Whiskey drinkers - advice needed.

[Rueh]

I'm looking to buy a nice bottle of whiskey as a gift, but my experience in whiskey is a few JD's down the local . I've got a maximum budget of £200, which I think should get something quite special. All I know is from the usual supermarket brands the recipient likes Famous Grouse, Glenfiddich and Jamesons but doesn't like Teachers. I had a quick look around and noticed Johnnie Walker blue label is within my price range. Is this any good or is it a case of paying for the name?

[Gargamel]

Depends who you are giving the present to.

If it is an out and out Whisky Conniseur, then maybe think again.

If it is just a nice bottle of something for a whisky drinker then blue Label is an excellent choice. It a seriously nice whisky and not many people buy it for themselves.

[Shaw Tarse]

Lefty
just to mention that's the first time I've used the []member[/] link

[Wadeski]

Glenfiddich 30 is £210, as is Glenmorangie 1977...

[PaulHogan]

Consider a gift membership of the SMWS? http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships/membership-as-gi...

[FussyFez]

Bush mills 21 year old was recommended by an Irish friend.

[R60EST]

I'm by no means an expert but just by chance I was given a glass or two of Jamesons Irish Whiskey many years ago . I thought then it was smoother than anything I'd tried previously.

Some years later , when staying on the Isle of Skye , I was trying a few drams and asked the barman to recommend some of the more expensive Whiskies for me to sample. He asked what I liked and I told him Jamesons was so far my favourite. I thought he would dismiss this as a bad choice as it's Irish and relatively inexpensive.

I was surprised to be told that he regarded it as a very smooth , refined taste and very few of the more expensive single malts he had could match it. Some were £200+ per bottle ,the price per single measure at bar prices made them far too indulgent for my taste( = pocket ) that night. I did try a couple from the higher end of the scale and I have to say I didn't taste any that were 10x as good as a £20 bottle of Speyside single malt

So in my experience spending circa £200 a bottle won't guarantee it will be the best thing the recipient has ever tasted

Edited by R60EST on Monday 22 November 23:05

[sherman]

18 yo Highland park is regarded as one of the best single malts around.
Plus its also only about £60 a bottle

[krallicious]

sherman said:

18 yo Highland park is regarded as one of the best single malts around.
Plus its also only about £60 a bottle

And, from my experience, a huge let-down. For £200 try looking for whiskeys from a closed distillery. Port Ellen or Rosebank used to produce sublime whiskey and decent bottlings can be had for your budget.

Alternatively, a selection of whiskeys from various areas of Scotland or from around the world?

[sherman]

krallicious said:

sherman said:

18 yo Highland park is regarded as one of the best single malts around.
Plus its also only about £60 a bottle

And, from my experience, a huge let-down. For £200 try looking for whiskeys from a closed distillery. Port Ellen or Rosebank used to produce sublime whiskey and decent bottlings can be had for your budget.

Alternatively, a selection of whiskeys from various areas of Scotland or from around the world?

Rosebank may not be a closed distillery name for much longer. There is a new distillery opening near Falkirk and they are currently trying to buy the Rosebank name.

[FasterFreddy]

I was in the same predicament a couple of weeks ago.

I'd been dropping a few hints to my girlfriend that an old Armagnac would be quite nice to get (me) as a present and I'm pretty sure she's going to get me a 'birthday year' bottle for Christmas. As I'm quite old, it should end up being a rather nice Armagnac

So, in return, I thought I'd get her her a bottle of something made the same year she was born. She likes single malts. Personally, I'm not a fan of most Scottish whiskies and I particularly dislike the peaty ones, so I'm definitely not in a position to know what makes a good one, but after spending a few nights with Mr Google, I think I've managed to find something which should be pretty special and is also bang on your budget.

This is what I've bought for her:
http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-10953.aspx

As it's a Speyside malt, it won't be very peaty, so there's a chance I might be able to force down a few glasses, just to see if it's worth the money

I also spent some time on this site, which has a lot of information if you've got some time to look through it.

http://www.whiskyfun.com/

There are also some very expensive bottles on Whiskey Exchange, such as a £50,000 Glenfiddich.

Or there's this one which starts off looking reasonable at £435. Until you see it's a miniature

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-9109.aspx

Hope that helps.

[Goa'uld]

From your description of the lucky recipient, it doesn't sound like they are obsessed with whisky (correct me if I'm wrong), so from the sounds of it you could perhaps go for a more personal gift for a bit of fun.

We had a colleagues birthday a few months back and knew that he loved whisky but had never been too serious about the kind/area that he drank. He was originally from near Portstewart at the top of Northern Ireland so there was obviously the Bushmills distillery and their catalogue to pick from, then I checked on his most local historic distillery and it turned out to be Coleraine Distillery, which closed many moons ago. Bushmills still bottle a blend which is labelled as Coleraine Whisky, so we tracked down;

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-2846.aspx

and one of these;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/COLERAINE-IRISH-WHISKEY-Embo...

He was over the moon and the sign is up behind his couple of bottles of whisky at home. The point is that he wouldn't have appreciated the difference in taste even if we had tracked down the last bottle from 1978 before the distillery closed, he just liked getting something that wasn't in the supermarkets and was quite personal. If they aren't really into their whisky then this could be an option. I'm sure if you posted where the person is from then the whisky brains on here could tell you where the nearest distillery is/was!

[Gargamel]

T'internet folk, always like to show their powers of superior taste and the wide range of choices out their.

When its their own money, I wonder what they actually buy?

