A Steal of a Deal ?!

@Pete1969, you are clearly living a good life. That is some steal of a deal! You paid less for five bottles than the wine-searcher.com secondary market price for one bottle. Good going, Pete! That is probably at or below the dealer price in the US for these bottles.

@Victor well the shipment came in and bottles as advertised not had chance to open yet with shifts and a stag weekend. I really am getting too old for that type of drinking.

Got home on Sunday and started with a cold so putting tasting on hold for at least a week until cleared up. Already been advised by a number of friends to flip a couple of bottles but standing firm, whisky is for drinking not sitting in a cupboard with no intention of cracking the seal.

One bottle this year, one in 3 years for 50th, one for retirement in 2029, the other 2 will be carefully spaced out over the intervening time.

@Pete1969, Nice catch!

Found 2 bottles of Torres Jaime I Brandy Reserva de la Familia for $60 each. That is half price! I'm not a big brandy drinker, but this is spectacular. It is also one of the most unique bottle designs I've ever seen.

Talisker Storm for £21. Not quite a worldy but couldn't turn it down.

Last week, acting on a tip from a salesman for a liquor distributor I encountered while picking up a bottle of ETL, I happily purchased a bottle of Elijah Craig 12 yr Barrel Proof Batch 10 for $62.99 plus tax from Yorkville Liquors. When I mentioned that the Morris store seemed to never have the ECBP but I had picked up the Batch 10 at the Joliet Cardinal for a nice $64.99, my tipster agreed and said he thought there were two bottles on the shelf at Yorkville Liquors. What a surprise! There they were! The store owner said he was surprised they were still there. I had never thought to look in this small store. Guess I'll have to go outside my favorites

The bottle itself is not steal of a deal, but the way I came to get it is definitely one for the record books.

Back in May I paid 108 dollars for a Caol Ila Cask strength (G&M) in Halifax. My friend who was visiting (a non drinker who doesn't know Glenfiddich from Glenn Close) was to bring it back for me. He also insisted on buying me a bottle of Benromach 100/10 for just under $90 (a steal in Canada).

On Friday he dropped off the bottles on his way through town, and picked up 4 bottles I was donating to his charity fundraiser.

I was not home when the exchange took place. Much to my surprise, after identifying the Benromach 100/10, I pulled out a box containing Glenmorangie Signet!

After a few moments of being pissed off, and after he had his wife check his house, we figured out that the only thing that could have happened is that the clerk in Halifax must have bagged the wrong bottle for him.

A quick look at the LCBO website and a realization that the Signet goes for $340. But that was not the steal of a deal.

I actually "returned" the Signet to the LCBO, and, adding $20 from a gift card someone sent me, took home 2 bottles of Caol Ila 17 YO CS. I opened one tonight, and it smells and tastes very promising. But even if I don't like it I can always trade the other bottle in for something else, and each bottle cost more ($179.95 vs $108) than the Caol Ila I bought.

Do I regret losing the Caol Ila CS? Yes, as the ones I have are not peated and a completely different whisky. But I can try again if I can find someone to mule it home for me, and I have 2 bottles for less than the price of 1.

@Nozinan That is most certainly one steal of a deal and of course, a great story to tell! I'm not sure that has happened anywhere to anyone before, those are two very different bottles to confuse with one another, a happy accident indeed. Curious to hear your thoughts on the Caol Ila CS and if you think it is worth the price...and I do mean the $179 and not the $54 that you actually were out of pocket for a bottle ;) haha. Wow. Also, no hassle returning the bottle even though it wasn't purchased at the LCBO? I always wondered if they could tell whether or not a bottle was purchased at their store or not via the bar-code.

@Mancub

The bottle code scnned fine, but the code on the box was a problem. I didn't offer that it was out of province and they didn't ask. One guy said "is this ours" and another said "it's listed for $340".

Is the Caol Ila 17 YO worth $179.95? Not sure yet. I'll review it another time (though @paddockjudge and I took a long time with it and I wrote notes). I know I would never pay that much for it and it's the most expensive bottle I have opened next to the Macallan 25 that I received as a gift many years back.

I really still want that peated CS expression from Gordon and Macphail...

@Nozinan , great story. Even if it wasn't, you'd've earned my up-vote just for the Glenn Close line. Zing!

My local big booze retailer (west side Woodmans, Madison) has a pile of 2014 Talisker DEs that they must have found in the back room behind a dead cat or something. Priced at $60, it's a steal, especially when sitting next to the standard 10-year-old for $66. An extra year of maturation for six bucks less, and it's a beautiful classy whisky. Go Talisker!

I bought one for my whisky club and if I had money in my personal whisky piggy-bank, I'd probably stock up on two or three more. I usually see it around $80 or $90, which is a no-go for this hobo.

Binny's has a ton of (mostly oddball but interesting) stuff on sale right now. I just placed a big order for my whisky club and thought these were the two best deals:

•Everything from the English Whisky Company, including a peated cask strength private pick, is $30 ($40 off).

•A private pick cask strength first-fill sherry Glentauchers, only 7 years old, is $40 ($50 off).

