Show us your whisky! Vol 2

[NRS]

Pflanzgarten said:

https://www.houseofmalt.co.uk/product/secret-speys...

Desperately trying not to buy one of these for Xmas, first fill oloroso for 18 years is going to be right up my street-it’s a Macallan apparently.

Anything that price is for investment and the display cabinet usually but I do like to open something special on Xmas eve but this is massively over what I normally spend.

I’ve not checked really recently, but there was lots of 17yo’s in the same batch of casks released last year were typically £140 and selling in auction around that. I just finished my cask #28 the other day actually. Not sure why the 18yo versions jumped so much in price. You can get a 17yo around £120-140 in auction so I’d just get one of them and save the £60 for a few months extra in the cask.

[Pflanzgarten]

NRS said:

Pflanzgarten said:

https://www.houseofmalt.co.uk/product/secret-speys...

Desperately trying not to buy one of these for Xmas, first fill oloroso for 18 years is going to be right up my street-it’s a Macallan apparently.

Anything that price is for investment and the display cabinet usually but I do like to open something special on Xmas eve but this is massively over what I normally spend.

I’ve not checked really recently, but there was lots of 17yo’s in the same batch of casks released last year were typically £140 and selling in auction around that. I just finished my cask #28 the other day actually. Not sure why the 18yo versions jumped so much in price. You can get a 17yo around £120-140 in auction so I’d just get one of them and save the £60 for a few months extra in the cask.

I've had a quick look but can only see 17s selling for a similar £200-ish at auction.

[vixen1700]

Two bits of whisky news this week:

Picked up a bottle of Bushmills 10 year old sherry cask in Asda for £25 and have to say it's really quite pleasant.

Also got an early Christmas present from my wife, a bottle of Nc'Nean Quiet Rebels as I got through the standard bottle of Nc'Nean very quickly.

[eein]

C70R said:

eein said:

You simply cant get new casks from main brand distilleries anymore

My Bruichladdich cask was bought direct from the distillery, and the Bunnahabhain from Cask 88. Cask 88 have had a few well known brands (that weren't my bag) on offer recently. Maybe worth getting in touch?

I've spoken to cask88 a few times, and while they seem fairly credible and not in any apparent way a scam (like 99% of cask investment adds you see), there were a few aspects around them that discouraged me. One was the push and focus on investment rather than drinking, such as being blase about tasting the cask before buying, and the other was about where their company backing comes from. I'd buy from them, but I'd see it as at least the risk level of a 'new' distillery.

NRS said:

eein said:

It is a risk, however they are credible enough. I've been around it a few times, talked to the owners, and their whole approach and business is sensibly done and managed. They have a key advantage to keeping cashflow going in that they are on the car park at NC500 main stop John O Groats and run an excellent cafe.

My other 3 casks are also are relatively new distilleries - Bonnington, Wolfburn and Uile-bheist. You simply cant get new casks from main brand distilleries anymore, so it's either a n00b outfit or a unknown-usually-for-blended place. Or you pay loads for a name with a few years on the cask.

There's still some of the smaller casks available...
https://8-doors-distillery.myshopify.com/collectio...

Not sure if you saw it, but Bonnington have their first release which also happens to be a single cask. It's a bit strange, it really sneaked out under the radar and is still available. I know the market has slowed down a bit, but surprised to see an inaugural still available at this price.

https://milroysofsoho.com/products/bonnington-cask...

Speaking about Bonnington then the 3rd cask from the Chain Pier distillery is going on sale today. I've got the first two, and hoping to get all of them for a big vertical tasting in the future over a weekend most likely. There is only 36 casks ever made, so it would be possible. The first was one of the better new distilleries I've had, the second (a shiraz cask) was a bit more sketchy.

Thanks, might grab one just to see. I spoke to the chap at the distillery the other day, indeed just a few days after my cask hit 3 years, and he was quite clear that it'll be >10 years before it's 'good'. Maybe this initial stuff is from smaller casks.

