Which bottle did you just buy and why?

@Wierdo - That's a disconcerting rumour ...

They (Distell) do a lot of things very well and the quality of the distillate and casks are always evident. I can't see a take over by a multinational being of much benefit to customers like us but I'm happy to be proven wrong!

One to keep an eye on ...

@RianC I heard about it a month or so ago. Then Ralfy mentioned in one of his recent Glendronach videos that he'd heard buy out talks were at an advanced stage.

But yes. Not good news. Think it's quite likely that in time Heineken may start messing with the distilleries wanting to reduce the abv or do more NAS releases.

I guess on the upside we (fingers crossed) probably have a year or two before they start changing the products. So I'll be building up a bit of a stock of Bunna 12, Deanston 12 and a few other of their bottles. I have a Ledaig 18 that I haven't opened yet but I've heard great things about and was reasonably priced at under £80. If I like that when I crack the seal I'll probably grab another bottle.

@Wierdo @RianC yeah was also a bit concerned when I heard this although I think Head Distiller Iain Henderson was responsible for a fair bit of the turn around of these distilleries and they let him go a while ago. That in itself I thought was a worrying development. He intimated in a recent interview that it was future development that influenced his decision to leave and given that he introduced non chill filtering and the rise in ABV in standard bottlings, I thought that might be something that would change when he left. They have kept this up but who knows if Heineken come in. I would love to think I might get some gossip from probing questions when I visit Bunnahabhain in October but very much doubt I will get anything, even if they have opened up again to visitors. Here’s hoping!

So I've just brought a bottle of Glenturret 12. I hesitated on buying a bottle of this for a good 3 or 4 months. Just because the UK retail price on this takes the mickey a bit for a 12 at £65. I say UK retail price because this retails for €50 in Europe. The only thing that annoys me more than paying too much for a bottle is when the producer charges less in other markets.

It's also quite obvious with the very posh decanter style bottle they're trying to be the next Macallan. Although lovely as the bottle is (my wife will want to put it on display) they need to invest in a better label machine. Because my label has a big crease in it. Which kind of spoils the premium effect a bit.

Anyway this video brought it to my attention

youtu.be/IN9rpDjw5Zo

The Glenturret 12 is discussed at the 1hr 36min mark.

After hearing nothing but good things about it for a few months and several people saying quality wise it was on a par with the Glendronach 15 I decided to go for it. I'm looking for a sherry bomb to replace Glendronach and the Glenturret is NCF, natural colour and bottled at 46% so fingers crossed.

Incidentally if I like this I doubt I'll be grabbing the 15 which retails at an eye-watering £105 in the UK.

@Wierdo - Looks nice!

I have a couple of Bunna 12 and a Ledaig 10 stashed away. Not too worried about the latter as I was probably going to look out for IBs moving forwards. Maybe I'll grab another Bunna 12 though as quality sherried Islay drams are usually rare and expensive beasts.

I've also pondered the standard Tobermory but with so much else to try it may have to wait.

@Timp - one thing I noticed about my recently bought Ledaig 10 was that there seemed to be more refill (and perhaps some fatigued) casks in the mix, causing a touch more bitterness than previous batches. Still good but an interesting development, especially with the change in head distiller.

I've just found this article on Malt about the Glenturret rebranding which I think I missed at the time if anyone is interested?

Quite an interesting read and explains a few things. Lalique has a 50% share in the distillery so hence the bottle design. And a couple of key staff have jumped ship from Macallan to Glenturret. So to me they are looking to position themselves as a premium alternative to Macallan for people who actually open the bottles and so need the packaging AND the whisky to be good.

I suspect it's wise to get a bottle or two whilst you can because if history tells us anything the quality will be at it's best in initial batches and will slowly dip over time.

I'll open my bottle soonish and let people know if the hype is justified. But I do trust Jason from Malt's opinion and a 7 from him is a very respectable score.

malt-review.com/2021/01/…

@Wierdo - Gosh he goes on a bit and that's me saying it ha

It does sound nice, and I am a bit of a sucker for old school, ostentatious presentation (and also miss the Tartan and fudge, to be honest) but I can't agree with his justification of the price. However one dresses it up, it's pricey.

Good points about the costs of the often untold, non-glamorous side of rebranding though, which begs the question, 'Who's doing the maths?'

@Wierdo - Be interested to see how it compares to the sample of the Tamdhu 15 ...

@RianC good point! I'll do that comparison in the next week or two.

@RianC regarding the Malt reviews Mark is some sort of industry figure, consultant type. He will never criticise any sharp practice by any distillery and will always try and justify it. I've seen him defending crazy prices from Bruichladdich before. I guess he doesn't want to criticise a possible future paycheck. It jars a bit with some of the other Malt contributors.

Jason has less of a clear connection to the industry and is much more straightforward. He has no problem at all criticising when it's due.

@Wierdo I’m amazed at the price of Deanston 12 over there. On a good sale it can be had here for about half that.

@Wierdo Ooops, just reread your post and realized you were talking about the Signatory Deanston 12. I must try to pay attention in class, as many of my teachers used to tell my parents.

@BlueNote I realised when I was too late to edit my comment that I'd typed Deanston when I should have typed Signatory! So the confusion is down to me.

But I agree for the quality of the malt the price of Deanston 12 over here is an absolute steal.

