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Whisky

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Well I failed miserably and have put a dent in the Bunnahabain 12 year old tonight...

Said I wasn't going to sup too much of it, but it's so easy drinking :D

I've no 'supping' whisky in, so need to have a look on Amazon to see what's on around the £20 mark
 
hifilover1979 said:
Well I failed miserably and have put a dent in the Bunnahabain 12 year old tonight...

Said I wasn't going to sup too much of it, but it's so easy drinking :D

I've no 'supping' whisky in, so need to have a look on Amazon to see what's on around the £20 mark
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I recommend Ardmore for that. No better whisky under £20 imo. It's sort of a Speyside but more austere, like say Glenmorangie. It doesn't have the sweetness I dislike about a lot of Speysides. Apparently it's the upmarket component of Teacher's. I don't detect that. Teacher's is OK but rather bland and standard issue blended. Ardmore is just a nice dry highland malt that sells for a much lower price than I'd expect. It's a lot better than a lot of more expensive whiskies. A prime example is JW Black, which is OK but for me it's a sub £20 whisky, or should be.
 
mjw said:
@stevec67, my suggestion of Caol Ila was based on what I’d read rather than a qualitative judgement - and you’re quite right about the ‘special’ iterations. Ditto Laphroaig Select. It’s only OK, even at its modest price.
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I think Caol Ila is under appreciated, probably that its only in the last 10-years or so its been bottling its own branded expressions, as I believe up to the 2000s, it was almost exclusively producing for blends like Johnnie Walker etc. The JW Double Black is superb for the money IMO.

I really like the standard 12yr, despite being on the thin/clinical side compared to others but my favorite is the 18yr, very much under the radar. Although I thought I read that Caol Ila are not actually aged on Islay, but on the mainland?
 
Caol Ila was a known branded expression over 20 years ago when we visited the distillery and sat in the boardroom enjoying a dram with the distillery manager, who had personally shown us the warehouse where the casks were aged.

Things may have changed since then of course but I agree it is under appreciated.
 
mjw said:
@stevec67, my suggestion of Caol Ila was based on what I’d read rather than a qualitative judgement.
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I'd heard the same, I'm not sufficiently familiar with it to know. I have had C aol Ila but never owned a bottle and grown to recognise it. I can with Laphroaig but mostly because I find it too phenolic and dislike it. The other Islays I like, but not that one. Mind you, they have dialled back the phenol over the last 20 years, either that or my taste buds are aging.
 
Caol Ila does produce a lot of whisky and it seems to be the most common Islay malt that gets used in other peoples bottlings and in blended malts. I've got a bottle of the 12 year old and I like it, although in the last couple of years my tastes seem to have been changing so my favourite Islay distillery moved from them to Laphroaig, then more recently to Lagavulin (and their 16 is probably still my benchmark). I do have bottles from most of the Islay distilleries now though, and I yet to find an Islay malt I haven't liked.

The Laphroaig Select I find ok although I prefer the 10 and they're often quite similar prices. I've got a bottle of the 16 and of the Quarter Cask and I think they're both better by enough to warrant the extra cost. I've tried some of the others when I did their distillery tour but haven't had bottles of them yet.

For Bunnahabain the only I've got (or in fact tasted) is the Stiuireadair which was a bargain at the £28 it was on sale for and still a bargain at the £32 that it's currently at on Amazon. I've not done their distillery tour yet so am looking forward to maybe doing that later this year and tasting some more of their whiskies.
 
SteveG said:
For Bunnahabain the only I've got (or in fact tasted) is the Stiuireadair which was a bargain at the £28.
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It was indeed. I got one at that, I also got a Bunna standard, both are nice, not had chance to compare the two yet because I'm having a period of drinking very little, taking exercise and losing weight. It's working and I've been psychologically working up to it for a long time, only now have I got myself in the right frame of mind to make it work, so while the going is good I will enjoy it and leave the drinks in the cupboard for now.
 
stevec67 said:
I recommend Ardmore for that. No better whisky under £20 imo. It's sort of a Speyside but more austere, like say Glenmorangie. It doesn't have the sweetness I dislike about a lot of Speysides. Apparently it's the upmarket component of Teacher's. I don't detect that. Teacher's is OK but rather bland and standard issue blended. Ardmore is just a nice dry highland malt that sells for a much lower price than I'd expect. It's a lot better than a lot of more expensive whiskies. A prime example is JW Black, which is OK but for me it's a sub £20 whisky, or should be.
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Thanks; not a fan of Ardmore at all unfortunately
 
hifilover1979 said:
Thanks; not a fan of Ardmore at all unfortunately
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I know nothing about Ardmore - I dont really have a slurping whisky as i dont tend to drink it that often. Now slurping gin, (with 80-90 bottles in the stash) that is a different question.
 
