Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Pete1969, no dog house is good dog house.

@Victor Hi Victor as you advised my first bottle of HP12 opened up as time passed and by the half bottle mark was easily 87-88 after a poor start. I could not resist getting another hope it develops in same way. Best wishes for the holidays.

@Victor Normally it's around €30 so it was a good discount. It was from warehouse DN, from barrel 90-2S and it is as good as I remembered

@maltygirl loved the Quinta. Sweet and fruity but still has balls

@Bigtuna Congrats, enjoy

About the same price as in Europe, we pay about €50,- Good stuff huh?

Managed to get a William Larue Weller and a Thomas H Handy 2015 in BTAC scum. Also bagged a Four Roses Single Barrel LE 2014 and a Small Batch LE 2015 in the process. Think I'm done on limited releases for a while. I don't think my wife can take any more. Now the biggest question is do I sit on these for a while or drink them?

@MuddyFunster congratulations on getting two BTAC releases, especially if you got through to MoM or TWE. I couldn't get through to either , I thought it was a real shambles and am glad that they are going to adopt a lottery system next year, hopefully that will put us all on an equal footing. Fortunately I managed to get 3 BTAC from Amazon and the way things are I'll be sitting on them for a while because I really don't know if I'll ever get the chance again.

@maltmate302 Yes, got one in the MoM shambles. Basically I kept trying even 20 mins after it started. When I saw their site crashed I kept trying until I landed one when the server came up again. Pretty random. Didn't even see it become available on Whisky Exchange?

In Vancouver for a couple of days and picked up a few things that are not available in Toronto:

1. Nikka from the Barrel (CS)

2. Cutty Sark Prohibition

3. Nikka Coffey Grain whisky - for a friend

4. Whistle Pig Boss Hog - the most I've ever paid for a whisky. Also not for me. I've not experienced enough rye to pay that much for a bottle.

Compared to home it was like being a kid in a candy store. What did I leave behind?

1, Aberlour A'Bunadh batch 52 - looked beautiful (but $6 more (plus tax so likely more) than LCBO that has had nothing since batch 49

1. Booker's 2015-05 - another of the special 2015 releases, and cheaper than LCBO, but transporting would have been tough and I've had Booker's before, and had less access to any version of Nikka and Prohibition.

2. a number of the Buffalo Trace experimental collection

Might come back with family in 2016, so a few stops to check things out might be in order. But overall, I think it went well...

Usquaebach Reserve Blended Scotch, 43% abv, NAS. My wife wanted it on the recommendation of a store manager. Neither of us has tasted it yet.

@Nozinan ya should have snagged a Nikka 12 Miyagikyo. It's one of my all time faves. In a class by itself along with the Taketsuru 17, which was a great deal here in Portland (the same price as the Miya, believe it or not). I don't mean to insinuate that in my estimation the Miya is on a higher plateau than other exceptional whiskies but it is indeed perfect in its own way.

I drank a few glasses of the Coffey Grain a few months back and I just don't understand all the fuss. It seemed fairly one dimensional for me. A one trick pony. Back in the day when it was much cheaper that one trick was enjoyable to some extent, although fairly rudimentary.

Occasoinally, I find myself interested in Canadian whiskies not available in the US. And I've always been jealous about the nonchillfiltered Glenfarclas 15. I almost considered driving up to Vancouver to snag some of that, along with a few other choice bottles unavailable stateside. When flying, the number of bottles you can bring back into the USA is lower than it used to be. Vancouver and Victoria are spectacular cities in summertime. I've gone fishing on Vancouver Island one time. Really exceptional and so close to a couple of major international cities! Really fantastic country up there. If I were Canadian, I'd live near there fo sure.

@Cunundrum

The Nikka you mention was not listed on the BC Liquor website. That said, the Coffey wasn't listed at the store I went to either but there were 14 bottles.

To be clear, I really have no experience with Japanese whisky. The Coffey was a specific request by a very good friend and so I picked that one up.

I have to agree with you about the beauty of Vancouver and Victoria. Vancouver was beautiful this weekend (not even summer) and though it's been 10 years since I was on the island, I still remember a lot of that fondly.

Glen Keith '92 indie bottling ('The Whisky Fair' 2015).

Because I am in a fruity-Bourbon phase, and these 1992 Glen Keiths really show a lovely fruity character, almost Irish, but still more complex than the thinner, 3x distilled Irish malts.

