2015 Birthday Dramming

DSC_0179For my birthday in 2015, I wanted to open some half-decent drams and share them with friends. This, naturally, leads to what is known as Analysis Paralysis.

I decided to make it easy by going for something rare - and settled on a Brora.

Of course, many of my friends are experienced and widely travelled whisky connoisseurs - I associate with a cut above the average drunkard, I can assure you. For many of them, Brora is less of a special event than you'd think, so I decided to let reverse psychology work its magic. I told them I'd be bringing a lesser Brora.

That did the trick.


In truth, there have been many bottlings of Brora over the years, and some have better reputations than others. I decided to pick one that was from over a decade ago, which was highly unlikely to have been tasted before. Everyone rushes for the Special Releases or a Rare Malt, but bottlers like Gordon & MacPhail, Douglas Laing and Signatory were keeping us well stocked in excellent Brora for many years.

So I selected a Signatory Vintage Un-chillfiltered Collection Brora, and on opening it I found only one regret - that I'd waited over a decade to do so!

DSC_0180Of course, there may be deviants and heretics amongst my friends who - for moral, religious or other dubious grounds - may refuse a Brora. I'm unsure where I met these people, but they just won't go away, and I'm too polite to tell them where to go. For these people, I arranged a fallback whisky - an Alchemist bottling of 10 year old Springbank, with a twist.


I'm pleased to report that all who attended my birthday found something they wanted to drink. Occasionally, it was even my whisky!

Thanks to all who made it to celebrate with me, it was much appreciated. Is now the right time to mention that I refilled the Brora bottle with Bells before you arrived? (Just kidding!)


Oh, and at the start of the day I treated myself to a sneaky dram or three of the delicious Compass Box Hedonism Maximus. Now there's a dram that I'll miss when it's gone... Sadly the 20 or so people that helped me celebrate were already missing it, as there just wasn't enough to go around. Sorry folks!

My main problem now is that next year is a bigger "milestone birthday", and people will expect me to to push the boat out. Well, fortunately, that's a problem I don't have to deal with until May 2016...