With Bonnington, I'm not sure they are looking to try to be a big brand, I get the impression they will do a few distillery releases, but push a lot in to their wider group blending. There's almost zero info about the distillery online, it's nearly impossible to find where the distillery physically is, and there's not even a sign on their gate saying what they are, let alone a visitor centre.

They do seem to offer casks via cask88, although they told me they'd not sold many. Very different than my other casks which are from new and independents who will live and die on their brand.

Edited by eein on Saturday 2nd December 13:51

[C70R]

On the 'tasting before buying' thing, I'm not sure my palate is good enough to determine what a new make spirit that's a few months old will be like in 15+ years. I didn't give it a moment's thought.

[Regbuser]

Brenne, from the MoM advent calendar, vanilla bouquet, very light, and moreish

[Gnevans]

I bought this in lockdown one of 260 made:

Kyōyū: World Blended Whisky From Japan

https://dekanta.com/kyoyu/

[eein]

C70R said:

On the 'tasting before buying' thing, I'm not sure my palate is good enough to determine what a new make spirit that's a few months old will be like in 15+ years. I didn't give it a moment's thought.

You can commission people to do it for you and get an independent assessment. More useful for buying a cask with a bit of age on it already and at a higher cost, I'd suggest anything above £10k.

[NRS]

Pflanzgarten said:

I've had a quick look but can only see 17s selling for a similar £200-ish at auction.

History in WA seems to have them for the £120-140 I saw:

https://whiskyauctioneer.com/auction-search?text=M...

eein said:

C70R said:

On the 'tasting before buying' thing, I'm not sure my palate is good enough to determine what a new make spirit that's a few months old will be like in 15+ years. I didn't give it a moment's thought.

You can commission people to do it for you and get an independent assessment. More useful for buying a cask with a bit of age on it already and at a higher cost, I'd suggest anything above £10k.

A lot will depend on the cask too, so it’s to me also something to do more on a maturing cask of whisky. It’s expensive to get a cask sample (I think some places can charge £50 now for example) so they’ll want to avoid it. Before they could sell casks blind because there was such big demand. I’m not sure that is the case as much these days with the downturn (and casks being more expensive). I’ve got the impression but not 100% sure that Cask88 is one of the more expensive places to get a cask.

One of those I’d avoid if possible now is Cask Trade. They’ve got a member of staff done for fraud crimes in the past, and recently I know they’ve been saying that some unnamed peated highland is Ben Nevis, when there’s no evidence provided, the dates don’t make sense as BN never hid their name at that time, and apparently it doesn’t taste like it. Taste is always tricky, but they don’t seem the most trustworthy place, particularly as they were one who was one of the founding members of the Whisky Cask trade group. A group to get rid of the dishonesty in cask trading, as judged by a group of cask traders,

[eein]

NRS said:

eein said:

C70R said:

On the 'tasting before buying' thing, I'm not sure my palate is good enough to determine what a new make spirit that's a few months old will be like in 15+ years. I didn't give it a moment's thought.

You can commission people to do it for you and get an independent assessment. More useful for buying a cask with a bit of age on it already and at a higher cost, I'd suggest anything above £10k.

A lot will depend on the cask too, so it’s to me also something to do more on a maturing cask of whisky. It’s expensive to get a cask sample (I think some places can charge £50 now for example) so they’ll want to avoid it. Before they could sell casks blind because there was such big demand. I’m not sure that is the case as much these days with the downturn (and casks being more expensive). I’ve got the impression but not 100% sure that Cask88 is one of the more expensive places to get a cask.

One of those I’d avoid if possible now is Cask Trade. They’ve got a member of staff done for fraud crimes in the past, and recently I know they’ve been saying that some unnamed peated highland is Ben Nevis, when there’s no evidence provided, the dates don’t make sense as BN never hid their name at that time, and apparently it doesn’t taste like it. Taste is always tricky, but they don’t seem the most trustworthy place, particularly as they were one who was one of the founding members of the Whisky Cask trade group. A group to get rid of the dishonesty in cask trading, as judged by a group of cask traders,

I've looked at loads of cask companies and every single (non-distillery) outfit I've looked at has something dodgy about them. Some have dubious people involved (as you've found), some have connections to Hong Kong (China), and many are founded by 2 blokes who 'use to work in the city' and therefore claim to know everything about investment and they once smelled a whisky in a insta-friendly bar in London, the give away often being the cask company is registered in London.

