Merlin, might you not have been better to have asked us to choose from amongst Highland and then Island and then Speyside, etc., and then from the winners to ask us to choose again? I've not seen Glenmorangie 10, for example, to choose rather than Macallan 10 or Balvenie or Clynelish or Highland Park. Nor the Islay malts one against the other. Makes it a bit hard, you see, because in each poll I feel like I am in someone's billiard room and the tray of their own personal choices is there for me to select from. I want to ask my host which is his least favourite, so I can do the polite thing and deplete his stock of that one.

Ah, but. Not knowing your personal favourites from this tray I will choose Ardbeg 10 and if there's not a drop left then I'll have a splash of your Bunnahabhain if you would not mind.

(It's Bruichladdich Wave that ThistleDown has been drinking this evening.)