Show us your whisky! Vol 2

[Bobberoo99]

Picked up a bottle of Laphroaig Select for £25 in Waitrose today, they had several on offer!!!

[NRS]

Nice to see tips in here for picking up bargins!

Anyone else going to the Spirit of Speyside festival end of this week/start of next week? I'll only be there for a short time this year sadly. Plan is fly very early on Friday to Aberdeen, get up to Speyside by 1pm and drop by the Highlander Inn to buy the new GlenAllachie bottling for the festival. Then time to head across the road and do the SMWS tasting of 6 bottles, including the 2 for the festival and 2 for the Islay festival. Option to then wait around to buy a SMWS bottle, or jump on the bus to Glenfiddich and get one/ both of their festival bottles depending on what I feel like. Back on the bus to Elgin and off to Glen Moray for possible tour and chocolate tasting. Next morning train over to Benromach and that's it. Not enough time to do anything else sadly.

Warming up with Aberlour 12 today.

[LeighW]

NRS said:

Nice to see tips in here for picking up bargins!

Anyone else going to the Spirit of Speyside festival end of this week/start of next week? I'll only be there for a short time this year sadly. Plan is fly very early on Friday to Aberdeen, get up to Speyside by 1pm and drop by the Highlander Inn to buy the new GlenAllachie bottling for the festival. Then time to head across the road and do the SMWS tasting of 6 bottles, including the 2 for the festival and 2 for the Islay festival. Option to then wait around to buy a SMWS bottle, or jump on the bus to Glenfiddich and get one/ both of their festival bottles depending on what I feel like. Back on the bus to Elgin and off to Glen Moray for possible tour and chocolate tasting. Next morning train over to Benromach and that's it. Not enough time to do anything else sadly.

Warming up with Aberlour 12 today.

The festival is still on my 'to do' list. I've booked flights (Aberdeen) and hotel (Mash Tun in aberlour) for a three day distillery trip this September, but haven't booked any tours yet. Any suggestions of something outside the 'run of the mill bog standard tour' that is within reach of Aberlour most welcome. We'll have a hire car.

I picked up a bottle of Aberlour 12 last week from Booths in Keswick for £28. Bargain!

[NRS]

LeighW said:

The festival is still on my 'to do' list. I've booked flights (Aberdeen) and hotel (Mash Tun in aberlour) for a three day distillery trip this September, but haven't booked any tours yet. Any suggestions of something outside the 'run of the mill bog standard tour' that is within reach of Aberlour most welcome. We'll have a hire car.

I picked up a bottle of Aberlour 12 last week from Booths in Keswick for £28. Bargain!

I've only been last year, which was the whole festival. It's really enjoyable, and I think you get a lot of single casks that you wouldn't normally get to taste. It was clear quite a few of the regulars were less interested in the tours (after a certain point there is only so much variation you can throw into one if people have been on many previously!) and were more interested in the cask tastings afterwards. We didn't have a car, so you met the same people on a lot of the events, as naturally you'd try and reduce the time on public transport. There's some bus tours to places that are a bit more awkward on public transport which is nice too.

There is quite a lot of distilleries doing single casks for the festival now - this year Glenfarclas have a 14yo, Glenfiddich have a 22yo and another one, GlenAllachie have a 12yo, SMWS have a 9yo Glenallachie and a 21 Glen Grant, that might be it. Of course a lot of others will also have a distillery exclusive anyway.

Ballindalloch is my favourite tour I have done. It's a bit more expensive than others, but we got to add the yeast to that day's batch, and then fill a cask at the end and sign it. It was the more expensive version (Ballindalloch Spirit) but I believe the normal tour is very similar. The whisky you get at the end is lovely - we had 3 private Cragganmore casks for the family from the 1980's.

https://www.ballindallochdistillery.com/visiting-t...

Maybe GlenAllachie will have a tour by then, which could be an interesting contrast. We did them a day or two apart, and they're basically the opposite of each other. Ballindalloch they open all valves by hand etc. GlenAllachie (if nothing is changed after the Chivas sale) I think can be run almost all on computer with just a few people.

[LeighW]

NRS said:

Ballindalloch is my favourite tour I have done. It's a bit more expensive than others, but we got to add the yeast to that day's batch, and then fill a cask at the end and sign it. It was the more expensive version (Ballindalloch Spirit) but I believe the normal tour is very similar. The whisky you get at the end is lovely - we had 3 private Cragganmore casks for the family from the 1980's.

https://www.ballindallochdistillery.com/visiting-t...

