What is your most recent (whisky) purchase.

[islayjunkie]

Recenty purchased:

Scotch
Mac 18 - 1986

Mac 18 1986 is available here too. Please post your tasting notes. I'd like to know if it is worth $100.00. If it is I'll grab one.

[Tyson]

It's better than it was last year (1985 distilled), but still not worth the $$, IMO. I hope next years (1987) will be a big jump in quality like the most recent 12 year old Mac has been.

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Admiral,
I have seen references to this debate scattered about the forum. I certainly don't want to roil the waters. I was just using the terminology that I had come across in my reading, using it without really understanding it well. My own take is that each distillery has to be judged on its own merits, really, each bottle must be so judged.
Ed

[MGillespie]

Purchased two new bottles in the last two days...

Edradour 10YO -- amazing
Isle of Jura 10YO -- research yet to begin...

Had to restock my shelves after an unfortunate incident involving a visiting relative...story's too sad to delve into, but it involved the complete demolition of my Scotch collection...

Mark

[Frodo]

Did your relative mix any of it with cola? Just wondering...

[meatyork]

The Famous Grouse 1989 Vintage Malt Whisky, in a nice tin plate tube. Probably the last bottle in the city. (Then you can only get the 1990s. ) Dilemma now: open it or keep it?
Slightly off topic: aslo a bottle of Baileys (just wondering what whisk(e)y is in it) as Valentine's gift for my girlfriend, who doesn't drink whisky but enjoys the liqueur. Here it has got new label and carton now, though I still miss the old greenish label.

[colby]

Yesterday I bought A Balvenie 12yo Double Wood, nice but a little too smooth (restrained even).

Proir to that I got:
Springbank 15 yo - Fruity, pungent, hint of peatiness. Very warming. Great 9/10.
Glenfiddich 21yo Gran Reserva - Very rich, sherry, fruit, nuts all that stuff. Very long.

[MGillespie]

Did your relative mix any of it with cola? Just wondering...

Unfortunately, no...she mixed it with a lot of tap water. My mother in law is a recovering alcoholic with many years of sobriety, and past visits were uneventful, so I didn't see the need to hide the bottles. Her stress levels went off the charts while she was alone, and rather than fall off the wagon, she decided to eliminate the problem by pouring it all down the drain. I'm glad she chose that option instead of ruining all the hard work she's put in over the years to stay sober...after all, I can always get more Scotch, but she wouldn't be able to face the family without a great deal of guilt...

Mark

[Mr Fjeld]

I'm glad she chose that option instead of ruining all the hard work she's put in over the years to stay sober...after all, I can always get more Scotch, but she wouldn't be able to face the family without a great deal of guilt...

Mark

What a ridiculous and evil thing to do It's good for her that she was able to overcome her alcoholism but the absolutely worst thing there is are people who make themselves the judges of right and wrong on other people's behalf!

Pure fascism if you ask me!

Skål!
Christian

[MGillespie]

Christian:

She wasn't trying to make a moral judgement, but she was alone, my bottles were in plain sight, and she was tempted with no one to call for support...and did what she had to do to maintain her sobriety.
She was very upset afterwards and offered to replace them for me, but I refused the offer. I would rather she have done what she did that have my daughters see her in a stupor on the couch when they got home from school...and have her feel guilty about it for years to come.

Mark

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Mark,
I must say I feel your lose and also admire your understanding your mother-in-law's dilemma and her rather drastic solution to it.
Ed

[islayjunkie]

Christian:

She wasn't trying to make a moral judgement, but she was alone, my bottles were in plain sight

Under the circumstances that would be the correct course of action. She did the honorable thing... I doubt I would have as much strength

[Mr Fjeld]

Christian:

She wasn't trying to make a moral judgement, but she was alone, my bottles were in plain sight, and she was tempted with no one to call for support...and did what she had to do to maintain her sobriety.
She was very upset afterwards and offered to replace them for me, but I refused the offer. I would rather she have done what she did that have my daughters see her in a stupor on the couch when they got home from school...and have her feel guilty about it for years to come.

Mark

I understand! Sorry if I was a bit unsensitive, but I'm afraid I jumped to conclusions as I now understand she didn't do it to force her contempt for alcohol on you. Anyway, as Ed said your tolerance is commendable!

I wish you the best of luck in rebuilding your whisky selection - and maybe you should consider investing in a "spirit safe"

Skål!
Christian

[MGillespie]

Thank you all! Any suggestions would be welcomed...

I have considered a locking cabinet...primarily because I have teenagers in the house. While I trust my kids...I don't always know or trust the kids they bring home. For that reason, I keep all of my miniatures hidden away so that they don't sneak off in a guest's pocket.

