Whiskey - It's the water of life!

Thanks for the recommendation. As of now, my plan for september is Benriach Peated CS and a bottle of Arran 10.
If some motherfucker happens to take the last Benriach my go-to store has the Auchentoshan in stock for €50, which sounds is a fair price then. I might make October a double Triple feature with Auchentoshan TW and Laphroaig TW.

Laphroaig is a winter whiskey for me, I love the smoke on a cold day, and sitting around a fire with a dram of a lovely Islay scotch is one of the little pleasures in life that I truly savor.
 
I decided to go with Arran 10 and managed to get a Benriach peated CS.
IMG_20200914_211513.jpg
Interestingly, the latter doesn't have anything about colouration or chill filtering on the sleeve, only the bottle label. Hadn't seen this yet, only the opposite. 56% ABV.

Smells earthy, oaky. Cinnamon, vanilla, baked apple, pinch of vibrant white pepper. The latter three combine into something like salted caramel. Reminds me of Laphroaig QC without the barbecue meat part.

Taste: earthy, with bonfire smoke and white pepper, faint cinnamon, nothing like the butteryness of the non-peated Benriach 10. Still oily and heavy, nice body. Sweet apples and peaches, on the edge of the stronger notes.
Leaves a long-lasting taste of bonfire smoke, faint, but unmistakable honey and barley sweetness with mandarine sprinkled in, shifting between sweet and sour. Goes on for well over ten minutes.
Readily, easily drinkable right after pouring, without any water added. A bit of waiting seems to bring out the sweeter notes without diminishing the peat. Thick and viscous legs.

A wee drop of water added:
Less smoky, or rather, the sweets and fruits are brought into balance, and the peat takes on a more maritime character.
Salted caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon still. Pinch of white pepper, peaches and apricots, sour-ish mandarines. Maybe a hint of white chocolate, higher quality than the nauseating shit that's commonly found in most stores. Smell and finish both sweeter. Good stuff both with and without of water. I wonder if I'll be able to grab a bottle of the second batch, and how much different that's going to be at 60,6% ABV. If I can grab a bottle at all with the re-branding going on at Benriach.

@Pocket_Sand! any luck with the Machrie Moor CS?
 
@Pocket_Sand! any luck with the Machrie Moor CS?

Unfortunately no, and it's a really stupid reason why. Binny's (the large store chain here in Illinois that I usually go to with my weirder requests), managed to find me a bottle and got it into their Lakeview Chicago store (kind of their main location), just in time for the riots in Chicago to result in 9 Binny's locations being broken into and looted. Nothing says protest and how much black lives matter like breaking into a high end liquor store and making off with a bunch of shit out of the rare and collectables room. As a result of this, my Machrie Moor is lost, assumed smashed or stolen along with hundreds of other bottles that night. So the search is on again.
 
I'm quite partial to whiskey sours. I'm staying in a new place and wI ent to a local bar yesterday and got. A couple one was like somethin weird. Monkey shoulder, real nice. Second was glenlivet. Which I thought was heresy but the bar tender picked these himself. Both were nice. Sewcond as best. He reckoned it wasn't quite the same as mixing it with coke, idk about that but I enjoyed it none the less.

Tonight I went to a different bar and got a few and they made them with fucking bourbon and then they splashed bitters all over it, it was such dog shit compared to the inspired shit I drank yesterday but the girl behind the bar was cute so I just said fuck it, smiled and said thanks and went home, it was her second night there lol.

Had a glass of just whiskey on ice at another bar like saturday or Sunday, I was kinda ratarsed and don't remember well but I said surprise me and the guys accent was so thick I couldn't really understand but think he said c simethung white. I'll elaborate and fixing any grammatical issues in the morning. But otherwise I'll forget to even post
 
I'm quite partial to whiskey sours. I'm staying in a new place and wI ent to a local bar yesterday and got. A couple one was like somethin weird. Monkey shoulder, real nice. Second was glenlivet. Which I thought was heresy but the bar tender picked these himself. Both were nice. Sewcond as best. He reckoned it wasn't quite the same as mixing it with coke, idk about that but I enjoyed it none the less.

Tonight I went to a different bar and got a few and they made them with fucking bourbon and then they splashed bitters all over it, it was such dog shit compared to the inspired shit I drank yesterday but the girl behind the bar was cute so I just said fuck it, smiled and said thanks and went home, it was her second night there lol.

Had a glass of just whiskey on ice at another bar like saturday or Sunday, I was kinda ratarsed and don't remember well but I said surprise me and the guys accent was so thick I couldn't really understand but think he said c simethung white. I'll elaborate and fixing any grammatical issues in the morning. But otherwise I'll forget to even post
Monkey Shoulder is an excellent blended scotch. If I wanted to get a blended, Monkey Shoulder is a top contender though I might settle for Dewar's White Label if I'm feeling cheap (it's actually decent for what it is). Just stay away from Johnnie Walker, it isn't worth the price tag.
 
