It's always five o'clock somewhere

Had a few hours to kill in Lens, France, so took in the Louvre-Lens and one good thing about France, is that you get reasonable to quite quaffable wine in supermarkets at budget prices. You can even get drinkable wine in a box - which is not far from a miracle. And you don't walk in and see that horrendous wave of six-month old Australian blended wines that no one in Australia would touch from one end of the red wine section to the end. So I stocked up a little.

FYI: France to the UK on the Eurotunnel, the wine selection in the last six months has gone extremely good if you like Bordeaux. If you're going the other way though, you better like Fosters lager.
 
Benny and hot. Nice Winter warmer with a medicinal reputation.

Burnley miners club are the world’s biggest consumers of this.

That's related to WWI IIRC. Pretty well known about oop north.

I like Benedictine in a liqueur coffee.

Not had Chartreuse for decades, two variety IIRC yellow and green.
 
Quite simply the best wine in a bag ever, likely academic, as I'm pretty sure you won't get this outside of France:

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Needless to say, the full 50 glasses have gone in a week and a day, protecting more illustrious wines.

Depending on the impact of the cyclone weather bomb hitting the UK tomorrow, I plan to be a drinking a Baroness cocktail about this time tomorrow. Adventures in the cocktail hour in a grand hotel awaits...I hope and will post here. Otherwise it will be straight to the corporate conference on diversity in the hard engineering sciences, which I am sure we all thoroughly approve of. It will no doubt be a rather dull and staid affair.
 
‘corporate conference on diversity in the hard engineering sciences’. Oh dear!

More women, minorities etc.? Or is it something completely different ?

I would be heading out of the hotel in search of a nice pub. I am not really a cocktail bar type. They seem a bit sterile.
 
‘corporate conference on diversity in the hard engineering sciences’. Oh dear!

More women, minorities etc.? Or is it something completely different ?

I would be heading out of the hotel in search of a nice pub. I am not really a cocktail bar type. They seem a bit sterile.

I wouldn't mind someone taking me to the Blue Bar.

An independent pub or the many many chain pubs?
 
Here's the Baroness, served in The Grand in Brighton:
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''Margaret Thatcher enjoyed nothing more than a whisky, hence the reason we have named a cocktail in her memory. She had a strong tongue and a vibrant personality which is matched perfectly by this cocktail.

Orange Marmalade | Monkey Shoulder Whisky | Lemon Juice | Cointreau | Angostura Bitters | Egg White''
 
Here's the Baroness, served in The Grand in Brighton:
View attachment 33244

''Margaret Thatcher enjoyed nothing more than a whisky, hence the reason we have named a cocktail in her memory. She had a strong tongue and a vibrant personality which is matched perfectly by this cocktail.

Orange Marmalade | Monkey Shoulder Whisky | Lemon Juice | Cointreau | Angostura Bitters | Egg White''
I have all the ingredients so - if I was inclined - I could make one myself. However, marmalade has no place in a drink.

I always wonder what people do with egg yolks when they are only using the white.

I do shove Grand Marnier in cheap Lidl Queen Margot whisky but I don’t add lemon juice or Angostura bitters. GM with boiling water is also nice at this time of year and takes the sharpness off it. Cointreau bottle is going down slower than the GM.
 
Here's the Baroness, served in The Grand in Brighton:

Somehow I thought you were in London and not a seaside resort. Nice environmentally friendly paper straws. At my old club they had metal straws. Not sure if that was completely sanitary.
 
Last year I split a bottle of that with two of my buddies, ended up heaving for two days. Thought I drank my own death
 
In all the excitement, I've seriously neglected my premium wines and spirits. I'm down to Lambs Navy rumbullion and pink gins for an after dinner drink. Definitely not where you need to be at. Lots of wine in cartons, again, not what you want in a lock-down situation. A few good wines left, but not enough and will run out very quickly. Likes days.

Don't want to be caught in the only place you can get wine is the local supermarket. In that case you might as well get the cartons because those New World 2019 bottled reds are a frightening experience. Especially as there's no way out shelf-after-shelf-after-shelf.

If it gets really bad, and you need to keep yourself fully inebriated, cost effectively, then JW Red will do. If you open and drink in a couple of days, especially as a mixer, its not too bad at all. Wait a week and its already going rancid.

Booze is thankfully, free from panic buying so far.
 
In all the excitement, I've seriously neglected my premium wines and spirits. I'm down to Lambs Navy rumbullion and pink gins for an after dinner drink. Definitely not where you need to be at. Lots of wine in cartons, again, not what you want in a lock-down situation. A few good wines left, but not enough and will run out very quickly. Likes days.

Don't want to be caught in the only place you can get wine is the local supermarket. In that case you might as well get the cartons because those New World 2019 bottled reds are a frightening experience. Especially as there's no way out shelf-after-shelf-after-shelf.

