How uncommon is it to buy a bad bottle?

I don't think a slightly oily mouthfeel is a flaw, in most cases I would even say it's an asset. A diminished finish also seems like a minor thing. Remember you're talking about a cheap entry level whisky here... Are you sure you're not imagining things? Are you comparing the old and new bottles side-by-side or did you empty your last bottle and then buy a new one?

It's virtually impossible to make every batch exactly the same, so in fact it's not surprising that you're noticing differences. It should not be a matter of real quality differences though - even when you notice the flavours are slightly different, it should be on the same level overall.

@WhiskyNotes I know it's an entry level whiskey but the flavor seems a lot weaker than every bottle I've had. not a big deal, just wondering if it's common as this is the first time I've noticed a huge difference in 2 of the same whiskies

@linusstick, in my experience outlier bottles and batches are much more common than whisky lovers would like to think or to believe. People like to think that a product with the same name on it will be the same thing each time it is encountered. It is a lot more work to accept the reality that this is very often not the case. It is often not the case.

One of the best features of Jim Murray's Whisky Bible is that in it he keeps track of how the same named whiskies change with the various samples of them which he encounters. Whiskies OFTEN go from great to crappy and vice versa in a short period of time.

An honest reviewer understands that what she or he does is not to make an absolute pronouncement about a named product, but merely to do an individual assessment of an individual sample, with the knowledge that the next year's batch, or the next sampled bottle, may smell and taste entirely different, even to her/his own nose and palate. .

I drink a lot of Aberfeldy 12. I sent my father a bottle. He opened it and tried it and was unimpressed. When I got to his house a few months later I had a taste and it was completely off. That was my first experience with an "off" bottle. It was bland. I hope to someday have my dad try a normal (amazing) bottle to right this wrong. So, yeah, sometimes you get a clunker. It's a possibility with hand made products.

In over 50yrs.of Whisky drinking, I have had only 1 bot. of truly dreadful Malt: It was from Bowmore and I had purchased 2 standard bots. One was excellent, the other undrinkable. So, I jumped up and down & sent 'a letter' (remember those?),anyway, the short version is that they were very apologetic and took details and a couple of bots. of a better level arrived from their Australian distributor with a covering note, to wit, "...and we have have quite a few problems with our bottler". One bottle in all those years I think is pretty good.

Bottle variation is , perhaps, one of the more interesting aspects of our hobby and there are times when your favourite 'drop' will disappoint! A'bunadh #19 was a great Whisky, batch #20 didn't do any thing for me; but one batch in 38 isn't bad odds, and I'm sure there would be some folk who thought #20 was OK!

I have bought a lot of Wild Turkey Bourbon ( I know yours was a rye) and have only gotten one bad bottle. It had cork taint you can tell what that is it's just not off a little it's undrinkable. I would guess it may be something you have eaten or your palet is just off it happens. I'll have a favorite whiskey that for a while just doesn't taste good, then I get over it. @linusstick

Hello all, I find myself asking the same question. I have a bottle of Aberlour 10, which I've tasted a couple of times now. When I read/watch reviews they seem to be describing a different whisky. The one I have is rather prickly and is dominated by a sweet vanilla nose, to the exclusion of anything else. Taste is hard to pin down as this whisky is so damn rough, do I have a bad bottle?

@Phil73805

I was not too impressed with the 10 the one time I tried it at a shop. It just can't hold a candle to the A'Bunadh. So maybe it's just the expression.

@Jonesz, holy sh*t, that bottle must have been terrible, it left you 'speechless'.

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine!

@Nozinan Very possible but I don't know enough to make a judgement.

Occasionally, If a whisky you are used to drinking is "off" it might not be the whisky, it could be you. I've sometimes noticed that a particular whisky didn't seem right. It wasn't the whisky, it was me. In this case, I was developing a cold and my body was reacting to the whisky. Another time, I had eaten different foods and my taste to the whisky was off. Although, I recently opened an untried whisky and right away I suspected something was wrong. It had a cork like sour musty smell. I tried it and my only thought was this bottle is going to take the better part of a decade to finish. I put it back on the shelf and a couple of days later I got up the nerve to try it again. The sour musty cork smell was gone. The only explanation I could think of was once it was exposed to air it changed. Still not the best whiskey, but I managed to choke it down. There was a silver lining to this. I had 2 bottles. I took that bottle back to Total Wine and they gave me a credit and I switched it out for a lagavulin.

@PeterG7, Oh so true! Each day can bring a whole new tasting experience. I've had days when a bottom shelf expression could rate five stars...sometimes you just never know what the old whisky genie in the bottle has in store for you.

@Iinusstick How are you storing your whisky and how long have you had it? Whisky can react to temperature. For example, if you are storing it in a hot dark area and you have had it for awhile (years), and not exposed to light, it can go through changes. In the example I gave in my post, I suspect I may have to take the blame for the bad bottle. I bought it about 3 plus years ago. It was put away, along with a number of other bottles in cardboard boxes in a closet. I only live in this house 5 months of the year (winter home Fla) Summers in Fla are brutal. High heat and humidity. I think this might be a major factor for how the whisky tasted. In the next couple of days, I'm going to open a whisky that I'm familiar with and see if it too is "off". Man, I hope it's good! I have about 50 bottles here.

@paddockjudge So I diligently type out with my "hunt and peck" methodology a lengthy dissertation on this topic, it is cut completely and you call me speachless! (g)

@Jonesz *I give up-Typed out another reply and it was completely chopped again.