Thanks John. Amazingly, I found it at our Total Wine.
Yep, I drink more bourbon than Scotch, but I love The Balvenie. I always have the 12 year Doublewood and the 14 year Caribbean Cask in the house. I need to try some of their higher end stuff as well.
The Caribean cask is a nice one but I buy less and less as I tends to stay away from the colored and chill filtered ones theses days ( but as a daily drinker that wont stay open for long it is a good one)
I had never had Springbank prior to reading his thread. I acquired both the 10 and the 18. I typically drink neat but I found the 10 a bit harsh and needing a splash of water. The 18 on the other hand was great. I am wondering whether or not to give the 15 a try or just stick with the 18. Any thoughts?
With all of the love for Springbank, how about Longrow and Hazelburn?
Shut yer yap about Longrow.
Any thoughts on Aultmore 18 year old?
I’m not familiar with that distillery, unfortunately.
Springbank was at one time a great distillery. Top five (top two in my book). Since the late 1980’s their (including Longrow) cask selection, especially sherry casks, has been atrocious. A criminal crying shame.
Kilchoman is a beacon of hope. Laphroaig periodically releases whisky worth finding. Pulteney can be good. I tend to seek out European independent bottlings, as they can be excellent, if not reflective of the homogenized distillery profile. More craft rum and mezcal than scotch whiskey is distilled these days. Which is also a criminal crying shame.
Balvenie always seems to be doing good things. I think Ardbeg has the peat dialed in, especially when it is balanced with sherry cask finishes. Kilchoman has really impressed me with the few drams I have had from them.
What would you say are some current official bottlings that are good?
I am on a Scotch hiatus these days, I usually drink Green Spot and Encantada armagnac.
If all I could drink was Balvenie 21 Portwood, I’d be happy for life. I am looking forward to trying the new Glenfiddich Winter Storm aged in ice wine casks…their innovation has been best in class with IPA Cask, XX and Bourbon barrel aged 14 year …has really gotten Bourbon drinkers to try other styles of Whisky in our area.
Enjoyed Highland Park releases and Macallan is releasing a Cask Strength soon that hasn’t been out in years…thankfully in US we still get age statements.
Pretty up on the ones above as we sell them, and I don’t get to see other producers much, did enjoy Glendronach 13 Sherry Cask while in Scotland a few times.
Anyone tried Glenfiddich Winter Storm? We sold every bottle before I could taste one…and had a shitload of accounts pissed as they thought they could wait to buy it.
I believe Ardbeg, Springbank, Kilkerran, Lagavulin, Compass Box, Kilchoman are firing on all cylinders. Ardbeg 10 is my all time go to, desert island dram. Uigedail and Corryvreckan are bada$$ in their own right. Lagavulin does everything good. Kilkerran is one of the best of the new breed (12yr is a perfect dram, and WIP are cool takes on the new make). Springbank is also just hitting it right pairing its new make with good 1st fills and finishing with great barrels that are complimentary.
I tend to steer away from independent bottlers right now cause a lot of them are sourcing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fill barrels from distillers which just tend to be really inferior.
Getting good casks has become more difficult over the past 10 years. The better independents have old stock that they’ve owned for a long time or have purchase from blenders. Some of the European IB’s are excellent: Whisky Doris, Van Wees, Archives, Alambic Classique, Cadenheads (of course), Signatory, Duncan Taylor, The Laings/OMC, Gordon & MacPhail, Hart Bros, Whisky Agency, and others; but beware, US retailers and their sources, not so much (they too often buy the dreck passed over by the Euros).
Our group of a dirty dozen or so ‘self-styled whisky connoisseurs,’ The PLOWED Society (don’t ask), has purchased and bottled 6 casks over the years: Springbank from Murray McDavid, Ardbeg, Brora, Port Ellen, and Laphroaig from Douglas Laing/OMC, and Benriach direct from the distillery. It has become exceedingly difficult to get good casks. We haven’t bought one in a few years because we haven’t liked what we’ve been offered. A small group of us spend a night or two tasting samples before deciding on a cask, or not, and we’ve had good success. Single bottles of our '72 Brora 30 and '72 Ardbeg 29 sold today at the British whiskyauctioneer.com online auction for £5500 and £4300, respectively, which is both flattering and ridiculous.
I’m off tomorrow for Ardbeggeddon XIX, held annually since January, 2000 at Dick Cheney’s Secret Underground Bunker, located on/near a nuclear test site in Nevada. Can’t wait. Proud to be PLOWED.
Everything about this post is awesome.
Also, I’ve had good luck with Cadenheads bottlings. Spec’s has a decent selection and they’ve been across-the-board very good-to-excellent.
Cadenhead’s is one of only two independent bottlers whose selections I will buy blind (with SMWS being the other). BB&R comes close, as does Signatory.
Good to know. We have a fair amount of Cadenhead product in the local stores. I’ll check them out for good distiller sources!
So true. We tasted through several dozen on our first foray just a few years ago, and found a handful that we liked a lot, but chose to bottle only one at the time. Since then, we have not found a single cask - out of more than 100 samples - that we liked nearly as much.
Mine too. My favorite of the traditional Highland (Campbeltown) Producers -
For kinky-cool - Caol Ila. It’s from Islay, not as peaty as their neighbors, almost bordering on the lighter side - but elegance rules.