Show us your whisky!

[crmcatee]

Cheese Mechanic said:

Now that does not surprise me at all!! Can I ask how many bottles were available and if you wish , what the financial penalty was?

Now that Diageo have priced their "special releases" of aged Lagavulin up in the stratosphere its unlikely I wil ever get to try such a fantastic dram

That's the funny thing.. 3,500 bottles at £128 a pop. Limit of two per person.

The queue for the bottling on their Festival day - it went down a little during the day but realistically it was a 1.5 hour queue.

[slyelessar]

Recently moved to Oz and gave away a large portion of my single malt collection... sad times!

[NRS]

F-Stop Junkie said:

The one I wanted to try, but didn't get a chance, was Shotbar Zoetrope in Shinjuku. Apparently the owner doesn't speak much English, only Japanese and French, and they show silent movies on the back wall.

I'd certainly recommend the website Nonjatta for good Japanese whisky news and reviews. The site's owner has also written a good book called Drinking Japan that covers more than just whisky, looking at different drinks available, different manufacturers, bars, etc...

If you're going north, you may be able to stop in Hakushu or the Nikka distilleries. I've done Yamazaki and it's a very interesting tour, with an immaculately presented working as you can imagine!

Thanks for the recommendations. The website you've linked looks great to be able to get an idea of what I should try and buy (although obviously everyone prefers different things)! But very nice to have an idea of what is available and narrow the choice down a bit.

F-Stop Junkie said:

Oh, and save space/money for duty free at the airport. Narita was quite heavy with Suntory products at decent prices a couple of years ago. I think a bottle of Hibiki 21 was about £100! Not sure what they are now, but go in with products and UK prices in mind and you might find a bargain.

In theory I am only allowed 1 litre of spirits to import into Norway, but think I may just go risky and try and get away with a few extra bottles. Also going with a few friends so may try and persuade them to take something for me (although that may not work)! From what I have read duty free is now a lot more risky, someone said when they were there it was just a few of the old expensive bottles left and pretty much all of the Japanese whisky had been stripped from the shelves due to the popularity these days. Recent posts within the last few months seem to suggest the normal shops in Japan have the same problem, with it just being luck if you happen to go in when they have got some new stock.

Seems to be supported by the link you posted:

article said said:

Nikka had brought a forthcoming release (the follow-up to the ‘Rich Blend’ of two years ago). This one is called ‘Deep Blend’, bottled at a higher abv (45%) and with a smokier, more full-bodied profile. A good product, it was somewhat overshadowed by rumours (not unfounded) that Nikka is not only increasing prices for its products across the board (some by as much as 40%) but is also planning to pull out of the single malt market (only retaining their NAS products in that category) for a while. The focus will be on blends, their Taketsuru blended malt and NAS products until such time as their stocks are capable of meeting demand for age-statement products (incl. single malts) again – which may take a year or five. Again, we’ll dig further into this in a forthcoming post.

Suntory, you ask? The only Japanese product they had brought was their NAS Hibiki (‘Japanese Harmony’) – ‘nuff said…

Sounds like the demand has just removed all spare stock that was previously available.

[Mr Trophy]

crmcatee said:

That's the funny thing.. 3,500 bottles at £128 a pop. Limit of two per person.

The queue for the bottling on their Festival day - it went down a little during the day but realistically it was a 1.5 hour queue.

You wonder how many people in there where selling for a quick buck rather than drinking!

[crmcatee]

Lots.. They're easy to spot. They'll be placing their bottle on the wall and getting a photo of it with the distillery in the background so they can put it up on ww.ebay.de (Seemingly the Germans can still sell alcohol through ebay).

For example - http://www.ebay.de/itm/Lagavulin-Destillery-Releas... Currently at £350.

[Cheese Mechanic]

crmcatee said:

Cheese Mechanic said:

Now that does not surprise me at all!! Can I ask how many bottles were available and if you wish , what the financial penalty was?
Now that Diageo have priced their "special releases" of aged Lagavulin up in the stratosphere its unlikely I wil ever get to try such a fantastic dram

That's the funny thing.. 3,500 bottles at £128 a pop. Limit of two per person.

The queue for the bottling on their Festival day - it went down a little during the day but realistically it was a 1.5 hour queue.

Thanks for that
The financial hit was pretty reasonable really,unsurprising there was a 90 minute queue. Even more envious now!

[krallicious]

Ze Germans do like ebay for their booze although for legal reasons you can only sell the bottle and not the contents. They are included as a by product of the sale. If ebay had not buggered up my account then I would be tempted to sell some of my bottles as they can achieve some silly prices.

I will have to get over to Islay for Lagavulin's 200th.

[Podie]

Liberated a couple of Aberlour 16s from France - a mere £26 per bottle

[krallicious]

Podie said:

Liberated a couple of Aberlour 16s from France - a mere £26 per bottle

Whisky is dirt cheap over there. Found out after flying to Nice last year and getting some of the 16 in Duty Free. We ran out after a couple of days and found some in the supermarket for a lot less than I paid for it.

[NRS]

krallicious said:

...If ebay had not buggered up my account then I would be tempted to sell some of my bottles as they can achieve some silly prices.

