How'd you get on the crumpet rings? We've tried a few kinds and never had great success, crumpets always stick T_T

You should check out the range they stock at the Craft Beer Exchange in Keefly. Some proper weird shit.

Haven't tried them yet. I have a set of silicone rings that don't stick (providing they're clean) but they're too small. I suppose you've tried buttering the rings (nj) in advance?

> lovely GlenDronach 21 year old

Never managed to try the 21, but every other Glendronach I've had's been lovely. What other bottles did you get?

My mum got me a bottle of gin, despite me never drinking gin, and despite me telling her last time she gave me a bottle of gin that I don't drink gin. I gave my sister a (different) bottle of gin, which prompted a conversation about how I don't drink gin. I think I'll be getting gin again next year.

I also got:

• The Hawksmoor restaurant cookery book
• A set of kitchen knives*
• Lots of coffee beans

*Just to check - how widespread is it that it's bad luck to give knives as a gift? So they came with a coin attached, which I had to give back. I'm well used to this witchcraft, but it was news to my girlfriend.

It's reasonably bad luck to give knives forcefully into the centre mass of the body. Seriously, never heard that. If I think about it long enough, I'll start to believe it's a well known superstition.

Actually, just asked my wife and daughter and they both said "yes" in a kind of Molesworth "as any fule kno" way. So I suppose it's a well known superstition. For context, my wife is French/Maltese/English and my daughter is Netflix/Internet.

That 21 yo looks pricey. On the other hand, I suppose, with the cost of spirits now, especially in city centre bars, it's not uncommon for a bottle of any old shite to be valued at £80 or more. Makes a really nice single malt seem like a bargain. I know it's a whisky that's become very Shoreditch-trendy, but I really like Laphroaig. And I'm not over fussed about the cask it was matured in.

The Glendronach is actually really well priced for a 21-year-old single malt these days, especially as it's non chill-filtered and not artificially coloured (and bottled at a good strength of 48%). The equivalent Macallan (the most popular "premium" Scotch brand) would set you back at least double. Admittedly, it's outwith the price I'd be happy to pay for a bottle because I'd feel guilty drinking it, but as a gift, it's a very nice gift.

The whisky marketplace is a bit nuts just now (and has been for a good few years), and it's interesting to see what's going on in the gulf between the kind of whiskies you can pick up in your local supermarket, and the more specialist stuff. The move to "no age statement" (NAS) bottlings is very apparent at the supermarket end. If a single malt whisky has an age statement on it, it is the age of the youngest cask* to go into the blend. If no age statement is given, anything over 3 years (the point at which stuff in the casks can legally be called whisky) can be used.

The marketing people will tell you that the move to NAS bottlings is because age isn't necessarily a signifier of quality, and that by blending casks of various ages, they can create a fuller and more consistent experience. The cynics will suggest that maybe it's more to do with the lack of older casks because production in the past can't match demand now, and that in order to flog a bottle in the £20-50 range, corners have to be cut - younger spirit watered down to 40% abv, filtered and coloured with E150 for that consistent caramel colour. Not to say the whiskies are necessarily /bad/, just not as good as what you'd get for your money a decade ago.

Meanwhile, at the higher end, they're very much aiming at the "luxury" market (bungs for high-ranking officials, a cynic might say), and anything interesting coming out of the big names is snapped up by collectors, prospectors, investors and flippers. Some of it might even get drunk.

This kind of leaves those of us who want to drink half-decent whisky without breaking the bank having to do a bit more work and veer away from the big names. Thankfully, there's a vast and bewildering infrastructure out there now, and certain distilleries/brands seem to be happy to cater for the enthusiast rather the collector, and for the last few years Glendronach's been one of them, sticking to a core range of sensible age statements (see footnote below), matured in good quality sherry casks, with decent bottling strengths, and the occasional special edition.

*Which led to an interesting situation a few years ago where, due to the mothballing of the distillery in the 90s, bottles of the core Glendronach 12-15-18 range actually had much older whisky in them. It's all sorted now, unfortunately.

(I am not sponsored by Glendronach)

More's the pity.

