Talking about Whisky

[Nick Armstrong]

This looks like a cheapie - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macallan-Ann...eywords=whisky !!!!

I'll stick with my £12.99 Aldi Highland Black, ta!

[Dave2002]

I'll stick with my £12.99 Aldi Highland Black, ta!

Wot, you're short of a few bob eh?

£47,245.75 was the last price I noted!

[Nick Armstrong]

Wot, you're short of a few bob eh?

Not after drinking £12.99 Aldi Highland Black for a couple of months!

[Beef Oven!]

A few nights ago I tasted a set of Glenfiddich 5cl sample bottles, 12yr old, 14 and 15. Plus an 18 yr old 5cl bottle that my daughter brought back for me from Edinburgh. I thought the 18 was the best, followed by the 12, then 14 with the 15 bringing up the rear. All very tasty and enjoyable.

Last night I opened a full bottle of 12 and had a couple of doubles and didn't enjoy them - strange.

Tonight, after some running people around here and there and an airport run, I shall unwind with some night music and 2/3 Scotches. But I'm taking no chances - it will be Johnnie Walker Black Label, or Teacher's (or both).

[Dave2002]

Last night I opened a full bottle of 12 and had a couple of doubles and didn't enjoy them - strange.

Sometimes what is essentially (as far as can be told) the same stuff (food, drink) does taste different on different days. One day, about a month ago, several things tasted very different to me, for some reason - unexplained - in the morning - it was very striking.

Sometimes also I think one just gets tired of having the same thing.

[Quarky]

Ardbeg malt whiskey from the Isle of Islay. So I'm told, the most expensive malt available.

I was given a large bottle as a birthday present. A very striking earthy taste. Opening it over the weekend, I woke up next morning with a smile on my face. However repeating the experiment the next evening, I woke up the same old miserable self.

[Beef Oven!]

Sometimes what is essentially (as far as can be told) the same stuff (food, drink) does taste different on different days. One day, about a month ago, several things tasted very different to me, for some reason - unexplained - in the morning - it was very striking.

Sometimes also I think one just gets tired of having the same thing.

Yes, I think what you say is true. But I do find my enjoyment of Teacher's and JWBL is more consistent than other whiskies.

[johnb]

Ardbeg malt whiskey from the Isle of Islay. So I'm told, the most expensive malt available.

Ardbeg is a great peated whisky. It isn't cheap but it isn't particularly expensive compared to other malts and certainly isn't in the super-premium league.

[BBMmk2]

I've been drinking real ale, just recently, I might go for the whisky I have open!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've been drinking real ale, just recently, I might go for the whisky I have open!

Good idea - but finish taking the Register first!

[ahinton]

Not wishing to hold up, still less undermine, this wondrous thread, its title brings to mind the remark attributed to Shostakovich (although its authenticity is inevitably subject to some doubt given its origins in Testimony, which someone once described as more The Song of Solomon than The Memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich as which it was published), namely "in the long run, any words about music are less important than the music...anyone who thinks otherwise is not worth talking to" - the reason being (of course) that there is something better to do with Whisky than talk about it!

Shostakovich almost certainly imbibed more vodka than whisky and I have no evidence that his visit to the Edinburgh Festival in 1962 (on which occasion Ronald Stevenson presented to him a score of his then recently completed Passacagalia on DSCH) influenced his drinking habits in favour of the amber nectar; shame, really!

But as you were...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... there is something better to do with Whisky than talk about it!

Oh, indeed. But that "something" cannot be done all the time .. and what to do in the doleful periods in between?


(Stravinsky's choice of tipple, by the way, was always whisky - vodka was always a second choice. Towards the end of his life, he was as miserable about the fact that he was denied alcohol as he was about all the other discomforts his various treatments resulted in. His secretary, Lilian Libman, recounts trying to afford him some very slight relief by putting a tiny amount in his drinking water. The great man took a sip, scowled and muttered "Wot iss thees merde?"

[Beef Oven!]

I bought a couple of litres of Johnny Walker Double Black at the duty free in Gatwick yesterday morning and I sampled a few 'home measures' last night.

I would say this is better than the normal Black Label. As expected, very smooth, slightly sweet with a lovely smokey aftertaste. At £58 for 2 litres, I think it's very good value. I don't think I'll be able to resist a few more glasses tonight!


Btw, I don't fly from Gatwick very often, but their duty free is pretty good - very wide choice and better bargains than Heathrow and Stansted. For example, a litre of Johnny walker Red Label for £11.

[Dave2002]

Were you using a "pick up on return" service? Otherwise I don't see how you could have done that assuming you were coming back into LGW.

If so, how easy was it to set up and carry out? I've never done that.

LGW: http://www.gatwickairport.com/at-the...ect-on-return/

LHR: http://www.heathrow.com/shops-and-re...k-up-on-return

[Nick Armstrong]

I wonder what Talisker Storm is like.

Go for it! It's delicious.

Yes it is! Got a bottle the other day which was on offer at a local offy for around £20. Very good indeed though I'm not sure what the difference is from standard Talisker, which I haven't tasted for a good while... seems very similar to the latter, as far as I can remember. Maybe a touch more muscular in flavour, heading down the road to Laphroaig...

(It came in a sort of padded, maritime-style presentation bag, too, which will be handy for protecting bottles of various kinds in the picnic basket...)