Just received a major purchase from van Zuylen in Holland . The bottles I ordered are as follows:

Redbreast 12 CS 63 euros

Finlaggen CS 35 euros

2 litre bottles of Glenfarclas 105 37 euros each

3 bottles of Ardbeg Oogie 55 euros

Four Roses single barrel 26 euros

Laphroaig QC 35 euros

Port Askaig 100 proof 50 euros

Aberlour 12 NCF 48% abv 39 euros

Jack Wiebers Cask of Islay 43 euros

BenRiach 10 curiositas 46% abv 35 euros

Amrut CS 46 euros

Amrut Fusion 37 euros

1 litre of Heaven Hill 18 euros

These prices are much cheaper than I normally pay in the UK but the postage is a bit expensive so you need to order a few to make it worthwhile. Also yesterday my 3 bottles of BTAC arrived so I've had ,in two days, 22 bottles delivered to my door!!

@maltmate302 That is some serious dramming right there to be done over the holidays in your household then :-D

@Jules I don't need a holiday period to get down to some serious dramming! The reason I bought so much is that some of the prices in Holland are half what I pay in UK and it's much cheaper on postal costs to get several bottles. For example, a litre of Glenfarclas 105 cost me 37 euros whereas in the UK 70 cls costs £45.Same thing with the Four Roses single barrel 26 euros compared to the UK's £38. On most of the other bottles I'm saving at least a third of the UK prices and the result is that I'm spending a fortune trying to save cash!

@maltmate302 , nice haul!

Thanks for including the prices—they're interesting. I think Glenfarclas 105 must have the most variable prices by location of any standard whisky in existence. It's typically close to $100 (for a 750ml) in the USA.

@maltmate302 nice haul from Holland, I have used the same site and the packaging is probably the best I have seen and the prices are good compared to Uk especially on Four Roses. Green with envy over your BTAC haul hope they are as good as the reviews suggests. Already seen some ridiculous secondary pricing.

Tomatin 12 cause it's relatively inexpensive here in the Canadian prairies @$53 and very tasty. Getting very tired of the greed and gouging. Redbreast has just appeared back on the MLCC shelves @ 33 bux more per bottle than the last shipment. So a former $43 offering is now $76 plus 13% tax. Sorry you have lost my business for "evermore". Sorry for the whining but really!

@Jonesz , what's MLCC? Google failed me.

@Jonesz , no wait—it didn't. Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, right? I'm with ya.

@Pete1969 its because of a link you posted a couple of weeks ago that I did my shopping with van Zuylen. Before that I was using Whiskybase, Whisky on-line and Fine Drams but the van Zuylen prices are the best I've seen ( there are a couple of cheaper one's but they are German language only). For us in the UK it's like buy 2 bottles get one free. You are lucky that you are aware so early in your whisky journey about these great prices ,I myself wasted a small fortune at sites like MoM and TWE and I put the prices I paid online to encourage other Brit's to get their whisky abroad.

With the BTAC bottles I checked Amazon everyday after they were released in the US and eventually got the chance to order 3.Unfortunately these are the lengths you have to go to if you want something like BTAC but try it yourself next year .If you are quick you can always get the Four Roses Limited Editions in the meantime, I've got about 6 of them put away.

@OlJas it is a decent haul of bottles but they're all relatively cheap even the Redbreast 12 CS is a reasonable price (£71 in the UK). I'm particularly looking forward to trying the Port Askaig 100 proof (CS Caol Ila) and the Aberlour 12 NCF at 48% abv.

The global variation in the price of Glenfarclas 105 is ridiculous and I'm just glad I'm getting it for the price of a blend. Previously I used to pay much the same as you. In fact there's a lot of variation in the price of all Glenfarclas. Also Amruts another one with big price differentials ,I paid 37 euro for the Fusion compared to £50 at home. It's outrageous that these price differences exist. Greed more than taxation discrepancies is the main reason this is happening to us!

@maltmate302 Yes makes sense looking at those prices of yours.

The US & Indian ones look about the same price as around my way in Flanders, but the Scotches are definitely not that cheap over here in Belgium... maybe I need to start driving across the northern border for my booze..!!

The BTAC lottery results are in, and with the help of a few friends I didn't strike out this year! Still waiting to hear from one person, but so far I was able to get 1 bottle of the Eagle Rare 17, and 1 bottle of the Thomas H. Handy!

@mscottydunc Congrats! First year playing the lottery and I didn't nor did any family win bottles.

bulleit 10y/o bourbon. somewhat surprisingly, i felt like a bourbon and didn't have any at home (surprised that i felt like one, not that i didn't have one). the price seemed more than fair based on lcbo standards. just cracked 'er open....

A flight of Three Wellers, SR (90pf), 12 year (90pf), and barrel proof 2014 (140.2pf)...sadly, no 107.

amrut peated cask strength (batch 12). the price at the lcbo just dropped from $106.95 to $74.95 and i've heard good things. will open tonight....