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A Steal of a Deal ?!

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By @HP12 @HP12 on 13th Mar 2011, show post

Replies: page 23/33

@Frost
Frost replied

I recently got charged the local Bowmore 12 yr shelf price for a Bowmore 18 yr

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Frost It's a good buy in terms of getting a deal. I would have completely missed that because I would never have bought either...

6 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost replied

@Nozinan - LOL, hopefully no FWP effect on this bottle

I wasn't planning on buying it, I did however note the pricing mix up and took the punt on that factor alone. I have really been holding out for them to up the ABV and drop the chill filtering before I committed to the 18 yr, yet here I am.

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Frost maybe you can return it for the 18 price and trade it in for something good... That's how I got 2 bottles of Caol Ila 17 Yo CS for about $120 (total for both) and in a separate deal traded in a gifted Fiddich 18 bought in Alberta at 60% the LCBO price for a Lag 12 CS (I added $3.50)

6 years ago 0

@MadSingleMalt

I gotta say, there's a difference between getting a good deal and ripping off a seller.

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@MadSingleMalt LCBO is not ripped off. They sell the return for the same price they paid for it.

6 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor replied

Next to the LCBO everyone else is a piker in the rip-off game.

6 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Victor Of course, a few years ago someone (caught on camera but never in person) walked away with the LCBO's only bottle of Glenfiddich 50. Now THAT was a steal of a deal.

No, it wasn't me. I don't tend to like 'Fiddich.

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Victor
Victor replied

@Nozinan, Glenfiddich 50 yo trades for A'bunadh through your 300th birthday.

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Victor No, I calculate approx. 315th birthday with what I have in my cabinet. But where would I put it all?

6 years ago 0

@MadSingleMalt

Taking advantage of a store's mistake to nab an expensive product at an incorrect low price, and then returning that expensive product for the correct high price is ripping off the store. Same as taking $30 out of the store owner's pocket.

If I owned a store and caught someone trying to rip me off like that, that someone would, at the very least, never be allowed in again.

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@MadSingleMalt fair enough. But what if the pricing was "on purpose" for reasons that defy logic, and then the price goes up later?

This is often the case at the LCBO

6 years ago 0

@MadSingleMalt

@Nozinan , well, that's different of course—but is that what we were talking about?

6 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost replied

@MadSingleMalt I don't think anyone on here is discussing on how to rip off retailers. I didn't see the point of going into the finer details of my transaction as it was not a case of inappropriate behaviour.

The law in my country is such, if an item is priced incorrectly (over value) it is first item free. If it is under priced incorrectly (under value) you may have it at the correct value. I shop at the retailer enough and pointed it out.

@Nozinan thanks for the tip, I'll be holding onto the bottle to just give it a taste in the future.

6 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@Frost My experience of the 18 is that it is a chill-filtered, overly coloured, underpowered, overpriced, completely nondescript excuse for a high end malt. If you can get a sample or a taste somewhere I would suggest keeping your bottle intact and trading it in for almost any other similarly priced single malt. You could probably get a Springbank 15 or a Glenfarclas 15 with change, or 2 Springbank 10s, or a Uigeadail and a Ten. There are many good alternatives to the Bowmore 18 IMHO.

Here on the Left Coast the Bowmore 18 is $158.70. If BC Liquor Stores made a mistake in my favour I'd be out the door like a shot. About 12 years ago I picked up a bottle of what I thought was Macallan 18. When I got home I found a bottle of 12 in the tube. Some scumbag had obviously made the switch. I went back to the store and they thought I was trying to pull a fast one and I got stuck for the substantial difference. I don't have much sympathy for our government retailers if they happen to lose a few bucks once in a while. And I always check to see what's in the tubes now. Cheers.

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Frost I think @MadSingleMalt made a good point and it was well-taken.

In Ontario, if we "rip off" (for lack of a better term) the LCBO it's no skin off anyone's nose. We're all shareholders and it makes a profit. No individual owner involved. So you lose a little perspective.

When PEOPLE are involved, and it is their livelihood, my gain is their pain. I don't want that. so he's right.

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Frost
Frost replied

@Nozinan fair call and I agree. I don't believe anyone posting here wants to see people get ripped off and lose their livelihood and we connoisseurs lose our whisk(e)y passion

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Pete1969
Pete1969 replied

Picked up an Octomore 7.3 for £100 not sure if any 5 year old whisky is a steal at that price but this is one bottle that possibly makes the grade.

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@MadSingleMalt

@Pete1969 , if you try to set your "price-and-value-o-meter" based on the label's stated age, they've already got you where they want you! :)

If you set it based on the quality of your drinking experience, then nobody can sway you and you can never steer yourself wrong. By all accounts I've heard, that 7.3 is incredible. My local retail price is $180 USD, and I'm considering it. £100 sounds like a good value buy to me!

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@MadSingleMalt That's about US$130, Can$160. I would definitely call that a steal.

6 years ago 0

@Frost
Frost replied

Picked up J.P. Wiser's 18 year old for $54.98 AUD. A local supermarket had a single box on the shelf.

