Choose Your Whisky Australia

That's easy: the Connosr Top 50 rated...and my personal list of favourites! :-) (Oh, yeah, and about 500 additional ones...)

@Victor HAHAHA man Victor you always put a smile on my face and a thought into my head :D

By the way all my friends who don't live in Australia and who don't know what Dan Murphys is and are actually curious this is the web address!

danmurphys.com.au/dm/home.jsp

@SquidgyAsh "I've recently been hired on to liquor store full time (my first time in over 10 yrs I've not worked with animals!" LOL Wait till the day before a major holiday if it's like here you'll see plenty of animals. Always wondered why people wait till the last minute. If it was my choice I would look into the Arberg and Glenmorangie lines IMHO best of two worlds. Lots of good choices out there best not to forget a few Bourbons too.

@SquidgyAsh You're working full time in a liquor store?! That sounds like a big change! How exciting.. they should be happy to have you on board with your passion for whisky. I reckon some Japanese whiskies would be awesome. You just don't see anything beyond Yamazaki 12 around the place.

Older Yamazakis, Hibiki blends, Hakushu, Hanyu, Chichibu, Nikka ("from the barrel" at least), umm what else.. Yoichi, Karuizawa... people will love it. Last 2 or 3 years running best whiskies in the world have been Japanese so I think having a decent selection of those would set you apart from the rest.

Another thing is tastings.. host regular tastings to get new customers, particularly if you're selling whiskies they won't know anything about. Also shows you're serious about whisky which whisky lovers really appreciate, I'm sure you'll agree!

Would love to hear the story of how you got to be in a position to get that job! Nice one.

@systemdown I have to completely agree with you. With the japanese whiskys and the tasting sessions in particular. Otherwise I would recommend other world whiskys: Indian, Swedish, Irish, maybe some German or Austrian? :)

@Wills Yes for sure, if I could walk into a place and see Mackmyra and Amrut on the shelf (or even Kavalan!), I'd know that I was in a truly International whisky house! Have to be a little more careful with those though, as some expressions are hit and miss e.g. Amrut Fusion - I think you'd want to know that batch variation will not be a big issue.

As for German or Austrian whiskies that could very well be interesting! I can only think of one off the top of my head - "Reisetbauer" which I believe is Austrian - sounds like fascinating stuff especially the ones aged in barrels previously holding local wines and ales!

And while we're there, @SquidgyAsh please make sure to have some "Stroh" rum (160 proof) on the shelf! Or maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself on the rum front.

I neglected to mention - Aussie and Kiwi whisky - there's such a shortage of Aussie whisky everywhere you go that IF you're lucky enough to see some on a shelf, it's likely to be limited to one or two choices only - pretty pathetic really, given how many GREAT Aussie whiskies there are these days. As for Kiwi whiskies, there are also some really really good ones out there from smaller craft distilleries and/or aged stock of famous malts like Lammerlaw (independent bottlings etc).

Now THAT would add to the credentials of a place as it'd be a disservice to Aussie/NZ whisky if they weren't on the shelf alongside their Scottish, Irish, American and "world" counterparts. Everyone knows that Aussie whiskies are world class and they ought to be represented (especially the more accessible ones like Sullivans Cove Double Cask - I remember that dram fondly from the Brisbane Whisky Expo and it's been on my wishlist since - Nant is hit and miss unless you can source the crazy good stuff that Jim Murray was raving about. Would be awesome to see some Timboon port wood and of course the full Bakery Hill range which is excellent).

Phew. I'll leave it at that, for now.

@systemdown Funny thing, I was going to give the advice to buy some Reisetbauer 12y (it's Austrian) but then I didn't post it, because I actually never tasted this whisky. But I am very curious how it will taste. Of not all Aussies will be looking forward to try this one, but I am from Germany you know ;)

strengthandflavour.com/hans-reisetbauer-dis…

What do you like most, Aussie or Kiwi whisky? And which one would you prefer for a decent price as a beginning for those whiskys? Be careful what you write, I will keep that in mind :P

@Wills I've heard good things about Reisetbauer! Thanks for the link. So given that you're German, which German whisky would you recommend?

