their "normal" stuff. The white label BiB is a pretty darn good whiskey. For me at that price point it's that and Rebel Yell 100, then add 10 bucks and you get OGD 114 when it can be found. Thankfully there is still good whiskey on the bottom and middle shelves.

Here's to hoping ECBP doesn't become another highly allocated whiskey...

New additions:

The Arran Machrie Moor Cask Strength for curiousity, a Peated Arran. The Black Tot Blender's Reserve 2021 because the blender, Oliver Chilton is doing an excellent job producing some tasty rums, in the series so far. The Glendronach 18 which is "officially", 18 years old beginning in 2020. This one is a 2022 bottling under the ownership of Brown-Foreman / Rachel Barrie. It comes with controversy and changes - upsetting whisky vloggers.

@fiddich1980 I’d be interested in your thoughts on the Machrie Moor. I’ve been tempted but haven’t yet pulled the trigger.

@BlueNote I will let you know when I get around to it.

It’s still dry January but I order this before Christmas and it just arrived. Kilchoman Club Eleventh Edition Marsala Cask finish. Only 771 bottles this year coming in at 53% ABV.

Picked up today because I cannot follow my own advice. Supposed to be available at the LCBO online ship to store tomorrow. $120 Cad looks to be a decent price for Glendronach 15.

Not a buy but a late Xmas gift. The image is a local (Bristol) based distillery that age their distillate in steel vats but use charred staves in the tank to help add flavour.

The website gives all details of each batch: from memory, this has had cherry wood, oak (various), Apple and some others. It's a mash of mostly corn but with some malted barley and rye as well. Quite keen to try this.

I also picked up a ltr of JW Red (70s/80's) at auction and at 43%. And unless I see something I REALLY want, that's my buying done for a while ...

Lagavulin Offerman Edition 11 year-old (46%): it's $30 cheaper than Talisker 10 year-old (45.8%), $65 cheaper than Lagavulin 16 year-old (43%), $95 cheaper than the Lagavulin CS 12 year-old, and only $10 more than the Lagavulin 8 year-old (48%).

Not a whisky but the wife and I were in Mexico last week so obviously had to grab some tequila.

Not a purchase.

My aunt wanted to clean out my late uncle’s cabinet, and he had a number of unopened bottles of Scotch and an open bottle of Canadian Club 100 Proof. A few years ago I noticed the seal had been cracked but it looked full. I had since then poured a sample to taste and review but never got around to it. So I brought the bottle home to explore it properly.

My cousin wanted to keep one bottle. We had finished his bottle of Dalwhinnie 15 on the evening of his funeral, so she took the sealed bottle of that. My brother took a Dalmore 15 and Glenfiddich 18 (a travel retail size with a sticker from Ben Gurion airport - I can’t remember when my uncle and aunt had last travelled to Israel). I think he is more likely to enjoy those than I am. What was left was a Chivas Regal 12 (that was his blend of choice when he wasn’t my drinking a single malt, and a bottle of A’Bunadh that I had actually gifted him in his 75th birthday, almost 8 years ago. He didn’t drink as much as I do, so it took him a long, Long time to get through a bottle. Luckily, he was smart and didn’t buy ahead too much.

I found a spot to put the bottles ( it was NOT easy), and perhaps one day I will open one in his memory.

A friend muled this Corbin Cash 1917 California Straight Rye to me as well as one for himself. California to Minnisota to Fort Frances and then to Hamilton. 100% Merced (?) Rye at 123 proof

I've been reasonably good so far this year but my birthday has prompted a few buys, gifts etc.

My love of Mortlach continues to bloom and I have focused heavily on getting them when I can. As luck would have it, I was able to get another SV bottling, with 10% off, with my bday cash. I also saw the OB 16 on a flash sale and snapped it up a few days ago. Vouchers allowed me to pick up the Signatory UCFC (bourbon matured - I assume!) on the cheap too. So, three Mortlachs, all done very differently.

I also added an Adelphi blend - I've had this before and liked it a lot but it's not always available. Small batch, solera vatted blend from Adelphi and for £20! Nutty, sweet and a touch of peat is the style. What's not to like!?

And, lastly, a new blend from North Star - the Fool. Well, I quite like the Tarot label, it's North Star, so likely a decent blend, and it's a good bet that it came from Macallan distillery (as I saw a photo of the cask!). 4:1 Girvan grain to Mac malt and 8 years old. It's basically a cask strength Famous Grouse for under £30! Worth a pop, surely?

Here's the image I forgot ...

@RianC Wow, nice haul. I would like to pick up a high proof Mortlach in anticipation of opening a Rare Malts Mortlach, but I have not been exploring Calgary for a few years now. Also, I hope that your picture contains more bottles than I buy all year!

In theory, I just "bought" a bunch of whisky from the Pappy/BTAC collection from the LCBO. Of course, in practice I just bought another year of winning absolutely nothing, but you can't win if you don't try, I suppose. I'd really, really like to win the William Larue Weller above all others but GTS or Thomas Handy would be dandy too.

@OdysseusUnbound

I dispute your assertion that you can’t win if you don’t try. Where do you think those bottles are going to? Certainly not to those who try.

I’m hoping g for a stagg. If I win one of the other 2 I will happily trade them for the stagg that you will surely win this time.

@Nozinan and @OdysseusUnbound - you want me to put something in for you when I place my order, maybe to "improve" your odds?

@YakLord a very kind offer. I do have a network of family and friends, who are happy to help me not win anything.

@Nozinan If you change your mind before end of day tomorrow, let me know. I'm just waiting for a friend in Kentucky, whose nephew works at BT, to get his recommendations on which of the BTAC / PVW bottlings I should put my name in to not win...

Removed duplicate post.

My mother-in-law gives me a gift card to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society each Christmas. I've had my eye on this particular bottle for a couple of months because it is not something that I normally see as part of the monthly Society tastings. It's also free shipping week, so a good time to finally pull the trigger.

Peerless Distilling Company SMWS RW4.1 (5 year - Sep. 2015) "Not to be missed" - After 3 years in a charred virgin oak barrel, transferred into another virgin oak charred barrel due to the original cask leaking - 55.8% ABV.

Why did I buy it? The rye's and bourbon's that I normally purchase are for cocktails, not sipping. I wanted a good sipping rye and I've never owned any Peerless before. Also, it's the first cask that the Society has purchased from Peerless (hence the .1 in RW4.1).

I've been loving anything Linkwood lately so picked up this one today. Also picked up a rare breed. I've enjoyed it a few times but never owned one, figured it was about time.

WT RB