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The Whisky thread


Phil Bullock
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Great idea for a thread (and at least two distillery layouts on RMWeb too).

 

Whiskies are so varied. I like Auchentoshan but also GlenMorangie and Highland Park are among my favourites.

 

Hoping to get a trip to a friend's holiday cottage on Islay soon (Barnacle Cottage - see the website, it's beautiful) which is right next to a distillery.

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Which one?

Is it the "cheapy" from tesco?

 

I should take a photo of all the whiskies I have tried, people at work know I like whisky, so has its advantages

Hadnt seen it in Tesco's. Got my bottle in a whisky shop in Edinburgh - hunted around the shop for it but nowhere to be seen ... on asking the staff they had stocks hidden behind the till....

 

Phil

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Great idea for a thread (and at least two distillery layouts on RMWeb too).

 

Whiskies are so varied. I like Auchentoshan but also GlenMorangie and Highland Park are among my favourites.

 

Hoping to get a trip to a friend's holiday cottage on Islay soon (Barnacle Cottage - see the website, it's beautiful) which is right next to a distillery.

Yes it is a good fit with modelling given the railway links!

 

Am partial to Islays too but SWMBO says they smell like TCP

 

Phil

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Whiskies are so varied. I like Auchentoshan but also GlenMorangie and Highland Park are among my favourites.

... and that's just the ones we can get here in the UK

 

It used to be the case each distillery released two or three base years (example 10, 15, and 18 year olds), and then annually a reserve edition

Sadly as demand has increased it is becoming difficult to supply base years

 

Personally, I prefer whisky matured in Chardonnay casks, otherwise Oak casks

However, I had to send a bottle (Rich Oak) back to Glenfiddich last year after noting it had no taste

 

I like looking at the whisky range when travelling around the USA

However, it is quite difficult (but not impossible) to purchase these for bringing back to the UK (in hand luggage)

The range in airports is basic by comparison, and a little over-priced, the saving grace is the bottle is usually 1 litre instead of 70cl so there is at least still some saving

 

Equally, the hotels in the USA typically serve (large) measures for about $5/$6, the exception being Las Vegas

One of the hotels I stayed at last year gave me free measures after I explained to the bar person how and why Whisky should be served, as they had only ever served it straight or with ice (and we know what the Americans are like with their ice)

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I've got several in the cupboard and No2 son usually brings one for Christmas.   At the moment we still have some Glengoyne cask strength that we bought when we toured the distillery a couple of years ago.  It does go down very nicely indeed.

 

Jamie

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Great to have a thread we can taste..fans of Islay single malts should try (if you can say it & spell it!) Bunnahabhain from the beautifully situated distillery which  used to receive supplies & despatch whisky by Clyde puffer, Para Handy style.

 

Last year in Nova Scotia the grim  state controlled liquor corp. imported an apparently Speyside single malt called Glen Parker, there is no such place. The budget priced spirit was reviewed as comparable with toilet cleaner so we did not risk actually buying one. Good to be back in the UK where state officials do not regulate what you can drink!

 

I have long had a plan for a 7mm scale distillery layout, its the 'next one'. Ian Peaty's excellent book 'Iron rails & whisky trails' is a good seasonal companion over a superior single malt over Hogmanay.

 

Dava

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The greatest malt I never tried was the one Mike Hale banged on about post SECC show this year. On his round he duly went to the bar for a round of the said malt (can't recall the name) only to come back requesting another choice of drink; not because they didn't have it you understand but because it was £80 quid a shot. Hilarious!

 

Merry Christmas Mike!

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I've got several in the cupboard and No2 son usually brings one for Christmas.   At the moment we still have some Glengoyne cask strength that we bought when we toured the distillery a couple of years ago.  It does go down very nicely indeed.

 

Jamie

 

I've always liked Glengoyne, and like Jamie92208 I can recommend their distillery tour. It does make a change from the Islay malts.

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I am an admitted heathen - I drink a basic blend (Grouse, Bells etc) whatever is on offer in the supermarket with ice and ginger ale, but that is what I like, I have been bought many Malts in the past and they are nice (except Laphroiag) put don't get the tasting notes etc,  I am pretty much surrounded by the stuff at work in Dumbarton, I pass the Auchentoshan Distillery, Ballantynes Bonded warehouses and work next door to the Chivas Regal bottling plant.

 

Jim

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First whisky I tasted (courtesy of Wallace Arnold) and still my favourite is Glendronach. Julie bought me a bottle for my birthday in February and it's near the end of the bottle now - in fact the last dram is reserved for my traditionall post Midnight Communion tipple in about 4 hours from now... Dalwinnie is a very acceptable substitute, however.

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I am an admitted heathen - I drink a basic blend (Grouse, Bells etc) whatever is on offer in the supermarket with ice and ginger ale, but that is what I like, I have been bought many Malts in the past and they are nice (except Laphroiag) put don't get the tasting notes etc,  I am pretty much surrounded by the stuff at work in Dumbarton, I pass the Auchentoshan Distillery, Ballantynes Bonded warehouses and work next door to the Chivas Regal bottling plant.

 

Jim

 

 

I've been a member of the SMWS for many years, and myself and a few like minded friends tend to visit either of the two Edinburgh premises a couple of times a year. Some of them treat the tasting notes as gospel and wax lyrical about what they think they can and can't detect, taking forever to knock back a glass. Me, well I'll either like it or I don't.

After all, every dram tastes the same after about four glasses.

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I'm also an Smws member albeit I frequent the London rooms. The everchanging selection is the draw. The Leith rooms are also pretty cool

 

Personally, my preferences run to, in no particular order, Ardbeg, Caol Isla, Bruichladdich and Glendfarclas. I liked the 1930s/1940s Macallan used to do.

