Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@BlueNote thank you kindly for quoting my favourite Lauren Bacall line, from probably my favourite Bogart-Bacall movie, To Have and Have Not.

@Victor My favorite too. I've been watching a bunch of Bogart movies lately on the Turner Classic Movie network. What do you think is the perfect Bourbon to accompany those classic movies?

@BlueNote interesting question. I'm impressed that you are willing to inquire into bourbon selections.

A "perfect" selection can be completely unrestricted, or it can be limited to what people know and can get. I'll try to go more generic and available, and then maybe also make a few comments about unrestricted choices. Hmmmmm...

To Have and Have Not-- mellow and playful, I'd go with Four Roses Small Batch; if available I'd move to a Four Roses Limited Edition of some type.

Key Largo-- tense and suspenseful, I'd go with the sharp edge of Wild Turkey Rare Breed; if available this would be the place for some George T. Stagg, some William Larue Weller, or an old Willett Family Estate Bourbon

The African Queen-- gnarly and frustrating, I'd cut through the weeds with some Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve or Booker's. Old Grand-Dad 114 would work here too.

Treasure of the Sierra Madre-- convoluted, treacherous, and ironic, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof will set a constant pitch from the tuning fork. No ECBP on hand? I'd go with John J. Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon if I could get some. Neither of those? Then I'd go with Old Grand-Dad BIB or 114.

The Maltese Falcon-- WTF is going on and why? For this I like Heaven Hill's Fighting Cock. Great name, and some of the batches are quite good.

Casablanca-- interpersonal drama is supreme here. For this I like an alternation between the very light and drinkable products like Four Roses Small Batch, Ancient Ancient Age 10 years old, Ancient Ancient Age 10 Star, or Van Winkle 12 year old "Lot B", with Weller 12 year old or Old Weller Antique 107 as an alternate. If you are ready to go heavy at any point this would be a good place for the Abraham Bowman 17 yo 73.75% ABV.

Sahara-- for this war movie I'd go with a wheated bourbon or wheat whiskey: Old Weller Antique 107, Old Elk Wheat Whiskey, or, if available, Van Winkle 10 yo, or Pappy Van Winkle 15, 20, or 23. Another creme de la creme choice would be Parker's Heritage Collection 10 yo Wheated Bourbon.

I'll leave it there. Bogart made a lot of movies.

@Victor If I were to go with a food analogy I'd say that you are the secret ingredient that elevates this site from very good to 4 star gourmet. You make it worthwhile being a participant here and I thank you for your unfailingly thoughtful and interesting responses to all questions regarding whiski and life in general. Cheers.

@BlueNote thank you so very much for your most kind words.

I very much enjoy the company here on Connosr. And I do think of Connosr very much as being like a house which it is up to us to decorate with our words. With sufficient decoration we are free to bask in the beauty all around us.

Cheers!

@BlueNote - well said and totally agree.

@Victor excellent selections. Do you have a Bourbon pairing fior "The Big Sleep?

@fiddich1980, thank you for joining in. For The Big Sleep, which is extremely complex, murky, and layered like an onion, I would want the flat out most complex and most powerful bourbon I could find, in particular the 2010 release of George T. Stagg. I agree with Jim Murray that you can spend 4 hours just exploring the nuances of this particular release. Alternates would be Abraham Bowman 17 yo 73.75% ABV, Willett Family Estate 18 yo Single Barrel "Soppressata" (which is my own personal favourite rye-containing bourbon), or William Larue Weller. I realize that these are not available to most, so among the more available choices I would go with Wild Turkey Rare Breed first, or, alternately, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof or Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve. Sustained intensity would be the theme for the bourbon to accompany The Big Sleep. This is the "engage" approach to this movie which would be my first choice.

An alternate approach to watching The Big Sleep would be to take the position of aesthetic detachment. For this I would sip down 1/4 of a bottle of Van Winkle 12 yo "Lot B" wheated bourbon. If I didn't have any of that around-- most don't-- I would do the same with some Four Roses Small Batch.

@Victor High Sierra deserves a pairing as well, just for Ida Lupino alone.

