(Edited to fix the spelling of MacAllan. ) Bought me a bottle after a long while, the other day. MacCallan 12-year, Double Cask. Highland Single Malt. Smooth as silk. Prices are high here, but this was supposedly "on sale" in the $60s. Great stuff. THREE words appear on the fancy box it comes in, to describe the flavor: Honey. Citrus. Ginger. Tastes like distilled BARLEY to me. Lovely.
Rectum/Spectrum cable and internet are both out. ALL DAY LONG. Only this page, and my email will work. No doubt because they are not full of flashy and very useless nonsense and crap that nobody wants nor needs.
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With good bottle of scotch, a day w/o internet can still be fun. Enjoy!
Trump raised the import tax (all domestically sold scotch is imported), but in MI, anyway, some of the increase in cost has been absorbed by the middlemen. A $25 bottle on average jumped only $2-$3 after the tariffs were increased. In MI the state has a monopoly on distribution / pricing of spirits. So prices tend to be the same at different retail outlets. About every 3 months they do a price reset. I always try to buy a couple extra for the cabinet when the price is lower.
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Possibly of interest to some - “To be legally defined scotch your product must be ...
- Distilled, produced, matured, and bottled all in Scotland
- Created only with barley and water
- Aged for a minimum of 3 years in oak barrels
- Have the maturation and bottle years marked on the bottle “
https://whiskeywatch.com/whiskey-varieties/scotch/macallan-12-review/
Total Wine has the best prices in the NE that I have seen. I like Peat and can get Laphroaig 10 for $42 or so. When I was working I was tempted by the 35 yo but thought that even my wife would guess it was $1500 a bottle
If @Crash had that drink in a bar he would pay $10 so this is a bargain
OR he could be tempted by the Glenfiddich 50 yo at $38,000
(None of this is to be confused w JW Black.)
Some blends have added a little peat over the last decade or two regardless. Probably because the kinds of newbies who might buy a good blend expect that taste. Dewar's now is notably smokier than in the past, and there are others. Even J&B, which used to be the lightest and sweetest of all the blends. FG regular not, fortunately.
Balvenie Carribean Cask (or Double Barrel) is quite nice. Macallan 12 is always a good 'daily' dram. I'm also partial to Jura and Scapa from the salty windy north, too.
At the moment I'm on a Laphroaig Quarter Cask kick for my scotches --- peaty as hell but nice.
It will be interesting to watch how the overall alcohol market evolves over time. Perhaps distillers will lose market share to craft beer, of which a sweet IPA with bitter, floral, earthy, and a hint of a citrus taste to it sounds delicious right about now ...
Dewars 12 isn’t too far off in flavor from pricier JW Black - my favorite.
Even JW Black is a tiny tiny bit peatier than decades ago.
Derf
P.S. I don't drink Scotch!
No, no fishing, yet. Maybe never. There are serious boats you can go on, to get the massively monstrously big tuna and the rest... There is only ONE place where you can fish in freshwater here on Oahu, in the middle of the island: Lake Wilson. I inquired about it. You have to buy the freshwater license. No problem... But there is some kind of "entrance fee," after that. (Extortion.) And even if fishing from shore, you must have a life-preserver with you, though you're not required to wear it, on shore. ...Someone's decided to make a simple, lovely pastime very stupid and complicated.
My wife and I looked online at the websites for some of the saltwater boats that go after the big fish. Wifey is accustomed to the bluefish-sized (3 and 4 feet long) and porgy-sized specimens in Long Island Sound.... When she saw a picture of the gigantic tuna being brought onto the boat, she decided against it. (She's 5 feet tall, 115 pounds, and with a bit of a long-term messed-up elbow on one arm...) And here's a new wrinkle: back East, if you catch a fish, it's yours. On these boats in Hawaii, the captain claims X poundage. You get the rest. ... I will look forward to freshwater fishing if I ever get back to the Mainland--- East or West. My son's around L.A.
https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/5603fcc2-6759-4c82-bd6c-f799b6578fd9/40e98257-896c-416d-bf36-353eddf462ab.jpg/:/
Further north of Kailua, my wife and I stopped and talked with some kids who were rowing. They had two big long boats and were a local rowing team. We got some nice pictures. This happened a year ago December. The kind of experience you can have if you're just tootling around and stopping when something looks interesting.
David
Nice thread and I've learned a lot. Got a shopping list.
Way back in Vietnam we were completely tax exempt. Completely. Cigarettes were $1.40 a carton or $0.15 a pack. Chivas was $5.00 a 5th. In the Corps, enlisted couldn't buy liquor below Staff NCO grade regardless of age so we had our navy corpsmen buy our booze [yeah, like high school where you had some older guy buy you a 6 pack.] We didn't have any mix so we had to come up with booze on booze drinks. Rusty Nails out of a canteen cup. And for the purists, a true Rusty Nail is with a 2 oz. of scotch and 1/2 oz. of Drambuie and if you really want it to be correct, you pour the scotch over crushed ice and then insert your finger into the middle and melt a hole into which you carefully pour the Drambuie.
and so it goes,
peace and wear the damn mask,
rono
Scotch and Irish are delightful. And I've enjoyed many styles. Laphroaig for weddings. Pinch for wakes. MacCallans for cards. Dewars for flying. And any Irish when I feel obstreperous. But none suit my genes so well as Bourbon.
In the long run I find I'ld rather split a decent bottle of wine with dinner every night than enjoy a fine bottle of whiskey on some other schedule.
Although Whiskey too harshe for us (we are definitely too soft). we do have love Screwdrivers. They are excellent and easy to make
We also use beringer red wines though, highly recommend after hard day of work and mellow out
We're not just a scotch snobs. One of our fave go-to bourbons is called Widow Jane. It uses the magical waters of upstate New York, which for those who know about New York's water, makes for a great, smooth taste.
Re whiskey - I drank quantities of bourbon back 30-40 years ago. Thinking about it always reminds me of that line in a song by Hank Williams Jr.
“Lordy I have loved some ladies and I have loved Jim Beam
And they both tried to kill me in 1973.” (A Family Tradition)
Flying is OK. It's the airports, loading, and unloading that get me. I now allow myself a couple of mini bottles a week. Bulleit usually.