jeffrey r Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Lagavulin Distillers Edition 2015 last evening. I am just diving into the more peated whiskeys, and Lagavulin DE is a really great entre. Serious peat, but nicely aged, and with the sherry influence. I was pretty smitten with this. The Ardbeg 10 I opened the other night was definitely a bit bolder, but I am giving that some airtime and will come back to that (still enjoyed it though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcgumbohead Posted June 25, 2016 Share Posted June 25, 2016 RB12 I am hit/miss with Irish whiskies. I usually drink this in March but last time around I didn't enjoy it very much. I tried it again last night and in addition to some apples/pears the malted milk ball note which is what I liked about RB when I first tried it returned ( or rather I was able to detect it again). Maybe I am suffering with allergies in March and as such with such a subtle style of whiskey it doesn't connect with me in that condition. I still get the young alcohol boozy hook on the finish but the welcome return of the milk ball note will at least allow me to enjoy the rest of the bottle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRich Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 A bit of Blue Hanger 10th while diving into the last season of Downton. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 Capping off a fine Saturday night with some Laphroaig PX Cask. The standard 10yr Laphroaig was the first Scotch I really enjoyed, and this might be my favorite Laphroaig thus far. Maintains all that salty sea air, peaty/smoky goodness with a touch of sherry that isn't lost or doesn't dominate - but in the words of Goldilocks is "just right". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryT Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Opted for some CB Luxury for an after lunch pour while recuperating from a nice hike this morning. Not the hydration most of the books recommend, but only because they didn't likely have it on hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasled Posted June 27, 2016 Share Posted June 27, 2016 Bought today and cracked a BenRiach 17 Septendecim. Stunning. Will be buying more of this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanstaafl2 Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Independence Day weekend and the British are surrendering again! OK, so perhaps not many Scots want to consider themselves Brits at the moment. Fortunately there are reinforcements in Bunker Hill! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasled Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Started on Bunnahabhain 12, which is growing on me slowly. Moved into Springbank 15 and then onto Springbank 16 Sherry cask, which needs a drop of water to open up but once it has.. tremendous. Might just be dram of the year so far.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 Small tasting pours of Lagavulin 8 and then Longrow 11 Fresh Port. My palate may be off tonight because both nosed and tasted odd. I've about written port matured single malt off anyway (not sure how Ralfy could compare this to Lag 16 . . . Then again watching him blunder through recent bourbon reviews while making zero attempts to understand the laws, culture, and history of American Whiskey makes me want to unsubscribe from his channel altogether), but Lag 8 was tasting pretty washed out as well. Oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted July 4, 2016 Author Share Posted July 4, 2016 18 hours ago, garbanzobean said: ...(not sure how Ralfy could compare this to Lag 16 . . . Then again watching him blunder through recent bourbon reviews while making zero attempts to understand the laws, culture, and history of American Whiskey makes me want to unsubscribe from his channel altogether), but Lag 8 was tasting pretty washed out as well. Oh well. Perhaps, the 8 will come around for you and can be chalked up to an off palate night. I hope to try this soon, as Lag 16 is one of my top whiskies of any origin. Agree 100% with your analysis of Ralfy's poor presentations of American whiskies. I generally enjoy watching him, but "blundering" is a great description of him with AW. I'll catch reviews of malts on occasion now, but totally ignore him completely with American whiskies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 6 minutes ago, smokinjoe said: Perhaps, the 8 will come around for you and can be chalked up to an off palate night. I hope to try this soon, as Lag 16 is one of my top whiskies of any origin. Agree 100% with your analysis of Ralfy's poor presentations of American whiskies. I generally enjoy watching him, but "blundering" is a great description of him with AW. I'll catch reviews of malts on occasion now, but totally ignore him completely with American whiskies. Joe, Just in case my parenthetical ramblings were somehow confusing (how could that be?), lag 8 is great stuff. It is a leaner, lighter Lagavulin 12. I'm about to make certain of it, but I'm pretty sure it was just an off day for me. The Longrow 11 Fresh Port Cask release is also very well made whisky . . . That just doesn't appeal to my palate. I don't really see any resemblance to Lagavulin 16, but if you like port finished peaters, you'll really love this. I'm going to put the last few pours of it into sample bottles just in case I get my head in straight down the road and want to try it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Just confirmed yesterday was an off day for me. Lag 8 was back to its reasonably priced glory. I did some random housekeeping with pouring low bottles into sample bottles, and opened a recently purchased Ardbeg Uigeadail. Got it on sale for $60. It is a recent batch, looks to have been bottled on 17 November 2015. Wow is this different whisky from the last couple bottles of Oogie I've tried. This one, while not a sherry bomb, has a great peat/sherry thing going on. While it has a young and somewhat feisty character to it, nothing tastes immature. Maybe they are including older casks, or maybe they changed their processes so that 3-5 year old Ardbeg doesn't taste horribly immature. Either way, solid bottle. Not sure there's a better peat/sherry fix for $60 out there. About the only other competitor in that price range is Bowmore 15 Darkest, which has a stronger sherry finish, is much lower proof, and weaker on peat presence. Lag16 beats both, depending on the batch and how much you paid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdrinker Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 Cracked open the aberlour 12 unchill filtered. Complex multi layered quality single malt at 48%. So far I'm impressed. My first aberlour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 8 hours ago, bdrinker said: Cracked open the aberlour 12 unchill filtered. Complex multi layered quality single malt at 48%. So far I'm impressed. My first aberlour. It's a good one and one of my favorites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdrinker Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 1 hour ago, Darwin said: It's a good one and one of my favorites. Is this what the abunadh tastes like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darwin Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 30 minutes ago, bdrinker said: Is this what the abunadh tastes like? Similar but different. A'bunadh is a Big, bold and assertive expression. It has a higher alcohol proof and more sherry/dried red fruit flavours in my opinion. It does have a youthful exuberance to it and there are some differences to each batch. In my area the non-chill filtered and A'bunadh are similar in price, about $65, the 12yo chill filtered expression is about $49. