If you remove the 5(!) turnovers I think we actually played better than the Saints. Just inventing new ways to lose at this point.
Make that 2 great TD catches!
What would some late round flier give you that Bagent hasn't already? Making the roster and beating out Walker and Peterman is already a great success story for an UDFA. If you want to pin your hopes on an unlikely underdog story Bagent is a better bet than most.
To start with, my buddy and I have a holiday tradition of sharing the Whisky Exchange's holiday blend. I get the feeling we will find excuses for plenty of other bottles as well though - nothing beats a dram to warm you up on a cool fall night. Let us know how the advent calendar works out for you.
Bonus question - what would it take for Fields to remain the Plan A starter for the Bears next year?
My take: good QBs have bad games and bad QBs have good games. In order to be considered a long term option, the bare minimum you want to see is twice as much good as bad. This year Fields has been the other way, with 2 good games and 4 awful ones. By this admittedly simple logic, he would need 6 consecutive good games with zero stinkers before I would consider him to have turned the quarter and re-entered the franchise QB discussion. (By this same logic, two more awful games would mathematically eliminate him from achieving the magic 2:1 ratio this year.) So yes, I think it is still possible that Fields turns it around and becomes the guy. As a Bears fan that's what we should all be rooting for. But the odds of that happening look very slim indeed right now.
After that press conference I'm excited to see how Justin comes out slinging. Might as well have some fun and who knows, maybe wet a lucky break and steal one.
Great review! Personally I found Scorch to be a disaster - a bland, uninteresting dram with less depth and complexity than Uigeadail at two or three times the price. Honestly it put me off special edition Ardbeg for the time being. It doesn't sound like Harpy's Tale would be the one to change my mind either. Perhaps it's just as well I haven't seen it available where I live.
Distiller: Art of the Spirits
Product: Easy Elegance
Bottle: -
Category: Rye
Aged: 6 years American oak
Nose: Holiday fruitcake with plums, cherries, and figs baked in honey and spices. Surprising from a straight rye.
Body: Cinnamon, white peppercorn, pears, and figs over a base of spearmint fluoride mouthwash.
Finish: Pine needles and more spearmint give a crisp clean finish. I still think of the dentist’s chair, but it’s not an unpleasant combination.
Activation: Feels a bit buttery and creamier. Nothing too dramatic.
Notes: The fifth and final entry of this series, Easy Elegance is also the only spirit that comes to us fresh from the oak with no particular finishing run. I’d forgive you for thinking that there was a port or sherry involved here however as there is a fruit character not commonly seen in rye whiskey. I’m also a sucker for mint flavors in my whiskey, so the strong spearmint tones are right down my alley. Taken together, this might be my favorite of the lot.
Distiller: Art of the Spirits
Product: The Originals
Bottle: 4 Square Rum Finish
Category: Whiskey
Aged: 6 years American oak finished in rum
Nose: Anise, creamy butterscotch, allspice.
Body: Licorice, but the fake sugary kind from a Twizzler's candy. Cinnamon, brown sugar, cloves, and other spices.
Finish: Apple cider, nutmeg, and with a bit of a harsh tobacco at the very end.
Activation: A bit sweeter, some raw cane sugar with your spice blend. Not overly noticeable.
Notes: Our next Art of the Spirits offering is the Originals, named in honor of the 10th Special Forces group from the OSS in WW2 and featuring an oil painting that wouldn't be out of place on a Call of Duty game. It's at the same time familiar (rum barrels often leave behind blends of cinnamon and spice) and quite unique - the licorice flavors are something I'm not used to. If you told me the rum was mixed with a hit of absinthe I would believe you. To be honest I don't love it, certainly not at this price point.
Distiller: Art of the Spirits
Product: Final Run
Bottle: Tawny Port Finish
Category: Whiskey
Aged: 6 years American oak finished in tawny port
Nose: Very mild. Roasted walnuts and fresh pine needles.
Body: Drier and more oak-forward than the previous expressions. Lots of nutty flavors: walnuts, pecans, pistachios. The sweetness this time comes from sort of an eggy creme brulee with caramelized sugar topping.
Finish: Finally some traditional port characteristics - cherries, cranberries, and spiced apple cider.
Activation: Ah now here it gets interesting. A splash of water cools it down, tames some of the resins and brings out a ton of autumnal flavors: cranberries, pumpkin spice, nutmeg. The first of the Final Runs that I would recommend this on.
Notes: Being a whiskey nerd and not a wine nerd, I was dubious that there would be much of a difference between a ruby port and a tawny port finish. At the end of the day it’s all the same grape right? Apparently the difference comes from the aging process, with tawny ports aging in smaller casks that extract more oak flavor and turn the wine brown (hence the name). When applied to a spirit the difference is dramatic. This is a much more savory whiskey, with all kinds of nuts and spices that can’t help but conjure images of Thanksgiving dinner, mulled wine, and spiced desserts on a cool night. If I had to choose I would probably give the edge to the ruby, but as with anything it’s a matter of preference and circumstance.
