A Steal of a Deal ?!

@dougwatts , how about an opinion on that CS Rock Oyster?

@Ol_Jas $60 for the Laphroiag CS is the normal price round these parts. Also, there are a few places in South Shore Boston that have all Diageo releases at crazy prices. For example Lagavulin 16 @ $65, Talisker 18 @ $110, etc. Also the Laphroiag CS @ $56 and Lore @ $90.

@KRB80 , wow—those are good prices. (Though I'd still pass on the Lore.) I always figured prices in Boston would be really high!

@KRB80 I'd be all over that Talisker 18 like my cat on a sardine.

@BlueNote Oh, and I am! It's one of my all-time favorites. Just restocked a bottle and will probably be getting another. They have a whisk(e)y event every fall where everything is on sale. I can hardly wait to see the discounts on the already discounted pricing. I just can't believe that I just recently found out about the place(s).

I went to a Chicagoland Binny's that I'd never before shopped yesterday, and oh my god. They had so many crazy-good deals I almost lost my shat. If I had deeper pockets, I would've needed to rent a U-Haul to take home everything I wanted there.

Off the top of my head—so don't quote me on the exact prices:

•Te Bheag, $20

•"Double Barrel" Bowmore + Highland Park, $30

•Single-cask Glenfarclas 10 46%, $70

•Indie sherry-cask cask-strength Ledaig, 13

•Ardbeg Ten with the bonus mini-bottles of Oogie & Corryvreckan, $45

•Balblair 2003-2014, $40

•Indie cask-strength Ardmore 7, $40

•Indie sherry-cask cask-strength Glenlivet, $40

•Kilchoman Loch Gorm, $60

•Other random Kilchoman OBs, $40 and up

•Balcones True Blue, $30

•Royal Brackla 12, $30

•Glenglassaugh Evolution, $30

•Store-pick sherry-cask cask-strength Arran 16(?), $80

•Kinahan's 10 Irish Single Malt, $30

Plus surely some others that I'm blanking on now. I was giddy. I was nervous about spending too much. And I was nervous about missing some of those deals! I ended up buying the ones in bold, which were all just too damn good to walk away from.

...ooh, I forgot one:

•Benromach 10, $35

@MadSingleMalt I think I will rent a cube van and drive it down to where you live and load it up. You are getting some incredible buys lately.

@BlueNote , right? People have long talked about "the bubble bursting." Maybe that's what this is? Or maybe I'm just lucking out recently. In any case, I'm seeing more great deals lately than I ever have since I started paying attention, around 2010.

And I forgot: They also had some Longrow REDs for $80. And the usual Binny's shelf full of Laphroaig 10 CS for $60. And some cask-strength indie Pulteneys that I really wanted to take home. It was nuts!

One more pile-on comment as I recall a few more: Compass Box GKS for $30, some indie Inchmurrins, some Cadenhead's bottlings of unpopular distilleries (like Glendullan), some Amoriks, a Woflburn, an unpeated Caol Ila OB, and some Westlands. All on clearance for much less than I'd expect to pay, even if I've forgotten the prices now. Some "interesting" stuff there, even if not "top quality."

Oh, how I wish I'd been riding some financial windfall. Now that I'm thinking more about it, I really wish those Cadenhead's bottles were on my shelf.

@MadSingleMalt Unlike us... you can always go back.

@MadSingleMalt I'm giddy just reading about some of them deals.

@MadSingleMalt You're killing me, man.

@MadSingleMalt, nice buys. Five years ago I would have bought at least a dozen bottles from that offering. Now I can't drink all that I have. CS Old Pulteney I would have picked up for sure.

Yesterday, I made a foolish pledge in another thread to stop talking about Laphroaig 10 CS for a few days. So of course, what should I find when I pop into my local huge liquor store last night, but a certain unnamed bottle of peaty perfection staring at me at new normal(?) price of just $49.99. Wha-wha-whaaat? How is that even possible?

This place (Madison west side Woodmans, for anyone else looking to score) also continues to sell Glenmo La Santa and Quinta Ruban for $38, which is just weird.

While I'm blathering here, I'll also note that they also got in the 2017 Cairdeas. I don't really love the 48% QC, though, so I'm not too keen on this thing. Here's their whole Laphroaig shelf for anyone who's curious. Some of those prices relative to each other just make no sense. And pay no attention to that conspicuous gap in the front of the batch 009s. :)

@MadSingleMalt you're killing me man.

@cricklewood I know, extremely envy-inducing.

Well, most of those Laphroaig prices in my pic above are pretty typical for the US—it's just that $50 10 CS that's totally wackerdoodles.

And it of course raises the question: Is that Select worth the extra $7 over the 10 CS?

@MadSingleMalt I doubt it. Are you sure that's not a pricing error?

If I were there I would be stripping the shelves of some of those expressions.

@Nozinan , I'm not sure of anything. Except that they now have the new batch at a new price. The last time I looked there, the price was $66.

