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N.A.S. = Not a sip!

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By @mct @mct on 2nd Dec 2016, show post

Replies: page 2/2

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@BlueNote , exactly!

The bean-counters who have to figure out which mix of stock to age for X, Y, and Z years to produce # bottles of expressions at various expected prices to maximize revenue must have a real job on their hands. I can only imagine the number of Excel spreadsheets or whatever that must be involved.

8 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

Don't downplay evaporation. Let's say it costs $100 to fill a cask (or multiples of that). If you age it 10 years and get 100 bottles or age it 20 years and only get 60 bottles, that increases the cost per bottle significantly.

8 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@Nozinan , for sure. You're very right that time both (a) incurs costs and (b) reduces the number of bottles to spread those costs on.

Let's take your example a step further—and simplify at the same time—by assuming your yield goes from 100 bottles to 50. And let's assume that 20 years of maturation costs, as a whole, twice what 10 years of maturation costs. The two factors together mean the per-bottle maturation cost quadruples in our hypothetical example.

But 4x a small amount is still not a huge amount, and it's not accounting for the price difference between (say) a 10-year-old at $50 and a 20-year-old at $150.

8 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Ol_Jas

  1. I'm not a part of the marketing dept. so I don't have to defend outrageous prices (so i agree)

  2. 20 YO malt for $150 ? WHERE?!!!!!

8 years ago 0

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@Nozinan , right on. Like I said to BlueNote above, I hope all this chatter serves the purpose of truth-finding rather than arguing for the sake of arguing, or making anyone defensive.

And 20-year-old single malts? At your favorite non-Canadian retailer, of course! :)

8 years ago 0

@casualtorture

Kavalan is NAS and has delicious whisky. Warmer humid climate makes a huge difference.

8 years ago 0

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@casualtorture Amrut similarly has a shorter maturation time.

BUT.......they could still tell you what that time is....

8 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@Nozinan , heck yeah.

"Young whisky from hot climates can be good" ≠ "Please don't tell us the age"

8 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@Ol_Jas, @Nozinan, A very enjoyable and civil discussion, and most certainly a worthwhile exercise in truth-finding. There are many less useful ways in which we could be wasting our time.

Cheers

8 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Pete1969
Pete1969 replied

I drink NAS but try to be selective we all know the distilleries and bottlings that are worth buying.

My solution to the issue would be to suggest the rest of you stop drinking whisky so the price drops and age statements reappear. I eagerly anticipate your compliance with the solution but do not imagine there will be any takers. Lol

8 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@Pete1969 I will be doing my usual 1 month alcohol detox starting January 2nd. That should cause prices to plummet as sales falter. No potato chips for a month either. I believe @Nozinan goes through a similar self punishment around that time of year too, so expect prices to drop to an all time low. wink

8 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Pete1969
Pete1969 replied

@BlueNote I have visions of the bean counters at Diageo crying into their vats of NAS at your month off, how will they explain the fall in share price and the watering down and drop in quality of their next release. This was not a lesser version of a beloved aged whisky until they had such devastating news and their caterwauling dropped the ABV from a respectable 46%abv to 40%.

8 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Pete1969 Diageo won't suffer on my account, as I rarely buy their stuff. Possible exceptions include Caol Ila and Lagavulin 8 for this year.

@BlueNote last year's month off was a spur of the moment thing, and it does put a dent in my efforts to drink down my cabinet, but after a small tasting with some debating buddies on the second I may very well take a 31 day hiatus.

8 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Ol_Jas
Ol_Jas replied

@BlueNote and anyone else interested in the above discussion about what drives high prices (is it production costs or just demand & profit-taking?) should check out today's post on the K&L blog:

spiritsjournal.klwines.com/klwinescom-spiri…

8 years ago 2Who liked this?

@Victor
Victor replied

@Ol_Jas, yeah, prices have gotten so that we see less and less of that "blah, blah, blah" about justifying the current absurd prices on lengths of aging, etc. Sooner or later people figure out that $ 1,200 Warriors tickets and $ 800 30 yo Scotch are simply "what the market will bear."

8 years ago 1Who liked this?

@Nozinan
Nozinan replied

@Victor Which is too bad, because whisky will evolve into two categories. Cheap, affordable crap that requires cola or ice, and hyper-expensive collectible stuff (good or not).

Those of us who bought in when things were affordable (and I got in just toward the end) and stocked up can ride it out (our lifetime supplies will carry over to the next generations), but anyone who didn't will be priced out and KNOW what they are missing.

But a new generation of enthusiasts will never be born, because they'll not be able to afford anything good to make them enthusiastic.

8 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor replied

The 40 yo Tawny Port @ $ 100 a bottle at my local liquor store has no one lining up to buy it.

8 years ago 0

@BlueNote
BlueNote replied

@Nozinan. Even sadder, the next generation has a similar faint hope of ever being able to own a home, or ever see peace on earth. Let's hope that sanity somehow prevails in 2017.

A happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas/Hanukkah to all my connosr friends and your families.

8 years ago 0