We had some excitement in September here in our little hamlet in southern Minnesota: our town was hit by a major storm that included a tornado touching down. There was a lot of damage across town—lots of trees ripped out of the ground—but we were lucky to escape damage or downed trees, despite living on a street carved out of a forest, where every home is surrounded by many, many trees. However, the heavy rain that accompanied the storm brought other bad news for us: water leaking through our foundation and into our basement. Other than the laundry room there’s only one other thing of consequence in the basement: yes, you guessed it, it’s where my whisky is kept. Fortunately, there wasn’t very much water but, nonetheless, everything has been boxed up and moved far away from the afflicted wall. Having done this in a bit of a hurry, I didn’t do it in any sort of a planned way and so my whisky drinking over the next few months—till we figure out how to deal with the drainage/structural issues—is going to be fairly random: mostly from my excessive collection of samples and the bottles that I have open now. There’s enough of interest there, however, so take a look and see if you’d like to vote anything from this subset of it to the shortlist. 

1. Aberlour 12, 2006 (Archives)
2. Ardmore 13, 1990 (G&M)
3. Ardmore 20, 1992 (Archives)
4. Ardmore 24, 1985 (SMWS)
5. Ardmore Traditional
6. Auchroisk 28, 1988 (Malts of Scotland)
7. Balblair 16
8. Balblair 1999-2016, 2nd Ed.
9. Balblair 38, 1966
10. Brora 30, 5th Release
11. Bunnahabhain 28, 1987 (Maltbarn)
12. Caperdonich 27, 1974 (Old Malt Cask)
13. Cragganmore 12
14. Dailuaine 9, 2006 (SMWS 41.83)
15. Glen Keith 21, 1996 (Single Malts of Scotland)
16. Glen Keith 22, 1995 (Archives)
17. Glen Ord 12, Singleton
18. Glengoyne 2000-2015 (Malts of Scotland)
19. Heaven Hill 6, Bottled in Bond
20. Karuizawa 13, 1997, “Spirit Safe”
21. Knappogue Castle 12 (for the Party Source)
22. Ledaig 11, 2005 (Single Malts of Scotland)
23. Millstone 100, Dutch Single Rye
24. Mortlach 20, 1994 (Malts of Scotland)
25. Orkney 15, 2002 (Archives)
26. Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel, Cleveland Bourbon Club Selection
27. The Secret Islay (The Whisky Shop, Edinburgh)
28. Springbank 13, Green
29. Tomatin 25, 1988 (Malts of Scotland)
30. Wild Turkey Straight Rye, 101 Proof

In addition, I will have the usual complement of restaurant reports from the greater Twin Cities area. We recently had a very good lunch at Thai Cafe (here’s my report from last year) and we eat at Martina in a week. I’m also hoping to further explore the Ethiopian scene and also try some Middle Eastern food in Eagan. I’ll also be finishing up with my Scotland reports this month: there’ll be a couple more looks at whisky stores, a few food reports and finally a writeup of my whisky experiences at the Dornoch Castle Hotel.