Back to a more traditional schedule after last year’s late start and AI New Year 2024. Following a fairly noisy night (no, not fireworks, but quite strong and blustery winds in West Berkshire) I left for an early walk, just avoiding the rain which set in mid morning and has turned quite heavy while I’m writing this. Then it was time for the New Year’s Concert 2025 from Vienna, while eating my usual New Year’s Day brunch, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and homemade rolls. For the encore (including the famous Blue Danube Waltz and Radetzky March) I moved on to dessert:
New Year 2025 Islay Whisky and Chocolate
The whisky is of course the Bruichladdich Port Charlotte valinch OLC: 01 2013 opened on Christmas. The chocolate is another offering from Islay Cocoa, the Salty Sea Dog. I normally avoid salty foods (high blood pressure), but for an occasional treat I make an exception. Very much enjoyed the chocolate, the salt and the chocolate go well together, also nicely complemented by the whisky (and the music from Vienna).
With the concert now over I’m looking forward to a relaxing afternoon, should the rain stop early enough I might venture out for another short walk.
Swiftly following on from yesterday’s Christmas 2024 Islay whisky nr.1 yesterday I’ve opened the second bottle I had picked for this year’s Christmas today on Boxing Day. Not only that, I also got out some nice chocolate to enjoy with it after enjoying some Salmon with lemon pepper earlier this evening.
Christmas 2024 Islay whisky nr.2 (and some Islay chocolate)
This is a Kilchoman 12 Year Old Single Cask bottling, cask 504/2012. Matured in a bourbon casks for over 9 years before being finished in a Calvados cask for over 3 years. My bottle is 114/240. I think it’s a distillery shop only release, so not available online. Quite different to the Port Charlotte I enjoyed yesterday, I’d say much sweeter with my untrained palate. But I also like it a lot.
Now on to the chocolate: I picked up some Islay Cocoa chocolate during my visit in November. I can’t seem to find it online, but the one I started tonight is called “Festive Dark”. It’s a 70% Colombian chocolate filled with salted hazelnut praline and toasted almond pieces. Or in other words, brings together what I like, 70%+ (ideally 80-85%) dark chocolate and nuts. I think I finished probably 80%+ of the bar today, it’s that good. I’ve got another chocolate bar to start, but that’s for New Year’s Eve, so watch this blog….
It’s a rather wet October Sunday morning where I’m writing this (and rather breezy on Islay), a good time to stay in for some Islay reading. So here are a variety of links to articles and more I’ve found. I hope you’ll find something interesting:
Happy New Year 2023! By the time I post this the concert will be over and the food will be all gone, but it’s “same procedure as every year” (my German readers will understand, I think some others might as well now). As I’ve been doing for many years now I’ve been out for a New Year’s morning walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal, followed by Neujahrskonzert from Vienna with my New Year’s Day brunch and a dram or two of Islay single malt whisky:
New Year’s brunch and Islay whisky 2023
The Islay whisky of course is the Laddie Origins I opened yesterday. The food was similar to previous offerings, scrambled eggs with roasted garlic pepper and spring onions, smoked salmon, sausages and homemade poppy seed rolls.
My sister Imke and her horse Brioso kind of joined in (can you spot them?), they and a few human and equine friends “celebrated” the New Year last night.
I’m off for a nap now after all that food and drink, then (hoping it stays dry) out for an afternoon walk. If all goes to plan with a New Year’s Day pint in a pub on the way.
This post left me with a decision to make, which category to pick? Same as the two previous posts it mentions an Islay whisky, in addition it also features a new Islay video (even though you need to read all the way to the end to find it). In the end I decided to go with the Islay video option. So what have I been up to on Christmas Day?
Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 Islay single malt whisky
Well, less than I had originally planned. I stayed up later last night than I had originally planned, leading to me sleeping in this morning. When I finally got up it rained quite heavily, so in the end I decided to skip my walk today and just take it easy at home. I relaxed, ate a lot of chocolate, Lebkuchen and food like that. Also some Chipolata sausages and rolls baked yesterday. And tea. And hot chocolate.
