Whisky

[Robin Evans]

2 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Nice pressie!

My lad got a bol locking for spending that much. Its daft.

However, yes, it was a nice pressie

[Gerrumonside ref]

10 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

My lad got a bol locking for spending that much. Its daft.

However, yes, it was a nice pressie

I agree it’s a lot of money and I’ve only ever had a sampler dram from an online whisky specialist.

[Guest]

I got a bottle of peanut butter whiskey for my birthday. In small doses, it's really pretty nice. 

[Futtocks]

1 hour ago, Johnoco said:

I got a bottle of peanut butter whiskey for my birthday. In small doses, it's really pretty nice. 

I'm struggling to imagine the taste, but that might be either genius or a sign of the End Days.

[Futtocks]

 

[Robin Evans]

Had a Balblair 18 yo this weekend....

It's a distillery in fine form... and rising up my league table of fav single malts....well taken with the 12 & 15 previously. The 18 was much more expensive but one of the best I've had in a while

[Futtocks]

Posted elsewhere on this forum, but deserves mention here.

 

[Futtocks]

Looking around my nearest supermarkets, I didn't find anything particularly fascinating, so I went online. The result? I took delivery today of a bottle of Port Charlotte 10yo from Amazon.

I paid a fair bit less than the price quoted on this site - https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/43962/port-charlotte-10-year-old - but their description is spot on. It's rather fab.

[Futtocks]

On 10/06/2022 at 17:47, Futtocks said:

Looking around my nearest supermarkets, I didn't find anything particularly fascinating, so I went online. The result? I took delivery today of a bottle of Port Charlotte 10yo from Amazon.

I paid a fair bit less than the price quoted on this site - https://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/43962/port-charlotte-10-year-old - but their description is spot on. It's rather fab.

Just finished it, and have no reason to change my verdict. I'll be tracking the price for further discounts, but could well buy it again at full RRP.

Sole downside - just like Hendrick's gin and certain other brands of spirits in near-black glass, it isn't easy to see how much is left in the bottle. My last glass of it was a little small.

[Bearman]

It has been reported that Macron and Johnson have bonded at the G7 summit over a glass of Bavarian Whisky.

Anyone tried it?

[Futtocks]

4 hours ago, Bearman said:

It has been reported that Macron and Johnson have bonded at the G7 summit over a glass of Bavarian Whisky.

Anyone tried it?

Never even heard of it, but apparently whisky-making is a fairly recent thing in Germany: https://whiskyoftheweek.co.uk/slyrs-single-malt-whisky/ 

[Damien]

It would be nice to have one of these:

A rare cask of single malt whisky has been sold by a Scottish distillery for a record £16m.

Ardbeg said "Cask No. 3" was bought by an unnamed female collector based in Asia through a private sale.

Experts said the sale had surpassed all auction records for a cask of single malt.

Last month, a cask of The Macallan 1988 whisky sold at auction for £1m, after being bought 34 years ago for just £5,000.

The Ardbeg spirit, which was distilled in 1975, was originally laid down to age in two separate casks before being transferred to a single sherry butt in 2014.

It contains sufficient spirit to fill 440 bottles, valuing each one at £36,000.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-62082200

[Robin Evans]

On holiday in shropshire I bought the huddart by old pulteney. At 46% it's got that warmer edge to it and a well balanced whisky I've come to expect from op.

I also bought an American oak 43% barrel reserve from Arran. This crew have made great strides recently.

Both very nice indeed.

[GUBRATS]

On 19/09/2022 at 10:35, Robin Evans said:

On holiday in shropshire I bought the huddart by old pulteney. At 46% it's got that warmer edge to it and a well balanced whisky I've come to expect from op.

I also bought an American oak 43% barrel reserve from Arran. This crew have made great strides recently.

Both very nice indeed.

Certainly helps to have some serious alcohol on hand when watching Fev

[Madrileño]

On 18/09/2021 at 14:35, Robin Evans said:

On the way back would you believe it, we found ourselves in the car park at Balblair. So I treated us to a 15 & and 18 Yr old. 

Sensational. 

My absolute favourite. 

Highly, highly recommend. 

[Robin Evans]

On 20/09/2022 at 20:05, GUBRATS said:

Certainly helps to have some serious alcohol on hand when watching Fev

The antidepressants don't work.... so.....

