Catching up with my shelf (aka open stuff):
First, some honorable mentions from the drags of my memory (and many years ago):
Faultline 10 year old:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1117204
(Legacy) My first foray into a single cask special bottling and beginning of my love affair with a certain store and their whisky selections. Heck if i can really recall what it tasted like except sherry but it opened my eyes on the fact that there’s such thing as amazingly delicious scotches that are out there at all sorts of age and not a generic brand that’s been so ‘averaged’ out as to not have any interesting quality about them.
Score: N/A
Faultline 32 year old:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1141466
(Legacy) This one was just stupidly good. Period. One of the oldest malts I’ve ever had. I wrote ’single’ here originally but its actually some kind of a unique aged blend. Do not ever confuse price vs single vs blended malt as indicator of quality. This stuff was amazing. Add to the shortlist of ‘drink for the rest of the life and be happy’. Speaking of of blends… Compass box!
Score: N/A
Compass Box 5th and Harrison blend:
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1266230
(Legacy) I’ve been honored to split a bottle of this by one of my (wonderful) coworkers. Thank you Darren, you awesome you! This immediately went to the top most amazing things I’ve ever had and will there forever. Yes Its impossible to get it anymore and it’s just… beautiful stuff. It blew me away while having it in an office environment. I cannot even imagine just how good it would be if taken in a contemplative situation. Hats off to John Glaser and K&L folks.
Score: N/A
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 15:
(Legacy) Speaking of the same co-worker… I’m totally bragging here, but heck it’s good to be the right person at the right time and place… As for the tasting notes… in short: I’m underwhelmed. Its an excellent bourbon but it by no means justifies even the full MSRP of it. I’ve not had ‘better’ (Yes, I’m aware of of the subjective irony here) bourbons but I’ve had easily on-par bourbons that are 1/3rd and less of the price and are available decent liquor store. A number of micro distilleries are producing juice that’s on-par with Pappy that’s good enough to dethrone it given enough volume, marketing, reach, etc… (if, if if). In other words… I cannot in good faith recommend Pappy to anyone based on price/performance/difficulty of acquisition ratios.
Score: N/A
Faultline Blended Scotch Whisky:
Great, cheap blend that has a little bit of everything. Somewhat uninspiring as its lacking that little ‘zing’ as it were, aka complexity but for basically $25 who the heck’s complaining? Think quite drinkable Johny Walker for half the price and a heck of a less generic taste… Then again, I intensely dislike JW scotch so sew me! Is it ‘good’? Not really. Its been in the meh liquor cabinet for 3 years and half the bottle have been used to marinate chicken at one point but heck, I’ll finish it in the dram as a cold cure someday.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=1192863
Score: N/A
Lagavulin 16:
Ah, Lag16… The Islay workhorse of any self-respecting scotch drinker. I’m personally not a fan of peated things (as I’ve mentioned in the past), but I always keep one bottle of peated scotch on my shelf. Why? Well because in a cold weather or while being under the weather peated scotch is as good of a sore throat medicine as any cough drops. So overall if I had to pick a peated scotch that’s widely available I’d be glad to pick Lag16. Notable shout-out to Ardbeg Uugadail which I may write about later. Extra points for it being favorite scotch of both Ron Swanson and Nick Offerman, imagine the coincidence.
https://www.klwines.com/p/i?i=620021
Score: N/A