Principal Security Engineer - F5 SIRT
Whisk(e)y lover, Disney fan, Anime collector (he/him)
Indexed by tootfinder
Hampden Estate Rum is one of my favorite rum brands, if not my favorite. So I often pick up new-to-me expressions when I can.
In the recent auction haul I had a couple - a Habitation Velier 5 year <>H mark, and a Velier 5 year Magnum Series #1 Elliot Erwitt Edition.
A little while back, when we had the Compass Box Whisky Confluence tasting, we also had bottles of most of the component whiskies to sample. One of those was Teaninich, and it was a hit.
We were all chatting and generally agreed that it would be fun to try other Teaninich expressions - so I picked up a few. It isn't a name with huge auction demand, but a sleeper, so it's not a bad get.
I grabbed 11, 12, and 13 year old single-casks from Thompson Bros.
A 14 year single-cask from Whisky Broker.
And an 8 year small batch (10 casks) from Concept 8.
Now we need to figure out an event to sample them.
Back when I heard Kerrin Egalka was leaving Compass Box and joining Cotswolds Distillery, I got curious. I didn't know much about English Whisky, but I have faith in Kerrin and figured Cotswolds must be doing something good if she was joining their team.
So I picked some up at auction - and it was great. Of course, that meant I started hunting for other expressions, and now another wave has arrived.
- Distillery Exclusive Madeira Cask
- 2017 Odyssey Barley
- Cotswolds Reserve
- Spanish Oak Matured
And a That Boutique-y Whisky Company bottling of a 3 year old Cotswolds.
#Whiskey #Whisky #EnglishWhisky #CotswoldsDistillery #Cotswolds
My love of Single Grain Scotch is no secret. I very much enjoy them, but a lot of people don't look beyond Single Malt.
This haul included a couple of Clan Denny bottlings - a 29 year Carsebridge and a 47 year Cambus.
I also picked up a couple of Cadenhead's bottlings - an 18 year Invergordon and a 34 year Girvan.
#Whiskey #Whisky #Scotch #ClanDenny #Cadenheads #Carsebridge #Cambus #Invergordon #Girvan
The recent auction haul included only a lone Compass Box Whisky expression, but it is a special one.
M is for Magic has been on my target list for a long time, but it's a rare one. When it popped up last year I was able to snag it. It was a limited release only available in France.
The auction unpacking continued with Ardbeg.
The Anthology The Beithir's Tale 15 year, the third in the series.
The Traigh Bhan 19 year batch 6. Batch 7 has finally popped up in an auction, and I'm stalking it like a Pokemon.
And Homecoming, a rum-finished Ardbeg normally only available at the distillery or Ardbeg House.
My year's worth of auction lots continue to roll in, with more still out there. I unpacked recent arrivals and had a little spring Xmas.
There was some Glenmorangie, of course. A 1999 bottling of the 1974 Vintage release. And a very special bottle, the "Last Christmas at Leith" employee bottling from 1995, when they moved offices. It's the same special bottle as The Culloden bottling, if it looks familiar.
I also got my hands on the The Scotch Malt Whisky Society 125.1 - their first Glenmorangie bottling. Excited to find that one.
And a whole assortment of 'Westport' bottlings from Decadent Drams, Thompson Bros., Malts of Scotland, Anam na h-Alba, etc. And one 'Highland' from Watt Whisky, which research tells me is Glenmorangie.
Last month one of Jess's friends celebrated her birthday with a cruise on the Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas. While we much prefer Disney Cruise Line, you go where the birthday girl wants. We enjoyed the cruise well enough, more of a party vibe than we go for, but still fun.
The onboard duty free didn't have much that appealed to me, but I did end up picking up a couple of ship-exclusive bottles.
I've always enjoyed Angel's Envy, so I picked up the Utopia of the Seas exclusive barrel pick bourbon.
Another make that I've always enjoyed when I've had it, but don't often pick up, is The M&H Distillery, aka Milk & Honey, out of Tel Aviv. The ship had their Voyage Travel Retail Exclusive on sale the first night, so I grabbed that.
I swung back into Julio's Liquors last week to pick up another couple of bottles they were holding for me.
The new Ardbeg Dolce is the latest annual Ardbeg Day special release. Finished in ex-Bourbon and Marsala dolce wine casks.
The Pinhook 10 year rye "Finish Line" is part of the ongoing Loch & Key Whisk(e)y Society vertical series. Each year a parcel of the same rye is bottled, just one year older than the last. The first release was aged 4 years and, despite the name, this isn't the end of the line yet.
I attended a Raising Glasses Colors of Rum / Bedford Park event at Burlington Wine And Spirits recently. John & Lorri were great, as always, and I would have been happy to bring any of the rums home, but I limited myself to two.
The Bedford Park is a 5 year, single-cask, cask-strength rum from Reunion. It was a standout for me and I wanted to explore it more at my leisure.
The Colors of Rum is a 23 year old, single-cask, cask-strength Jamaican rum - more specifically, Hampden Estate Rum HLCF. This was continental aged, which gives it a slightly different character than island aging.
A small confession, this is Cask #7. There is also a Cask #6 from the same release wave. Burlington didn't have it in stock at the time, but they could get it - so that's waiting for me to pick up as well. That's also a 23 year old Hampden HLCF. It'll be interesting to compare.
Thanks to John & Lorri I was also able to pick up the Raising Glasses Pelee's Fury II cask-strength Grand Arome Rum from Martinique. I had previously picked up Pelee's Fury I & III, but it was long since sold out by the time I was looking for it. They found a lone bottle hiding in old stock and brought it to the event for me. Very kind.
#Rum #RaisingGlasses #BedfordPark #TheColorsOfRum #HampdenEstate