 

Back to the OP, I did a tour once of Auchentoshen. The triple wood one was excellent but I came away with a bottle of one branded QE2 they'd don especially for Cunard and had surplus they were disposing of at the distillery post to QE2's retirement

 

David

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I am an admitted heathen - I drink a basic blend (Grouse, Bells etc) whatever is on offer in the supermarket with ice and ginger ale, but that is what I like, I have been bought many Malts in the past and they are nice (except Laphroiag) put don't get the tasting notes etc,  I am pretty much surrounded by the stuff at work in Dumbarton, I pass the Auchentoshan Distillery, Ballantynes Bonded warehouses and work next door to the Chivas Regal bottling plant.

 

Jim

 

I always remember looking out for the geese at the Ballantynes' warehouses. Was surprised they retired the flock, great marketing for the place. 

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A very pleasant blend I encountered this year is "The One" by the Lake District distillery.  In the interest of helping the area's economy after the floods, I'll pick up another bottle next week!

 

Right now I'm on Ardbeg 10.  Other favourites include Lagavulin 16, Ledaig, Highland Park, BenRiach Curiositas and Scapa 16.  I just wish more was sold in half bottles so that £40-£50 didn't have to be on the line with each new expression to try.

 

Irish whiskeys got me into the drink, but these days I like 'em rougher, with plenty of phenols, peat or tarmac.

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 A truly excellent thread...my small contribution below (apologies for spelling etc, I have recently arrived home from seeing Christmas in via the Silver Beatles/ several bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale at The Brook in Southampton)...Good show too.

DSC_0267_zpskdgd89lw.jpg

 

Top shelf L-R

The Ileach: cask strength (58% ABV) - rumoured to be a young Lagavulin, "Attack Whisky" very full on if taken without a drop of water.

Asda Islay: Not a bad dram - another unknown but opinion says young Caol Ila perhaps?

Lagavulin 16 y/o - Huge & expensive ,not opened yet to be honest!

Laphroaig Quarter Cask - Probably my favourite overall, very drinkable but full of Islay peat/smoke/TCP character.

Laphroaig 10 y/o  - Lovely stuff, not as sweet as the QC,but more readily available/slightly cheaper.

Ardbeg Uigeadail - Legendary sherry monster, I wish it was slightly cheaper to buy.

Ardbeg 10 y/o - Best bang for buck Ardbeg, comparable to Laph 10 y/o and highly recommended.

Bruichladdich Classic Laddie - A virtually unpeated Islay malt...different but still very quaffable, think of this distillery as the Brewgog of whisky and the multiple releases make sense.

 

Second shelf L-R

ex Monkey Shoulder (OK Highland blend) bottle filled with homemade blackberry whisky using Famous Grouse as a base (not drinkable as a stand alone spirit, despite the adverts)

Bells based version of above - another of last years well intentioned Christmas gifts from a customer put to good use with the addition of fruit & sugar.

The Ardmore - A gifted Highland malt, surprisingly easy drinking...nothing special but I quite like it.

2x Aberlour a'Bunadh - Cask strength small batch goodness, these were batch 52 at 60.2% ABV...reduced to £33 a bottle in Waitrose recently I felt compelled to buy a pair on the spot.

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I am an admitted heathen - I drink a basic blend (Grouse, Bells etc) whatever is on offer in the supermarket with ice and ginger ale, but that is what I like, I have been bought many Malts in the past and they are nice (except Laphroiag) put don't get the tasting notes etc,  I am pretty much surrounded by the stuff at work in Dumbarton, I pass the Auchentoshan Distillery, Ballantynes Bonded warehouses and work next door to the Chivas Regal bottling plant.

 

 

There actually was a malt distillery in Dumbarton,  within the boundary of the big distillery - now flattened.   It was just behind the main office block on the High Street and had several of the big copper stills.  I don't think it was ever sold separately,  but only used in the blending of the grain whiskies produced in the main distillery.   But I've just found out that I must stand corrected :-)

 

https://www.masterofmalt.com/distilleries/dumbarton-grain-whisky-distillery/

 

I suspect that might have been the stock remaining when the distillery was closed - bit pricey. :-)

 

I actually worked in the main office on the mail desk during school summer holidays in the 1950s and I do remember mail to and from many of the malt distilleries which have now become household names.  In those days,  single malts were almost unknown to the drinking public and were used primarily for blending.

 

My own favourite tends towards Speyside  - the Macallan,  with Highland Park a close second.  I also get Auchentoshan since it comes from Dalmuir,  my father's birthplace.  I also occasionally go for one of the heavy Skye malts if I want the small of peat in my nostrils. :-)

 

Jim.

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Islay, Islay, Islay for me - I just love the phenol that oozes from most of them - yes it smells like TCP, but it tastes delightful.

 

Best I have tasted from that island was a Caol Isla bottled at 60%, from a single numbered cask, and at 20 yo, which was just about right, as I once tasted an older expression, and the cask had started to take over from the whisky in taste.  I got that paticular bottle from a gift shop at a Scottish historic house, where it was priced at £29.99.  They had a number of other whiskies of younger age, and less potent, all at the same price, and I suspect that somebody with the pricing gun just went down the line and priced then all the same.  Well, they all looked the same, so why not.  The woman the till in the shop said that it had been very popular, and that the bottle I got was the last in the shop, with no more available.  I wonder why?

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Well the day has gone quite well on the whisky front.  I've acquired a bottle of Aberlour and a bottle of Glenfiddich plus some miniatures.  I've also consumed a glass of 'The Ardmore Legacy' lightly peated along with various glasses of other alcoholic substances.   Not a bad day.

 

Jamie

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