How good is the world's most expensive whisky?

[merseymouth]

Hi Mike, Thought so, not distilled on Shetland, merely blended on Shetland, cheats!
One small volume to buy & read is "101 Whiskys to Try Before You Die", not all mega dosh types, an Aldi Bottle gets in?
As more sober tour might be a journey to extant distilleries, lots to visit. TTFN MM

[Paulatic]

Hey Paulactic, Don't get in a "Paddy" over whisky/whiskey, just go and drown your sorrows!
Starling in Orkney, Scapa, down to Wick, Old Poultney, then through Speyside etc! Hope my liver hold out??
With excursions through Ulster & Ireland I'll not lack test samples. Hic TTFN MM
:

It’s OK we won’t be crossing paths. I mostly linger in the West and Islands for my drams. Peat is better in whisky than in the garden.

[kwackers]

I inherited loads of the stuff - probs about a dozen bottles, some of it from the 60's (although I suspect it was cheap muck).

I've been using it in spirit burners - smells almost as nice as meths.

[Polisman]

I inherited loads of the stuff - probs about a dozen bottles, some of it from the 60's (although I suspect it was cheap muck).

I've been using it in spirit burners - smells almost as nice as meths.

Be careful what you're burning. Some of the older Johnny Walker Red/Blue and Gold label whiskies from the 50/60's can go for £300-3000...!

[Polisman]

If it looks anything like this, you just set light to about £900 worth of choice alcohol.

[Mick F]

Back in the old days, we lived in Helensburgh and then Balloch. 1982-1985

Going down Old A82 (now A814) via Dumbarton to Glasgow, we used to pass the warehouses of whisky.
Geese used to "patrol" the area round by the sheds.

Better than dogs to keep thieves out. Goodness knows why anyone wants to steal whisky. Horrible stuff.
Maybe geese enjoy the stuff.

[pete75]

Hey Paulactic, Don't get in a "Paddy" over whisky/whiskey, just go and drown your sorrows!
The study of those spirits is quite interesting, lots of twists & turns, lost treasures, reawakened distilleries, great history.
Oddly enough the Ubiquitous "Haynes Manual" people, who had to diversify or die, have turned out many interesting manuals, one of which is "Whisky", an enthusiasts manual. Great read.
I personally an slowly trying to work my way down the centre & east of Scotland, don't like the east coast stuff, too salty for my palette.
Starling in Orkney, Scapa, down to Wick, Old Poultney, then through Speyside etc! Hope my liver hold out??
With excursions through Ulster & Ireland I'll not lack test samples. Hic TTFN MM

P.S. My wife assures me that I won't be getting it in my stocking at Christmas

You're missing some of the best if you leave out Islay.

[Polisman]

Couldn't agree more about Islay malts. Though you have to train your palate to really appreciate them. Can take years of solid drinking

How about this Dalmore 50 year old though for self indulgence, £50,000 a bottle. Buy now, to save disappointment at Xmas...

[Mick F]

Matured in oak barrels ....................... that had sherry in first.
Sherry is nice, whisky isn't.

Best hing you could do with the empty sherry barrels, is burn them.
Lots of hot water from our wood burner!

[merseymouth]

Hi MickF, If you are burning Sherry Casks you have more money than sense!
Remember the Onedin Line on tv? James would bring Port in barrels from Oporto for free, gratis, but he took them back for proper dosh, the cask can often be worth more than the contents (Nett Duties), Money not to burn Mick!
I have tested the products from Islay, Jura et al, but my palette prefers the caramel twists of Speyside.
One east coast whisky I would love to try would be from the Campbeltown, Machrahanish area, as my late father had happy memories of HMNAS Landrail, the Clapham Junction of the Fleet Air Arm. "Uisge Beatha". IGICB MM

[Cugel]

Now then. As I recall the prime attraction of whiskey (as will all other grogs) is that it gets you drunk. This is an attractive state to many due to various motives, often exhibiting in the behaviours when drunk. There is a happy or even giggling drunk; a morose drunk (not happy unless he's unhappy); the violent drunk........ and other varieties.