Mark

[Ed]

Hello All,
Hello Mark,
A locked room would be favorite. A glass fronted cabinet with a flimsy lock is no protection at all. If you feel you must lock your whiskey etc. away you should lock it up well enough to require a crowbar to get to it. But a collection of miniatures locked in a box is no fun, rather pointless in fact. So, if you decide to put it behind glass just make sure that the lock is a good one. No one is going to break glass to slip a couple of miniatures into their pocket.

Then again you can just let them go like the butterfly in the story. I never lend books to people. I give them away and if the recipient gives them back that's great. (Consequently, I never 'loan' books that I wouldn't happily buy again.) That probably isn't an appropriate solution here. You don't seem to be worried about protecting your stuff so much as protecting others from it.
Just my two cents.
Ed

[Tom]

im in doubt for my next "purchase".
I will trade my bottle of Port Ellen 25Y OMC for something else but dont know yet what. Any suggestions on the peat front? Price about 100$ (there are 5 drams out of the PE so i have to lower the price) and prefereble above 20Y.
Suggestions are apreciated.

[Ed]

Hello All,
After asking about various expressions of Laphroaig and Caol Ila I went out and bought two bottles of Glenmorangie, the Port finish and the Madeira. I haven't opened either and probably won't for a while.
Ed

[MGillespie]

Continuing to rebuild my stocks...

Picked up a nice Benrinnes 15YO Monday night...along with a handful of old-logo Edradour 10YO miniatures to use in my flask.

By the way, Laphroaig users will consider this a horrible slight. I was at a highly-regarded liquor store in New York City on Saturday and picked up some Laphroaig...the guy behind the counter turned up his nose and allowed as how he tried to avoid it whenever possible. He said "you like steak, right...would you rather eat the steak or the charcoal..."

Arrrggghhh!

Mark

[hpulley]

He obviously doesn't understand that the comparison should instead be, "do you prefer your steak cooked over a smoky charcoal BBQ or baked in a dry heat oven?" That's the real difference where a slow cooked steak over a smoky (from the falling juices or other things) bed of coals will impart a completely different flavor from a simple dry roasting which is the analog to peat or peatless malting. We are still enjoying the steak with Laphroaig, not the charcoal itself and he fails to grasp that concept.

Harry

[MGillespie]

He's an idiot, and I won't be shopping there any more. Not because he doesn't appreciate the taste of peat, but because he had the poor taste to insult a customer's choice.

Mark

[rthomson]

Clearly someone who doesn't understand. I have had people tell me that they have difficulty with the 10yo but all love the 15yo. Even so, they've never insulted or questioned my choice to drink it.

What's gained by insulting another's choice of whisky? Never mind from the business (customer is always right) point of view, but why not listen to another's perceptions of the drink and appreciate their love of the stuff?

Latest purchase was Ardbeg 10yo. Walked out of the store very happily as I had thought it was not to be found in the area.

Ron

[Deactivated Member]

I refuse to let such clowns get me down--the proper response is to laugh at them. "I guess you don't want to sell any whisky today!" or "Well then, I don't understand why this shop isn't stocked entirely to your impeccable taste," or some other such absurd thing, said in a good-natured way, to make him see, hopefully, how he appears to customers. If he's too dense to get it, he presumably won't last long in a service occupation.

On the other side of the coin are shop clerks who "respect" your taste to the point of obsequiousness--"Glen Googly Flatulence! Excellent choice, sir, just what I would have bought!"--and are as useless (if far more agreeable) in their way as the other.

[MGillespie]

How would Mr. Picky have handled this situation?

[jharrod]

i have purchased:
Lagavulin 16
Balvenie Double Wood 12
and received a Bowmore Dusk as a gift.

[Deactivated Member]

How would Mr. Picky have handled this situation?

Mr. Picky is fairly shy in public. Anyway, the fellow had committed no overt grammatical offense, nor said anything demonstrably false, which are the kinds of things about which Mr. Picky really cares. Perhaps, like Harry, he'd have pointed out the fallaciousness of the fellow's steak metaphor. Mr. Picky loves a good metaphor, and, like Lenny in Of Mice And Men, will stroke one until it's dead, and beyond. But most likely, he'd simply have bought his Laphroaig and got out. (Or he might have been tempted, on leaving, to ask, "Say, do you know where there's a good charcoal restaurant around here?")

[Crispy Critter]

Latest purchases: a Laphroaig 10CS and a bottle of Redbreast 12.

The Redbreast will be my third Irish whiskey, having had Connemara (the standard NAS bottling) and Black Bush. I almost picked up a Connemara CS as well, but my wallet started complaining...

[MGillespie]

ROFL! I thought the response might be something along those lines...

How would Mr. Picky have handled this situation?

