Whisky / Whiskey / Bourbon

whats the consensus on the Welsh whiskey? Its on cheap in Saino's at the mo.

Is it the Penderyn? I bought that from Sainsburys a few years a ago and wasn't that impressed. Took me ages to go through the bottle.

I've had both the 'pudding' and 'Celt' versions of the Penderyn, and liked them both.

yep

this one?

That looks to be the Madeira finish, so no.
I've had the opriginal single malt they launched with, and Myth and Celt from this range: http://penderyn.wales/dragon/

Thanks for the Islay recommendations. Going for the Lagavulin 16 and the Compass Box for now I think

Their gin. Two problems - I don't like gin and I was too fucked to even remember it.

Had some of that at a pub before an audax recently. I liked it also.

I'm currently drinking peaty Benriach (Speyside) but think I prefer the less peated Islay stuff like Bunnahabhain. What else is out there?

Wikipedia gives: "Bunnahabhain makes much lighter whiskies which are generally lightly peated. Bowmore, which started business in 1779, produces a whisky which is well balanced, using a medium-strong peating level (25 ppm) but also using sherry-cask maturation. The Kilchoman distillery started production in late 2005; in location it is unlike the other distilleries, which are all by the sea. The newest distillery is Ardnahoe, the island's ninth, which opened in 2019."

The first time I drank Bowmore I felt I was drinking proper grown up whisky.
If that helps any. Not massive peat, smoke or whatever. Just good, sitting down, having a quiet drink whisky.

Less peated Islay or less peated specifically?

Bruichladdich (Islay barley releases prob best) and the 100% Islay kilchoman are gonna be your safest bets for the former, and a pretty much any other whisky for the latter. Kilkerran 12 has been a strong favourite of mine for the last few years and the Cotswolds single malt is great. Ancnoc 12 is a nice easy drinking malt if you can find it for ~£25. Tried any highland park or glendronach?

It doesn't have to be Islay but since I quite like the Bunnahabhain I figured I'd stick around.

I'm sure I've had a Highland Park and dismissed it but what I need is a text searching feature that could run across my photo collection looking for the photos of bottles I typically take. Or an untapped for whisky. Glendronach, know the name but not sure I've ever seen it out and don't recall ever buying it. It's not in my online order history at least.

Might be time to do a dram box and test a few like I was doing with the mezcals.

Bowmore again, know it but it's not stuck in my head one way or another. When I drink at home it's stuff I've bought so know well, but when I'm out I'll try new stuff but then forget what it was.

Like Google lens?

That's for individual images? My stuff isn't online and I'd want it to process 000s of images and tag them with the found text. Dunno if Lens can do that.

Rittenhouse for me.

I don't know what your budget is but if you like a mellow peat then older Islay whiskies are the way to go as the phenolic strength decreases over time. Also ppm labels are completely irrelevant to the peatiness of the whisky itself as that only describes what the ppm of the malt is when it arrives at the distillery, the process of mashing and distilling has a huge impact on the phenols in the the final spirit. Bruichladdich Octomore (which i'm a big fan of btw) is famed for its high ppm but it's also triple and sometimes quadruple distilled, which massively decreases the phenols. So like all things, the only way to truly know is to taste.

https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/product/search-images-text-ocr

Yeah, I'm not going to upload everything to dropbox. Actually you did remind me of an AWS service though. AWS has a bunch of machine learning stuff like Rekognition which I might be able to use.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/rekognition/latest/dg/text-detecting-text-procedure.html

Bourbon.

Friend's birthday. I like him.
Michter's? £50 ish....

What else?
ta.

I like some of the High West stuff. Double Rye was good. And Rendevouz Rye too. Might be slightly over budget

I'm sure I've had a Highland Park and dismissed it

I wouldn't be surprised. Highland Park went from being interesting and unusual to really boring and ordinary when they went down the peaty route, chasing the Chinese market. I like peat but there are other things you can do with a whisky and Highland Park used to be one of those other things.

I only bought Highland Park 12 once and didn't rate it at all

Glenfarclas might be another one to try if you like sherry and unpeated then. Easy to find as well

I can recommend the Caol Isla, very enjoyable.

Owners of Royal Mile Whiskies have put their personal collections up for sale. Proceeds go towards paying zero hour staff.

https://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/bottle-share-project/