As for Aussie whisky - on the whole, they're better than Kiwi whiskies I'd say but of course we have many more distilleries in comparison. Having said that, I'm yet to actually TRY a Kiwi whisky - I got close a couple of times - so I'm simply basing on reviews and articles I've read. I'd love to try some Kaiopoi (new craft distillery) and some Lammerlaw if I can get my hands on some (very rare these days).

I'd probably start with an affordable, proven and generally available Aussie whisky like Sullivan's Cove (good French oak / American oak / Port cask usage and great bottling strength 45-50%, all non chill filtered and un-coloured). If you like the peated stuff, then you can't go wrong with Bakery Hill - and so many expressions to choose from, too, including great cask strength versions. I would NOT recommend Hellyers Road (as it's simply not very good whisky), Lark and Nant (as they're too expensive for what you get, generally speaking). Hope that helps.

@systemdown Thx, that helps a lot! I have to be honest with you, I was just tasting one single German whisky and I don't think it is very recommendable. I just started with scotch for good reasons I guess and now I am trying to get some 'other' whiskys, too ;)

Just discoverd the George T. Stagg has to be really really nice. Unfortunately it is not that easy to find in Europe and therefore pretty expensive. Like I learnt here, this is a typical problem for you guys from Australia out there :(

Haha my friends the way I got the job is a weird one.

I'd been trying for months to get a new job due to the fact that I was hating the way the animals were being treated by the owners of the wildlife park of where I worked. But sadly I was having NO luck whatsoever. No one would bite. Then my brother in law received an email from the international beer shop. There sister company The Phoenix Beers Showroom had an opening for someone to run the store where the public can purchase beer in bulk.

I went in for my interview and when they asked if I liked beer I actually said I didn't care for it because I was a whisky man through and through. Hahaha. But I said that I would do things in the line of duty for the company's good. Such as drink gourmet beer.

Surprised as could be when they next day they called offering me the job. So I took them up on it haha.

I've just finished my first week there. I'm hoping to get Phoenix to carry some good whiskies for wholesale in Australia. But pretty cool was that day 4 the International Beer Shop contacted me via email saying that they'd heard I was a whisky man who knew his spirits and asked me to come along this Monday to give them some suggestions for whiskies to stock.

Not sure how many whiskies I'll be able to choose, if any, what prices I'm going to be looking at, etc. But I figured I'd see what you guys would be interested in.

I'm shooting for George T Stagg, affordable Port Ellens, Kavalan whiskies, etc. I don't want to refer them to anything like Amrut, where the quality is dodgy and inconsistent. However I'd like to see some good Aussie whiskies in the mix.

If anyone has anymore thoughts though, shout out!!

I would say Bakery Hill, Glendronach and BenRiach. Just my two cents

@DramFineWhiskie Sounds good to me!!

Well I just got back from my meeting with them and it was a little bit different from what I thought, buuuuuut I have an email link (not sure if I should post it on the forum) for anyone in Australia who's looking for something that they can't find in Australia you can email this address and they'll try to import it for you. Pretty sweet.

DramFineWhiskies Welcome to Connosr!!! I took a look at some of your stock. Looks yummy!!!! I do believe you and I shall become good friends :D

@SquidgyAsh No worries Ash. If that email link you are talking about is industry only, I would keep it fairly close to your chest.

@DramFineWhiskie Nope it's not! It's for anyone in Australia who'd like it. If you use them you'll be paying the retail price, but what they'll do is see if they can import whatever whisky you're looking for. I told them I'd be letting all of you guys know, but I know we do have some whisky shops on here and I don't want to cause any strife or cause any loss to anyone's livelihood. But yah if you're looking for something in particular just shoot me a message and I'll pass the email along to you!

@SquidgyAsh if thats the case, then knock yourself out. We all have that little gem that we want to find but it never makes it way to Australia. I dont think you would be stepping on any ones toes by asking someone to source some product for you.