For Australian prices, this is a great bargain, it RRP for 95-100$ here

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Frost That's $15 less than the price at the LCBO, in the province where it was produced...

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Pete1969
Pete1969 replied

@MadSingleMalt one of my favourites is NAS A'bunadh another is Glenlivet 16 Nadurra how I wish I had more than one bottle both hit the mark on a price-value-o-meter. Both were bought around the £40 to £50 mark and either end of the spectrum in age reference.

I don't mind paying for quality young whisky but there are a lot of age statements that fall in the £100 bracket just mentioned it in passing that it is a lot of money to invest in a 5 year old and the end of the comment does imply it is one 5 year old I would probably class as worth the money.

I would never buy something I didn't think was Value for money and will be more careful how I phrase my posts.

6 years ago 0

@paddockjudge
paddockjudge replied

@Frost,

There have been some incredibly great batches of J.P. Wiser's 18 year old. A particular batch from 2010 was a stunner...@newreverie scored it somewhere in the high nineties, I think 97.

6 years ago 0

@OdysseusUnbound

@paddockjudge What do you make of The Scotch Noob's recent "less than stellar" opinion of JP Wiser's 18 in his review of it?

6 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@OdysseusUnbound Less than stellar would be understating it. He hated it. He has hit on what, for me, are the hallmarks of most Canadian whisky (with some notable exceptions, of course). Too sweet, too weak, too many allowable undisclosed additives (colorants, flavour enhancers etc.). For me, there is far too much good Scotch whisky available and too little drinking time available for me to bother with Canadian whisky, and I'm Canadian

6 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Frost
Frost replied

@Nozinan it's a big supermarket chain (Aldi), at a guess they're using buying power and possibly minimal profit to get people instore.

@paddockjudge I can only hope !

6 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@BlueNote There are stunning scotches and crappy ones. There are amazing bourbons and crappy ones, and the same goes for Canadian whisky.

I don't drink enough to "waste my time" on bad whisky of any sort. I found it difficult to get into bourbons because you need a critical mass of experience to really appreciate it. Similarly it took me a long time to even think of Canadians. Thankfully I have had a good mentor. I don't claim to be an expert or even a fanatic, but I'm at the point now where I can appreciate a few of the better ones.

6 years ago 2Who liked this?

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@Nozinan I may have been a bit over general in my comments late last night. I do, in fact, like Wiser's Legacy and I liked Pendleton 1910, which I think might be sourced from one of the big Alberta distilleries. I will try to get some samples of some of the more highly regarded Canadians.

6 years ago 0

@paddockjudge
paddockjudge replied

@OdysseusUnbound, @ScotchNoob probably got a less than stellar bottle or... he might not have the organoleptic abilities required to properly assess Wiser's 18 year old whisky...I'll go with a less than stellar bottle.

That aside, he has some troubling info posted on his site.

"…a Hiram Walker brand previously known as Wiser’s Very Old. It is a blended Canadian whisky, meaning a blend of grain whiskies (rye optional). The components are mashed, distilled, and aged separately, and then blended together in batches for bottling. The 18 is bottled at an anemic 40% ABV."

There is nothing "anemic" about 40% abv. I recently nosed approximately 100 lab samples that had been diluted to 23% abv. The samples ranged from new make to 36 years and varying distillation formats. The "anemia" is likely with the user. I suspect a lack of experience on the part of ScotchNoob with low abv whisky or an inability to detect particular characteristics and properties at a lower abv.

Not all Canadian whisky is aged separately by grain as inferred by @ScotcNoob. Canadian Club claims that its whisky is barrel blended. Wiser's 18 is not blended together with other grains, it is a single grain spirit that is double distilled and gains its properties from oak barrel aging. Alberta Premium is a Canadian Whisky and it is not blended with other grains. Corby's Lot No 40 is a Canadian whisky and it is not blended with other grains. Highwood Ninety 20 YO is a Canadian whisky and it is not blended with other grain whiskies. Collingwood 21 YO is a Canadian whisky and it is not blended with other single grain whiskies...are you bored yet?

You can see where I'm going here. I try to hold back. I want Connosr to be a fun place; however, every now and then someone goes off, spouting inaccuracies, misinformation, or both, and creates FAKE NEWS...so please pardon my reaction if it comes across as heavy handed.

In the body of the review, I find the following excerpt to be weak:

"Nose: Glue. After a rest in the glass to disperse any aroma of adhesives, the nose is suggestive of rye "

My response to this is:

1) After 18 or more years in a barrel, would it hurt to let the glass of whisky stand for an hour or more?!..of course not! A long exposure to air will dissipate any glue (wood resin from barrel) odors detected.

2) There is no RYE in Wiser's 18. The spice is all from the wood...no R-Y-E.

It is obvious that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This was a little review that is a little bit dangerous.

@OdysseusUnbound, I trust this is the candid response that you had in mind when you asked for my opinion....also keep in mind @Victor had a low score for Wiser's 18... which he later attributed to a poor quality bottle.

...'nuff said.

6 years ago 0

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@ajjarrett@PaolaPerez@Victor@GoodVintage@DutchGaelisch + 1 others

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