Talking about Whisky

[LHC]

Waitrose offers on these whiskies do tend to turn up quite often. The Cardhu Gold Reserve was £25 last time around, too. I get the impression that the £45 price tag is a bit of a ruse, only charged long enough to comply with trading standards regulations.

I think the Winters Gold deal has come from Dalwhinnie rather than Waitrose. Morrisons, Asda and Amazon appear to have it at the same price, while some other retailers are still charging the normal list price.

[Vox Humana]

On the same shelf, at an even bigger discount, Cardhu gold reserve cask selection.

Any views on that?

I've had the the standard Cardhu expression - the 12-year-old - a few times in the fairly distant past. Often it was while on holiday in Spain, where I found it the ideal way to while away a hot cloudless evening. It's in much the same style as the Dalwhinnie, i.e. 'light' on the tongue and sweetish, but not quite in the same class. Still nice though. Jim Murray scores the 12yo at 83/100, which means OK but pretty run-of-the-mill, and the Gold Reserve at 86.5. I think he's being a bit hard in the 12yo, but he thinks the wood quality of the casks isn't what it was. All this would probably only worry a real whisky nerd. I'd go for it.

Waitrose offers on these whiskies do tend to turn up quite often. The Cardhu Gold Reserve was £25 last time around, too. I get the impression that the £45 price tag is a bit of a ruse, only charged long enough to comply with trading standards regulations.

No. £45 is more or less the standard price for the basic expressions of the decent single malts. £25 is a genuine offer.

[Bryn]

I think the Winters Gold deal has come from Dalwhinnie rather than Waitrose. Morrisons, Asda and Amazon appear to have it at the same price, while some other retailers are still charging the normal list price.

Both Dalwhinnie and Cardhu are Diageo brands. My understanding is that offers such as the current ones from Waitrose are Diageo promotions and it is they who take the 'hit' of the price reduction. The same applies to the vast majority of supermarket offers. It's not so much the supermarkets but the source companies which originate and run them, sometimes simultaneously in a range of supermarkets and sometimes serially. When it comes to whiskies, Emperador's Whyte and Mackay owned brands such as Jura often manage to coordinate their offers with those from Diageo. Not that there is any kind of cartel in operation, of course.

[Bryn]

I've had the the standard Cardhu expression - the 12-year-old - a few times in the fairly distant past. Often it was while on holiday in Spain, where I found it the ideal way to while away a hot cloudless evening. It's in much the same style as the Dalwhinnie, i.e. 'light' on the tongue and sweetish, but not quite in the same class. Still nice though. Jim Murray scores the 12yo at 83/100, which means OK but pretty run-of-the-mill, and the Gold Reserve at 86.5. I think he's being a bit hard in the 12yo, but he thinks the wood quality of the casks isn't what it was. All this would probably only worry a real whisky nerd. I'd go for it.


No. £45 is more or less the standard price for the basic expressions of the decent single malts. £25 is a genuine offer.

Youy may well think that . . .

[Bryn]

A few months ago, Tesco promoted but failed to follow through on, a reduced price offer on Penderyn whisky. Having never tasted it, I was more than a little miffed at Tesco's failure to honour that promotion. However, all was not lost. Today I found that Waitrose and Partners have it on offer. Now all I need is some Welsh spring water to bring out its flavours.

[Keraulophone]

Good progress is being made along my whisky journey, which has recently reached the Isle of Arran, a short boat ride from Campbeltown. I’ve started with the standard Arran 10 and look forward to adding ‘The Bothy’ Quarter Cask NAS soon. These are vg value IMO, and readily available.

Trying to source Springbank 12 Cask Strength, however, has been more of a challenge, yet a sunny drive to the Cornish village of Constantine located a bottle; just the one, supplied on allocation to the village stores. They even had Longrow Red (2021 Malbec), the peated red wine finished Springbank, released just last month but already sold out everywhere else it seems: temptation, even at the price. The Springbank 12 is absolutely magnificent, matured 50/50 in bourbon/sherry casks and bottled at 55.4% ABV. Each batch of this CS has a slightly different ABV, so it’s possible to identify the year of release even though it’s not indicated on the bottle. I am very excited that my son is just coming of drinking age and is showing an interest in single malts (in addition to local Cornish ale such as Spingo), so I now have a malt mate on hand to share these experiences with after dinner. To complement Ralfy’s reviews, we follow whisky.com’s Horst Leuning and his son Ben. I hope my boy grows up to be as knowledgeable as him (Ben did an interesting guided tour of the Springbank distillery on their YouTube channel).

[Keraulophone]

Tak’ing an early dram of Springbank 12 CS to keep me calm during the storm in Downing St, and being unable to source batch 23 (55.9% ABV) which is, intriguingly, its only 100% bourbon cask bottling.

