Ardbeg Oogling countdown!

[Di Blasi]

Ha ha Aidan, good one! I suppose you'll have us all over to taste it then??

[Aidan]

I'd have to see if I could spare a bottle.

Of course you're all welcome over for a tasting.

[Whiskana]

I have 1352

0 left.

Damn! I thought I had one unopened in Helsinki...

[Aidan]

You must have got it off me.

[Di Blasi]

So we're at 1351 after Whiskana's in Helsinki!

[Deactivated Member]

But back up to 1352 when Aidan's auction finishes on ebay this afternoon.

[Aidan]

Over 600 people viewed this item. 45 people tracked it in their watch list. And all it is is a crappy bottle of young ardbeg Ardbeg.

[Mossy]

The ebay bottle went for £106!!!!!!!!

Sadly I missed out on buying any of these because I had stopped collecting when it was released, D'OH!

Mossy

[Di Blasi]

I thought it would go for much more than that! Was it really Aidan selliing it?

[Deactivated Member]

Yes - although I don't think his description on ebay called it a "crappy bottle of young ardbeg"

[Aidan]

Yes, and Pepsi don't call their product sugary water. I could have called it a crappy bottle of sugary water and it would still have reached the same price. I don't know why it went for such a price, considering Irish postal rates are so high.

[Deactivated Member]

Fair play to you Aidan. You sold a product to someone who was willing to pay that price and I hope your buyer is pleased with his end of the bargain - you are clearly pleased with yours.

I think you are probably right that this is a case of fur coat and no knickers which is trading on the back of previous Ardbeg limited editions which have sold exceptional and old whisky at low prices. But that's the nature of collectibles.

Ardbeggians who are new to whisky might, though, reflect that when I started drinking 15+ years ago:

Ardbeg was perceived to make poor quality whisky that they couldn't sell, which led to repeated mothballing of the distillery

Springbank was perceived to make very high quality whisky at all age statements (including the young ones) although it had not had that reputation for very long

Glenlivet was perceived to have declined alarmingly, although people did still buy it and collect it based on its former reputation for very high quality - and some of the bottlings of very old Glenlivet did still show that high quality

I offer this merely to show that reputations can fall as well as rise. I hope Ardbeg continues to prosper, especially as their reputation is founded on quality of current bottlings rather than silly gimmicks. But it is not a sure thing!

[Lawrence]

Well said Nick, reputations rise and fall.

[parvus]

Perhaps i'm confused or reading things incorrectly, but why is there a recent trend towards a spicy animosity directed at Ardbeg, and it seems to come out as a sort of irrational tall-poppy based scarasm or similar.

This isn't directed at you Aidan, or anyone in particular, but perhaps i'm just picking up on it because i'm such an Ardbeg fan, with no hint of that changing any time soon, perhaps it's a bit of Ardbeg fan naivety, but why do people seem to be souring towards Ardbeg?

Who knows, perhaps i'm not making any sense.

[Deactivated Member]

There is always a natural backlash when there is a spike in a product's popularity. The folks who are not so crazy about it can't figure what the fuss is about, and naturally assume it's all hype, since to their taste it can't be about the actual product. Human nature. It's the same reason people say snarky things about, say, Britney Spears, even though she's plainly one of the great musical artistes of our times.

[Aidan]

I've nothing at all against Ardbeg. They make very good whisky that's a pleasure to drink. I personally think that this particular Ardbeg is not worth the money some people are prepared to pay for just the name Ardbeg.

I don't know what it tastes like, but I bet if Bunnahabhain made this exact whisky, nobody would give it a second thought. Tales of people crying when they try a particularly complex ardbeg make me think they are fibbers or have a serious mental problem.

I didn't buy this originally to sell on now, but it will get me part of the way for paying for a Kildalton.

...and, I would like to think that the one I sold got a good price because 10% of it goes to Concern International. A small amount, I know.

[irishwhiskeychaser]

Human nature. It's the same reason people say snarky things about, say, Britney Spears, even though she's plainly one of the great musical artistes of our times.

But of course, she is a corner stone of the music of today

[Aidan]

All music has its merits. While I'm not a Spears fan, a huge number of people get great enjoyment from her music. Now if she claimed she was Mozart... that would be a different story.

[les taylor]

Still at 1351 then.

[Di Blasi]

Thanks for the reminder Les. We have a ways to go...

[Aidan]

I bet we dont' get down to 0, unless my bottle is bought and sold within the members over 1,000 times.

[Janieclare]

I have two - one to drink and one to keep until tempted . . . .