SteveG said:
Caol Ila does produce a lot of whisky and it seems to be the most common Islay malt that gets used in other peoples bottlings and in blended malts. I've got a bottle of the 12 year old and I like it, although in the last couple of years my tastes seem to have been changing so my favourite Islay distillery moved from them to Laphroaig, then more recently to Lagavulin (and their 16 is probably still my benchmark). I do have bottles from most of the Islay distilleries now though, and I yet to find an Islay malt I haven't
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By chance I discovered a bottle of a 1994 bottling(!) of an 11 year old Caol Ila at the back of the cupboard last night! The palest malt I have seen - the colour of white wine - and it was lovely. Subtle peat then a hit of complex fruit and a long finish.

We tasted several Caol Ila bottlings on a virtual tour (the distillery was closed for building work) in 2019 and the only one I liked was stupidly expensive. We were told that the vast majority of the output goes to blends and they are trying to increase output to have more of their own single malts to sell.
 
gintonic said:
I know nothing about Ardmore - I dont really have a slurping whisky as i dont tend to drink it that often.
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My "slurping" whiskies are pretty much the ones I'd bought because they were on sale at Tesco when I happened to be in. Now those tend to get used in an old fashioned (and I had some orange bitters arrive yesterday to give me some variety with those). So that's stuff like Highland Park 12, The Singleton, Aberfeldy and Aberlour. When I'm drinking whisky straight I don't drink a lot, so tend to go more for the good stuff - which for me is mostly Islay stuff plus a few others.

If I had to classify some of my stuff as slurping whiskies (i.e. everyday stuff for drinking straight) the most likely candidates would be the JW double black and green, and the Bunnahabain Stiuireadair.
 
hifilover1979 said:
Thanks; not a fan of Ardmore at all unfortunately
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Ah, not to worry. Moray might be more your thing. You like Islays, Bowmore No 1 is inexpensive, but I think it's vile. I like Islays too.

Edit - if by "slurping" you mean blemded stuff that you would be happy to serve with Coke, the Lidl Queen Margot is honest enough and dirt cheap. It has nothing to dislike. Critics would say it has little to like either, but it's a blended whisky, suitable for mixing and perfectly acceptable for what it is.
 
hc25036 said:
We tasted several Caol Ila bottlings on a virtual tour (the distillery was closed for building work) in 2019 and the only one I liked was stupidly expensive. We were told that the vast majority of the output goes to blends and they are trying to increase output to have more of their own single malts to sell.
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We were also in Islay in 2019 and also didn't tour Caol Ila due to the building work (toured Bowmore and Laphroaig instead). I think it's all finished now however when we visited Islay again last year it was closed due to Covid so I still haven't managed a visit (I managed a tour of Kilchoman and a tasting at Lagavulin so it wasn't all bad!). I'm quite looking forward to doing the tour of Caol Ila as it'll be interesting to see a distillery on that scale, especially as my last Islay distillery tour was to the smallest one - Kilchoman.
 
SteveG said:
My "slurping" whiskies are pretty much the ones I'd bought because they were on sale at Tesco when I happened to be in. Now those tend to get used in an old fashioned (and I had some orange bitters arrive yesterday to give me some variety with those). So that's stuff like Highland Park 12, The Singleton, Aberfeldy and Aberlour. When I'm drinking whisky straight I don't drink a lot, so tend to go more for the good stuff - which for me is mostly Islay stuff plus a few others.

If I had to classify some of my stuff as slurping whiskies (i.e. everyday stuff for drinking straight) the most likely candidates would be the JW double black and green, and the Bunnahabain Stiuireadair.
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Blimey. You make Old Fashioneds with HP12 and Singleton? Tell you what, if you don't much like those I'll be happy to take them off your hands and give you say a JD or other bourbon in return!
 
stevec67 said:
Blimey. You make Old Fashioneds with HP12 and Singleton? Tell you what, if you don't much like those I'll be happy to take them off your hands and give you say a JD or other bourbon in return!
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I probably use bourbon (or other US whiskies) about half the time - Gentleman Jack and 1792 are both great for old fashioneds. The ones with malt are quite different though, as does the type of malt used. The Bowmore 12 is another I mostly use for old fashioneds as well.
 
One whisky I'm tempted to splash out on is the £160 is the Redbreast 21. I've had a taste of it a couple of years ago in Dublin Airport and was blown away by the flavour and complexity.

Was this just a one-off with my taste buds or do others find this a special one?
 
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