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auracom Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 On July 3, 2016 at 10:35 PM, garbanzobean said: Then again watching him blunder through recent bourbon reviews while making zero attempts to understand the laws, culture, and history of American Whiskey makes me want to unsubscribe from his channel altogether On July 4, 2016 at 5:06 PM, smokinjoe said: Agree 100% with your analysis of Ralfy's poor presentations of American whiskies. And thirded. I was wondering if anyone felt the same way. I was especially irritated when he critiqued Four Roses and that they were somehow responsible for his mistake with the Small Batch info. If there's any distillery in Kentucky busting their ass to ensure customers understand their product, it's 4R. 60 seconds of Google search would have corrected his ignorance, but instead he misspoke and then ripped them. I think Serge does better as far as getting facts straight but he's so biased against American heavy-handedness for oak that I can never agree much with his marks. Then again... I follow him for his malt knowledge... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 (edited) 8 hours ago, Auracom said: And thirded. I was wondering if anyone felt the same way. I was especially irritated when he critiqued Four Roses and that they were somehow responsible for his mistake with the Small Batch info. If there's any distillery in Kentucky busting their ass to ensure customers understand their product, it's 4R. 60 seconds of Google search would have corrected his ignorance, but instead he misspoke and then ripped them. I think Serge does better as far as getting facts straight but he's so biased against American heavy-handedness for oak that I can never agree much with his marks. Then again... I follow him for his malt knowledge... I actually posted a number of corrections to Ralfy's latest review, eg pointed out that food products sold in the EU can't be GMO, so there is no need to label products as non-GMO. And directing him to FR's website that outlines their recipes and blending process. And explaining that BIB bourbon lists DSP, so you always know who made it. And outlining the history of brand swaps and distilling under numerous names. You know, historical info that old Ralfy would have found fascinating, yet new Ralfy appears to show no interest in. Then again, he's been pretty touchy about America for awhile, so who knows. The American whiskey industry and the Scotch whisky industry (to say nothing of India, Taiwan, and especially Japan) all have transparency issues, but they are very different transparency issues. I can't wait for him to find out that small batch and single barrel have no legal meaning in the U.S. Edited July 6, 2016 by garbanzobean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRich Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 This little guy left us yesterday morning four months shy of his 12th birthday. He was a great friend and about as ornery as you could imagine at one time or another. I guess only a brain tumor could get him down. I knew I wanted to name him after a malt distillery and I chose Macallan because it worked as a name, not for any favoritism toward the whisky. Even still, my wife and I raised drams of Macallan Sherry 18 in his honor last night. I will miss you little guy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garbanzobean Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 31 minutes ago, BigRich said: This little guy left us yesterday morning four months shy of his 12th birthday. He was a great friend and about as ornery as you could imagine at one time or another. I guess only a brain tumor could get him down. I knew I wanted to name him after a malt distillery and I chose Macallan because it worked as a name, not for any favoritism toward the whisky. Even still, my wife and I raised drams of Macallan Sherry 18 in his honor last night. I will miss you little guy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Sorry to hear that, Rich. Losing furry family members is hard. I don't have any Macallan, but I'll be sure to raise some sort of sherried dram in his honor next time I have a drink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maybeling Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 Sorry for your loss Rich. I know when I lost my Basset it was tougher than I would have imagined, especially with kids involved etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beasled Posted July 6, 2016 Share Posted July 6, 2016 Sorry to hear that Rich. Remember to be happy that he was here, not sad that he's gone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted July 6, 2016 Author Share Posted July 6, 2016 9 hours ago, BigRich said: This little guy left us yesterday morning four months shy of his 12th birthday. He was a great friend and about as ornery as you could imagine at one time or another. I guess only a brain tumor could get him down. I knew I wanted to name him after a malt distillery and I chose Macallan because it worked as a name, not for any favoritism toward the whisky. Even still, my wife and I raised drams of Macallan Sherry 18 in his honor last night. I will miss you little guy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Oh buddy, so sorry to hear this. Very sad news. I've never owned a bottle of Macallan, but I'll be getting one tomorrow in his honor. That was a cool little dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T Comp Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Sorry to hear your sad news Rich. Great pic of Macallan and captures how adorable, yet I'm thinking, impish. Always tough when the goodbye is forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted July 8, 2016 Author Share Posted July 8, 2016 A Macallan 15 Fine Oak in my glass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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