Whisky!

They also had a long period of low production, poor quality, declining popularity, distillery closures, and then a sudden explosion in global demand. It has caused a surge in price (not a very Japanese thing) for a lot of their whisky and shortages of the more luxurious items domestically.

A funny whisky observation from my last visit was that it wasn't uncommon for restaurants to offer sale of some whiskies by the bottle (most frequently Dewar's options). They also have a love for Ballantine's.
The older Ballantynes are a good dram!

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I recently finished my holdings of Ardbeg 10 and this cold snap put me in a mild frenzy of "shit I need an Islay!!!". I decided I didn't want to spend all my money and I also wanted something really thick. Well instead I let the packaging guide me...surely something called Smokehead is going to be smoky? Well the reviews say it is but my tiny sniff and sip before work says it isn't. But it was pretty tasty, so I don't feel that I have wasted my money. I'll have a proper tasting when I get home. The rum finish definitely had a strong presence.


I'll know soon enough. I'm expecting easy to drink without any real complexity.


Well it was an enjoyable drink, but nowhere near as smoky as the name implies! Nothing too complex and for not too much more there are some better islay options to be had. The rum casn finish gave a nice dimension and there was a little sea salt as well.


Well I have nudged this a little and once again found that the right glass makes a huge difference. I threw it in a big old balloon first time round (my go to for a big Bld aromatic drink) and felt it was a bit light on, lost as it may be in all the space. I've since had it in a tumbler (my least favourite method) and that was ok, like the balloon. A liqueur glass for much better results. But the best result came from (surprise surprise) the spirit tasting glass. Not a Glencairn, but a similar enough shape. This is not a glass I often go to, but it delivered a taste that was quite good. No I didn't do this back to back to back and thus it was just tasting better after the effects of time. I'm always fascinated how the shape of a glass can make so much difference.
 
Anyone tried the Port Charlotte 10 year old? I've just been gifted a bottle.
I'm not an overly huge peat fan, but don't mind the occasional Ardberg or Laphraiog. Is it similar?
 
Anyone tried the Port Charlotte 10 year old? I've just been gifted a bottle.
I'm not an overly huge peat fan, but don't mind the occasional Ardberg or Laphraiog. Is it similar?

I liked it, has been a while since I had Ardbeg but I think it's a bit less iodine tasting, bit smoother tasting
 
Anyone tried the Port Charlotte 10 year old? I've just been gifted a bottle.
I'm not an overly huge peat fan, but don't mind the occasional Ardberg or Laphraiog. Is it similar?

It's fucking ace. Found it peatier than both you mentioned, with a delightful complex flavour behind it. But if you don't like peat ..it's heavy on it.
 
It's fucking ace. Found it peatier than both you mentioned, with a delightful complex flavour behind it. But if you don't like peat ..it's heavy on it.

Just cracked it open. Less peat than I expected and much smoother too. Very nice drop!
 
doing a cleanup of the storage under the stairs. Found a gift pack i got back when i was going through chemo. whilst a bottle of whisky may not have been appropriate whilst undergoing bowel cancer treatment I guess I can still put it to good use now.
 
doing a cleanup of the storage under the stairs. Found a gift pack i got back when i was going through chemo. whilst a bottle of whisky may not have been appropriate whilst undergoing bowel cancer treatment I guess I can still put it to good use now.


Which whisky?
 
Now that Lagavulin is too expensive I tried this today, was quite nice, very smooth, the peat wasn't as strong but still nice, only about $90 too
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Was given a bottle of Aberlour single malt 12 and finally got around to it.

It took three drafts for me to decide that whilst I can identify quality, I can't enjoy the taste. I will continue to sip each glass I pour in the hope that I develop a palette, but until then, it's gonna have to be coked to get it down!

Was given a bottle of Kavalan as well, about $130 worth of Taiwanese whisky. Maybe I'll like that better....
 
We're going to a local Japanese place called Akiba, I'm able to shout my team food and buy them one drink, so I had a look at the whiskey list and on the first page is a $230 dram, I'm thinking that's fairly exxy, I'll make a joke to the team that they can't have it for their one drink.

Then I scroll to find one for $1500 dollars, which obviously amplified the joke. At roughly 15k per bottle the restaurant is making a handy margin but sales would probably be slow!
 
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