Weekend Cooking & Drinking Thread: Late Better Than Never Edition

[Prediction? Pain.]

So this happened Saturday:



Gathered with some friends in Huntsville for a whisky jamboree. Early afternoon session was a semi-planned flight of all the Irish and Scottish stuff, while the after-dinner round was a bourbon free-for-all. I think roughly 44 unique whiskies in all.

Even though I'm a relative newcomer to the old world whisky, I found myself more interested in it than many of the bourbons. Maybe because of the diversity of flavors possible when you let the distillers play around with barrel finishing? Good bourbon's great and all, but if it's straight stuff, there's only so many different flavor profiles, you know?

Random takeways:

• Duality Double Malt, a half-malted-rye, half-wood-smoked-malted-barely whisky from a distillery in Atlanta that my wife bought me as a present earlier this year, is really interesting. We had it at the end of the Irish and Scottish round (after we had our lone Islay offering, Laphroaig 10-year cask strength) and none of us were sure what to make of it. On the nose in the bottle, it was straight up butterscotch. But then in the glass, it was a weird combination of things that was unlike any other whisky we had. Not nearly as assertive as you'd figure a half-rye, half-smoked-barely whisky would be, but still very flavorful. I'm eager to give it a try again soon on its own.
• The high-end Jameson stuff -- 12-year and Gold Reserve, which are both out of my price range -- is pretty damn good, y'all.
• The range of flavors that sherry, port, and wine finishes imparts on whiskey is impressive, even within a single distillery's stuff.
• Our two blended malt scotches, Monkey Shoulder and the Naked Grouse, held their own, all things considered. Not as satisfying as the fancy stuff from Teeling, Jameson, Bushmills, or Auchentoshan, but still quite nice.
• Eagle Rare is maybe the best bourbon for the money I've ever had. It's consistently incredible.
• I was underwhelmed by Weller.
• Stagg Jr., once watered down a bit from its super-high proof, is solid stuff.
• Well-aged Dickel is, as usual, damn good stuff. A friend had a bottle of "Old Scout," which is a small sourcing brand that sourced a 13-year single barrel of Dickel for a recent release. It was good.

Oh, and yeah, that's a pink, Frozen lunch box at the end next to the Laphroaig cask strength. I had to transport cheese from a local dairy and that was the best small, insulated vessel I could find. I've got a five year old daughter who's a bad ass, so damn straight, she's rep'd at the whisky tasting.

ETA: I'm apparently somehow getting worse at posting pictures the longer I've been doing it. If the one above doesn't show up for you, here's another try: