Try Laphroaig Quarter Cask… Angel Dust.
Pricey?
No. Let me check…
Typically this sort of price, 40 something in sterling:
Master of Malt, though, have it for an excellent €47:
The smaller casks used accelerates development. Am a big fan of Laphroaig (although nothing tops Ardbeg) and I thought this expression has a lovely texture.
About the same as Laphroaig 10. I’ll have to give it a go. Any Ardbeg in particular? I’ve only had their standard, I don’t think I’ve tasted anything as good
Ardbeg 10 is the absolute business. Had a few when out on Saturday. Never disappoints… An amazing amount of people, even strangers, comment on the scent from the glass.
Staying within reasonable financial parameters (€65/€75), I would recommend Ardbeg Uigeadail, a cask strength bottling with an unusually strong sherry cask influence:
There is, also more or less cask strength, Ardbeg Corryvreckan, which offers the full ‘sticking plasters and new wellingtons’ Islay experience:
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Thank you for your expertise! I suppose it would be ungrateful of me not to buy a bottle or two!
Celtic whiskey shop on Dawson street Dublin 2 has an amazing selection.
Not whiskey but picked up a bottle of Napue gin which is unreal and cannot be had elsewhere in Ireland. 40 euro for 50cl. They even had the aged napue.
If you are looking for something interesting for yourself or as a gift worth a look.
No bother at all. Any time. I am always interested in people’s taste in whisky. There are a lot of overrated and overpriced bottles out there but I think those ones mentioned are attractive on every front.
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What do you consider to be overrated?
Thanks for pointing out that Napue gin is not whiskey.
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that was for the sloe learners
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De rien.
They had a book about Writers Tears at the POS too. I assume they had the drink also in stock.
It is a lovely little shop that I had wrongly written off before as a tourist trap.
Neat-ly done
At 40 odd euro a pop its ridiculous value. Like Green Spot was about 5 years ago.
Indeed I did. And indeed I do. You can do seriously better online. I would not be renowned for my thrift but there is understandable attraction in buying three or four bottles and effectively getting one free due to price differentials.
Price is far from everything and I have been known to spend what once seemed a ridiculous amount on one bottle, several hundred quid. But several hundred quid is no longer much as a price band. A friend of a friend recently bought a bottle of Redbreast Dream Cask, one of 816 available, for €500. Two,weeks later, he flipped it for €2000 because he got bottle number 2 and someone really wanted the bottle numbered 2.
The Irish whiskey realm is the most taurine of bull markets.
Exactly.
Dingle bottlings, which come out for €120 and are €250 on the secondary market a week later. I admire the drive that set up Dingle Distillery but this craic is whiskey as artificial rarity. True rarities are scarce not just because the outturn was limited but because much of the whisky, being delicious, got consumed.
Most Dingle bottlings are not hitting the shelves in the primary market because they are bought by off license staff and immediately flipped, with a 100 to a 200 per cent mark up, into the secondary market. Dingle bottlings so far are largely too young or too undistinguished to warrant these prices. Call me naive but I like to assess whisky for its flavour.
A lot of Macallan seemed, over the years, simplistic stuff. Given Kingsley Amis’ babyish tendencies, it did not surprise me to learn Macallan was his favourite single malt. Top end Macallan now goes for well into five figures. Needless to add, my pockets are not remotely deep enough for such items. But I have noted that whisky sites do not bestow the sort of marks you might expect for whiskies so expensive.
I never got along with Bowmore. Still, Bowmore distilled before the mid 1970s is held to be mindblowing stuff. I tasted a couple of examples and they were infinitely better than 1980s- and 1990s-distilled Bowmore. But pre-1975 Bowmore now costs well into four figures.
Certain distilleries — Blair Athol, Cardhu, Deanston, Glengoyne, Glenkinchie, Old Fettercairn, Tamdhu, Tullibardine — never seemed to offer other than a mediocre bottle. Still, none were undrinkable, save a rubbery bottle of Blair Athol.
To me, Aberfeldy and Glendronach would be examples of excellent and undervalued whisky. Ditto for Old Pulteney. Glenugie is beautiful whisky but now rare and (quite) expensive. If you ever see Glenugie for sale in a bar, try a measure, unless it is prohibitively priced.
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Nicely put
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