Bruichladdich 20 Years Old
Single Malt - Scotland - 46.00% 8 Rounded, balanced and complex. Too expensive to pour on my porridge before an early morning walk on the Big Strand? I'll economise. I'll skip the porridge.

Glenfiddich 1965 Vintage Reserve
Single Malt - Scotland - 47.80% 8 A playful whisky for one of such maturity. Starting very sweetly, but reluctant to reveal its secrets. Give it time to reveal its complexity.

Wild Turkey 8 Years Old, 101
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 50.50% 8 A huge whiskey. Put together with style and sophistication, but still with all the robustness of a true bourbon. A classic, of course. A Clint Eastwood of whiskeys.

Booker's 6 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 63.25% 8 Wonderfully expansive. Seems to embrace the tastes of the south, all the way from Kentucky to Louisiana.

Pappy Van Winkle 20 Years Old, Family Reserve
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.20% 8 Showing its age, but I like its big, earthy, old-fashioned American flavours.

Wild Turkey 10 Years Old, Russell's Reserve
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 50.50% 8 Slightly austere and cerebral. One to sip while watching a video of an art-house movie.

Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.20% 8 Seductive. I found myself using such post-prandial language. Will she respect me in the morning?

Adelphi Tullibardine 35 Years Old, Cask 2112
Single Malt - Scotland - 54.60% 7 Tullibardine is a gentle, civilised, malt that seems to live in obscurity. Nice to be reminded of its existence. Could be a golfers dram – the distillery is near Gleneagles.

American Biker Sour Mash Bourbon, 6 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 43.00% 6 The bourbon counterpart to long-neck Bud?

Antiquary 21 Years Old
Blended - Scotland - 43.00% 8 Robust, hearty, embracing. Not much subtlety, but it knows its own mind. Very enjoyable. I imagine this with a decadent meal in Tangier.

Baker's 7 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 53.50% 8 With dessert, or after dinner. A lovely, soothing, whiskey.

Basil Hayden's Small Batch, 8 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 40.00% 8 Complex, delicate, feminine.

Bowmore Dawn
Single Malt - Scotland - 51.50% 8 Wood finishes are still fun and may recruit new enthusiasts for malt. Dawn, Dusk, Voyager...this is becoming confusing. Of those three (Port, Bordeaux and Port again), Dawn seems the lightest all-roun...

Bulleit Original Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 7 The cowboy allusions on the neck-label suggest a rough, frontier whisky. Maybe this soothing spirit is just for urban cowboys. It has more of the blacktop than the Badlands.

Eagle Rare 17 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 7 Some interesting flavours, with lots of dimensions, but no balance or structure. I'm not wild about Angel Delight.

Early Times 354 Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 40.00% 7 Pleasant. Easy drinking for a pre-bourbon novice. Perhaps a little unfair to judge it in this company.

Evan Williams 1991, Single Barrel
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 43.30% 8 Where did she go? Will she return?

Four Roses Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 40.00% 7 Even the colour is pale. This is a very gentle introduction to bourbon, but with all the elements.

George A. Dickel's Tennessee Whisky No. 12
Tennessee - U.S.A. - 45.00% 8 Not as smoky and char-like as I remember. Very enjoyable, but less obviously Tennessean.

Jefferson's Reserve 15 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.10% 8 Stylish and disarming, but not to be taken lightly. Reminds me of Kentucky's greatest boxer.

Knob Creek 9 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 50.00% 8 Teasing interplay of sweetness and dryness, with the latter eventually winning.

Laphroaig 1960 Vintage Reserve
Single Malt - Scotland - 42.40% 8 There is something getting in the way. Woodiness?

Maker's Mark Kentucky Straight Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 8 This famously smooth whisky seems slightly less sweet than I remember, especially in the nose and finish. Better balanced, but perhaps fractionally less distinctive.

Old Fitzgerald 12 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 8 Characterful, but not an easy whisky on the basis of this bottling. Bitterness seems to have gained a notch at the expense of the fudge flavours. Water brings it back, but not all the way.

Old Forester 86 Proof Kentucky Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 43.00% 7 Easy drinking, but worth more than a moment's thought.

Sam Houston Very Small Batch 10 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 7 An attractive, tawny, colour and a good, straight-ahead, whiskey. Could be more complex at ten years. Ideal with a Texas barbecue?

Signatory Glendronach 1976 Cask Strength
Single Malt - Scotland - 53.10% 7 An enjoyable malt, but Glendronach is capable of more.

Talisman Blended Scotch Whisky
Blended - Scotland - 40.00% 7 Bigger in body than flavour, but with some complexity and an excellent balance.

The Glenlivet 30 Years Old American Oak Finish
Single Malt - Scotland - 48.00% 8 Who would have thought that finishing in American oak could add so much? The Glenlivet character is showcased not overwhelmed.

Very Old Barton 6 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 43.00% 7 I remember this whiskey being more flowery and dry – and thinner.

Virginia Gentleman 90 Proof Small Batch Bourbon
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 7 Less characterful than the Virginia Gentleman I remember, but still quite distinctive.

W.L. Weller 12 Years Old
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 45.00% 8 Lots of layers. A great dessert whiskey. Thanksgiving dinner?

Wild Turkey 80
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 40.00% 8 No fancy tricks here but a big, complex, regular bourbon.

Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit
Bourbon - U.S.A. - 50.50% 8 My descriptors make it sound like a dessert whisky, but it is also very appetising. Just a tad too sophisticated for me.