Ralfy - Gooderham & Worts 17yo

@RianC His experience is similar to mine. My G&W 17 went from a “bottle of disappointment”, to “it’s ok”, to “very good” in about 4 months.

@OdysseusUnbound - That's interesting! Some good (and free) PR for them right there as well.

@OdysseusUnbound yes, they all change, some a lot, some a little, some for the better, some for the worse, some for the better at first and for the worse later, etc. etc. .

@Victor I'm still waiting for my bottle of Weller 12 to achieve "drinkable without gagging" status. It's been about 16 months. I probably won't even revisit it before August or September. It's still about 3/4 full...

@OdysseusUnbound give it a good 24 months. That's about how long I had to wait. I've tasted at least one better and more quickly likable bottle of Weller 12 yo than mine or yours. If you get a dud as your only bottle that is 100% of your experience, no matter how much most people like their bottles. That now 8 years open bottle of Weller 12 yo of mine still tastes quite good, btw. It remains more than half full.

For me the sad tale of the bad bottle includes such beloved classics as Lagavulin 16, Talisker 10, and standard Elijah Craig Small Batch 12 yo, along with said bottle of Weller 12.

Others have had bad experiences with some which have not yet let me down, such as Grant's Family Reserve and Elijah Craig 18 yo Single Barrel.

People want desperately to believe that the whiskies they buy will taste the same one batch to the next. It is not true. Not true for the cheap ones and not true for the expensive ones. I've been through a few bottles of Van Winkle. They vary a lot from batch to batch. That is that same Weller mashbill, of course.

@Victor I can only hope that the six bottles of OWA 107 I bought on the strength of that first bottle don’t totally disappoint.

But I agree with you; my last HP 12 Viking BlahBlah was incredibly deceiving. Weird sulphur on the nose...It wasn’t horrible but it was distracting.

@OdysseusUnbound one never knows for sure. That said, OWA107 is as good a bet as any.

As for HP12, my only bottle of that was very nothing-y until it had 7 months of air, when the honey finally showed up . @Nock had a truly wretched bottle of HP12 once. I don't trust HP12, at all. And that from someone who loves Highland Park from a good bottle. I cherish my unopened bottles of HP15 and HP18.

@Victor My HP 12 is about 1/4 full, opened in early 2011. When I last tasted from it in July 2018, it was quite good as I recall.

@Victor A friend of mine is what I jokingly call an Edrington Whore as he loves Macallan and HP. He's had me taste from several bottles of HP18 (pre-Viking blahblah) and some HP25 and I found those bottles absolutely marvelous. These days, I'm actually curious about the HP 10 Viking BlahBlah as Serge rated a bottle of it 90/100 points, which is rare for Serge, especially for a bottle that isn't essentially unobtainium (e.g. a 1978 Port Ellen 29 Year Old Cask Strength bottled by an obscure Lithuanian company and sold on a pier in a Copenhagen flea market that only opens every 2nd full moon)

@Nozinan my bottle of HP12 from 2011 became good, but I had to wait a long time for that to happen. I remember vividly my Scotch loving brother in law refusing my offers of HP12 to him. He simply didn't want to drink it.

@OdysseusUnbound Macallan and Highland Park are both additional good examples of how ten years ago one could get good products at good prices. Now, not so much. For those brands anyway. .

@OdysseusUnbound Blend it 60/40 OWA 107/Weller 12. Fantastic pour and the only reason I search W12 out. On my 3rd blended bottle in 2 years.

@OdysseusUnbound Serge has 90 moments that don't make sense. He rated the Gordon & Mcphail Bunna 2009 60.5% a 90. I have a bottle of that and it is good and certainly worth the $71 Cad I paid, but it is no 90 for me.

@Astroke, I'm having one now with Weller 12 YO purchased in May of 2015. I haven't seen any more on store shelves since that time.

What a great nose!...sweet, nutty, and meaty. @Benancio adds a bit of KC Single Barrel to his mix.

@paddockjudge I am down to my last bottle of Weller 12. Probably a lottery bottle now. So 2.5 more 60/40 blends until I can get another bottle.

@Astroke I’m not sure I’d want to ruin any of my OWA with the addition of Weller 12. I’m not sure words can properly convey how awfully bitter the finish of my Weller 12 is.

@OdysseusUnbound The OWA will tame it down, Do a smaller blend in a 2 oz bottle, wait a week and give it a go. No harm no foul.

@Astroke Maybe my mistake with my last blending experiment was not letting it rest. I did a 70/30 OWA/W12 blend but drank it 30 minutes later...not good.