Thanks for the info, I like the look of that! The problem we have is that we can only go friday to sunday, which limits our options. We fly very early on the friday, so it's a definite possibility to visit Ballindalloch on that day.

[hoegaardenruls]

ClassicMercs said:

Joat said:

A French whisky tonight 'Armorik Classic' very smooth and well worth the money at a shade under £40

I can recommend the Double Matured - the only version I have tried - bit more - from memory more like 60 quid.

Even the Original Edition is pretty good stuff - I stumbled on it in a Calais supermarket for 20 Euros, and was pleasantly surprised.

[vixen1700]

Been enjoying a couple of glasses of Auchentoshan Springwood duty free from Gran Canaria this evening. 33 Euros for a litre, a nice addition to the daily drams.

[Glasgowrob]

Gift from a customer today

Not being a whisky or whiskey drinker completely wasted on my I think but will go nice with a bit of irn bru😂

[NRS]

You might want to check the price on that before doing so,

[Bobberoo99]

Glasgowrob said:

Gift from a customer today

Not being a whisky or whiskey drinker completely wasted on my I think but will go nice with a bit of irn bru??

very nice present!!! Was fortunate enough to have a bottle many years back, in-laws bought it back from one of their many holidays abroad, they wouldn't tell me what they paid!!! If you don't want to ruin it by destroying it with irn-bru I'm sure someone on here will give you a decent price for it!!

[jammy-git]

Don’t spoil Irn Bru with that stuff, it’s already a year out of date. Let me dispose of it for you.

[cadmunkey]

Glasgowrob][url][img said:

Gift from a customer today

Not being a whisky or whiskey drinker completely wasted on my I think but will go nice with a bit of irn bru??

Heathen!! That's a £100+ bottle right there...
Wish I had customers like yours.

[LeighW]

jammy-git said:

Don’t spoil Irn Bru with that stuff, it’s already a year out of date. Let me dispose of it for you.

[eyebeebe]

Picked a bottle of this up from my local cash and carry yesterday. We drank a fair bit of Writers Tears in Dublin last year and the tag on the shelf said it was £11 a bottle. I was thinking that at that price it punches way way above its weight.

I got a bit of a surprise when I paid the bill and it was far higher than I was expecting. Closer inspection showed I’d paid about £70 for it. Took a closer look and realised it was actually a cask strength limited edition from 2013. One of 2,500 and not that easy to get hold of now. Happily £70 is under the going rate, so still quite happy with it and am looking forward to trying it.

[Mr Trophy]

vixen1700 said:

Even the ash-tray haters will like this. :

Traitor !

[Bert Cheese]

The latest pair from Kilchoman arrived yesterday.
I might have to crack at least one of them open at the weekend, before they end up on the "for looking at" end of the whisky shelf

[NRS]

LeighW said:

jammy-git said:

Don’t spoil Irn Bru with that stuff, it’s already a year out of date. Let me dispose of it for you.

Mr Trophy said:

vixen1700 said:

Even the ash-tray haters will like this. :

Traitor !

Wondered if you would react to that!

Had a friend working at an exhibition today for the staff of the alcohol shops here. Dropped by to see him to pick up 2 Yamazaki 12¨s he'd picked up when they were available for normal prices at a shop in his area. Then had a couple of blind tastings. Highland Park Full Volume and Macallan Edition No. 3. Both enjoyable - preferred the Macallan. Some honey, vanilla, dried fruits (raisins and apricots), green apples too. Great value considering it is Macallan.

[Bobberoo99]

Bert Cheese said:

The latest pair from Kilchoman arrived yesterday.
I might have to crack at least one of them open at the weekend, before they end up on the "for looking at" end of the whisky shelf

Loving the Machir bay and treated myself to a bottle of 2017 100% islay when i was in Scotland last year, please can you give me your thoughts on the Loch Gorm when you open it, i'm seriously thinking of treating myself to a bottle!!

[Mr Trophy]

Anyone got anything lined up on current auction? Some taste stuff kicking about at the moment!

[NRS]

Mr Trophy said:

Anyone got anything lined up on current auction? Some taste stuff kicking about at the moment!

Got around 130 bottles on my watchlist currently, But got to wait for Sunday/Monday as these days a lot of the price doesn't move until the last day. Few Glenugies that are not available much, some of the Glenglassaugh bottles, some old/new Ledaig, some Glenallachies... I'm trying to stop buying now though, as I have at least 10 litres (max per UK trip I can take back is 5 litres) already sitting at friends/family for storage.

How about yourself?