Het grote Whisky Topic!

[Fuzhou]

Talisker 10 years. This is an older bottle. I’ve heard these ones are better than the new ones.

[Fuzhou]

Really Oaky. Couldn’t remember exactly what it was like before, but I seemed to recall that the 17 year old was quite a pleasant dram. Now it tasted bourbonesque.

[JohanB]

Personally, I've never had much with Old Pulteney. I've tasted a 17yo years ago in a shop. I was so unimpressed of the quality and the price (close to or a little over 100 €) that I let it pass. The Talisker 10yo is indeed a good single malt, but a bit too peppery to my liking. It sure is a hell of a lot better than that NAS shit they released on the market a few years ago. I was recommended a Talisker Skye once by someone because it was considered the best of a basic core range tasting. What a mistake that was ! You could taste that is was far too young to be bottled. I recon it must have been a 5, maybe 6 years old single malt for the same price of a 10yo. Never again.

EDIT: I NEVER bought NAS whisky or 'unnamed' single malt whisky. First they started to release NAS whisky and then these vintage 'special series' from 'secret' single malt distilleries. The latter editions could cost easily 350 - 450 € ... for a single malt of which you did not know what was inside the bottle. Crazy! That was one of the things that made me quit collecting single malt.

[Fuzhou]

Personally, I've never had much with Old Pulteney. I've tasted a 17yo years ago in a shop. I was so unimpressed of the quality and the price (close to or a little over 100 €) that I let it pass. The Talisker 10yo is indeed a good single malt, but a bit too peppery to my liking. It sure is a hell of a lot better than that NAS shit they released on the market a few years ago. I was recommended a Talisker Skye once by someone because it was considered the best of a basic core range tasting. What a mistake that was ! You could taste that is was far too young to be bottled. I recon it must have been a 5, maybe 6 years old single malt for the same price of a 10yo. Never again.

EDIT: I NEVER bought NAS whisky or 'unnamed' single malt whisky. First they started to release NAS whisky and then these vintage 'special series' from 'secret' single malt distilleries. The latter editions could cost easily 350 - 450 € ... for a single malt of which you did not know what was inside the bottle. Crazy! That was one of the things that made me quit collecting single malt.

I’ve heard about the Skye as well. Fortunately I learned about the bad press before I came across it. It seem like this is the new trend to rid their products of the age statement. They are the victims of their own success. Too much demand, and impossible to maintain the supply. I was sad to see Macallan started doing it in a big way; and that came after their big distillery expansion. Looks like more and more are following suit. The better approach would be to maintain their regular supplies, and let the distributors and shops fight it out to get the allocations. Let the market sort out what they are worth, but always maintain superior quality.

[JohanB]

Too much demand and not enough supply. That's indeed one of the reasons. Another one is speculation. On the Dutch whisky forum it was getting that bad that members started to sell bottles they did not yet possess. Usually very limited editions that got hyped by some influencial bloggers. Because there were only so many bottles per country (sometimes only 6 or so, thanks to their excellent marketing teams) you could pre-order a bottle at a certain price. Some people tried to sell their pre-ordered bottle on the forum for a lot more than the release price. Just ridiculous.

[Fuzhou]

That’s really insane. Here in the States, some reputable seller would either put them up to bid, and donate to charity. Or some would still sell at the original list price and aware it to buyer through a lottery. There is a store in Minnesota selling their allocation of Pappy Van Winkle 23 year old at the suggested $399.99. Rather than jacking up the price to thousands of dollars like many people do, they decided to reward their fans by letting them pay the regular price through a lottery draw. I like both of approaches.

[Fuzhou]

Glen Garioch

This is the pre-Suntory bottle. An 8 years old.

Taste of high quality. Free of additive.

[JohanB]

That was one of my very first single malts and indeed with a very good price/quality ratio.

[Fuzhou]

That was one of my very first single malts and indeed with a very good price/quality ratio.

Glen Garioch was my very first whiskey too.

[JohanB]

My very first single malst was an Auchentoshan, believe it or not. Not the best choice to start drinking whisky, but it turned into a hobby for more than 20 years.