Great price / offers - share

@Nickh @RikS - I might have to get an Octomore at some point. Really liked what I tried (IB 8 from Rest & Be Thankful) but paying over £100 for a relatively young whisky, despite the quality being pretty much assured, just niggles at me.

Sure I saw the 8.'whatever' . . . being sold sub £100 recently (maybe on Amazon?)

Does anyone know how the naming/numbering system works? Baffles me!

@RianC, I don't know of any code. It seems to be very much straightforward with Octomore x.1 as the standard bottling of that version, x.2 being the wine cask finished version, and x.3 as yet another version. Not all generations of Octomore have version x.3. Perhaps I'm not seeing other patterns. I tend to be immune to marketing speak, it comes across as a background noise for me.

@paddockjudge - Ah OK. That makes sense. So Octomore 1.0 was the first then any other 1's were variations?

Then 2 came out then 3 etc? And they're on 8 currently I believe?

Like you I haven't paid much attention but when I looked at the 8. something recently I wondered what all the numbers and decimal points were getting at - I was confident that it wasn't the age of the whisky.

@RianC Being Octomore, I always presumed the number was Octane... :)

8.1 bourbon cask, 8.2 bourbon, wine and anything they think add to mix, travel retail. 8.3 the one to have if you cannot get the .2 wine cask influences and usually the behemoth with peat. 8.4 Virgin oak.

6.1, 6.3 and 7.3 under the belt and all fantastic in their own way. 8.2 on shelf awaiting test and looking for an 8.3 to go with it.

Whichever you buy I would be surprised if you regret it.

Aberlour 12 on sale for £28... is it worth it?

I have the A'bunadh but frankly - despite its greatness - I go to it rarely I have realised as its too high ABV, and when I water it it loses I find... It may well be that I haven't found the balance yet, but I feel the A'bunadh with water tends to be... still biting, just thinner. Whereas e.g. my recent "gardening experience" with Ardbeg An Oa revealed the conversion into a sumptuous and oilier full bodied version with water. Hmm...

@RikS my recollection of Aberlour 12 is that it is a decent enough 'entry level' bottling with some sherry hallmarks (aka spices), but at 40%ABV here in NZ (is it 43% in the UK?), it is fairly unremarkable. A nice easy drink all the same when available at a good price. I know there are a few on here who rate the Aberlour 10 which, as I recall, is frequently on offer in UK supermarkets for just over 20 Quid. To my mind, The 12 is overpriced here for what it is (in the same price bracket as Laph 10, Tali 10, Ledaig 10, Arran 14, and lots of the common Speysiders.

@Hewie Sadly, it's 40% here in the UK too. I've seen diverging views on the 10 vs the 12, and curiously on the sale now the 12 is cheaper £28 against about £30-35 for the 10. Meaning that the 12 is basically on par (on offer) with the HP12...

Maybe I should get the 12 and 'heat it up' with 1/4 A'bunadh... rather than water down the latter to a more palatable 43-47%...? I wonder if that would work!?

@RikS interesting thinking - only one way to find out for sure Be sure to report back. Or, do you like peat and sherry? How about something cheap and peated (Bowmore, cough, cough) to 'dilute' the A'bunadh?

@Hewie Yes, tried the HP12 and it wasn't all bad. I wish I could try the 'already made' Ledaig Montillado version though :)

So, I intend to see if what happens if I 1) take down the A'bunadh to 46-48% with water, and 2) bring up the Aberlour 12 to 46-48% with A'bunadh :)

Reminds me of when I was a kid and got my first "The Little Chemist" toy for Xmas...!

A rant.... How the heck can the redbreast normal I'm the UK be around £40 whereas the the CS is £86 (!!!!)... And I compare this to Germany where the standard 12 is about the same as here, whereas the CS is ~£47. Yes, tax may have an impact, sure... But that difference is NOT because of tax. It's too big. We're getting ripped off if we wanna "buy Irish"!

Thank you... Ok... Rant is over...

@RikS, seeking sanity in whisky prices is always a sure way to rile up the blood!

Forgive me for repeating this, but you'll probably love to hear that Redbreast 12 40% and Redbreast 12 CS are often priced within a $1 of each other here in the States. Sometimes, they're the exact same price. It makes no sense, I tells ya!