Mr. Picky is fairly shy in public. Anyway, the fellow had committed no overt grammatical offense, nor said anything demonstrably false, which are the kinds of things about which Mr. Picky really cares. Perhaps, like Harry, he'd have pointed out the fallaciousness of the fellow's steak metaphor. Mr. Picky loves a good metaphor, and, like Lenny in Of Mice And Men, will stroke one until it's dead, and beyond. But most likely, he'd simply have bought his Laphroaig and got out. (Or he might have been tempted, on leaving, to ask, "Say, do you know where there's a good charcoal restaurant around here?")

[Frodo]

For my purchase last night, I stumbled on something really interesting at the LCBO clearance depot. I got a couple of bottles of Grappa at 40% off (thank you LCBO). What's so interesting about grappa you say? How this stuff seems to be made I reply.

Check this out. Regular grappa is made with the leftovers of wine making. Thats the grape skins, seeds, stems and stalks collectivly called pommace (sp). This stuff is put through a special press that's more powerful than a regular wine press. The resulting liquid is too aromatic to be used for wine, but is fine for a sharp distillate.

In this paticular brand of grappa, the pommace has been infused with peat smoke, and after distilation, the product has been aged for a year in oak before caramel added, then bottling. I spoke to someone at the LCBO who said he tasted the stuff, and he claims it tastes more like scotch than grappa.

I heard that the Italian market is where 5-8yr malts sell quite well. This makes sence when one considers the popularity of grappa (the marketplace already has people who like spirity young distillate). This stuff sounds like it would taste like a young scotch! When I open it, I'll post, but it may be some time as I'm trying to get into shape so I've cut down on my tasting.

Weird Eh?

Frodo

[Frodo]

The Redbreast will be my third Irish whiskey, having had Connemara (the standard NAS bottling) and Black Bush. I almost picked up a Connemara CS as well, but my wallet started complaining...

You've had some nice whiskies there sir. I would recommend the Jameson 12yr next. I want to do a HTH with Jameson 12 & Black Bush. Ah well, sometime...

Frodo

[mace]

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

Ohhh Can't wait for my wifes birthday on the 28/2

Magnus

[Ed]

Hello All,
I went to the liquor store today and bought three bourbons, Buffalo Trace, (! I really wanted this one and had not seen any on the shelves. I was won over by what the website had to say about it. Advertising in action...) Knob Creek, another one I had wanted to get for quite a while, but had been put off by the prices I had seen. Today it was a reasonable 2,780 yen. And a bottle of Wild Turkey 8 yr. 50.5 abv. I had been wanting a bottle of this. I would have gotten something else, but it was a good deal cheaper than usual.
Ed

[meatyork]

A standard Jameson, the first ever bottle of Irish I have bought and the only avaible bottling here. I think it's a good purchase, at least as regards the price:D , which is less then ten if converted to pound sterling. Hope it'll slow down my consumption of my FG 1989 vintage, as I can't locate another bottle.

[Nock]

My most recent purchas was a Highland Park 12 year, and a 10 year old Laphroaig.

This is my first time to try Laphroaig and absolutely love it!
My local store still has about 5 or 6 bottles of Lagavulin 16y around and I can't help feeling like I should pick up a few. The problem is that I already have 3/4 of a bottle sitting on my shelf and I like the Laphroaig better then the Lagavulin. To make matters worse, I have been itching to pick up a bottle of Ardbeg. I tried it at a friends house a year ago and I am curious to know if it tastes as good as I remember . . .

[Crispy Critter]

To make matters worse, I have been itching to pick up a bottle of Ardbeg. I tried it at a friends house a year ago and I am curious to know if it tastes as good as I remember . . .

Go for it! None of the Ardbegs I've tried (10yo, Uigeadail, 1977) have disappointed me. The 10yo is a good enough value that I've been stockpiling it, and the pricier expressions, while not daily drammers, have been worth every last cent.

It's scary to think that Ardbeg came perilously close to having a bulldozer run through it.

The Highland Park was also an excellent choice - I've had the 12 and the 18, and both have been quite good.

Back to recent purchases: my latest have been a Talisker 10 and a Clynelish 14, but I need to kill an open bottle or two before I open them...

[rthomson]

I stopped in the local store thinking I would buy a bottle to help build my collection (need to rebuild as I have no collection to speak of as I polished off all my bottles before my move a few weeks ago). This wasn't a store that specializes in single malts but I figured I could find some decent ones that I would appreciate. I considered the Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish as I haven't yet sampled that one, the Laphroaig 10 yo as it's one I always like and the Aberlour 10 yo as some recent posts have increased my interest.

In the end I went with the Macallan cs. It's a solid choice and, as another poster has already admitted to, I was swayed by the free hip flask.

There's no end to consumerism in the U.S.

Ron