While perusing my local liquor store over Labor Day weekend, I found something I simply couldn't resist. Art of the Spirits is a small distillery out of Colorado Springs with a few interesting selling points. Most obviously, the artwork - each bottle has a label based on an oil painting by Danial James or David Uhl, two Colorado artists made famous by their work for Harley Davidson motorcycles. I'm a big believer that a handcrafted whiskey is a work of art in its own right so I love the pairing here. Less obvious is that this distiller has specifically targeted the barrel pick market. Each of the five whiskies shown here is a cask strength single barrel selected by Goody Goody. The three Bonnie-and-Clyde themed "Final Run" bottles are actually the same spirit, just finished in different ways to bring out different flavors, whereas we also have as "Easy Elegance" and "The Originals" are a bit different. All five bottles were in the $80-$100 range each at my store.
I will put my individual reviews below, but overall I am impressed by Art of the Spirits. This is a very competitive price point, and none of these are likely to become an everyday favorite. Keeping in mind that these are cask strength limited editions I always felt like I was getting my money's worth though. Which is best? That's hard to say. "The Originals" was my least favorite and the one of the five I wouldn't recommend. The flavor profile was certainly unique but not something that really clicked with me. I can also say that I preferred the Ruby Port "Final Run" over the "Tawny Port" as those are similar enough that a head-to-head comparison feels fair. Between the Ruby, the Madiera, and they surprisingly complex Rye "Easy Elegance" I find it impossible to crown a victor however. All three are excellent and which I prefer depends entirely on my mood at the moment.
Distiller: Laphroaig
Product: Cairdeas
Bottle: 2023 - White Port and Madeira
Category: Islay
Aged: Three quarters finished in second fillMadeira, one quarter finished in first fill white port
Nose: Green apples and peach cobbler over the distinctive Laphroaig peat smoke
Body: Harsh peat smoke is quickly tempered with candied oranges, honey, vanilla, and buttery dinner rolls.
Finish: Miles of lingering campfire smoke with a bit of salted caramel underneath.
Activation: Helps to marry the sweet fruits with the oily iodine peat, creating a single coherent flavor where once there were distinct layers. Recommended.
Notes: Laphroaig Cairdeas is one of the longest running special editions in the industry, although apparently this is the very first offering by new master distiller Barry MacAffer. Certainly more distinctive than last year's unimaginative “Warehouse 1” release, this bottle grows on you with time. It doesn’t break much new ground - aging harsh peats in wine casks is a time honored tradition by this point - but it is remarkably well balanced, with none of the chemical or medicinal harshness that you might expect. Things might be looking up at Laphroaig.
cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/467414
Distillery: Compass Box
Product Line: -
Product: Canvas
Aged: Vino naranja and American oak
Category: Blended
Nose: Delicate custards and marmalade. A citrus of bitter sort, with under-ripe figs.
Body: Rich honey over apricots and oranges. A light, English muffin sort of biscuit. As it goes on, a rich dark chocolate encroaches.
Finish: A bold, malty surprise. Loses nearly all the delicate fruit notes in favor of wheats and grains and fresh baked bread.
Activation: Really opens up some of the rich juicy fruits. Oranges, grapes, pears. Recommended.
Notes: I've always been fond of Compass Box, but they went through a phase for a while where seemingly every new limited release was (over) aged in a sherry cask. I'm glad to announce that Canvas breaks this pattern- in fact, there’s no sherry here at all! Just some Spanish orange wine, a beverage I didn’t even know existed until I picked up this bottle. It’s sweet and rich and creamy and endlessly drinkable, without that bitter or medicinal quality that can frequently come through with sherried casks. After such a fruit forward body, the malted finish is a welcome surprise as well. One of the best blended malts I’ve had in a while, though it is on the pricier side at ~$135.
Distillery: Compass Box
Product Line: -
Product: Canvas
Aged: Vino naranja and American oak
Category: Blended
Nose: Delicate custards and marmalade. A citrus of bitter sort, with under-ripe figs.
Body: Rich honey over apricots and oranges. A light, English muffin sort of biscuit. As it goes on, a rich dark chocolate encroaches.
Finish: A bold, malty surprise. Loses nearly all the delicate fruit notes in favor of wheats and grains and fresh baked bread.
Activation: Really opens up some of the rich juicy fruits. Oranges, grapes, pears. Recommended.
Notes: I've always been fond of Compass Box, but they went through a phase for a while where seemingly every new limited release was (over) aged in a sherry cask. I'm glad to announce that Canvas breaks this pattern- in fact, there’s no sherry here at all! Just some Spanish orange wine, a beverage I didn’t even know existed until I picked up this bottle. It’s sweet and rich and creamy and endlessly drinkable, without that bitter or medicinal quality that can frequently come through with sherried casks. After such a fruit forward body, the malted finish is a welcome surprise as well. One of the best blended malts I’ve had in a while, though it is on the pricier side at ~$135.
Any hikers, climbers, or wanderers here? Where's the most exotic place you've had a glass of whiskey?
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There's a man who's not afraid of danger
To Getsy's awful system he's no stranger
With every snap he takes
Another record breaks
Odds are he'll be starting by tomorrow
SECRET BAAAGENT MAN!!!!