If it gets really bad, and you need to keep yourself fully inebriated, cost effectively, then JW Red will do. If you open and drink in a couple of days, especially as a mixer, its not too bad at all. Wait a week and its already going rancid.

Booze is thankfully, free from panic buying so far.
You could always go teetotal.

See it as a challenge just to prove you can do it.

Lots of people rarely drink alcohol.
 
You could always go teetotal.

See it as a challenge just to prove you can do it.

Lots of people rarely drink alcohol.

You're right of course, and I've done it myself. But the key element is missing at the moment - exercise. Injury late last year following a crappy summer with lots of rain at weekends, a terrible year for keeping fit. I'm also working pretty much 24/7 now with crisis management issues, I will be getting up at 3am for what I need to cover tomorrow. Contact Tokyo, Perth and then a report for what I did Friday, new Accounts process to roll out 9am and Task Force with Italy sometime between 10-11am. Should of done the report today, but was pretty much overwhelmed by events. You do need R&R. But it's kind of comforting, I know none of my industry replacements would tolerate this pitch of work and intensity, as they're all jet-setting marketing executives now full of BS and won't go back to the nitty-gritty. Still, they may live a lot longer than me!

I admire those individuals who can turn off and go to the gym, but I am loner, I need to keep fit cycling through nature. Either that or booze. That's the way I am. I have worked in the engineering construction industry and the working man's rock and roll and I know when the drummer in Paul Weller's band, Steve Lillywhite, left because of the constant and relentless boozing, what he was going through. The last time I had that pitch of boozing was in South Africa back in November and when you're seriously drinking down amongst the wines and spirits, bottles of them at lunch and evening, day-after-day, it wears you down, physically and mentally. You need a tough constitution to stand it and resist it.
 
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You're right of course, and I've done it myself. But the key element is missing at the moment - exercise. Injury late last year following a crappy summer with lots of rain at weekends, a terrible year for keeping fit. I'm also working pretty much 24/7 now with crisis management issues, I will be getting up at 3am for what I need to cover tomorrow. Contact Tokyo, Perth and then a report for what I did Friday, new Accounts process to roll out 9am and Task Force with Italy sometime between 10-11am. Should of done the report today, but was pretty much overwhelmed by events. You do need R&R. But it's kind of comforting, I know none of my industry replacements would tolerate this pitch of work and intensity, as they're all jet-setting marketing executives now full of BS and won't go back to the nitty-gritty. Still, they may live a lot longer than me!

I admire those individuals who can turn off and go to the gym, but I am loner, I need to keep fit cycling through nature. Either that or booze. That's the way I am. I have worked in the engineering construction industry and the working man's rock and roll and I know when the drummer in Paul Weller's band, Steve Lillywhite, left because of the constant and relentless boozing, what he was going through. The last time I had that pitch of boozing was in South Africa back in November and when you're seriously drinking down amongst the wines and spirits, bottles of them at lunch and evening, day-after-day, it wears you down, physically and mentally. You need a tough constitution to stand it and resist it.

I must admit, I was rather drunk and rambling there!

Had a meeting with the accountant today, looked rather grey and he said the situation hit him yesterday and he spent the whole day Sunday getting pissed. A few others have admitted difficulty sleeping, or getting up in the middle of the night and reading the news and not going back to sleep. A little shot can help in those circumstances, but any more and you'll infringe on the day's activities.
 
I finished my 1L plus Johnnie Walker black. I finished a bottle of Bacardi. Probably all 1/3 or 1/4 full when I started on Friday. Downed an airplane sized cognac VSOP bottle. Now I am on to a laphroaig quarter cask. Still nippy enough in the evening to enjoy it. I found a gift card from Christmas and decided to use it towards a Bruchladdich laddie classic.
 
I finished my 1L plus Johnnie Walker black. I finished a bottle of Bacardi. Probably all 1/3 or 1/4 full when I started on Friday. Downed an airplane sized cognac VSOP bottle. Now I am on to a laphroaig quarter cask. Still nippy enough in the evening to enjoy it. I found a gift card from Christmas and decided to use it towards a Bruchladdich laddie classic.
I would take another quarter cask or 10 year old over The Laddie (turquoise box). Tried it when it was hyped up would not buy it again though.
 
When in Rome the Bahamas.

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Is ''Brewery Fresh'' still their catch phrase?

I would take another quarter cask or 10 year old over The Laddie (turquoise box). Tried it when it was hyped up would not buy it again though.

That quarter cask I found not to my palate, even in my serious whisky days.

As a night cap, I'm having an Appleton Estate 12 years, the kind of rich sipping rum that is ideal instead of Cognac. Hard to beat for Euros 36. But you must drink it as a Cognac, start hitting the bottle and these rums will punish you.

Edit: In hindsight, stocking up on booze in preparation for the lock down was a rather splendid precaution indeed.
 
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I would take another quarter cask or 10 year old over The Laddie (turquoise box). Tried it when it was hyped up would not buy it again though.

McEwan revived it was at my first whisky tasting. It's like your first time at sex. You never forget it.