That's the thing, in some ways it's annoying that there are speculators and it prices you out of some bottles. However if you do it right it does mean you can almost drink for free depending if you are able to get the rare bottles and then sell them on when they get silly. When I next go back to the UK I'll take one bottle which should make around £1500 over what I bought it for. That money can then go into a lot of nice other bottles I can try instead, which effectively cost me nothing to drink. Or you can do the pretty normal buy two bottles, drink one and sell the other to pay for the first one. And if you buy a bottle that doesn't increase in price then no problem as you just drink it like you were planning to anyway.

[krallicious]

NRS said:

That's the thing, in some ways it's annoying that there are speculators and it prices you out of some bottles. However if you do it right it does mean you can almost drink for free depending if you are able to get the rare bottles and then sell them on when they get silly. When I next go back to the UK I'll take one bottle which should make around £1500 over what I bought it for. That money can then go into a lot of nice other bottles I can try instead, which effectively cost me nothing to drink. Or you can do the pretty normal buy two bottles, drink one and sell the other to pay for the first one. And if you buy a bottle that doesn't increase in price then no problem as you just drink it like you were planning to anyway.

Thats generally my thinking as well but I always try and get 3 bottles. One to drink, one to keep and one for the collection. I am slowly getting things together so that I can sell them as part of my pension plan! If it all goes tits up then I will be poor but still very happy!

[sheepsplitter]

Just a heads up for anyone interested.
Marks & Spencers are currently doing Glengoyne 14 year old for £33 (down from £40) a bottle , as a special offer for Fathers Day.
I bought a bottle last night and had to sample it, very nice indeed.
You can only only get the 14 from M&S, but Ralfy said it was good value at £40/bottle, so £33 is a steal.
More here.....
http://www.marksandspencer.com/glengoyne-14-year-o...

In the same offer :-

Writers Tears down from £28 to £25
Compass Box Spice Tree down from £40 to £37

Not massive savings, but cheaper than you will find online I believe.

[slyelessar]

crmcatee said:

I may have bought some bottles whilst at the Feis Ile this year ( like previous years).




L-R
Lagavulins 24 year old Feis Ile bottling ooh this is really nice..
And another one of those
Bruichladdich Octomore 7.1
Bruichladdich Cuvee 640 (lovely)
Small bottling of Bruichladdich Classic and also Heavily Peated (as a joke present for my brothers 50th).
Bruichladdich PC12 - Brothers actual birthday present.
Sample of my Bruichladdich cask (it's coming on nicely)
Two bottles of the Bruichladdich High Noon Feis Ile bottling (one is almost finished).
Small sample bottles at the front are the samples of Jim McEwens final masterclass (one good thing about my wife not drinking whisky )
Jura Tastival bottling - which is really really nice.

As you may've guessed from the above list - I really like Bruichladdich spirits.


Anyway onto the second pic


So after the Jura Feis Ile bottling we have a small bottle of Superstition as a gift for my Dad.
Oh look another bottle of the Tastival.
Caol Ila Feis Ile bottling.
Grabbed another bottle of the Ardbeg distillery release. (it's a really nice dram)
As well as a couple of the Ardbeg Perpetuum
Then of course a couple of bottles of the Laphroaig Cairdeas Feis Ile bottlings and of course whilst there picked up the minatures for my rent for the plot.

Oh and thanks to a really good friend at Ardbeg I've also came home with a 4.5L bottle of Ardbeg Alligator. Unfortunately the bottle's empty except a dram or two that remains at the bottom.


All in all an excellent week and a good haul. From the distillery days Bruichladdich / Jura / Ardbeg were excellent and each for different reasons.

PRON!

[George111]

Currently in America on business and stumbled upon a small grill and bar which had Macallan 12 . . . $15 glass which is about a UK pub double I'd guess, after drinking bourbon this was just delicious !!!

[krallicious]

Milroys had the Lagavulin up for 365 quid. I just checked and it appears to have sold out.

[Mr Trophy]

Heads up, Tun 1509 batch 2 is now out.

Only 643 bottles coming to the UK

https://www.lochfynewhiskies.com/scotch-whisky/sin...

[krallicious]

Getting back to drinking whisky for a little bit.

I had some Supernova (Original release) the other night. I had forgotten just how good it tastes especially with a strong Stilton.

[NRS]

If you thought the price for some of the Japanese whisky was silly already...

http://www.nonjatta.com/2015/06/The-Nikka-Shock.ht...

[whoami]

NRS said:

If you thought the price for some of the Japanese whisky was silly already...

http://www.nonjatta.com/2015/06/The-Nikka-Shock.ht...

Hopefully the current greed in the whisky market (not just in Japan) will see a few of them bitten firmly on the arse.

[NRS]

At least Nikka have been up front about what they are doing. But I guess it means there should be a big increase in quantity of whisky in 10-20 years as they react to the hot market now and up the production.

I wonder how many shops have upped the price on this news? Not sure what it was before, but price is now £120 for the Yoichi 15 at MoM. I've just ordered two bottles here in Norway (price is a pretty reasonable £75) before they become unavailable, tasted it at a festival and really liked it.

Looks like I'll be lucky to see a bottle of whisky in Japan, let alone find any interesting bottles now!