@MadSingleMalt It's bloody bonkers, as we say on this side of the pond. And I pride myself on being reasonable... add some £+ for the %+ fine... but this one is incomprehensible.

@RikS does it have anything to do with Brexit?

@BlueNote very much doubt it. Nor with alcohol taxation. I think it's simply down to price elasticity... People apparently pay it, so they charge it, and the sellers push the cask strength and get a lot more margin on each sale... It's an odd one though as we're not talking pennies of difference but effectively a doubling of the price.

So many more discussions of prices should mention price elasticity!

@RikS - Totally understand the rant - I've thought the same and it puts me off buying the CS version as much as I'd like to. Irish is a bit of a rip off in the UK, generally

I did see it going for around £60 on a MoM flash sale a week or two ago but it wasn't on offer for long . . .

@MadSingleMalt - that news makes me want to cry ha ha!

@MadSingleMalt i guess it's marketing speak for "we only have ourselves to blame!"

Total Wine & More in AZ has JW Blue for $160 and Oban 14 for $60. The later normally runs $75-$85 and they may still be running a special if you buy 3 bottles you get $21 additional discount.

Just thought I'd share for those of you - like me - that once in a while shop my whisky on Amazon: recently found a site called www.keepa.com.

If you sign up on it, it'll add something to your browser (at least Chrome) and every time you go onto Amazon anywhere in the world (UK, US, jp, es etc), it'll give you a graphic price evaluation of each expression, trends, and allows you to set alerts for price decreases etc.

Why bother? Cause on Amazon the prices tend to fluctuate quite a lot, so unless you NEED that expression right away, it's easy to see the intervals by which they come on offer, and as soon as they do - you'll have a notification. Hey, it may only save you £10-30 at a pop, but as the cabinet grows....

(It also has a function by which it makes you a list for all the drinks on sale at the moment across the site, sorted by % / amount / popularity etc).

Just sharing friends...

@RikS and an image, if anyone has a few bob kicking around and want to get a nice dram... The Yamazaki 35yrs that in March 2017 was selling for £30.000,00 is now at £75.750,00 :-)

@RikS you forgot to add in that delivery is...wait for it...free!

@nooch Actually, delivery used to be £5.95, but when I and two friends ordered a few bottles they arrived broken so when we complained they changed it for free delivery as a token of customer service. So now, it's almost an irresistible deal!

@RikS £5.95 = difference maker.

For those in the UK with affecrion for Irish whiskey: amazon has a flash deal on for the next 4 hours on Redbreast 12 for £32 (I think it's only for prime members)

@RikS Aberlour had a higher proof whisky that they seemed to have discontinued (abv 48%) It was wonderful, and perfect for folks who don't want to get into "mouth breathing" A'bunadh territory.I guess it wasn't profitable enough. I loved that expression and wish they hadn't discontinued it. I won't buy the 40% 12 when there are better but only slightly more expensive options.

A Singaporean friend was convinced to buy some A'bunadh (Batch 60) by the owner of a whisky shop at the airport and can't deal with it, even after adding water. A'bunadh can be very hot. She's an adventurous whisky drinker but doesn't seem to to be enjoying her bottle. Meanwhile, there's a Batch 67 at the local shop n Baltimore staring straight in my eye. I'm tempted BUT--it's likely to be hot and young, as is the case wit most NAS offerings. Unlike Ardbeg's NAS offerings, Aberlour's A'Bunadh (IMHO) seems to be hyped up.The red clor looks nice. Sure there are great batches, but there are many mediocre ones too. But I guess it's a matter of taste. As the Germans say, "It's a matter of taste," said the monkey as he bit into a bar of soap.

@Jonathan red "color" not "clor"

@Jonathan I thought A’bunadh was only up to around batch 62?

@Jonathan i believe you're right. There is a special 12 ncf available (but more rare) with higher abv. There is also a new one just out that I also think is higher abv. The fellas at royal mile whisky in London speculated that this new release is the reason why many retailers including MoM and TWE have bumped up the a'bunadh from £50 to about £85.

@RikS In my state of Pennsylvania, A’bunadh is going for $80 US. I was in Maryland yesterday and saw a batch number I did not own. Unfortunately it was $120 US so I passed on it.