I usually drink only in the weekend, but ocassionally just one drink another evening once in a while. Friday night and/or maybe saturday I might have two to four drams.
After a week of hard work, I really like sitting back in my sofa and enjoy a scotch. Now, in the autumn, I can at the same time look out my window and watch all the fantastic colours on the treeleafes outside in the clear air before it slowly gets dark. I find this so relaxing, I don´t really need more stimulus. After dark, I usually put on some music, though. Anything from Chopin to Led Zeppelin, really, it depends on my mood.
I have come to prefer single malt scotch over the years, myself, and nowadays I don´t have anything else in my scotch "collection" at home. (Out on the town, however, I find blended whisky on ice or with water quite adequate). I don´t have too much money to spend, so for the time beeing I have only three bottles of scotch on my shelf: Cragganmore 12 yo, Laphroaig
10 yo and Ardbeg 10 yo.
I usually prefer Islay whiskys like Laphroaigh and Ardbeg, especially now in the chilly autumn and through the winter. My favourite one (sadly I don´t have any left!) is the Laphroaigh Cask Strength. My wife bought me a bottle of this as a present about a year ago. I didn´t know if I should delute it, it´s 57% proof if I remember correctly. So I wrote to this group for answers. I got many, but ended up following Douglas W. Hoyt´s advice: Maybe just a drop or two of water, maybe even straigth, but first of all very, very small sips at a time. And whow! It gives an immediate explosion in the nose, and then lots and lots of taste. It lingers on, one taste component after the other dominates, and it has a long finish. You can use an hour on a small dram. (Writing all this, I realize I´ll have to buy some more soon!) (Anyway, my preferances isn´t necessarily yours. Some whisky lovers find Laphroaigh as appaling as I find it appealing).
The high? I don´t know if I can describe it. Happy, warm, relaxed, and still focused and awake at the same time.
Gunnar