Is ''Brewery Fresh'' still their catch phrase?



That quarter cask I found not to my palate, even in my serious whisky days.

As a night cap, I'm having an Appleton Estate 12 years, the kind of rich sipping rum that is ideal instead of Cognac. Hard to beat for Euros 36. But you must drink it as a Cognac, start hitting the bottle and these rums will punish you.

Edit: In hindsight, stocking up on booze in preparation for the lock down was a rather splendid precaution indeed.

When I was making less money, dark rum was my whisky and brandy.
 
When I was making less money, dark rum was my whisky and brandy.

A good sipping or plantation rum is as magnificent as a superlative whisky or brandy. Appleton or El Dorado 21 year old is equal to any whisky you can buy. Less range though for rum drinkers.

I've put all my whisky and premium rums in my emergency rations and labelled: ''Only Break Out In Complete Lock Down''

You know it makes sense!
 
A good sipping or plantation rum is as magnificent as a superlative whisky or brandy. Appleton or El Dorado 21 year old is equal to any whisky you can buy. Less range though for rum drinkers.

I've put all my whisky and premium rums in my emergency rations and labelled: ''Only Break Out In Complete Lock Down''

You know it makes sense!
you ever try ron zacapa 23? the best of the best.
 
Tried sleeping completely sober this evening, but the fear got me at 23:45 as I was sure I was coming down with it. First time I've had it in bed, a few times in the car and it quickly passed. Now I'm having a few G&T's. I won't make that mistake again until the curve is well flattened.

I'm going to break out the first rations of the good stuff tomorrow. Whisky, superlative wine and rumbullion. In measured doses.
 
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Tried sleeping completely sober this evening, but the fear got me at 23:45 as I was sure I was coming down with it. First time I've had it in bed, a few times in the car and it quickly passed. Now I'm having a few G&T's. I won't make that mistake again until the curve is well flattened.

I'm going to break out the first rations of the good stuff tomorrow. Whisky, superlative wine and rumbullion. In measured doses.

Until the curve is well flattened or you start exhibiting cirrhosis?

I'm going through a bottle of wine and one and half litres or two of hard liquor a week. Truth be told I was probably drinking like this before the coronavirus shut bars but there was the busy stretch since the Italian quarantine when I was too busy to drink and staying in a cheap hotel without room service.
 
Until the curve is well flattened or you start exhibiting cirrhosis?

I'm going through a bottle of wine and one and half litres or two of hard liquor a week. Truth be told I was probably drinking like this before the coronavirus shut bars but there was the busy stretch since the Italian quarantine when I was too busy to drink and staying in a cheap hotel without room service.

A colleague sent a photo of his booze for the weekend: 4 x bottles of red wine and 3/4 of a bottle of Glenmorangie. That was for himself, he's taken it all rather badly. He can see career and status slipping away. And they had a lot of business at one time and mega profits.

Not much you can do, but roll the dice and take the loss.
 
Work the curse of the drinking classes ?

I sat in the sunshine in the garden. I had a nice bottle of Sainsbury Czech Pilsner (Starpromen) and then a Fullers London Porter.

I am not particularly worried by alcohol hoarders.
 
I finished my Laddie classic. On to Hennessey VSOP. Need to get more alcohol if this keeps up at 1l every 2-3 days.
 
I finished my Laddie classic. On to Hennessey VSOP. Need to get more alcohol if this keeps up at 1l every 2-3 days.

Sounds pretty damn good that Laddie from Bruichladdich. I've got Glenfiddich 15 and 18 year old in. Use to think the 18 year expression was very boring, but where my de-educated palate is in as regards whisky, it's extremely good. Can't find the 21 year old Cuban rum finish at the moment. Use to be my favorite whisky.

As for Cognac, I might get some Martel Cordon Bleu in. Great stuff. Well over a hundred Euros, but well worth it. Unlike the equivalent in the whisky world: JW Blue. That's really gone down in taste. It's just a packaging gimmick now. But what a bottle, it looks great.
 
Sounds pretty damn good that Laddie from Bruichladdich. I've got Glenfiddich 15 and 18 year old in. Use to think the 18 year expression was very boring, but where my de-educated palate is in as regards whisky, it's extremely good. Can't find the 21 year old Cuban rum finish at the moment. Use to be my favorite whisky.

As for Cognac, I might get some Martel Cordon Bleu in. Great stuff. Well over a hundred Euros, but well worth it. Unlike the equivalent in the whisky world: JW Blue. That's really gone down in taste. It's just a packaging gimmick now. But what a bottle, it looks great.

Kingstonian didn't fancy it. I like it. A more natural colour as they don't use colouring agents. The barley they use is supposed to be from Scotland.

Maybe I should get a bottle of white today. Let's see.
 
I drank this pisco called elixir Di Luna? I survived. Bit of an anise sweetness.
 
50 dollars for a bottle of bulleit bourbon. That has to be highway robbery.
 

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