[fried]

Any Lagavulin reductions?

I need a bottle for the bro-in-law (which I'll obviously be drinking half of). Had the Laphroig quarter cask last year which was a good drop. Or any other peaty cheapys. Morrisons website is being less than helpful.

[andy_e]

The one I was in didn't have a particularly big selection because it's quite a small store. I don't remember seeing Lagavulin though.

[fried]

Cheers. Noone ever reduces Lagavulin

[moose]

The local Tesco had some Lagavulin very briefly on offer - just one or two bottles and then they were gone (the Distiller's edition was £32 down from £65 - kicking myself for not buying more than one bottle).  Booths and Tesco both have Laphroaig on special - down to around £25 (Booths has the QC at £23).  Everywhere seems to have Talisker and Bowmore reduced.  Sainsbury has Ardbeg at £38 which is marginally cheaper than normal.  Mysupermarket is pretty good for finding offers - though not all shops are covered.

[stevej]

Cheapest place I've come across Lagavulin 16 at is Costco.

It was last christmas though, no idea if they always have it, no idea if they have it at all of the costcos and not even sure what they're asking for it.

[AB]

Got the standard 16 year lagavulin for my brother from sheffield costco about 2 weeks ago, think it was £36 and looked well stocked, also had 18 year glen livet for £5 pounds cheaper than normal. Hope that helps

[fried]

Unfortunately there's no Costco near the folks, but thanks anyway. Incidently what's the distiller's edition like? I've heard rumour of small quantities of discounted stock turning up in Tesco.

[Monolith]

Looking to get a whisky blog up over the coming weeks and a tasting notes repository too. For anybody that hasn't involved themselves with the Compass Box series of blends, you are missing out on an opportunity to reach heaven at a seriously good price.

Lately enjoyed:

(Compass Box) Hedonism

(Compass Box) Great King St

(Compass Box) Spice Tree

(The Balvenie) Doublewood 12 yrs

About to purchase an Auchentoshan Three Wood which I've only read rave reviews about. Tasting notes to follow!

[andy_e]

Auchentoshan Three Wood is my Mrs.' favourite. It's awesome.

[Monolith]

Seems to be a typical review.

I've been a bit jammy in meeting a fellow ultra enthusiast at my local wholesalers. Popped in on Thursday to pick up a bottle of Great King St. and left 15 mins later having tried a couple of premium grade blends. Really looking forward to my Flaming Heart sample arriving!

[underground]

Just enjoying a Doublewood Ill look forward to reading the blog Tom, the Compass Box looks interesting...

[shurt]

Not really ever heard of blended whisky being amazing before, I've always just worked my way through the various single malts.
There's certainly some rave reviews online.  What makes these so special? Dyou have any interesting info on how they're made or which whiskys they use to blend together?

[Monolith]

It's a matter of quite some (and historically legal) debate shurt.

Staunch traditionalists (read - ignorant conservatives) will always oppose blended whiskies on a number of grounds that you'll have to read into.

The Scotch Whisky Association have, in my opinion, tried to prevent whisky in all its myriad incarnations from entering into a process of evolution. These 'protectors' of the drink are very clear in their own minds what constitutes whisky and I believe their position on the subject to ultimately be an untenable one.

Whisky - just like architecture for example - started somewhere and will continue to go somewhere. To continue the architectural allegory, I believe that just as good architecture results from a sound understanding of geometry and the persistence of archetypal forms, good whisky comes from an understanding of it's core ingredients and an acceptance that it's elements can be combined, blended and used differently to ultimately produce the same product. I can accept that certain stipulations should exist in governing what constitutes a Scotch whisky but the sort of legal case such as that that was nearly entered into with John Glaser of Compass Box seems ridiculous (merely over the use of French oak inner staves).

His blended whiskies are artisan products and I highly recommend that you try some of them. Hedonism is an exceptional 100% blended grain Scotch whisky and should put paid to any doubts that you might have concerning the notion that only single malt whiskies are worthy of consumption. 

John Glaser on an earlier version of the Spice Tree:

Despite the success of our first two bottlings of “The Spice Tree” among devoted whisky drinkers around the world, the Scotch Whisky Association (known as the SWA in the Scotch whisky trade) has asked us to discontinue production of this product.

The issue revolves around the SWA’s interpretation of the law regarding traditional practice in the production of spirits in European Union countries. While we disagree with their interpretation of the law, we have, nonetheless, decided to stop production of “The Spice Tree” while we continue to negotiate.

What the SWA does not like is our technique of using barrel inserts (made of the highest quality cooperage oak you can buy) in the casks we use to do a secondary maturation on the whiskies for “The Spice Tree”.

I hope that your curiosity is sufficiently piqued shurt!

N.B. Jim - I hope to have some reviews up soon sir 

[shurt]

Wow, it certainly has.

Think I'll look to get one mail order as not sure where is get hold of it in deepest Somerset.

I can see why single malt scotch might look to protect itself as its managed to achieve a global popularity where people consider it better than everything else just because its a single malt. Its popularity certainly seems to not stop growing. The reaction sounds a bit extreme though.

The architecture analogy is interesting it also reminded me of music. Something gains popularity through innovation and originality and then people want to stop the innovation as they fear the money will stop coming in. 'Dont fuck with the formula Brian'.

Its definitely interesting to try new things. The Welsh single malt is great as are some of the Japanese. I'd heard that Santory now owns quite a few of the distilleries which puts different slant on the argument you mentioned.

