CapeBreton-NorvellHimself-SingleMalt: March 2016

What's It All About, eh?

Cape Breton evokes deep memories and strong emotions for me as well as a deep appreciation for the beauty of my adopted island. My hopes are that you too might find the photos evocative - maybe a view you've not enjoyed before, or an 'Oh I've been there', or if from away that you may be encouraged to visit this fair isle so that you might come to love and breathe Cape Breton as I do. One word about place names that I use - some are completely local usage while others are from maps of Cape Breton that I've purchased over the years. I frequently post travel and other photos that are of interest to me - and hopefully you.

On the right hand side bar find my take on Single Malt whiskey - from how to best enjoy this noble drink to reviews (in a most non-professional manner) of ones that I have tried and liked - or not. Also musings, mine and others, on life in general.

Photographs are roughly 98%+ my own and copy-righted. For the occasional photo that is borrowed, credit is given where possible - recently I have started posting unusual net photographs that seem unique. Feel free to borrow any of my photos for non-commercial use, otherwise contact me. Starting late in 2013 I have tried to be consistent in identifying my photographs using ©smck on all out of camera photos I personally captured - (I often do minor computer changes such as 'crop' or 'shadow' etc but usually nothing major), and using ©norvellhimself on all photos that I have played around with in case it might not be obvious. Lately I have dropped the ©smck and have watermarked them with the blog name.

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I really enjoy single malt whisky, and almost invariably Scotch single malt though I have had the pleasure of several Irish single malts as well as one Japanese bottle. But in the last few years the price of my minor hobby and evening relaxation from time to time has really risen rapidly. During the winter holiday seasons I decided to give a good friend a nice bottle of Lagavulin that I had un-opened in my little gallery of malts instead of the normal bottle of wine that we normally bring for the New Years festivities. It was the hit of the evening for most of the men - and also one of the women - as we all loved this to me one of the great Scotch Whiskies of our times. A month or so later I decided that I would replenish my cupboard and drove off to a local market that has some of the best prices that I have found - and lo and behold I found that the same Lagavulin 16 year old had increased in cost by some 40%. A little shopping in a reasonable radius of stores confirmed that this was indeed the case and not just with the Lagavulin but also with other popular brands. Luckily over the last few years I have started to find that my taste for most decent malts has widened and I was able to increase my stock by a bottle or two but even with more mortal tastes I was still paying 10 to 15 % more. Then I read a nice article about 'Blended Malts' (as opposed to blended Scotch which means that there may be malt in the blend but there is also grain whiskey - with an 'e' - as well) and how they give great taste for the dollar. And for my palate it was true and I now have several blended malts on my shelf for much less in cost than most single malts - of which I will write another post later. For now I will just say that I enjoyed the blended malts and it made me decide to do a little home blending of my own. I have tried an Irish single malt, Bushmill's 10 year old single malt, and although well rated (in the 80s and better), for my own taste I found it harsh and not that appealing. So it has been setting there unused. Recently I bought an inexpensive 12 year old Glen Moray single malt that while not fabulous it was quite drinkable. I also had the remains of a bottle of Cardhu which I usually used to share with friends who were new to Scotch single malts as it is quite bland for my taste - and happens to be used in the Johnny Walker blends. When I mixed these three, in about a 2,2, 1 ratio the resulting blend (NorvellHimself's Blend, eh?) was quite appealing. I am about to replenish that bottle of Cardhu and peruse Norvellhimselfs Blend for a while. Cheers