nice. it wasnt as good as i had hoped it would be, though. the light peating or whatever the superstition has ended up giving it a bourbony taste i didnt like. i had the regular jura bottled under the name liafail, though, and that was nice, so i may pick up a bottle of that sometime.





well, aside from it not being $2000 or only 5 seconds of taste, if all youre after is getting drunk then, yes, might as well go for the cheap stuff. for those who arent, theres stuff that tastes good.

yamazaki 18 yr. win.

wow, wtf... my wife and i were out a couple weeks ago and tried gin and tonic. (wasnt bad, but scotch is better... ) out of nowhere on the train on the way home i get a nosebleed. it was crazy i was bleeding all over the place and neither of us had any tissues or anything. finally somone next to us gave us a small pack of em. i had a hunch it might be connected to the gin n tonic as i hadnt had anything else out of the ordinary, but i wasnt sure. im pretty sure it was now, though, cause since then if i have any alcohol, not just gin n tonic, i get a nosebleed a short while later. thankfully not as severe as that first one, though. i just feel like i need to blow my nose and out comes blood instead, but it doesnt keep going like the first one did. very weird, though, cause ive had gin before and it didnt do anything, and ive definitely had plenty of alcohol before and its never given me nosebleeds til now. so im guessing its the quinine in the tonic water that did it, but its still weird that now whenever i have ANY alcohol (in a more that slight amount) i does this. hopefully once that stuff clears out of my body itll stop.

Nah you've clearly never tasted any of the good stuff.

On a side note, I had a glass of 2006 Barbaresco this morning. I love the smell of wine in the morning.

i sometimes have a bit of scotch or bourbon in the morning. ahhhhh....

he also drinks cum, errr I mean milk for strong bones!

i dont remember if it was this thread or a different one where someone recommmended talisker storm, but i picked one up today and just tried it and its surprisingly good. surprising because i didnt like the 10 yo talisker so much, but this is quite nice.

Les Brasseurs du Temps Obscur Désir stout beer quite a good local delicacy very nice and creamy and taste of chocolate and coffee

I picked up a couple new smokey malts recently, Talisker Storm and Laphroig 12 yr Cask Strength, so I decided to do a comparison of all my smokey malts, tasting them all together. (Well, most of em, I left out Kilchoman.) I arranged the order so that ones that I thought would be similar would be together for a better comparison. The order was:

Caol Ila 12 Year
Talisker Storm
Lagavulin 16 Year
Balvenie Peated Cask
Tomintoul Peated Cask
Laphroig 12 Year Cask Strength
Ardbeg Uigedail

My wife and I were pleasantly inebriated by the end, although she ended up just having a minimal taste of the Balvenie and the Tomintoul; she thought it would be too much otherwise. All were great malts, but Lagavulin retains its crown as my favorite. After that I'd rate them Caol Ila, Ardbeg, Talisker, Balvenie, Laphroig, Tomintoul. My wife's favorite was, and still is the Ardbeg, although we generally agree on the rankings otherwise.

Our last bottle of Caol Ila didn't keep so well, and wasn't as good by the end of it. Luckily, we had finished it so we opened a new one for this. WOW what a difference. So smooth, so delicious. While I'd say the first three were definitely all of a similar vein flavorwise, I think the Caol Ila is a little 'oilier' than the other two, with sweeter undertones and a thicker mouthfeel.

The Talisker on the other hand, is a bit lighter and sharper. Not quite as smooth. Also very good, but with a slight aftertaste. Can feel that maritime Talisker character, but not too much, which is a good thing for me. I didn't like the regular Talisker (10 year?) all that much. This is a good compromise for me though between the sea and the smoke.

The Lagavulin, while not quite as smooth as the Caol Ila has a wonderful woodiness to it that the others dont have. A much fuller, more robust flavor. For me, its got the perfect balance of everything.

Although it has a very nice flavor, the Balvenie had a bitter aftertaste that knocked it down a notch. Overall very nice, though.

Tomintoul wasn't by any means, but neither was it great. Nice and smooth, but bland in comparison to the others. While it has a nice flavor, theres not much to it.

I've had the regular Laphroig before, but like Talisker, it wasn't really my thing. Too iodiney/oily for my taste. You don't notice that as much in the cask strength, though. In fact, the first time I tried it all I noticed was a burn from the strength of it. This time, however, my throat was 'pre-greased' so I was better able to taste it. Much better than the regular one, but still not as good as some of the others.

And lastly the Ardbeg. Again, due to the high ABV its not always easy on the palate, but its definitely got a nice deep full complex flavor to it. Very nice. But still not as nice as the Lagavulin imo. Some day I'll have to compare the two head-to-head.

All in all, fun times were had and we'll definitely be doing something like this again. Maybe do the speysides and highlands next time.

This post was edited by ReturnFormer on Jun 17 2014 07:59pm

had a few blind tastings the other day.

first was laphroig cask strength. i didnt get that one, but i jumped the gun, guessing lagavulin almost right away. i did that cause it had a bit of bite, but not as much as i would have expected from laphroig, but after tasting further (after guessing and finding out) i realized that it was indeed more than lagavulin would have been.

second was balvenie peated cask. having learned my lesson, i waited a bit before guessing it, but i was pretty sure pretty quickly. despite the smokiness, it had a distinctly speyside character to it that couldnt have been anything else. nailed that one.

the third time i guessed lagavulin again, this time correctly. mmm....