My dear partner has ordered some useful drinks:

VEP Chartreuse I have mentioned recently. Those crazy monks also make fruit liqueurs (shown in the foreground) which are useful for making Kir, but can also be used to improve crap red wine. The gin is something we tried at the London Wine and Spirits Trade Fair, an annual lark in the docklands. It is quite a special gin made from herbs gathered in the Shetland Islands. It is also 60%, wehay!

I find whisky to be slightly hard work, perhaps largely because I like cask-strength stuff and that hurts. Visiting the neighbours I quickly moved from a bottle of Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris to this, which is only marginally more alcoholic. The trick to tasting whiksy is to take the tiniest taste and let the flavours explode on the tip of your tongue.

Talisker 10 year old
A very peaty nose, smells like fresh Highland water. It is really quite complex with lots of different aromas there. The palate is rich and flavoursome, peaty with caramel and smoke characters. This is a powerful, complex and interesting whisky, I really quite like it.