This joint is not some charming little friendly mom-and-pop operation. It's a low-class volume grocery store full of staff who couldn't care less about anything they sell. Behind the counter, they have heaps of expensive Macallans, Laphroaig Lores, yada yada yada—all piled up on their sides to pack them into the anti-theft cases. I tried once to tell them that they were potentially ruining all that expensive whisky and nobody cared. I'm sure as hell not about to tell them that they're undercharging for my favorite bottle.

@MadSingleMalt, ten years from now you will likely be asking yourself whether you bought enough bottles from this shelf while you had the chance.

Sometimes there are pricing mistakes made by careless retailers. In 2011 we had Talisker 18 priced lower than Talisker 10 in my local county stores. The only way I could make sense of it was that maybe they had found an old batch of it in a warehouse and priced it marked up from its original acquisition price-- the sort of move a bureaucratic institution might make. I marched down and bought 8 bottles at a few cents under $ 50 each out the door. Within 6 months they cost $ 135 here, and $ 163 now.

It would be one thing if you weren't sure that you liked Laphroaig 10 Cask Strength. But since you do... Seriously, what are the odds you would regret buying 3 or 4 at that price? They are so well priced that they would make great trading stock even if you decided that you didn't want to wait around to drink them yourself. The only downside is tying up a little capital into liquid on your shelf.

@Victor , you're right of course. I should find $200+ in my budget somewhere and glom up on at least four bottles.

I don't really track my stash, but it "feels like" I already have about four to six bottles of this—by biggest supply concentration, easily†. This buy would ~double that supply and set me up for one bottle a year until I'm 50. Damn!

@Victor , you've been at this game a lot longer than I. It sounds like you're in more of a "drink down" rather than "stock up" mode lately, but do you mind sharing what your biggest stock-up has been?

Cheers.

---

†My distant second: Ardbeg Ten, of which I have two unopened—and I thought those were a great deal when I recently found them for $45. Yeah, that really puts this in perspective. All about the Laphroaig 10 CS train! Toot toot!

What have I stocked up the most? 1) Ardbeg, 13 unopened bottles to go with 7 opened bottles, among the unopened 3 of them Supernovae (two 2014, one 2015), 4 of them pet batches of Uigeadail L10 151 and L11 028, a Perpetuum, a couple of Ardbogs, a Corryvreckan, a Ten; 2) the 9 unopened bottles of Laphroaig recently and previously mentioned; 3) Talisker: 4 unopened Litre bottles of 57 Degrees North and 4 remaining bottles of Talisker 18 year old. In American whiskey I have a lot of Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection whiskeys, Elijah Craig 12 yo Barrel Proof, and Abraham Bowman releases.

What do I wish that I had more of? 1) Amrut Intermediate Sherry, 2) Aberlour A'bunadh, 3) Macallan Cask Strength, 4) another Octomore Orpheus 2.2

What do I want that I've never had a bottle of? 1) Willett Family Estate 23 yo barrel # 11 "Iron Fist" Rye, 2) 40 yo 1967 Duncan Taylor Springbank, 3) Highland Park 25 yo, 4) Amrut Portonova

@Victor, oh yeah: How could I forget your famous plural "Supernovae"? The rest of your "biggest-stash" list reads like the whisky world's "greatest hits" list over the past decade or so.

Let me know if you ever source any of those 1967 Springbanks—especially if you're interested in trading for some Laphroaig 10 CS! :)

That 1967 Springbank cost $ 2,200 7 years ago. That would require a lot of Laphroaig 10 CSs in trade!

I think that the key ingredient in successful whisky purchasing is to trust your own intuition as to relative value and then close the deal by laying your money on the table. If you honestly believe that the product in front of you is "a steal" then you should be buying 3 of them now.

@MadSingleMalt, yes, I am more consuming stock than amassing stock at this point. It is a great feeliing to look around and see 50+ different bottles which I know that I will love to drink. I am interested in sampling (almost) everything, but I don't need a bottle of everything. If I buy a new bottle now, it is likely to either 1) be opened, and add to the ridiculous number of bottles I have open, or 2) wait in a long queue of unopened bottles which will see the darkness of the inside of my mouth some years into the future.

@Victor @MadSingleMalt

I would have to say that the expression I have the most of is Aberlour A'Bunadh. 17 bottles of 14 different batches.

I have 25 bottles of Amrut distributed over 7 different expressions. 1 is on hold for a fellow Connosr so that's 24, my largest holding of any distillery.

In terms of closed distilleries, I have 14 Armstrong Bladnoch (2 trapped in the US)

@Victor, $2,200, huh? You drive a hard bargain, but OK: I'm willing to throw in half-full plastic handle of Seagrams 7.

I'm sure you're right about the key to successful whisky purchasing. I suppose it's a little like buying collectibles: They people who make a killing are those who bought what they wanted before the rest of the world caught on, started selling mimic products as "collectibles" from day 1, and pricing stuff way beyond its intrinsic value.

If you know what you like and what it's worth to you, then you can never get ripped off.

Addendum, to my Ardbeg list above: the 13th bottle I couldn't remember was Ardbeg 1990 18 yo Airigh Nam Beist. Last but certainly not least.

@Victor Isn't 13 an unlucky number? maybe you should get rid of one. I know someone who could help...

@Victor That ANB is a real jewel in the crown. Major envy here.