[Belgrove]

A trip to the beautiful Lakes distillery located at the top end of Bassenthwaite Lake. A lovely location, converted from an old farm, they have their own aquifer fed from the lake, and despite having only released whiskies from 2014, have already won a ‘world best’ award and a clutch of gold medals. The house style is to mature the spirit in specially made casks using a variety of woods, then seasoned with sherry (fino, oloroso, PX, the wine then being used for vinegar). The rules governing the designation for a single malt allow them to blend from different casks from different years, which must be the reason why the whiskies taste much older and complex than indicated by the actual age. They also produce small batch whiskies with styles distinct from their house style (labelled 1-7, indicating the year from first release). These small batch ‘whiskymaker’s editions’ have an astonishing range of flavours and styles, ‘Resfeber’ tasting like no other whisky I’ve experienced (in an entirely good way - it’s creamy! with apple notes, spice and cherries, but beautifully balanced). A few drops of water changes the aromas entirely. Another ‘Infinity’ has the complexity one would associate with whisky’s having been in the cask for fifteen years or more. It’s premium stuff, but well worth exploring.

[hmvman]

A recent trip to Fife for the East Neuk Festival gave time for a visit to the Kingsbarns distillery near Crail. Purchased a bottle of their 'Doocot' lowland single malt. It's a lovely whisky of lighter character - smooth and with plenty of fruit and caramel flavours and a long finish. Good value at £46! The 'Doocot' is the cheapest in the range but I'd be tempted to get some of their other offerings next time I'm up that way.

[gurnemanz]

Our daughter and partner were in Stuttgart with his Scottish father for the football. Pity about the result but our present was three different 0.1 litre bottles of Swabian Whisky from the Rieger & Hofmeister distillery in nearby Fellbach. German whisky was a first for us. We have sampled the single malt which tasted very good.

[Vox Humana]

A recent trip to Fife for the East Neuk Festival gave time for a visit to the Kingsbarns distillery near Crail. Purchased a bottle of their 'Doocot' lowland single malt. It's a lovely whisky of lighter character - smooth and with plenty of fruit and caramel flavours and a long finish. Good value at £46! The 'Doocot' is the cheapest in the range but I'd be tempted to get some of their other offerings next time I'm up that way.

Very many thanks for that. Kingsbarns wasn't on my radar at all, so I looked it up in my 2023 copy of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible. I found that he had reviewed three expressions and had rated them all very highly ('Dream to Dram' 94, 'Founder's Reserve #1' 93.5, 'Founder's Reserve #2' 93), so I reckoned the 'Doocot' must at least be worth a punt. I'm on my third dram now and have to say that it's slipping down dangerously easily! The blurb on the bottle mentions 90% ex bourbon barrels and 10% shaved, toasted and re-charred ex-red wine barriques married with the 'light and fruity Kingsbarns spirit'. It seems a fair description. Good stuff indeed and seems to pack even more punch than its 46% abv would suggest. This is a young distillary, just 10 years old. I do hope they will issue some age-specific malts in due course. One to watch!

[hmvman]

Very many thanks for that. Kingsbarns wasn't on my radar at all, so I looked it up in my 2023 copy of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible. I found that he had reviewed three expressions and had rated them all very highly ('Dream to Dram' 94, 'Founder's Reserve #1' 93.5, 'Founder's Reserve #2' 93), so I reckoned the 'Doocot' must at least be worth a punt. I'm on my third dram now and have to say that it's slipping down dangerously easily! The blurb on the bottle mentions 90% ex bourbon barrels and 10% shaved, toasted and re-charred ex-red wine barriques married with the 'light and fruity Kingsbarns spirit'. It seems a fair description. Good stuff indeed and seems to pack even more punch than its 46% abv would suggest. This is a young distillary, just 10 years old. I do hope they will issue some age-specific malts in due course. One to watch!

Glad you're enjoying it, VH. "Slipping down dangerously easily" has definitely been my experience too! Kingsbarns Distillery is owned by the Wemyss family and the Wemyss range was also on sale at the distillery shop - as too was Darnley's gin, another Wemyss product. As you say, it'll be interesting to see how Kingsbarns develops.

[french frank]

The 'Doocot' is the cheapest in the range but I'd be tempted to get some of their other offerings next time

More of a brandy person myself, but was pleased to re-encounter my once-local dialect term, doocot = dovecot; there are some very interesting ones around.

[Old Grumpy]

More of a brandy person myself, but was pleased to re-encounter my once-local dialect term, doocot = dovecot; there are some very interesting ones around.

Widely used in NE England. The "pigeon holes" for post at work were called doocots (pronounced like "duckets").