Who is your daddy and what does he do?

@AKGcandlefish How about this approach: One of my favorite shops always has some monthly offers. For example, this month they offer Laphroaigh 18y for €50,- in stead of €70,- Now when this happens I fool myself by thinking I'm saving €20, not spending €50..... Makes you feel less guilty I can tell you.

@SquidgyAsh, I would like to say that many low priced Japanese whiskies are really quite good. In my opinion Japan is truly the home of 'bang for your buck' blends, and there are NAS single malts that are quite good. What @NilsG and I were referring to (or at least I was anyway) was the recent appearance of the NAS Yoichis, Yamazakis, Miyagikyous etc. The quality of these whiskies is really debatable.

There are however, in my opinion some very good affordable bottles to be found here. Are they all worth marks in the 90s? Certainly not. But they are nevertheless worth their price tag and worth exploring I think.

@AKGcandlefish Signet is indeed nice, but if you can lay hands on the Sonnalta PX, it is cheaper, and I would say, better. Both are great whiskies that I do not regret buying in the least.

Yeah, Japan is truly bang-for-buck country... except for Suntory (in general) that's the complete opposite I think. Their good whiskies are too expensive, and their cheap blends taste so bad you'd have to pay me to keep a bottle. I do hope their cheap single malts (most likely just for the Japanese highball mania) will trigger a curiosity to try some better stuff amongst casual drinkers, so that Suntory has to invest larger volumes in into older whisky... and maybe there will be lots of amazing prize worthy single malts for me to enjoy when I retire.... one can dream.

@Ninja Well the new Nikka Black isn't gonna blow you mind, and we might have different tastes, but it's the best of all the cheaper NAS blends I've had so far, fine to drink straight. If you try it let me know what you think.

@Squidgy Oh I do like the Hakushu 12 indeed, but the 10yo I've even poured some drops in the sink when I couldn't finish a dram. Either my bottle is bad or those two years do wonders to the spirit. Yamazaki 10 is not a good dram either, but at least it's drinkable straight.

@NilsG, I'll definitely let you know what I think of the new Nikka Black brother ; ) I REALLY hope it's a far cry from the old one! I have bad memories of nights spent with the old Nikka Black...

@AKGcandlefish That's an awesome addition to this discussion thread. I did some homework and like you I was influenced by a teacher and was allowed to develop my passion for history. Also I have two movie productions to my credit they were both centered around my love of history and Civil War reenacting. I am a background actor with no speaking roles in God's & Generals and a smaller film War Flowers. These were great fun to do, and seeing all that goes into producing films was certainly an eye opener for me. Thank you for sharing your wonderful stories and continued success. :)

@Onibubba I can't seem to find the Sonnalta in my area. I've been looking for it.

@PMessinger Thanks, and thank you for "liking" the page for my film. Appreciate the support!