Ardbeg Galileo

@Arthurhs I'm sorry, I don't know anything about Galileo (I'd like to though!) but if you don't mind, what liquor store is that? I live in a control state (Pennsylvania) but I'm taking a trip down to Maryland later this summer - not far from Mont. Co. - and would love to check out a nice whisky shop while I'm down there. Thanks!

@valuewhisky, MoCo has 24 stores which have a county-wide centralised Department of Liquor Contol with an online inventory. Check montgomerycountymd.gov go to DLC, then the search engine to locate individual products. Right now there is no Galileo listed in stock, but the item has been listed in inventory. When the site is operating correctly, usually, but not always, you can check the location of each whisky's inventory in the individual stores.

@Victor Thanks for the note. I nearly fainted as I scanned the selection online! Your one county bests my state in both selection and price BY FAR. Happily, my parents live right "across the border" in Howard County, so now I know and will be making some trips to the Mont.Co. liquor stores in the future. And the sales! In PA, monthly sales are 5-10% generally. There were some solid 20% sales down there. Corryvreckan for $60!? I almost want to drive down there this weekend and "surprise my parents!"

@valuewhisky, I am glad to have been of service to you with useful information...and, if you buy a "case" of non-discounted whiskies/all spirits in MoCo, you get an additional 8% discount on EVERYTHING in your order. The Maryland liquor sales tax is currently 9%, so an 8% discount effectively neutralises it.

They define "case" online, usually (12) 750 ml bottles. Not so hard to do if you have 2 or 3 buddies back home buying a ticket together with you. If you get close to 12, but not quite, just throw in a couple of Scotch blends or inexpensive American whiskeys and get the discount.

You can find the label here: ardbeg-whisky.ch/ardblog/2012/…. So it looks like this will be a regular/general release at 49% ABV, making use for its promotion of the facts that some Ardbeg spirit and cask shavings were sent to the ISS.

forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/…

www.ardbeg.com/ardbeg/space

Seems we have to wait several years to try a low-gravity whisky :)

@markjedi1 But this label is not official I guess. Just read a user uploaded it on facebook...

Time will tell

@Wills We found a Trademark registration in the US patent office (online, this is public information), so my guess is that it is in fact genuine.

Thanks for the info, can't wait to give this a try. If it won't be released for a couple of years, it's odd that they'd add it to the inventory.

For Ardbeg Day, it was added to the inventory about 2 months before the release, so maybe this will be coming out sooner than expected.

And for liquor, a case is 6 bottles, but for sale items, you don't get the case discount, just the sale price.

Better check that case information, @Arthurhs. Case is defined right on the website as "12 pts" with differing size bottles at differing point values, with 750 ml equalling 1 point. And, as I said, if you qualify for the 8% case discount by getting 12 non-sale bottles of liquor, you will get the 8% discount on all of your sale items also, as long as they are purchased on the same ticket. Believe me. I have taken advantage of this numerous times.

@Victor didn't know that you can group sale items with your case and still get the discount. I'll have to take advantage of that.

I've bought a single 6 bottle case before and have gotten the case discount. I've used it may times back when the Talisker 18 was mispriced.

@Arthurhs, it is interesting that you got a better deal in qualifying on a six bottle case than the standard which the website listed. I suppose it is because they do have variable definitions of "case" depending on the spirits involved. A "case" of Sazerac Antique Collection Whiskeys in MoCo is the Sazerac Company's case of 3 bottles. I have gotten the 8% discount on everything on the ticket after buying three bottles of Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye at a time. Unless they have changed their system quite recently, you will still get the 8% off on the whole ticket, even the previously discounted items, as I have done, repeatedly, after qualifying for the 12 pts non-discounted liquor purchase, or the "case" using whichever individual liquor metric applies.

@Arthurhs I think you are a bit confused. The Ardbeg Galileo is their next general release piggybacking on the 'Ardbeg in space' blurb. So the Galileo will NOT be the spirit that is currently in space, of course. That will never be publicly released (after all, it was just a few vials, not even enough to fill a bottle).

@markjedi1...why do I suspect that Ardbeg's marketing machine will come out with a 'super premium / limited edition' release of some sort of whisky that will take the ISS vials and add them to a regular batch that they will then bottle as a release that contains 'whisky aged in space'? You can insert your four-figure selling price here... :)

@Pudge72 Hahaha I can SO see that. I'm thinking something like 1k starting moving up to 5k a bottle. But seeing that comment Pudge really made me laugh out loud.

I've heard rumours that Galileo could be the name of this year's committee release. If it's popping up in inventories in the USA then it might be that Ardbeg are looking into a more non-UK friendly form of distribution this year...

Then again, with the Ardbeg Rocket Tour in the USA it might be a tie-in with that they've not quite got to market in time - whisky-drinker.com/2012/05/…

@markjedi1 Real or fake, that's a lovely label...

My Grandad had a bourbon in a bottle the shape of a space shuttle. Don't think it had actually been on a shuttle though.

The Master of Malt folks have just put up a blog post about this with the label in and a bit of a chat with m'colleague Tim at TWE provided this link:

ttbonline.gov/colasonline/…

Looks like it's a go...

Confirmed by LVMH in Holland. It will be a Marsala finish, available +/- 1st of September.

So it looks like the new Ardbeg Galileo will be a Marsala finish, does anyone know what might be like? I've never tried a Marsala finish whisky.

Release date is 1st September. Unfortunately, I live in Australia and we have to wait until October! :-( For the latest on the Ardbeg Galileo launch go to www.facebook.com/ardbeggalileo

Dear Committee Member,

Unless you’ve been on another planet, you’ll know that Ardbeg has boldly gone where no whisky has gone before – into space!

We all know a taste of Ardbeg never fails to send you into orbit. Which is probably why Ardbeg was invited by US based space research company NanoRacks LLC to take part in an ageing, maturation experiment. Scientists hope to discover the affects of micro-gravity on our micro organic compounds. Working in close collaboration with the Ardbeg Distillery team in Scotland, the boffins will closely monitor the experiment against control samples here on earth: both in Houston, Texas and more familiarly, in Warehouse 3 at Ardbeg Distillery on Islay!

This is a giant leap for Ardbeg so we ask that you will help us celebrate this momentous occasion by raising a glass to the stars and toasting one particular twinkling light in the sky – the International Space Station. For it is this vessel, visible from Earth and orbiting us every 91 minutes, that carries an extremely precious cargo.

So watch the skies. Better still, watch your inbox… And look out for something else very special landing soon. Slainte!

@Sroberts86 I got that one a couple days ago too. It does have me a little curious. However as has been said before I don't think the purchase of said whisky is within the realm of most of us mere mortals sadly :D Maybe we can get samples for $50 hahaha.

@SquidgyAsh well usually around £70 or £80 pounds for Ardbeg releases but hopefully no more because I missed out on the alligator.

@Sroberts86 Hahaha All I can say is I'm jealous of you folks in the UK! The Ardbeg Day release here was sitting at almost $300 for a bottle that you couldn't take home (due to the bar), I sometimes really want to move to the UK for all that sweet sweet whisky :D

Available to pre order on the whiksy shop site:

whiskyshop.com/Shop/…

"Customers who bought Ardbeg Galileo 12 year old also bought Bowmore 43 year old"

:)

@Wills Damm my secret is out ;)