Minis vs Full Bottles

Great topic! Here in Japan, distilleries make most expressions available in minis, certainly not all, but most. Personally I think that is great for the consumer. As you wrote, it allows us to sample different whiskies without burning too much of a hole in our pockets. As for the integrity of the dram, in my own experience I have found that the juice I find in the minis is sometimes slightly different from what I find in the 700ml bottles. Not necessarily better or worse, just different. For that reason I tend to purchase full size bottles. I do feel though, it shows a lot of respect for customers when whisky producers provide them with the option of buying smaller, sample bottles.

I wish more places carried a bigger selection of minis. Would make pulling the trigger on the full bottles a lot easier.

I for one believe that the "midis" i.e. 200ml bottles should be more widely available, even for the higher end releases.

Most of the time the minis are just the ultra standard range, so they don't need the info. I find the lack of info on samples provided by sites like Master of Malt much more annoying. I would love to see more independent bottlers release miniatures.

Given some thought on the topic, I've decided that in my experience the whisky in minis generally bears about the same similarity to the whisky in the full bottles as the same-named whisky from the same distillery does from say, 5 to 8 years prior does to the whisky produced in the most recent year of production. In other words, you can usually identify the whisky in the mini as whisky from the same distillery, but it is usually noticeably different, sometimes worse, sometimes better, and sometimes just simply a little different.

That said, I've encountered a higher percentage of out and out duds among minis than among full-sized bottles.

while on the subject, does anyone know a good online retailer with a wide range of miniatures?

master of malt.. Haven't tried any though, but plan to soon with a few friends

@Maltmark As far as I know Master of Malt does not offer any miniatures

@Pandemonium They're not minis but samples. You get 3cl of available samples. You can even get sample sets. I just ordered the WWA winners set - 5 x 3cl sample. Sullivan's Cove French Oak Cask. Balcones Brimstone Resurrection. The Lost Distilleries Blend. Nikka Taketsuru 17 Year Old. Teeling Single Grain.

So not technically minis but small samples.

@tabarakRazvi I know, I ordered samples from them in the past, but now I get them from whiskyhuis.be a Belgian online shop with a much wider range at a lot cheaper. But I often prefer miniatures due to their better presentation and a better guarantee that the whisky wasn't influenced one way or another.

@Pandemonium ah apologies....

You don't think, other than oxidization, there would be any problems with ordering samples from Master of Malt, right? I mean they are an extremely well reputed company.

Was price the only reason you don't order from them?

Oh, you won't hear a single bad word about the guys from Master of Malt. I was refering to other companies offering samples online, I'm not claiming that there could be issues with fraud, but there could well be mix-ups, oxidation, exposure to sunlight, bad quality of sample bottles (Serge Valentin had an article about not long ago, but I can't seem to find it, how the alcohol might dissolve the adhesive used in screwcaps),... Mainly due to the price, Master of Malt is an extremely popular company, so samples from limited edition bottlings will come at a high price and sell out quickly, thus affecting their effective product range. For example they offer 3 samples from Port Ellen ranging from € 45-116 /sample. Whiskyhuis can offer due its relative size and its obscurity outside of Belgium 8 samples ( 3 and 10cl) of Port Ellen from various bottlers ranging from € 10-33/sample. And a large range of extremely rare, very old bottlings from both regular and lost distilleries. So my choice was quickly made

I always give a glass plenty of time to "air" when poured from a mini

You tend get a greater risk of effect from oxidisation in miniatures because of the relative difference in surface area having air exposure, coupled with comparatively crappy seals.

That's not to say they'll all be bad if they've been hanging around for a while. Had some old 60's Clynelish minis a while back, and out of 6 only one was a little dicey on the palate, although the nose still held together remarkably well.

@sengjc If a company figured out how to make 200mL bottles more profitable than 700mL then you can be sure they'd be flooding on to the market - but remember that things aren't commercially geared for we enthusiastic nerds.

@MaltActivist +1 for Master of Malt here - I can't begin to tell you how many Drinks By The Dram we've bought/swapped/given/etc.

@jasonbstanding Thanks for bringing back this thread, since I just referred to a 200ml idea on the similar thread "Bottles or samples?"

I'd like to challenge your assertion about 200ml "midis" though, because I think market innovation has a high activation barrier in conservative industries. The "invisible hand" is not so fast.... Actually, the Drinks by the Dram you refer to is a great example. Because 5 years ago, one could have said "3ml samples can't be marketable or else someone would be doing it already." But having that creative insight is part of what has made Master of Malt a winning retailer. Now, I can't imagine that 200ml midies would be ideal for every single malt (it would make no sense for Glenfiddich 12), but I could imagine it working for independent bottlers, for example. I would gladly pick up 4-5 of those with much greater ease than deciding on 1 (risky) independent bottling. Now someone in industry just needs to try....

@vanPelt

^^^ What he said. :D

As for me, I am coming from a pricing perspective. We all know that whisky prices are probably on an all time high (and still rising) while world economy is not particularly flash these days. Not everyone can afford to shell out say $150 on a standard bottle of premium malt but $50 for a 200ml bottle of the same is more affordable.

I know the cigar industry is gradually following this philosophy with the higher end range. Where once 20 or 25 count boxes are the norm, these days we see a rising trend for 10 count boxes.

@jasonbstanding

Just charge more by the volume for 'midis' or half bottles to make up for additional packaging costs and overheads.

But an astute producer may decide to rationalise the price per volume across the production range of minis, midis, half bottles, full bottles and magnums for any one batch, just to maintain a level of goodwill towards the consumer. ;)

Master of Malt's minis are nice. They seal well

All, they fill them up with not so much air inside. Some distillery minis are far worse in both respects (excessive air inside and poor seal)