Sleeping with the enemy

I was amused to read this morning that I can pay extra for my fancy malt from Ben Riach on the grounds that the stuff has picked up some proper flavour by having been stored for near twenty years in a barrel which was once used to store bourbon in the US of A, that is to say real whisky, whisky with a bit of poke to it, a whisky with a real nose and never a whiff of the peat bog about it. The advertisement does not say what sort of bourbon, although maybe the chaps who do the forensic stuff on 'Morse' could make something of the label illustrated left. In the meantime, beggars can't be choosers.

See Fogwatt on Spey, gmaps 57.6111946,-3.2940742, otherwise, for the lazy, reference 3.

PS: I have just been told that it is black Friday, despite it being nowhere near the 13th of the month. Will I, I wonder, be doing my bit? With a 20 year old malt? I suspect not, being rather put off by the designation of black, which hardly seems auspicious. How did all the marketing chaps come to want to make us think that it was? For me anyway, it is an uphill push. Not that blue seems a terribly good colour for a whisky bottle either, blue label notwithstanding (see reference 1) - maybe the Ben Riach people need a dose of the Portas. Rates on application from reference 2.

Reference 1: http://www.psmv2.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/luvvy-spotting.html.

Reference 2: http://www.maryportas.com/.

Reference 3: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.6111946,-3.4341552,11z.