That was near Gairloch.
The bar with the biggest selection though was Dornoch Castle Hotel which regularly wins the 'best whiskey bar' awards. I spent thirty quid there for two shots of whiskey (one on each night we were there!).
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That was near Gairloch.
The bar with the biggest selection though was Dornoch Castle Hotel which regularly wins the 'best whiskey bar' awards. I spent thirty quid there for two shots of whiskey (one on each night we were there!).
Impressive! Put that on my list of places to visit... once I remortgage the house!
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Cousins on my mother's side used to run a hotel on Skye that has an excellently stocked whisky bar. The whisky bar is separate from the "normal" bar, and is only open at weekends or by appointment. I've had some absolutely belting drams from there, some that they charge upwards of £60 a measure for.
I can attest that it's a lovely bar, and is one of the few places that I've ever seen Port Ellen just sitting there ready to be bought by the dram. It would have been a shame to leave all that loveliness in a bottle ....... so we didn't. Super-expensive evening though
PS If you tried to get whiskey there you'd have been shot!
This stuff is genuinely superb for the price..
https://i.imgur.com/3yY6ZM0.jpg
£25 for a litre! If it was twice the price Id say it was still worth it. Another reason to join the Wine Society!
My guess - Mansfield Hotel in Elgin?
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Your bottle might be corked - I had that with a Lagavulin once and it was very unpleasant. Try a dram of Caol Ila in a bar before you write it off, I think it's a great whisky.
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I've had few bottles of caol ila 12 and its a lovely dram your bottle must be off
I may have missed it being mentioned before - if so apologies - but Arkwrights in Highworth is always worth a look: http://www.whiskyandwines.com as they carry over 1,300 whiskies.
I still have several bottles of Clynelish to savour.
Just enjoing a nice dram of cask strength 21 year old Glen Scotia. A rather exquisite Campbeltown from the SMWS. :eagerness:
Got a membership for birthday like a kid in a sweet shop njoy the glen scotia
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My youngest son lives in Edinburgh so he's the member. We always end up in the vaults whenever we visit and I always end up bringing a few bottles back with me - after some judicial sampling of course. Enjoy your membership, they do get some outstanding outturns. :eagerness:
A couple of bottles of the Cotswolds Distillery Inaugural Release arrived the other day. Not had a chance to try it yet, but the reviews are mostly positive, for such a young whisky...
Now this is quite special...and looks good in my office!
https://i.imgur.com/VxdENa8.jpg
I'm sure the whisky will be lovely but in truth I'm more impressed with your calendar! How many watches do you need to buy to get on their Christmas Card list?
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Look out for the releases from Cadenheads. Their recent 1992 25 yo (at 44%) was very good indeed. The general releases from Glen Scotia aren't to be sniffed at either - the NAS Double Cask is very drinkable at around 32 quid.
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The Dalmore 15 year malt is -30% at Amazon today.
Some pretty good offers on at Amazon today generally. Dalmore 15 year at that price is pretty good, for sure. Really would like to try Bruichladdich: The Classic Laddie which they have on at £33.90 today. Cardhu Gold Reserve seems reasonable at around £25 too.
Man.. I'm glad it's not me that feels like that. I've tried a few different expressions and have even been on a distillery tour earlier this year. I think the folks there are great, and they're clearly pretty passionate about what they're doing but boy is it a rough drink. Even my dad who would probably drink 'blending' whisky neat struggled to finish his taster samples.
I'm just wondering if it's too young still and needs a few more years in the casks before it starts to come good, but.. it's really not great. It seems to me that the spirit itself just isn't up to scratch.
I've been told the Bruichladdich can be something of an acquired taste, but part of the fun of whisky for me is trying as many different distilleries / expressions as possible as sometimes the highly rated stuff is terrible and the 'unusual' stuff can be really enjoyable. Really tempted to order a bottle myself.
I have actually had a sample of the Bruichladdich Black Art 4.1 (which is fairly pricey) and it was an absolute stonker. So if the Classic Laddie can capture any of that, it should be a winner.
It's always a bit of a gamble trying new whiskies however it's a challenge I accept :encouragement:
I think it's to do with the Jim Beam casks they use. Jim Beam has a horrible "tang" to it (similar to JW Red Label) which I think comes from their sour mash process not allowing enough fermentation time.