[Gerrumonside ref]

Chickened out of a big whisky purchase and decided to split on an 18 year old rare Glenmorangie and a 16 year old Lagavulin.

Two very different drams with the Lagavulin peaty and smoky in comparison to the smoothness of the Glenmorangie.

Hopefully between them they’ll help pull me through the dark cold nights and into 2023.

[Bearman]

1 hour ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

Chickened out of a big whisky purchase and decided to split on an 18 year old rare Glenmorangie and a 16 year old Lagavulin.

Two very different drams with the Lagavulin peaty and smoky in comparison to the smoothness of the Glenmorangie.

Hopefully between them they’ll help pull me through the dark cold nights and into 2023.

Lagavulin is my favourite. For that reason I used to buy White Horse as its the base malt in it. Alas its very hard to source these days.

[Futtocks]

Just taken delivery of a bottle of Penderyn Peated, discounted by £10 at Ocado. I've had regular Penderyn before and liked it - this is peatier, but not as much as an extreme Islay. Nice art deco bottle design, too.

https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/penderyn-peated-whiskey/

[Gerrumonside ref]

On 02/11/2022 at 11:35, Gerrumonside ref said:

Chickened out of a big whisky purchase and decided to split on an 18 year old rare Glenmorangie and a 16 year old Lagavulin.

Two very different drams with the Lagavulin peaty and smoky in comparison to the smoothness of the Glenmorangie.

Hopefully between them they’ll help pull me through the dark cold nights and into 2023.

Still working my way through these two.

Had a dram of Lagavulin on Burns night.

Very nice.

[johnmatrix]

Only just started really drinking whisky. I've been having a few johnnie walker black thru week and recently bought cardhu gold reserve single malt and r kid bought me a lagavulin 16 yr single malt

Both champion, I don't know much about any of it really, so just try it all. 

Any advice would be good

[Futtocks]

58 minutes ago, johnmatrix said:

Only just started really drinking whisky. I've been having a few johnnie walker black thru week and recently bought cardhu gold reserve single malt and r kid bought me a lagavulin 16 yr single malt

Both champion, I don't know much about any of it really, so just try it all. 

Any advice would be good

Okay, when it comes to an overview of whisky, Islays are the smoky, peaty ones, Highlands tend to be more fiery and Speysides have a slightly honeyed sweetness. This is a very broad-brush guide, and there are always exceptions.

Then there are the non-Scotches - I recently bought a bottle of Penderyn (Welsh whisky) that was very good as usual, and there are the Irish whiskeys and the American approach. There are some nice Japanese ones, but the import costs mean they tend to be expensive that their equivalents.

But there's more. After Gordon Brown made certain changes to taxation or something (Google the details), micro-breweries and micro-distilleries sprung up everywhere. There's probably one in your town. And now, they've been around for enough years for the latter's raw spirit to have been barrel-aged and legally classified as whisky, if that was part of their plans. Over the next few decades, there'll be new names on the market from pretty much anywhere you can imagine.

The bad news: to maximise sales, most mainstream whiskies in recent years are blended from casks of different ages, but as long as those casks are from the same distillery, they can still call themselves a "single malt". Next time you're in a supermarket, look at the whisky section and note how few have an age on the label and how many have fanciful names instead.

The good news: tax regulations mean that some very well-regarded distilleries produce more than their quota of bottles they can use their own labels on, and sell the surplus to blenders (i.e. Caol Ila sell stock to Famous Grouse) and some also have deals with supermarkets for their anonymous own-label whiskies. This is an area well worth researching before you buy, because some own-labels are cheap for a good reason, and some are astounding bargains, but the supermarkets can change suppliers without changing the label.

That'll do for now.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Futtocks

[Skids]

8I've been offered one of these two. Which should I pick?

Bowmore 12 year

Or 

Glen Ord 12 year

[Futtocks]

33 minutes ago, Skids said:

8I've been offered one of these two. Which should I pick?

Bowmore 12 year

Or 

Glen Ord 12 year

As an Islay fan, I'd go for the Bowmore. It depends how peaty you like your whisky, though. The Glen Ord will be less peaty and a bit more fiery.

[corvusxiii]

3 hours ago, Skids said:

8I've been offered one of these two. Which should I pick?

Bowmore 12 year

Or 

Glen Ord 12 year

Glen Ord, just because Bowmore is relatively common and Glen Ord less so. Thing is if you like whisky it's going to get drunk anyway so look about. Let us know what you think.