For my tea I has some nice beef steaks with garlic butter as planned. With them I enjoyed a bottle of the Innis & Gunn Laphroaig Islay whisky cask real ale (something I thought I had blogged about already, but it seems I haven’t). Followed by some chocolate cheesecake.
Then of course there’s today’s Islay whisky. I decided to go with the distillery I was tending towards when thinking about it last night and picked the Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 as my Christmas Day Islay single malt. As regular readers might remember Laphroaig was my first love and remains one of my go to Islay whiskies. It doesn’t disappoint and for me it’s a great choice as my Christmas Day dram.
But there’s still a new Islay video to come. The footage as such is a bit older, from November 2015 to be precise, but at the same time it also reminded me of my most recent Islay visit in November 2022. While I had sunny spell there was also plenty rain and wind, which this video is about:
November Rain and Wind on Kilchoman Beach, Isle of Islay
I recommend to watch it in full screen on a larger display/monitor, you’ll get to see much more of the rain coming down on the beach. In the second part of the video you get to see the beach on the move, I hope the footage gives a feel of a windy day on Kilchoman beach.
That’s all for today. Not sure yet what I’ll do tomorrow, but if the weather is nice I’m hoping to get out somewhere in West Berkshire or north Hampshire. There will probably also be a Boxing Day Islay single malt whisky (after the fish I’ve got on the menu for tea tomorrow).
As mentioned in last night’s post about my Pre Christmas Eve Islay Single Malt Whisky 2022 I’m aiming to enjoy this long Christmas weekend, among other things with some good food and drink. I had outlined my plans for today, although it turned out they changed a bit as the day went on. Not that it mattered as most of what I had planned did still happen, just a bit different.
Kilchoman Limited Casado Edition Islay Single Malt Whisky
I did get up reasonably early as planned to get ready for my walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal. Just as I was getting out of bed I received a message from my sister to take my headphones with me on my walk. Turned out she was back home earlier than expected and we were able to have our call while I was walking, something we’ve done several times before. While the weather wasn’t as good as I had hoped it was still a very nice walk, some low mist rising from the fields and the canal, providing a nice and calm atmosphere. I walked 8.37 miles in 2h 13m 07s according to my fitness tracker, all the time talking with my sister.
After returning home I enjoyed a relaxing breakfast (fruit bread, tea, chocolate porridge) before getting under the shower. This was followed by a bit of relaxing, surfing the interwebs before starting my baking and enjoying a good lunch of cheese, bread, grapes and red wine. For the baking I started with some rolls and then made two wholemeal breads, one with hemp hearts and one with almonds. While the baking was moving along I also enjoyed another hot chocolate with rum with some dark chocolate Lebkuchen later during the afternoon.
For my tea I enjoyed the Wagyu burger on the freshly baked rolls as planned, washed down with the Fynes Ales Superior Pale Ale. Both were delicious as expected. After some chocolate cheesecake it was time to move on to the real topic of this post and the star of the evening:
For tonight’s Islay whisky I picked the Kilchoman distillery Limited Casado Edition, which I had picked up at the distillery during my recent visit in November 2022:
Casado (Portuguese for marriage) is matured in fresh bourbon barrels for 6 years before 38 casks were married together for 2 years in two 6,000 litre Portuguese red wine vats.
I decided to buy it without tasting it, mainly because I had very much enjoyed wine cask editions from several other Islay distilleries before. It turned out a risk well worth taking for me. I’m no whisky expert and won’t bother with from me pointless tasting notes, all I can say is that I very much like it. That’s all that matters to me.
For tomorrow I have no major plans just yet. I will go out for a walk along the canal at some point in the morning. After that I’m thinking of a nice brunch of some sort. Then some relaxing and if I can get my act together possibly some video editing and in best case publishing, so you’ve got something to watch on your new gadgets if you get any. But no promises. And in the evening I’m planning to have some nice beef steaks with garlic butter. Followed by a Christmas Day Islay whisky. Again I haven’t decided yet which one. but there’s a good chance it will be from my favourite distillery on the south coast. Regular readers will know what that means.