St George's very early expressions (the ones Jim Murray waxed lyrical about) I think hadn't had long enough in the barrel to pick up this tang. Their current output is right in the middle of it, but I'm sure given enough time it will mellow out.
Interestingly on the first tour I did (around the release of Chapter 5, IIRC) we had our tasting first as they were backed up on the tour - as we were going round an American chap asked the tour guide what casks were used, he said they couldn't tell us. Me and another person on the tour said "I bet they're Jim Beam". Of course, as we got to the cask room we were proved right.
Last year I spent a couple of weeks on Islay with my brother who has connections in the industry, we ended up at a hotel bar with a distiller from Bowmore who agreed with my hypothesis. He said they'd tried Jim Beam casks (as they're significantly cheaper than a lot of other Bourbon casks) and had the same sort of results.
I've just been on their website to have a look - they're touting a peated sherry cask expression. I bet that's not a complete muddle...
After years of 'playing' with whiskey I decided, a couple of months ago, to be a bit more serious; tbh mainly bought about after visiting a couple of distilleries. So gone are the days of grabbing the current special offer malt off the shelf in Sainsburys. In fact I'm making a conscious effort to NOT go for anything that's available via the supermarket shelf.
After reading all the reviews I've just ordered
https://img.thewhiskyexchange.com/900/cgmob.12yo.jpg
I saw one of those focused ads on Facebook for something called "The Dram Team". As I generally buy a single bottle a month, this would be around the same cost (or cheaper, in most cases) and give a decent sample of a lot of different expressions that I wouldn't or couldn't buy a whole bottle of: https://www.thedramteam.co.uk/collec...riptions-gifts
I've added a subscription to my Christmas List, so if Santa agrees I've been good this year I might get lucky.
My wife has been tasked with buying a 'peaty' whisky for someone's birthday. Around 40 quid.
Being more of a Highland/Speyside man, I'm a bit lost. Anyone spotting any bargains peaty bargains out there?
The most popular really, and all should be gettable for that price, are Lagavulin 16 Year, Ardbeg 10 Year or Laphroig 10 Year... :)
Lagavulin 16 leans more towards the smokey side, Laphroig is more 'medicinal' and Ardbeg sort of sits in the middle of the two but all three are pretty heavy on the peat and all are classic, affordable Islay's.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ardbeg-Year...1561426&sr=8-1 (£40)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Laphroaig-I...8&sr=1-1-spell (£25 for Laphroig 10 Year - STEAL!)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lagavulin-Y...1561478&sr=1-1 (£49.. too pricey. Can be had in Costco for just under £40)
Laphroaig 10 is on special in Tesco right now, bought a bottle yesterday. They've quite a few discounted at the moment.
Always have a bottle of this and/or the Quarter Cask in the house. As already said they're very heavy on the medicinal front, there's a distinct TCP aroma on the nose, yet when I'm in the mood for it nothing else will do.
The Bruichladdich arrived yesterday, will have a measure later tonight.
The Ardbeg would be my choice for a gift, the Caol Ila 12 is a fav but can be a bit 'medicinal' for some people, the Ardbeg is a bit more rounded with the peat for an introduction to Peaty Islay, say over Bowmore or Laphroaig.
Saying that, I am partial to the Bowmore 15 Darkest, very nice.
There is something about the mix of peat/smoke and Sherry/wine cask aged like the Caol Ila Distillers, Bowmore 15, Lagavillin Distillers, Kilchoman Loch Gorm etc.
Last day of Amazon Black Friday deals. Ive just bought a bottle of Talisker 57 North for £24.90!
(OK it was £44.90 but I had a £20 voucher that Amazon gave me when I kicked off when they didnt deliver my Rioja...)
Ah can't believe I didn't check this thread! Some fantastic deals I've missed. Love Dalmore 15, so smooth and rich. Haven't had Talisker 57 for years, it'd pretty intense stuff.
My wife picked this up in Japan, nice to try some different Japanese whisky.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...faa7a82ed6.jpg
Crazy good value @ Aldi £17.95 and smoother than a cats bum 😎👍https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...8a60793341.jpg
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