Main loot this year was an iFixit Pro Toolkit, great for small gadget work.
Nothing musical, as my former career as a rock bassist has been entirely scuppered by serious degenerative disc disease, ie can now barely walk...
Birthday gift: 128GB Samsung Fit flash drive, fast enough to use as storage on an Asus TP200SA, which has a miniscule 32GB C drive.
And we bought wine. Lots of wine. Just because.

My next door neighbour works for a distillery with awfy attractive banks, and was telling me a hilarious story just before Christmas about how one of the guys from his work had had to deliver an £18k 8-O bottle to him to auction off for something or other, and nearly dropped it on the driveway due to the icy conditions.

The next day he asked a favour of me, which I gladly undertook, and he said there'd be a bottle of whisky in it for me.  (bounce)

He brought it round on xmas eve. It was Jack Daniels.  :L

You pointed out I assume that Jack Daniels is better suited to cleaning toilets than being consumed?

Anyway, the other bottles I got were a bottle of Jura Loch - apparently a travel exclusive, but a lot of these are being sold normally at the moment due to lack of travel. I also got a bottle of Eagle Rare bourbon - I do like a nice bourbon from time to time, so long as it isn't the cheap shit like JD. Meanwhile for my wife, she got a bottle of Benromach which is quite nice, plus I bought her another nice bourbon - a bottle of Blanton's which is actually very nice!

Either way though, our whisky shelf is suitably re-stocked now :)

Perhaps, as Jack Daniels has the same parent company as Glendronach, he assumed it would be nice.

I know somebody who loves the stuff. She guzzles huge quantities. I forget how awful it is and try a glass every few years. Although it isn't as tooth-achingly sickly as that appalling whisky-liqueur Southern Comfort, it does leave you feeling as though a whole chocolate orange has been forced into your mouth and the residue polished off with a solution of Vics Vapour Rub and meths.

Jack actually pairs really nicely with twenty Marlboro.

I assumed he just got some sort of deal on it through work tbh!

I quite like Jack tbf. Takes me back to my yoof in metal clubs. Also I'm not really that into whisky - can appreciate and enjoy a nice one but never really caught the bug for hunting down the perfect single malt. 
 

Ahh, the Marlboros first to block off your taste buds you mean?

Don't get me wrong, it's OK as a mixer with Cola and whatnot, but it tastes awful when neat IMO.

It's a bit like cheap tequila in that respect. That Sierra stuff you always get in pubs goes with salt and lime for a reason - because it tastes like crap. However I've had several more expensive tequilas which taste really nice just with a bit of ice and nothing else.

It's all a matter of taste, though. I think JD tastes bad; other people love it. That's fine. I'm not a fan of most cheap blended Scotch whiskys either, but on the other hand, I do like dirt-cheap London dry gin. I'll drink that neat or with mixers. I'm not denying that there are better gins but I feel lucky that I'm happy with what I get at £10 per bottle instead of £40.

I think it depends on the bottle. I'm not a fan of many cheap blended whiskys like Johnny Walker, but I find Famous Grouse to be fine for a cheaper blend, and some of the slightly more expensive blends like the Naked Grouse are genuinely very good! Chivas Regal is also perfectly OK to my palette.

I got lotsa loot including Metaverse land, son-made fermenter jar, book of rave fliers and money which I used to e my bike.

Holiday home? 

Can mostly say the same for cheap anything, though. Depends what your use is.

Sierra is fine if you're going to mix it with grenadine and orange juice for a Sunrise as the tequila is a background player. But an El Diablo is very tequila forward (if made fairly short with limited ginger ale) and benefits from a good quality tequila.

And for a slammer I definitely want a good tequila as that's what I'm mainly going to be tasting. In fact, we finished off our Xmas bottle of patron gold as slammers last week.

I don't drink many straight spirits, most of them really don't taste good like that to me. There are some whiskies and bourbons I enjoy straight, and occasionally a dark and/or spiced rum, but mostly my spirits go into cocktails. Going to experiment with some sours recipes using the Jack, might tame the sweetness a bit.