@Astroke The girl Bogey really wanted in that one was the teenager with the bum foot. It took him a while to acquire the taste for Lupino. We'll see what @Victor comes up with for the bad guy with the big heart.

@Astroke High Sierra is a film which I will have to accompany in prospect, because I do not think that I have ever seen it. From the looks of clips of the film and Ida Lupino I would prefer if I could to sip from a bottle of Weller Full Proof. You probably own at least one of those. I haven' yet had the pleasure, though I have tasted it and am bonkers for that particular tasting experience. Since I don't own any Weller Full Proof I think that when the opportunity to see High Sierra presents itself I will lean toward nibbling on some Eagle Rare 17 year old, and, at the lower end, some Ancient Age. Ancient Age is an inexpensive mass produced basic release Buffalo Trace contract product for Age International. Initial quality of a bottle of Ancient Age can be anywhere from very good to middling to very not good. I currently have a bottle of it open which was horrible for 3 years, and now tastes VERY good. I would be happy to drink from that bottle while watching High Sierra. I'd probably also alternate with some Virginia Gentleman, which is the most basic product of the A. Snith Bowman Distillery. Yes, sir, Ida Lupino looks like a very plucky actress. .

If we’re talking about whisky pairings for watching shows, last night I watched the finale of Divarce Attorney Shin. I wander something decent, but not something I would have to concentrate on.

I found Aberlour A’Bunadh Alba batch 4 to be just right. With a few drops of water it opens a little, and it’s pleasant tasting, but not so special that you want to focus on it too much.

@Victor @fiddich1980 I've seen the Bogart/Bacall 1948 version and the Robert Mitchum/Sarah Miles 1978 version of the Big Sleep. I prefer the earlier version. How about you guys. Would you serve a different drink to Mitchum than you would to Bogart? I'm thinking something fairly basic and unsubtle for Mitchum. Whatever works to take the edge off.

@BlueNote when I think about Robert Mitchum, and I always think Cape Fear when I think Robert Mitchum, I'd serve him something like Booker's. Something in your face without compromise.

If I were serving Humphrey Bogart a bourbon it would probably be Pappy Van Winkle 20, smooth as silk. On the other hand if i were serving one of Bogart's CHARACTERS a bourbon it would be something more like Old Forester-- woody, down to earth, and a little rough around the edges.

@BlueNote You have me stumped. I may have seen the 1978 Robert Mitchum/Sarah Miles version of the The Big Sleep but, it was not memorable. Those old Film Noirs were classics. The writers were artists with double entendre and one liners. It was also an era where product placement was not an issue. I've wasted many hours identifying old brown spirits in older movies. A few examples being 1949 Whisky Galore(Johnnie Walker) Giant(Old Grand Dad), and Frank Sinatra's (JD).

@Victor My favourite Robert Mitchum films are Out Of The Past and Night Of The Hunter, but I also really like Cape Fear.

@MRick and for a little Robert Mitchum tongue in cheek comedic balance-- Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison.

@BlueNote well in Bogey's defence it was Joan Leslie, although she was too young for even Bogey.

A couple of new additions from auction this month.

Port Charlotte CC: 01 2007. I got one of these from Bruichladdich distillery shop on my visit to Islay in 2017. Loved it and always wanted another.

And

Kilchoman 2007 8 year old single cask ( Oloroso ) for Feis Isle 2016. On that first visit to Islay in 2017 I picked up a distillery only bottling of a sherry cask 5 year old. Stunning bottle and I had it for a good few years. On the look out for another so decided to give this one a try. Hope it’s a good one.

So, I just picked up my second bottle of Laphroaig 10yo Cask Strength Batch 015 from December of 2021. Before Christmas I found one (and only one) bottle of Batch 015 up in Maryland. I bought it, even though the price was a little high, without any hurry to open it. At the time I still had half full bottles of both Batch 013 and 014 open. And I have been keeping a backup of every batch of the Laphroaig 10yo CS line up. So that bottle was for the collection so to speak.

So, today I found one (and again, only one) bottle of Batch 015 here in Virginia. The total count of Laphroaig 10yo CS in the entire state is only 30 bottles. So I count myself fortunate that one was all the way down here in Virginia Beach.

