And now for something completely different. When my blog was very new I posted a gallery of sketches made by my talented friend, Stephanie Cox at our local group’s whisky tastings. These sketches were all made on Stephanie’s iPad and do a wonderful job, I think, of capturing the atmosphere at our tastings–though I think they fail to capture my inner beauty or the soothing effect I have on others. Here is another set of sketches. These were all made at our most recent tasting a couple of weeks ago. In case you’re interested, these are the whiskies we drank that night (1 oz of each, blind for everyone but me): Hibiki 12, A.D. Rattray Glen Ord 12, Signatory UCF Glenlivet 15 and Laphroaig Cairdeas 2013, Port Wood. The Glen Ord was the consensus favourite on the night.

Here is what we looked like while drinking them. Continue reading →

The road of excess, I quipped the other day to my old friend William Blake, leads to the palace of wisdom. He looked at me resentfully and jotted something down in his little notebook. I assume he was being a dick because he didn’t have an invitation to a gathering in St. Paul on Friday that featured a lineup of whiskies that would have cleansed anyone’s doors of perception and made everything appear to Man as it is, Infinite (that’s a reference to another little gem I tossed off a few weeks ago). Where was I? Right, the road of excess leading to a gathering in St. Paul this past Friday.

But let’s back up a little first.  Continue reading →