Green Spot Bicentenary Special Editions Released

[wine republic]

Hi,

Mitchell & Son released two limited edition bottlings to commemorate their bicentenary this week in Dublin. I went to the launch and have posted my tasting notes on my web log http://winerepublicblog.typepad.com/, dated June 3rd 05. There are also a couple of notes on older bottlings that they also happened to have open.

You can only buy them at their shop but they will hold onto them until you can pick them up.

Martin Moran MW

PS I may be a master of wine but I do also occasionally write about spirits for different magazines.

[Aidan]

Martin

I am going to pick up the 10 yr old. Both of these are way overpriced, unfortunately. EUR 250 for what is essentially a young Redbreast!

The 12 yr old is EUR 850, which I think is a bit greedy.

Thanks for the notes.

[Leonidych]

I bet it is outrageous! Four digits for a 10 year old, not even a teen... The Green Spot rules for sure, but there should be limits, you are right, gentlemen. If I had a grand, I'd rather spare it for my favorite Glenrothes 1967... Wish you luck, guys from Mitchell & Son!

[malthead]

i agree this is an outrage really - how these companies come up with these figures nobody knows - I mean the duty on it must only be about £7.00 a bottle so that leaves stupid amounts of profit?

Shouldnt a 200 year celebration be about giving something bac to the people who have kept you in business for 200 years!!!

just my wee rant


Malthead

[Aidan]

I tried both of these, and they are very good, beatifully packaged etc. Still way overpriced. It is great to have a cask strength pot still, though.

[richard]

i think the words you are looking for are overpriced because the distillers are trying to get onto the collectors market that has been over priced by idiots paying to much for single cask bottlings thinking they have the greatest thing since sliced bread

it will cause only problems to the collector and drinker of all whisky we have some idiots thinking wow bottle blue label johnnie walker at cask strength will pay two grand for it the public relations of these companies are short sighted and not in the real world

have a good night

richard

[Frodo]

Isn't there a saying about an idiot and his money...?

[richard]

thanks frodo you were more to the point than me
but what i said was what i thought and believe

richard

[Aidan]

I'd imagine the majority of people who can spend EUR 850 are not idiots. I wish I was one of them.

[Lord_Pfaffin]

Frodo: It was a fool and his money.
Anyhow, one of my favourite rants is about someone who buys a $50,000 car if they can't even drive a spike through a fresh ball of crap let alone an automobile. I guess there is some kind of vicarious pleasure in seeing the fool involved in some wrinkle-fender. We can only hope that the person drinking their over priced dram spills some on their silk shirt in front of the people that they're trying to impress.

[Frodo]

I'd imagine the majority of people who can spend EUR 850 are not idiots. I wish I was one of them.

Yeah I get your point. But 850 Euro for a 12yr old? Any 12yr old? I know a bottle of Tequila (Casa Noble Reposado) that has gold - real gold - in the lettering on the bottle. And that's not anywhere near 850 Euro.

The pricing has to be related to collectability. I just can't get may head around someone paying this kind of scratch for a 12 yr old to drink. Can anyone help me see the light on this?

Confused Frodo

[Deactivated Member]

It's called "what the market will bear". In a perfect market, low supply and high demand add up to a high price. Ideally, the price rises to the point that there are just as many willing buyers as there are bottles. In the real world, persons with more money than sense can be convinced that the aforementioned conditions exist and that the purchase makes economic sense. It is difficult not to wish that one were one of them and utterly uninterested in what we puir people think.

Value is extremely subjective, and we know very well that what's a good buy for Donald Trump is madness for Frodo. (Not to pick on you, F, but you plainly have a keen sense of value regarding drinks.) I simply can't be bothered to worry about anything that retails for €850. It's the stuff that goes for $100-200 that gives me sleepless nights, and I imagine that each of us has his own "sleepless" range. Hey, sounds like an idea for a thread....

[Aidan]

Irish Distillers also released a few 30 yr olds that cost over EUR 1,000. I've seen bottles of these in some hotels, and there seems to be pleanty of takers for shots, which cost EUR150 and upwards.

Then again, didn't someone pay £36,000 for a bottle of Dalmore 64 yr old, or something like that... This is imoral.