Just stay away from Johnnie Walker, it isn't worth the price tag.

Agreed, although some Walker's are reasonably priced. The Game of Thrones special additions are dropping in price like crazy, and the way I understand it, those are basically just regular label Johnny Walker's in a fancy bottle. I do like most Walker, but again I agree that it's a little pricey.
 
Last edited:
I don't drive when I drink.
This has developed into a huge stigma in America. It wasn't as bad in the 80's and 90's, but around then the M.A.D.D. really ramped up and strengthened the laws around drunk driving and fatalities. If you're caught drunk driving you usually lose your license for a huge amount of time(semi-permanently) but the social stigma is even bigger. It's bad enough to not be able to drive yourself around in the U.S. but when people find out that it's because you were caught drunk driving you become absolutely radioactive, and almost as unhireable as a felon.

Most people have a personal or at most 2nd degree connection to a drunk driver killing or severely injuring a loved one(myself included) so the long story short is the law is extra-strict on it and society follows up with alienating offenders. Which is ironic, because the people who only get slightly buzzed and sneak their car home without getting caught are seen as semi-cool for their control. I don't agree, but Americans secretly love it when people get away with shit.

For whiskey trivia, people seem to love it when you ask what the difference between whiskey and bourbon is, and explain that bourbon is whiskey but defined by it's 51% or more corn mash, must be made in America, and stored in charred oak barrels. People seem to love this as an icebreaker at parties with drinking, give it a try.
 
Been digging Yellow Spot a lot lately for some reason which is weird because I'm normally a Scotch guy.
 
This has developed into a huge stigma in America. It wasn't as bad in the 80's and 90's, but around then the M.A.D.D. really ramped up and strengthened the laws around drunk driving and fatalities. If you're caught drunk driving you usually lose your license for a huge amount of time(semi-permanently) but the social stigma is even bigger. It's bad enough to not be able to drive yourself around in the U.S. but when people find out that it's because you were caught drunk driving you become absolutely radioactive, and almost as unhireable as a felon.

Most people have a personal or at most 2nd degree connection to a drunk driver killing or severely injuring a loved one(myself included) so the long story short is the law is extra-strict on it and society follows up with alienating offenders. Which is ironic, because the people who only get slightly buzzed and sneak their car home without getting caught are seen as semi-cool for their control. I don't agree, but Americans secretly love it when people get away with shit.

For whiskey trivia, people seem to love it when you ask what the difference between whiskey and bourbon is, and explain that bourbon is whiskey but defined by it's 51% or more corn mash, must be made in America, and stored in charred oak barrels. People seem to love this as an icebreaker at parties with drinking, give it a try.
Drunk driving being stigmatized to hell and back isn't necessarily a bad thing. The more pertinent question is "how effective is it at actually stopping drunk driving?" It's an enormously stupid and dangerous thing to do - dangerous to yourself, dangerous to others.

As for whiskey trivia, I find that most of the people who show up at a drinking party don't usually give a rat's ass. Not sure if it's just a "pearls before swine" issue or if it's just that sperging about things in that fashion is a bit of a buzzkill for some.
 
Got a Local Drink from a Biker Bar around here. Pretty good stuff and I figured out what they used to make it if anyone feels like giving it a shot.

hje.PNG

  1. Cinnamon Whiskey
  2. Blue Curacao
  3. Energy Drink
  4. Optional: Cola/Irn Bru/Curries Red Kola
 
  • Horrifying
Reactions: Takayuki Yagami
Any of you tried that bonded-in-barrel bottle George Dickel put out this year?
 
Any of you tried that bonded-in-barrel bottle George Dickel put out this year?
it's funny because my boss basically told me about it and tried to get me to get hype for it and I was like, "yeah, ok, we'll see when it comes in and I kick the tires on it" and he got really weird about that. It might be a good bonded bourbon, it might be meh, I'm not gonna turn into a shill for something that ain't worth it bro. Never did get to find out if it was good. Might swing by and see if it's on the shelves.
 
it's funny because my boss basically told me about it and tried to get me to get hype for it and I was like, "yeah, ok, we'll see when it comes in and I kick the tires on it" and he got really weird about that. It might be a good bonded bourbon, it might be meh, I'm not gonna turn into a shill for something that ain't worth it bro. Never did get to find out if it was good. Might swing by and see if it's on the shelves.

Bonded just means it adheres to certain specific requirements including weirdo federal bureaucratic requirements. It does guarantee a certain level of quality but the other requirements are essentially arbitrary. It doesn't necessarily guarantee an excellent liquor. Most distillers don't do it, or only do it sometimes, and even a relatively run of the mill bourbon like Old Grand-Dad 100 is bottled-in-bond. Not that there's anything wrong with Old Grand-Dad but it isn't exactly astounding.
 
Back