After a long busy year I’m aiming to really enjoy the long Christmas weekend. I started the weekend with an afternoon off work, which I used to blog about a chat about Islay with ChatGPT, a nice walk in the afternoon sun along the Kennet and Avon Canal and a nice hot chocolate with rum (unfortunately no Islay rum, haven’t got any of that yet) with some dark chocolate Lebkuchen.
Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2012 Islay single malt whisky
The evening started with my favourite pizza (Stromboli sourdough Pizza) with a nice pale ale (Crazy Haze from Stewart Brewing). Then it was time for some nice Islay whisky:
For this evening I picked the Port Charlotte Islay Barley 2012 (sorry, no link to it, as I can’t find it on the Bruichladdich website. Can only find the 2013 version). As usual a very nice dram, very enjoyable. With them I had something smoky, the Tesco Finest Hickory Smoked Nut Selection. Thought that was an interesting combination.
Soon I’ll be off to be bed to get some sleep to be fit for my plans tomorrow:
In the morning I’m planning a long walk along the Kennet and Avon canal, depending on how nice (or not) the weather is I’m thinking of at least 3.5 miles, possibly 4-5 miles, going west (meaning a total of 7-10). Around lunchtime I’ll speak with my sister for an hour or so via Skype (yes, we’re still using Skype). Then it will be time for some baking in the afternoon, rolls and bread. For Christmas Eve I’ll have Wagyu burgers and a bottle of Fyne Ales Superior. The evening will then be finished with a Christmas Eve Islay single malt. I haven’t decided yet which one, so you’ll have to come back tomorrow to see what I picked.
It’s about time I go through some of my bookmarks and notes from the last couple of weeks (or even months) and share some of the articles and more about or at least mentioning Islay. Hopefully you’ll find something of interest to read and possibly share:
To start with travel writer Peter Irvine shares his favourite spots on Scotland’s loveliest islands, which of course includes Islay and Jura. They are spots 6-9, the Paps of Jura, Geese at Gruinart, Carraig Fhada Lighthouse and the Machrie Hotel.
Uproxx (which seems to be a music, film and lifestyle website) writes about a whisky-centric trip to Scotland with a few stops on Islay. The Islay stops are Bowmore Hotel Lucci’s Whisky Bar and Kilchoman distillery. Also an honourable mention for Ardbeg and Lagavulin distilleries. Not to forget plenty Islay pictures.
As I eluded to yesterday, today marks the start of a new chapter in my life, even though I don’t know yet where it will lead me. All I know is that over the coming weeks I’ll be looking for new career opportunities, while also aiming to use the opportunity for a few other changes. But at the same time there are some constants, including my love for Islay and some annual rituals/traditions:
West Berkshire New Year’s Day dawn
This morning I got up early and left for my morning walk before dawn, on the return leg I saw a lovely colourful New Year’s day first dawn of the year sky over one of the West Berkshire fields I pass on my route. When I returned home I got the oven going for some fresh “New Year’s Day bread”, one Hemp Hearts bread and one fruit bread. Then it was time for one of my New Year’s Day traditions (mentioned on this blog before eg in 2020 and in 2018), the New Year’s Day concert from Vienna with a dram of Islay single malt whisky and my New Year’s Day brunch.
The whisky is the same as for Christmas, the Kilchoman Single Cask 11 Years Old Bourbon Cask. The brunch is the aforementioned Hemp Hearts bread, scrambled eggs and some smoked salmon. The salmon “slowly smoked for 12 hours over oak & whisky cask chippings”, so I’m imagining they were Islay whisky cask chippings.
New Year’s Day brunch with an Islay dram
The concert has now reached the encores with the famous Blue Danube, so I’m going to finish now and wish you all a happy and healthy New Year 2022!
From what I’ve heard it’s been a lovely sunny day on Islay today while it’s been mostly cloudy with quite a lot of rain in West Berkshire where I am. Still, I managed to get in a 10 miles exercise walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal in 2 hours, 28 minutes and 55 seconds. As a reward I’m treating myself to an Islay and Scotland treat tonight:
Scottish Strawberries and Laphroaig Islay single malt whisky
One of my Islay standards, the good old trusted Laphroaig 10 yo. Together with some Scottish strawberries (from Angus if I remember correctly). What’s your treat tonight?