I am with the poster that says Jameson is one of the best around. It is very drinakable, which many Whiskys with much higher price tags aren't - they are described as 'interesting' or one for the Conniseur.

Blue Label commands the price it does and the brand status because it is actually quite nice to drink.

No doubt there is a 70 year old bottle of Macallan out there somewhere which is worth £6,000 or more, but I doubt the taste is pleasant.

[FasterFreddy]

Gargamel said:

No doubt there is a 70 year old bottle of Macallan out there somewhere which is worth £6,000 or more, but I doubt the taste is pleasant.

Why wouldn't it be? Spirits aren't like wine. They don't turn bad in the bottle, so if it tastes unpleasant, that will be because you haven't done your homework and bought a random whiskey purely on price, brand name or because the bottle looks nice and ended up with something which doesn't suit your palate.

I can't stand peaty malts but I have tasted some Scottish whiskeys I've quite liked, so I think I could select a Scotch based on my limited experience and a bit of research which, to me, would taste quite pleasant. FWIW I do like Jamesons and Bushmills and I'd tend to stick to those or a good Bourbon if I HAD to drink whiskey (can't think how I would find myself in that predicament though )

[RichB]

FasterFreddy said:

I'd been dropping a few hints to my girlfriend that an old Armagnac would be quite nice to get (me) as a present and I'm pretty sure she's going to get me a 'birthday year' bottle for Christmas. As I'm quite old, it should end up being a rather nice Armagnac

Interesting? I had a discussion with the sommelier at The Waterside and he was explaining that although they have a Cognac from 1864 on the trolley, spirits do not alter their flavour in the bottle as they age. So, an 1864 Cognac should taste exactly as it did when it was bottled. People will pay the £400/glass simply to say they have drunk something 150 years old. On this basis you may be able to chose a selected year from a particular distillery which you like but just because it's old won't make it better.

[Gargamel]

FasterFreddy said:

Gargamel said:

No doubt there is a 70 year old bottle of Macallan out there somewhere which is worth £6,000 or more, but I doubt the taste is pleasant.

Why wouldn't it be? Spirits aren't like wine. They don't turn bad in the bottle, so if it tastes unpleasant, that will be because you haven't done your homework and bought a random whiskey purely on price, brand name or because the bottle looks nice and ended up with something which doesn't suit your palate.

Exactly, which is why but I wouldn't spunk £200 on something I don't know.

[FasterFreddy]

Gargamel said:

FasterFreddy said:

Gargamel said:

No doubt there is a 70 year old bottle of Macallan out there somewhere which is worth £6,000 or more, but I doubt the taste is pleasant.

Why wouldn't it be? Spirits aren't like wine. They don't turn bad in the bottle, so if it tastes unpleasant, that will be because you haven't done your homework and bought a random whiskey purely on price, brand name or because the bottle looks nice and ended up with something which doesn't suit your palate.

Exactly, which is why but I wouldn't spunk £200 on something I don't know.

If that was the point you were making, then fair enough and I completely agree. Buying wines or spirits on price alone can lead to disappointment, that's for sure, although I'm always quite happy to give it a go if someone else is paying

[FasterFreddy]

RichB said:

FasterFreddy said:

I'd been dropping a few hints to my girlfriend that an old Armagnac would be quite nice to get (me) as a present and I'm pretty sure she's going to get me a 'birthday year' bottle for Christmas. As I'm quite old, it should end up being a rather nice Armagnac

Interesting? I had a discussion with the sommelier at The Waterside and he was explaining that although they have a Cognac from 1864 on the trolley, spirits do not alter their flavour in the bottle as they age. So, an 1864 Cognac should taste exactly as it did when it was bottled. People will pay the £400/glass simply to say they have drunk something 150 years old. On this basis you may be able to chose a selected year from a particular distillery which you like but just because it's old won't make it better.

Funny how we both ended up at the Waterside on the same weekend and talking to them about the contents of their drinks trolley!

I had a very similar conversation about the Armagnacs which I may have mentioned on the 'Fat Duck' thread. What you've said is absolutely correct, but the whole point about spirits, as opposed to wines, is that there's the year it was put in the cask and the year it was taken from the cask and put into the bottle. With an Armagnac or Cognac that would be probably a minimum of 3 years and maybe more than 20 years.

In the cask, it will continue to age and develop but once in the bottle that process is halted and it really shouldn't change after that as long as it's stored correctly etc etc.

So, theoretically, a 1900 Armagnac bottled after 20 years in the cask should taste the same as a 1990 Armagnac bottled now if everything else is equal, but of course there are many variables which affect the taste and desirability of a particular bottle of anything, so it could never be as simple as that (thankfully).

And the reason they get so expensive as they get older is not necessarily because they taste better, but because less bottles remain in existence, so it still could be the case that an 1890 Armagnac would taste no better than a 1980. I'd still like to try the 1890 though please...

[Jesus TF Christ]

Gargamel said:

T'internet folk, always like to show their powers of superior taste and the wide range of choices out their.

When its their own money, I wonder what they actually buy?

Jura at £17 a pop from my local Co-op.

[jamiebae]

You really need to know the tastes of the person you're buying for. No point buying a £200 Bruichladdich for someone who only likes a heavily sherried Speyside dram.

If someone gave me a £200 whisky voucher I'd buy 3 or 4 bottles rather then one really expensive one because I don't think my pallet is well enough developed to really appreciate the really pricey stuff. I'd probably have a Highland Park 18, a Balvenoe Port Wood and some kind of Ardbeg but that's just me, although it does cover most bases!