 

[Monolith]

I can see why single malt scotch might look to protect itself as its managed to achieve a global popularity where people consider it better than everything else just because its a single malt.

And therein lies the (understandable) confusion for people.

Vatted Malts (now referred to as Blended Malts) are composed ONLY of Single Malts from a range of different distilleries. Each component of their whole is therefore generally of a high quality. Quite how the idea that mixing high quality ingredients of the same type is some sort of act of heathenism is beyond my comprehension. 

A Blended Scotch Whisky or Blended Whisky refers to whisky that has grain as a constituent element in its make-up. It is the falsified belief that ALL grain is poor quality, it is not! The Hedonism example will demonstrate this extremely well. Granted there are a million and one poor quality blended whiskies out there (no doubt a contributory factor as to why the SWA hackles come up so easily) but to assume that all grains are entirely terrible is to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I just called around a few wine and spirit merchants in Somerset for you to see if any had a few bottles in (with the prospect of an in-store sample for you) but alas they all suggested mail order. This surprised me from the time I've spent in Somerset where you all seem to be very in to food and drink!

The next best thing for you to do is to take advantage of the excellent sample service that Master of Malt offers. They come in 3cl measures and you can sample a great number of whiskies (and other spirits) across all price ranges. I know for a fact that they do samples for Hedonism and Spice Tree which are two of my favourite Compass Box offerings. I'm going to a tasting tomorrow so will let you know if Flaming Heart is as deserved of such a lofty scoring in the 90s as has been given by Jim Murray et al.

http://www.masterofmalt.com/samples/

P.S - You could try County Stores on 01823 272235 but I just missed their closing time.

[shurt]

Hey, thanks for that.
I'm in Bristol with work quite often and see that Corks of Cotham stock a lot of Compass Box among other things. I've not been there for a while. I got really into absinthe a while back and they had a good selection.
 http://www.corksof.com/detail.php?line=Spirits&type=Whisky%20-%20Scotch

[shurt]

Santory

That should be Suntory. The shame of the whisky faux pas!

[underground]

I am but a beginner / heathen in this malt game, but I can certainly vouch for the Master of Malt samples, and the quality of Japanese malts. In fact these are the reason I am dipping a toe in the water... I happened to remark to a colleague at Xmas that I loved Jura back when I first started drinking on a skiing trip to Braemar as a teen. She very kindly sent a 'drinks by the dram' tasting set as a Christmas pressie a few days later.

In it are:

Yamazaki 10yo
Hakusha 12yo
Hibiki 12yo
Nikka Pure Malt White
Yoichi 20yo

I haven't tried the Hibiki or Nikka yet, but the others were great and very different. I didn't love the Yoichi so much, although I could appreciate the tasting notes. The finish was rank to me, herbal was the description, possibly right, but it reminded me of B.O.

[Monolith]

In it are:

Yamazaki 10yo
Hakusha 12yo
Hibiki 12yo
Nikka Pure Malt White
Yoichi 20yo

Jim, that's a cracking little set you received there! What a generous colleague!

I went straight from work to the tasting tonight and what a treat Nikka "From the Barrel" was! At £31 this represents unbelievable value bottled at cask strength. It's price I'm told has begun to creep up slightly over recent years but you really couldn't argue with it from what I tasted. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the Nikka Pure Malt White mate.

Flaming Heart stole the show for me. It does retail at twice the average price of the majority of the other Compass Box range (£90) but no part of me would regret purchasing a bottle whatsoever. I was surprisingly unimpressed by the Glenfarclas 15 year old though I do wonder whether the bottle had been open for a little longer than it ought to have been. A measure of Maxime Trijol XO Cognac was new to me. I know very little about Cognac but was advised that this is a very accessible drink for the whisky fan. If anybody cares to suggest another step forward in the cognac domain, I'd be very interested to hear your recommendations on the basis of this experience!

A bottle of The Spice Tree has now joined the ranks and I cannot speak highly enough of it. 

[underground]

I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the Nikka Pure Malt White mate.

Frankly, Thomas, it is wonderful.... Very much to my liking - so much so in fact, that I'm buying a bottle right now... smooth, flavoursome, the nose was lovely and it took me a while to bother with a sip, and the sip was.... quite gentle, with a tiny drop of water, and very slightly peaty, but lasted ages, and the smokiness stayed for (I timed it thus) more than 7 breaths....

[Monolith]

That had me in stitches Jim - timing finish duration in breaths! Nikka have me suitably intrigued to explore their range in detail. Honestly mate, try to get a sample of "From the Barrel" if you can from Master of Malt. Stunning and excellent value for money. I've got the blog up now but I'm trying to 'de-blogify' it's layout on Wordpress. If anybody would like to donate their tasting notes once up, I'll happily stick them up against their name.

[Sasquatch]

What's the blog?  I'm always on the search, but have no reasonable local means of tasting..

[moose]

Nikka from the barrel reminded me of Aberlour A'bunnadh - sometimes seems fantastic, sometimes a hot mess. If you want something different I recommend Amrut Cask Strength -  spicy, fruity and great value. Never tried any of the Compass Box series, is Spice Tree the best introduction? Whenever I've been tempted to lash out on a quality blend, a single malt or bourbon has always proven too great a temptation -- except when Johnnie Walker Green has been on offer - lovely stuff, such a shame it's being discontinued.

[chris05]

Another vote for Compass Box, I tried one in a restaurant and was really surprised. I think it was the Eluethera which I cant find apart from in a miniature.Well worth a try.

[GCW]

Been having some of the Caol Ila 12yo recently, not had it for years and really enjoying it.