WOW to Van Winkle SR 12

[nysquire]

It was like Christmas here last night, as my order has arrived. EC 18 yo, VW 12 special reserve lot b, and OF birthday 13 yo. My hat off to the Heaven Hill crew for the EC 18 yo, very, very , very nice...... Glad I bought 2 of them.... and for the Van Winkle 12 yo special reserve lot b, I think I have found a new favorite..... Matter of fact I don't think 2 bottles is gonna be enough. As for the Old Forester 13 yo birthday, I don't have the heart to open it yet(I could only get 1 bottle of it), but when I am able to get another bottle of it, well, CHEERS everybody......

[wrbriggs]

Congrats! I'm jealous...

On the plus side, my wife gave me a beautiful hip flask and several bottles of bourbon that I haven't tried before for my birthday recently, so I'm trying them now. They are Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12yo (old Stitzel-Weller stock), Weller Special Reserve (the 7yo, 90 proof) and Eagle Rare 101 10 yr. None of these are readily available here, so I'm still wondering exactly how she got them. The only one I've tried so far was the Weller, and it was good, but nothing special. I've heard such mixed things about the VSOF that I'm holding off trying it. I'll probably crack into the ER 101 tonight.

She also got me a miniature sampler kit called "Classic Malts of Scotland", which contains 50ml bottles of Cragganmore, Dalwhinnie, Glenkinchie, Oban, Talisker and Lagavulin. Apparently these are pretty hard to find here, so I'm not sure if I'll even open it, but it looks quite nice.