@RianC Re: the disconcerting rumour: I will be stocking up on Bunna 12, Deanston 12, Tobermory 12 and Ledaig 10. All of these are currently excellent and well priced daily drinkers.

Now that the whisky industry has created a near frenzied demand for their products, many of the less well known names in the industry seem inclined to take the big multi-national money and run. All indications are that this does not bode well for the consumer. Bean counters can never have enough beans. I'm expecting much of what attracts me to good whisky to be sacrificed on the altar of the almighty bean.

@Wierdo - Totally agree about Deanston 12 but after doing several head to heads with Arran 10 I've decided to plum for that over the Deanston. Never say never of course, but the house style of Arran just edges it for me, and I'd say they were in a similar camp profile wise.

@RianC I've actually never tried the Arran 10 (very remiss of me, it's on my list). With both Deanston and Arran because I had a lot of younger whiskies in my cabinet at the time I purchased I took a risk and jumped straight to the 18.

@Wierdo I've had the earlier version of the Arran 18, not the one in the new style bottle. How do you like it?

@Wierdo I've had the earlier version of the Arran 18, not the one in the new style bottle. How do you like it?

@BlueNote I've only had the old Arran 18. I enjoyed it and gave it 89. I don't know if they changed the recipe at all when they changed the bottles recently?

@Wierdo - I didn't realise you hadn't had the Arran 10. I'll bang a sample in next time.

@BlueNote - it's looking more and more like that's how it's going for sure. I think it was ralfy that recently mentioned how the drinks industry has taken a huge hit due to covid and lockdowns. It wouldn't surprise me that some of the smaller to mid-range distilleries would see selling out as a viable option.

On the flip side though, the demand for 'craft presentation ' and transparency is undoubtedly growing (and never been so large) so I'm confident that a supply will be made for the demand.

It is a perhaps unlikely, but still potential, risk that the whole of the single malt industry splits into two distinct camps - the premium, high-end and mostly unaffordable market, and the bargain basement (mostly) NAS swill for the masses.

@RianC Re; your second paragraph: I hope so. Re: your third paragraph: I hope not.

@RianC r.e. your comment about the growing demand for 'craft presentation' in whisky I think it is very interesting that Glenturret which is clearly aiming for the 'premium' Macallan drinkers market have decided to plump for 46% NCF, natural colour. They obviously think that buyers of designer whiskies like Macallan will buy whisky that goes a bit cloudy at low temperature.

@RianC I'm just drinking my first 'neck pour' of the Glenturret. I was going to do a side by side with the Tamdhu 15 but for some reason Connosr is playing up when I try to add a review. Is anyone else having problems?

At this early stage I'd say that it is very good. Rich, solventy, dried fruits, toffee and paraffin. It doesn't quite have the depth of the Glendronach 18, but as a Sherried whisky it is easily the equal of the Glendronach 15.

If Connosr starts behaving for me. I'll stick a review on.

@Wierdo interesting comments and sounds nice. Was interested in this since the positive Malt review and others seem to back this up. Might have to get one at some point. I do like decent sherries drams. Speaking of which, just got home from town and a lovely package of samples was waiting for me courtesy of @RianC. Excited to try these as not had any of them before so well chosen Rian. Cheers. Tamdhu 15 46%, Compass Box Flaming Heart 2018 edition 48.9%, Redbreast cask strength b1/17 58.2%, Bookers 2017-01E 62.7%, Jack Daniels single barrel barrel proof L-18 17-5611 8.25.17 64.5%, Wisers Dissertation rare cask series 46.1%. Made my day

@Timp - 'tis a pleasure! I felt I'd better stick some good ones in as you sent some rare and elusive treats Speaking of, I was thinking of trying that Cadenhead's Springbank straight from the cask later and comparing with the 10 OB.

@RianC Thats a good head to head. I was surprised how different the single cask was but I suppose no surprise as I think there are Sherry casks in the ob10 that round it off. Interesting to get the distillery character though in the bourbon cask cage bottle. I think you will enjoy it. Let us know. Got a lovely bourbon cask Hazelburn cage bottle too and wish I had got another. It turned out to be one expensive holiday on the whisky front as we went to Campbeltown before Islay! Cheers..

@Timp Were you able to visit Glen Scotia while you were down there? Do they even have a visitor centre?

@BlueNote no we didn’t unfortunately. We were a bit pushed for time as we were catching a later ferry to Islay that day and it was fair way from our overnight stay in Inveraray.

We made a decision to go back at some point as a trip to Islay is now a yearly holiday for us. Or was before COVID restrictions! We just fell in love with the place. I didn’t even get to go round Springbank which is also something I want to do.

I also have the book The Distilleries of Campbeltown - The rise and fall of the whisky capital of the world, and wanted to explore the myriad of old distillery buildings left around the town. I guess an overnight stay there next year when we go will be the best thing to do. This year taking parents in law with us to Islay so just going straight there. Sorry for the long reply!

I know you can get or could get distillery only bottlings so there is a shop. Currently tours are cancelled but this will be reviewed in July ( according to their web site )

@Timp - We were planning on making a trip up there soon but covid has made things more expensive and tricky. It also looks like we are going to have to make plans waaay in advance now (not something she's too keen on) as getting a booking anywhere in Campbeltown these days is as tricky as getting a limited release Springbank!

And to think, I sometimes used to feel a bit short changed as a kid as we spent another week in a gloomy caravan somewhere in the Isles/Highlands ...