Another year, another opportunity to reflect and revisit. This wee whisky blog has officially turned 10! Whilst some years are more active than others, explorations overall remain steady.

Many of my whisky posts this quarter captured different impressions and experiences from the 2024 London Whisky Show! 

• From Day 1: Old Pulteney, Balblair, Agitator, SMWS Miltonduff, Watt Whisky, Macbeth, Chichibu, Arran, Compass Box, Bowmore, Duncan Taylor, Thomson, Festival bottles

Back in Canada, I spent a most enjoyable evening with friends where three of us explored a quartet from The Whisky Warehouse No 8:

• Ireland – Dundalk Dew 9 year (2009) Single Grain 58,7% (WW8)
• Speyside –  Craigellachie 12 year (2007) 50 % (WW8)
• Speyside – Allt á Bhainne 11 year (2008) 61,5% (WW8)
• Speyside – Benrinnes 23 year (1997) 1st Fill Barrique Chateau Lafite 55.9% (WW8)

This was followed by cracking open the 1st Shelter Point Club release:

• Canada – Shelter Point Tequila (2024) 63.2%

The 2nd release arrived mere days after I flew back to Germany! It will just have to wait in Winnipeg til May/June 2025 to be opened!

I also went on a bit of a purchasing spree… including stockpiling some Gordon & Macphail independent bottlings. Included in the shipment was a wee bonus dram of Dingle Irish whisky.

With my job change in February 2024, my previous team kindly treated me to a gift voucher which I put to good use! They didn’t have the high-end bottles, so I shifted gears to pick an interesting mix of favorite independent bottlers, a couple entry-level “calibration” drams, and an experiment or two. Who knows how long til I have the right opportunity to open! I have too many open bottles in my whisky cabinet! This means I need to schedule a few more sociable evenings for these before opening something new!

I’m reminded of a member of our 1st Mumbai whisky-tasting club. He had a policy of only having three bottles open at any given time – the only exception being our tasting where he may open three new bottles whilst still having one or two already open. This meant guests would be given a choice – a limited choice. And whilst a less popular dram would remain longer, at some point, someone would gamely finish it up!

Curious to know more? Check out a few more summaries:

• Whisky Lady – July to September 2024
• Whisky Lady – April to June 2024
• Whisky Lady – January to March 2024
• Whisky Lady – October to December 2023

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