Ardbeg 1975

[jobarez]

I'd just got one bottle of adbeg 1975 for £69. I dont now if i should drink it ore save it!
(you cant find it in sweden where i live)

/Jobarez

[BruceCrichton]

Would you pay £69 for an ornament?

If not, then drink up!

[howarths]

Well, there's two ways of looking at this:

1. Maybe it will be worth a tidy sum of money in a few years.
2. Maybe it's a fine whisky that you'll enjoy!

The choice is yours. For what it's worth I have a number of single cask bottlings (mainly Adelphi) which can do nothing but go up in value. However I own them to drink not to collect. I have no problem with those that want to collect for enjoyment or as an "investment", but I believe whisky is for drinking and enjoying, preferably with like minded friends, hence all but one of mine are open!

Happy drinking/collecting.

[jobarez]

Hmm...

I think that I´ll save it some time. It´s in fact a single cask from Douglas Laing. But if I get merried I´ll gonna drink it.

Thanks.

[Iain]

Confused as ever, I was wondering...

As the world's favourite whisky is blended Scotch, does everyone agree that whisky writers should spend more time writing tasting notes and features on the wide range of excellent blended Scotches available to the whisky-drinking public? (and warning us of the bad ones too, of course).

And less time writing about boring old fuddy-duddy single malt Scotch whisky, which is enjoyed by a relatively small number of people?

[Steve]

I agree they (and I include Michael Jackson's book in this) should rate the blends, especially the major ones. I would expect there to be more single malts available than blends, however, so can understand why there is more written about them, not to mention the fact that malt whisky is intrinsically of better quality and taste than blended whisky, which includes inferior grain whisky.

And fuddy duddy?

I'd rather be a fuddy duddy than have to drink the paint stripper-esque blends I could mention.........

[BruceCrichton]

I think blends are highly underrated as is grain whisky. Cameron Brig is excellent at it's standard age and even better at 11 yr old and 64%vol!

A good whisky is a good whisky regardless of the cost. My friend and I have drunk some single malts which retail at £20 and above which are disgusting and have drunk blends which retail at £10 which have been superb.

And the best way to drink whisky is with a funnel.........

[Iain]

I must agree with Bruce, and disagree with the old saw "There's no such thing as a bad whisky...".

I enjoy whisky, but I have had one or two(blends and single malts) that certainly weren't good!

[Deactivated Member]

Hi Iain,

You are absolutely right, I think that it would be a good start if Whisky Magazine, starts to make some more articles on that, how some blends are being produced, their specific characteristics etc. To complete the whole thing lots and lots of tasting notes, made by the regulars like Dave Broom, Michael jackson, or even invite guys like John Ramsay and Richard Patterson to write some notes. Brands like Grouse, Black Bottle, Cutty Sark, Dewars White Mackay etc shouldn't put away on a side track. I personally find it, from time to time very enjoyable to have a blend, I mean what's wrong with that???
No I'm in, on pushing the blends a little more forward. I must admit that in my old days, all blends where out of the question, but when time passes by I learnd to appreciate them more and more.

Tally Ho,

Erik


[This message has been edited by Huurman (edited 04 March 2002).]

[St.Peat]

Yes!!

I would like to read more features about blends, and have the articles fully researched just like the singles' stories.

And, in conjunction with those pieces, I would also like to hear more about single grains in circulation and production these days.

Marcine reads these posts, so I would imagine that he will put someone to the task in the near future. (?)

[Opi]

Interested in blended scotch whisky I can recommend Jim Murrays Classic Blended Scotch (published 1999, Prion Books Ltd.).

It includes chapters about the main single grains as well as history of blending and of course the profiles of blenders and their brands.

[BruceCrichton]

I second the recommendation of Jim Murray's book.

Discoveries through this book include such gems as 'Dew Of Ben Nevis' and 'Islay Mist'and 'Claymore' which are fantastic.

Also try 'Scotch and Irish Whisky' by Carol P. Shaw which details some of the more obscure blends going about.

[Iain]

I'd like to add Stefan Gabbanyi's book, which is an excellent wee reference guide to whisky companies, whisky brands, etc.

ps: Jim Murrays's book is excellent, but are some of those tasting notes fanciful and overblown, or wot?

[Ileach]

Bearing in mind that blends are supposed to offer consistency throughout the years, it would be enough to conduct a tasting once every few years - a 10 yr old blend XY bottled in 2002 would not taste any different than the same 10 yr old blend bottled five, ten or twenty years ago.

Ileach

[Iain]

What a great idea for an article, Ileach. Set up a blind tasting of individual blends comparing the whiskies bottled recently, 5 years ago, and 10 years ago - or older, if the bottle can be found.

I suspect that, for many, the taste and character will be found to have shifted quite dramatically over the years.

[lexkraai]

I agree, this would be very interesting!

Marcin .... idea???


Cheers, Lex

[Opi]

Hi whisky-lovers,

the idea tasting the same blend produced in different years is great. There must be a difference between those blends, because the blender never has had the same base whiskies for such a long time, even more so after 1980 when many distilleries went silent.

By comparing old expressions of the same Whisky (not only blended) with bottlings from years before - how is it possible to reproduce such bottlings as the Macallan replica that not only looks like the old bottle but should have the (nearly) same taste (as the producers say). Or look at the Macallan series the 20s, the 30s,...
How do they know ?

[Opi]

Hi again,

in Germany exist a blended whisky called "Racke Rauchzart" (formerly labeled as Red Fox in the early years). It´s a blend of scotch malt and grain whiskies now, but formerly the company used german corn whisky for the grain part.
I had the "luck" to taste both expressions and there have been an enermous difference. The older expression had a more `metallic´ taste - try a german corn whisky and you know what I mean. The newer blend comes along the standard smoky scotch blends and is not as bad as some say (just because it´s a german whisky product?).