With the holiday season getting some traction, you can’t really avoid the new releases and special products anymore.

While the rest of the planet is gearing up for Christmas, we (the Dutch and Flemish) still have Sinterklaas coming first. While it’s more of a children’s holiday, it still warrants quite a few new beers and even some stronger products.

Right after Sinterklaas, our club’s Blind Tasting Competition will start. Eighteen days of dramming in the dark, with no clue to what each whisky is and hardly any facts to go on. I generally suck at tasting blind, but I sure like to try these random drams Ewald picked for us to get lost on.

Just before Sinterklaas, the Advent period starts. While the competition is 18 days, all of them overlap with Advent and therefore it’s going to be a tough job to go through the twenty four drams Master of Malt sent me in their Whisky Advent Calendar. Apart from the whisky one, they also have some premiumized whisky ones, gin, bourbon, vodka, rum, botanical gin, tequila, absinthe, Armagnac and even that ridiculous Naga Chili Vodka got one. (They nicely asked me to promote them, which is also why they sent me one as they did many other bloggers, so there’s that).

Apart from all this there’s going to be a small trip to Scotland too. We’re leaving on Wednesday for a short stay in Speyside and visits to Benromach, Tomatin, Balvenie and Glenfarclas. Tours have been arranged, the cottage has been booked. On Saturday we’re spending the afternoon and evening in Edinburgh with a dinner at The Vaults of the SMWS. It’s going to be so much fun, the only problem is bringing all the hooch we buy on the plane back.

Tonight we’re going to Den Bosch with 12 guys to a whisky tasting of all kinds of peated goodness at De Whiskykoning. The line-up is pretty kick-ass if you ask me:

• Ardbeg Perpetuum 47,4% “200 Years”
• Bowmore 55,7% Virgin Oak (FI2015)
• Kilchoman 2008 58,2% (FI2015)
• Port Askaig 57,1% 100 Proof
• Octomore/07.1_208 Scottish Barley
• Laphroaig 21y 48,4%

Tomorrow the misses and I are going for cocktails and some bits at Tales & Spirits in Amsterdam to celebrate my upcoming birthday. As always, the last couple of months of each year are crazy. Remind me next year to actually save up some money before the busyness hits, please!