Show us your whisky! Vol 2
Discussion
NRS said:
PRO5T said:
What's happening with Glenfarclas 25 these days? Obviously it went stratospheric when the casks started running out but I noticed Him are offering it at £135 a bottle tonight-that must be £100 less than it was a couple of years ago even if not as low as the £85 you could get it for a few years ago.
Not selling at the new prices. It’s not good enough. So to shift it they need to give big discounts. Same with a lot of modern bottles. The prices are too high, and so to sell them you need to offer big discounts. Like the Special Releases above, they need a huge discount.
Lots of bottles stacking up with importers and shops, so they don’t order the new ones. It’ll be interesting to see how the industry deals with this longer term. Will it be they offer higher prices but expect most bottle sales under discount periods? Or do they have to reduce new prices back to a more realistic level?
PRO5T said:
It's a shame, it's a lovely dram the 25 but even at £135 from House Of Malt it doesn't tempt me as a drinker.
A bunch of the brand name distilleries jacked their prices of their core range 2 above the base a couple of years ago to huge sums... fair enough given popularity and people had money to spend. Now with inflation, etc they don't sell, but rather than drop prices you'll just see regular deals.I'd grabbed a bottle of Glenfarclas 25 for £99 three years ago. Was wondering whether to flip at the higher prices or drink... I suppose with the drop I'll be drinking it!
Yes I bought it pre-rise (2021?) off Amazon for £87 with Primer delivery. A mate who owns a whisky shop tipped me off and said to buy a case but I simply bought and drank. Lovely stuff but not worth the premium now.
I was told with the 25 however it wasn't a simple smash and grab-they genuinely have run down stock with which to make it.
I was told with the 25 however it wasn't a simple smash and grab-they genuinely have run down stock with which to make it.
It’s probably both, the price jumps have been silly. But GF have got stock shortages. There’s also been a change in the ownership of the company, one generation of the family got removed from the history books…
There’s a huge amount of stock in warehouses, just look at all the new ones being built these days. It’s just it makes more sense to sell the cask to a random punter who will likely pay far too much for it, more than they can sell the bottles for now. So it pushes everything up. Quite a few IB’s have said they have the choice between bottling a cask under their brand, or selling the cask for way more money than they will make from bottle sales from the same cask. Short term that is better, but your brand dies long term.
There’s a huge amount of stock in warehouses, just look at all the new ones being built these days. It’s just it makes more sense to sell the cask to a random punter who will likely pay far too much for it, more than they can sell the bottles for now. So it pushes everything up. Quite a few IB’s have said they have the choice between bottling a cask under their brand, or selling the cask for way more money than they will make from bottle sales from the same cask. Short term that is better, but your brand dies long term.
With many of the brand names upping their prices of the slightly better portion of the range (ie the £50-100 band going to £125-250) I'm finding similar levels of quality from private bottlers. I've had to get past any previous distillery name brand snobbery and buy on tasing notes instead. I find a private bottler at £65-120 typically rivals the above brandname band.
I've mostly been buying from topwhiskies.com due to wide range of private offerings. Murray McDavid and Mac-Talla I've yet to get a bad bottle from. I also find that private bottlers seem to do whisky festival bottlings for very keen prices... I think they realise this is the way to get new people in to their brand.
I've also found that with the edge coming off prices at auctions, the 'drinker' levels at auctions, which had had a few years of people paying more than retail (!?!) have dropped back significantly and I'm picking up cheap end drinkers every month. This weekend I got a bottle of Wolfburn Help for Heroes bottling for £25! So another good place to pick up good value, at least at the sub £50 bottles.
I've mostly been buying from topwhiskies.com due to wide range of private offerings. Murray McDavid and Mac-Talla I've yet to get a bad bottle from. I also find that private bottlers seem to do whisky festival bottlings for very keen prices... I think they realise this is the way to get new people in to their brand.
I've also found that with the edge coming off prices at auctions, the 'drinker' levels at auctions, which had had a few years of people paying more than retail (!?!) have dropped back significantly and I'm picking up cheap end drinkers every month. This weekend I got a bottle of Wolfburn Help for Heroes bottling for £25! So another good place to pick up good value, at least at the sub £50 bottles.
Been in the 8 Doors Distillery at John O Groats the last couple of days. I got this miniature of their latest release - 10 year old blend. It's extremely good, very interesting banana vanilla custard flavour.
The rest of their 7 sons range is ok (indeed good for their modest pricing), however this new batch is a big step up. Don't be put off by this being a blend, it is as good and interesting as any single malt and is nothing like the generic blends from JW or others.
It's not technically for sale in their shop yet as they are waiting on the labels for the full size bottles! And there's a possibility it'll be labelled as a 11 year old as it's sat in the cask beyond its 11 year birthday due to the delay in the labels!
So it you're in JOG, maybe doing the NC500, I highly recommend this one.
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