I suppose it's pleasant to taste something nicer than retsina when pouring in the alcohol .... so perhaps the posh whiskey drinkers are assuming that the more you pay the more pleasant is the imbibing taste? But shurely shome mishtake, as that part of being drunk is very brief whereas the loss of inhibitions so that one may climb a statue to crown it with a traffic cone, cry inconsolably in a corner of the pub or go home to beat the wife and kids again lasts far longer and could be achieved for the price of a bottle of Bucky!

Cugel, a dancing drunk (well that's what I call it).

[al_yrpal]

My Hebrides cycle tours have involved stops at most of the distileries. The most testing was Islay because of the sheer number in a relatively small area. When I was 19 and learning to drive I visited more than a dozen. I passed my driving test in Perth at the end of just two weeks behind the wheel. Whisky is an interesting drink, lots of variation in taste. I do like the Irish versions. As for expensive ones, never tasted them but I do remember being charged £17 for a tot in Tobermory. It went back in the bottle undrunk!

Al

[mercalia]

Couldn't agree more about Islay malts. Though you have to train your palate to really appreciate them. Can take years of solid drinking

How about this Dalmore 50 year old though for self indulgence, £50,000 a bottle. Buy now, to save disappointment at Xmas..


.

hmm looks like Dettol to me



probably just as good

[Tangled Metal]

What a load of <expletive deleted >?

"From memory it was an incredibly rich, intense spirit - full of dried fruits, of prunes and dates and tons of incredible spicy notes of cloves, ginger and cinnamon.
"I also recall zesty orange marmalade, hints of peat and smoke, finished with a delicious drying oak tannin from the sherry cask, and waxy, linseed oil and leather notes"


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-50182545

Some people have too much money to cultivate this twaddle?

I suppose had the guy had a Korma Chinese before hand he would have added that also
"notes of India and the Ganges"

One can eat stuff made of prunes, ginger, spices. marmalade and so forth. This has the advantage of really tasting like prunes etc.. Also, one obtains nutrition instead of a headache and some severe damage to the bodily bits from all that alcohol. Then there's the low cost compared to bottles of highly taxed grog with prices set for daft gulls & marks to pay. (They're really buying a boast to employ on their equally daft mates).

Cugel

Or do they taste like a maccallan 1926?

[Cugel]

My Hebrides cycle tours have involved stops at most of the distileries. The most testing was Islay because of the sheer number in a relatively small area. When I was 19 and learning to drive I visited more than a dozen. I passed my driving test in Perth at the end of just two weeks behind the wheel. Whisky is an interesting drink, lots of variation in taste. I do like the Irish versions. As for expensive ones, never tasted them but I do remember being charged £17 for a tot in Tobermory. It went back in the bottle undrunk!

Al

Is that bit about learning to drive directly related to the whisky drinkin'? As I recall, your generation was that which habitually "had one for the road" before going on a cyclist-squashing expedition......? Even the polis did it. In fact, they were some of the worst!

Whisky does vary greatly in taste, inside the general evevelope of "tastes like a whisky". It's best appreciated, for the subtle flavours, when watered down about one part whisky to six parts water - although one must be careful about the nature of the water. The Scots recommend using only water from the burn that feeds the distillery wherein the whisky was made. This seems impractical for all but the crofter living up the track a bit from the distillery.

Personally I use the water coming out of wor tap, which arises from a 160M deep borehole into an underground river. The filter takes out all the iron oxide and other stuff in it so it tasted quite neutral. Mind, I drink whisky only about once a year, so the whole thing is moot really.

One question I must ask of habitual whisky drinkers. ..... In the tele dramas, particularly those portraying events in the Blighty of of your own early years (1903-12) large tweedy men are seen downing tumblers of neat whisky in one or two swallowy-gulps. Does anyone actually drink whisky like that? Surely such an amount gurgled into the stomach so quickly would kill even a large and florid Scotsman?

Cugel