[kallaskander]

Hi there,

in my favourite shop there waits a bottle of Knappogue Castle 1956, bottled at the age of 36 years in 1987 for a buyer. It is an original Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey from the now ruinous Tullamore Distillery at Tullamore, closed in 1957 or therabouts. The price is 650.- €. I can understand that. If I was into Irish whiskey and had the money I´d buy something like the old Tullamore and not a 12 or 10 year old that should not be much more than 50 € at the most. Yes Mr TattieHeid, you are right, it`s marketing again. There will be some poor sods who will buy the bottles, firmly believing they killed a prey that will bring thousands one day. I have no doubt whatsoever that they will sell out these rarities. But a policy like this is not good for the rest of the market. These whiskies are only 10 and 12 years old for whoever´s sake. What comes next? If I took the time, Frodo I could be as confused or even a bit more as you are. But I think something like angry describes my feeling better. And as yet I`m not sure what about to be angry at exactly. And just because we talked of psychological aspects of malts and markets the other day I want to put a rhetorical question: Will they taste better than the usual Greenspot for about 30.- €?

Greetings
kallaskander

[Aidan]

Well, they do taste better than the standard Green Spot, but not EUR 820 better. The 12 yr old cask strength should be priced at about EUR 200 because of it's rarety, and the 10 yr old at about EUR 60.

[Deactivated Member]

Those prices do sound very expensive, but if people pay, then the distilleries would be foolish not to charge.

I was very struck by the promotional material for Glengyle. They were offering limited editions of their first spirit in a variety of finishes at £200 a bottle - money ten years in advance. This was probably even more expensive than the Green Spot offer when everything is considered - and an offer I found easy to resist.

By the same token, bottles of Ben Wyvis retail for up to £1000. They are rare and quite old, but by all accounts the whisky is very ordinary. Had the whisky been better, there would probably have been more bottlings of the whisky and the price would not be so high. That's life. If you paid the £1000 now and sold the bottle in ten years for £5000, would you have had a good bargain?

Personally, I pay up to £100 - occasionally more but usually less - for whiskies that have got good scores from tasters whose opinions I value. I intend to drink the whiskies, although I have many unopened bottles. I thjnk I have got good value for some rare whiskies. Others, though, would tell me that I am a fool because I could get a bottle of Bells for a tenner and it's just as strong as my (e.g.) Glenglassaugh.

I suppose, then, it depends on what you value in the whisky as to how much you would pay for it and whether you think it was a good bargain.

[Deactivated Member]

Just so, and we all have different ideas about that. If a bottling offends your personal sense of value, simply refrain from buying it. I don't see any point being angry about it; sad that I'll never enjoy that particular whisky, but not angry. If there really is that kind of demand for a particular product, then a lower price would only mean that it would be snapped up quickly, and therefore unavailable, anyway.

To use an analogy I've used here before, people hereabouts sometimes express anger that the Boston Red Sox baseball club charge relatively high prices for tickets to games. Fans think that these prices are driven by escalating player salaries. This is exactly backward; high player salaries are driven by high club income, which in turn derives from high demand for tickets (simplifying there--ignoring broadcast rights, which are actually the bulk of the team's income, and, while still subject to basic economics, are more complicated). I often make the case that ticket prices are not high enough, because the product is akways sold out, and there is a thriving black market for tickets--a market whose profit does not benefit the team or players in any way. It's scalpers and, even more so, their customers who make me angry, and I refuse to be a part of that market. If there's an analog to that in the whisky world, it's collectors who pay exorbitant prices with no intent to drink, and bottlers who take advantage of them. But somehow I can't be bothered to lose any sleep over it. There are many, many whiskies I'll never drink; a couple more don't mean much to me. At most, I am saddened to think that fewer and fewer people will ever experience a Brora, for example. But it's just whisky--it's not as if it were something really important. Like the Red Sox. --Whom I can see every night on television, anyway!


(Latter point tongue-in-cheek. Honest. Please don't argue it!)

[bernstein]

But it's just whisky--it's not as if it were something really important. Like the Red Sox.

Won't argue it - never! For some clandestine reasons I still try to get hold of the standings of the Phillies though. Mixed season so far, I'm afraid. But it's just baseball -- it's not as if it were something really important. Like, like - - - wait a moment, I promised, I won't argue!

[kallaskander]

Hi there,

point taken Mr. T. And I grieve for Brora too.

Greetings
kallaskander