If you want to ride the hype curve to make money then using these places is probably ok, and no tasting is needed, the game is then all about chopping out at the right time before the hype turns and prices drop and most of these companies go out of business.

For a good assessment of cask investing there's a recent post on Whisky Broker's Facebook page - the post and some of the (rather long) follow up comments are worth reading.

[QuartzDad]

Bourbon going down the popular watch route, buy 3 other bottles to be allowed to buy this.

[C70R]

eein said:

C70R said:

On the 'tasting before buying' thing, I'm not sure my palate is good enough to determine what a new make spirit that's a few months old will be like in 15+ years. I didn't give it a moment's thought.

You can commission people to do it for you and get an independent assessment. More useful for buying a cask with a bit of age on it already and at a higher cost, I'd suggest anything above £10k.

Exactly. Both casks I've bought have been less than a year old, so I'm not sure what benefit there would have been.

[BigMon]

Bit of sippin' liquor for the festive period.

[Pflanzgarten]

NRS said:

Pflanzgarten said:

I've had a quick look but can only see 17s selling for a similar £200-ish at auction.

History in WA seems to have them for the £120-140 I saw:

https://whiskyauctioneer.com/auction-search?text=M...

Thanks for that, I'll keep an eye on the auction and see what happens. Never bought or sold at an online whisky auction-I take it this one is reputable?

[eein]

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

[Pflanzgarten]

eein said:

Both https://whiskyauctioneer.com/ and https://www.scotchwhiskyauctions.com/ are the primary auction players and highly reputable. I've used both extensively for both buying and selling at drinker and investor level, and have visited both physically and talked to owners and staff.

I'd avoid all other auction platforms - some are dodgy and some just don't get the traffic to get good prices on selling. Same issues with too many upstart auction websites as with the above discussed cask investment upstarts.

Why oh why, do they always stiff you a fiver to bid on auctions before you start? Surely if you register a card you have to pay their fees regardless?

[C70R]

Regbuser said:

Brenne, from the MoM advent calendar, vanilla bouquet, very light, and moreish

Caught up on mine over the weekend, and wholeheartedly agree. Really lovely and smooth, and as you say a gentle vanilla note on the nose is a delight.

Think I'm going to be buying my first bottle of French single malt!

[jimmybell]

Some sad news - i didn't know where else to post this.

I've lost my favourite hip flask. I have a few, but this was the good one.

I'm surprisingly affected by this! I'll be doing another full-house sweep for it this week, but needless to say i miss it - particularly at this week's invite to a baby 1st birthday where i was depressingly sober.

[Regbuser]

C70R said:

Regbuser said:

Brenne, from the MoM advent calendar, vanilla bouquet, very light, and moreish

Caught up on mine over the weekend, and wholeheartedly agree. Really lovely and smooth, and as you say a gentle vanilla note on the nose is a delight.

Think I'm going to be buying my first bottle of French single malt!

Jameson and Mortlach, pretty run of the mill..

Edited by Regbuser on Monday 4th December 18:08

[malks222]

jimmybell said:

Some sad news - i didn't know where else to post this.

I've lost my favourite hip flask. I have a few, but this was the good one.

I'm surprisingly affected by this! I'll be doing another full-house sweep for it this week, but needless to say i miss it - particularly at this week's invite to a baby 1st birthday where i was depressingly sober.

I have a nice ‘swig’ hip flask that I got for my wedding day, although one for the ‘frivolous’ thread, but i’d really like a ‘wingback’ hip flask. probably not very practical being a cylinder, but looks like amazing craftsmanship, the want is strong (but the price makes it a bit much for a frivolous purchase!)