So, I cracked it to see if it is a batch worthy of multiple bottles. My first impression is that it isn’t. It is one of the overly iodine/medicinal batches. Now, there is always a little iodine/medicinal bandage notes in Laphroaig, but some batches have more than others. This one seemed to have more of that and less of the sweet dark peat notes I love. So a relative good bottle for a high octane peat fix, but not a batch worthy of multiple reserve bottles (like batch 009 or 012 . . . I loved both of those).

I plan to do a head-to-head (semi-blind) of this batch with a few others to see how it stacks up. But I should probably give it a few days from this fresh crack. Who knows? It will change. Maybe it will change for the better . . . sadly, with the high iodine batches . . . it only tends to get strong.

Going to have a battle of the Beams. This single barrel just recently became available in our market.

Just going to go ahead and claim victory for OGD114 after cracking the JBSB.

Sorry to hear as the JBSB is available here.Have never seen a bottle of OGD114.

@Jonesz Not available in Canada as far as I know. I have plenty but I have to say I'm a little envious of anyone who can just go into a store and pick this off the shelf...

@casualtorture @Nozinan a Jim Beam/Suntory analogue to Old Grand-Dad 114 that I wistfully and fruitlessly yearned for for years has finally materialized-- Old Overholt 114. My sister likes to call this brand "Old Overcoat". Old Overholt straight rye was always an inexpensive batch variable product which could be anywhere from very good to not too good according to the batches. Nowadays I'm not drinking enough to justify buying and storing new bottles, so I'm not going out to buy this one, despite its modest US price. I am, however, very eagerly looking forward to tasting it. It could easily be one which starts out 'meh' and just gets better and better with air exposure, as most US straight ryes do. 30 bucks in the USA for 57% ABV straight US rye whiskey is quite a good deal, just as it is for its cousin Old Grand-Dad 114 Bourbon Whiskey.

@Nozinan Thanks for the info. I do see the old GD BIB available in Calgary and will likely pick up a couple of those in July just to try but also envy those folks who can buy the 114 off the shelf although it sounds like demand is outstripping supply in the USA as well. I really was hoping that @casualtorture would proceed with his HTH with Jim Beam Single Barrel just to give his impressions even though he felt the contest was going OGD 114's way.

@Jonesz The OGD BiB is ok but very different from the 114. It is taking me a long time to get through that bottle.

I recently took advantage of a flyer sale as well as an across the board 10% disount at an online store out west. The Craigellachie 13 was $46 cad on a flyer, The Deanston 12 Oloroso Cask was $108 Cad. The Doc Swinson's El Cuerpo PX Finished MGP Bourbon was a replacement for a triple cask bottle they broke in the warehouse and had none left. The Speymalt 2000/2021 Macallan Sherry cask 57.1% is a pure Tater purchase.

@Astroke excellent prices. If you haven't had it before, the Deanston 2008 Oloroso is a good one. I think you'll like it. Needs some air though.

@Astroke yeah that Deanston looks nice. Be interested to know what you think when you crack it open.

Had a bit of a splurge this weekend and due to impressive samples from @Weirdo and I think @RyanC( but I can’t quite remember- note to self to record samples that I have had! ) a bottle of Thompson Brothers SRV5 8 yrs 48.5% blended malt from a solera vat system they are running and a Thompson Brothers tb/bsw 6 yrs 46% blended whisky. Both were got for around £40 each including delivery and get great reviews. Possibly the last Ralfy review was a trigger also

Lastly, I was in the supermarket on Saturday and saw an Ardbeg 10 for £50 so popped it in the basket as I haven’t had one for a while and always a good dram in my view.

Interestingly doing my usual research of the last reviews when I got home there seems to be the usual divergence of opinion on the latest batches. According to Malt review site ( not my favourite tbh ) they all think it’s no good anymore, and Serge from whiskyfun rates his bottle from 2022 at 91.

Dramface site give a good review but I think theirs is from 2019.

Have to make my own mind up but never had a bad bottle of Ardbeg 10 and always conscious of my palate changing over the years.

Like @RyanCs review on here, it was the first peaty whisky that really blew me away and at the time imprinted itself so strongly on my memory I swear I could still taste it the next day. As such it will always have a place in my heart ( and my cabinet! )