These look like clearances to me, so I imagine they're available at these prices until they're all gone.

ACE spirits (in which I have no financial interest) has OGD 114 for $19.98 plus shipping online. And Booker's for $40. They have a $60 pre-tax /shipping minimum for online orders.

Believe me I tried to get some. I have a friend in Boston (But Ace won't ship there). I contacted my friend near Seattle (shipping brings the total cost per bottle (based on 4 bottles) to $28.45, (and a store there has it for $30.45 out the door) but if you have a Canadian credit card and billing address ACE can't process it online.

Oh well... :(

Ace Spirits also has a $10 coupon right now if you spend at least $100. Coupon code BOO. It expires tomorrow, 11/2.

And please kindly observe that they're still stocking—get ready for it—the much-lauded KILKERRAN WIP #7 BOURBON CASK STRENGTH!!! I ordered one more for my personal stash, along with the new Lagavulin 8 for my whisky club.

@OlJas I saw that but sadly you can't use a credit card with a Canadian billing address online there... ,maybe PayPal?

@Nozinan , they just not want your worthless Toonies or whatever. :)

@OlJas

I's a US dollar credit card. We have those up here just for that reason...

I was at a liquor store in St. Augustine recently and had to do a double take at the 49.95 price of Oban Little Bay. There was a sign that indicated it was 50.00 off. I asked the clerk if this was correct and he assured me it was. Not one to pass up a deal I bought three.

A store near me has 5 of 6 Jim Beam Harvest Collection (missing red wheat) priced at $25. Even better as a long time customer he gives me 20% off. That is 11yr special recipe bourbon that retails for $45+ when it was available for $20. He gives me the same price for Buffalo Trace Wheated White Dog. I'm thinking about getting enough to fill a small whiskey barrel.

@PeterG7 , I've been seeing that discount on Oban Little Bay a lot by me too (Madison, Wisconsin). That and Talisker Storm seem to be the new standard $50 malts from Diageo.

A shop near me has a few bottles of Talisker Distiller's Edition 1999/2010 in battered old brown cardboard boxes for £52 ea. I am holding out for a discount because of the condition of the boxes, but let's see......would this qualify as a Steal, in the view of the Connosr community?

@dougwatts I would probably snap them up at £52 it looks that bottling is going for 2 or 3 times that price on some UK retail sites.

I think you're right @Jeanluc.....it has gone for more than that on some auction sites I've seen too. I see Nickolls & Perks have it available for £55, which is the only reason I hold out hope of a distressed packaging discount and haven't taken the plunge yet (that and the fact that I've spent up my 2016 whisky budget...)

@dougwatts , I'm in the USA, where the best price I've seen Talisker DE lately has been $62, which I thought was a great deal. If you just do a straight currency conversion, your price is even better. Jump on it!

@dougwatts See if you can get them for 50 if you take a few of them off their hands. Here in Vancouver they run the equivalent of about 75-80 GBP. Better grab some, Doug, even at 55 it's still a good deal .

Cheers

I just picked up a bottle of Redbreast 12yo Cask Strength B1/14 for $67.97 (with tax) - which was only $3 more than the price of the standard 12yo next to it. The local stores upped the price on the CS to $87.59 around 6-8 months ago. I happened upon a store the other day where they seem to have failed to up the tag to the current price. I figured they might not let me buy the lot. So I tried for one bottle. It rang up at the current price. I had to point out the posted price on the shelf. After a 15min wait for the manager they honored the posted price. Basically a 23% discount. A steal? Maybe not. But a decent price on a good whiskey.

P.S. I have already finished one bottle of the B1/14 and have a second in reserve that I paid the $87.59 for several months back. I have a current bottle of B1/15 open. I think I like it even better. Sadly, I would need to pay full retail for a second.

@Nock , nice grab. I've noticed the prices on the 12 and 12CS relative to each other are often goofy, with lots of variance among stores. Sometimes you find them within just a couple bucks of each other, like you did. Score!

Lagavulin 12 YO Cask Strength 2015 edition for $3.50 ALL IN!

How did I score that? Well, as I've posted, 2 of my in-laws gave me a Glenfiddich 18 for Christmas. Now, I don't celebrate Christmas, and I certainly don't drink Glenfiddich. I was hoping to leave it in Calgary but my wife convinced me to pack it with all the other bottles I was bringing back. The hope was to trade it in for 1-2 bottles of something at the LCBO in a few months. Though Costco had it for under $120, It retails for $156.45 in Ontario.

I got wind that Lagavulin 12 was again available at LCBO so I looked it up and there were bottles available nearby. I confirmed that this batch is good from a fellow connosr. A quick phone call and I was able to organize the trade at a local store. The Lag 12 retails for $159.95 so I had to throw in $3.50.

I would not have bought the Lag 12 at $160, but because I had a bottle I didn't want, I was able to make it happen. I think the Lag 12 (even 2014 edition) is definitely worth $3.50.

Bagged the 1999 DE Talisker mentioned earlier in thread for £39 yesterday - quite pleased with that one.

Well scored @dougwatts .