My New Whisky Library

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I moved to the burbs. I know, I know, say what you must about the burbs, but our reasons were sound and other than not loving riding the rails every day, the move has truly been worth it. I now have a real kitchen, a garden, fruitntrees, two grills, a turkey fryer, and a mancave!
I had a decent sized Manhattan apartment, but it was in no way big enough to house my spirits collection. It was everywhere! Seriously, bedroom closets, under the bed, the coat closet, behind the paperbacks... You should have heard the comments brought back to us by our realtor when we were trying to sell the place. But, in the burbs, there is in theory plenty of room for a good collection. I have to admit, I was a little shocked at just how easy it was to convince my wife that this fully finished room in our basement would make a perfect Whisky/library. The only problem is that it took about 18 months before I was finally able to make some time to build the bookcases and unpack both the books and the hooch. It was great to see my cookbooks unpacked and to see my old art books as well. Needless to say, unpacking the spirits almost brought me to tears. I forgot how many gems had been locked away for so long. Highland Park 25, a Pair of GM Ardbegs with Whisky from before Ardbeg had been mothballed. So many Islay gems, Lagavulin Distiller's, Caol Ila, more Bowmore than I realized I had, some even dating back to the painted bottles. Mortlach 16, Glenmo 18, Old Pultney 17, Dallas Dhu... Bourbon: a few Van Winkles, Stagg, Weller, Woodford, Hirsch, Ridgemont, Jeffersons...
Plenty of tequila, mezcal, grappa, gin, rye.
But, I had still been wondering about how easy it was to give up major storage space in exchange for, what can only be deemed a mancave. The room still has minor work to go, but when things finally took shape a few weeks ago, my wife turned to me and said "this would be a great place for to have the next "mommy's night.". Clearly, I have been set up! But wait! I do have the coolest mancave on the block!!! Much more to come as I finally crack some bottles and revisit some forgotten favorites.
Live To Eat, Love To Drink!