Regrettable Purchases

Whiskybee: I ordered the Auch Classic last night. Vile dram. I thought it tasted like the smell of carpet glue that one smells after a new carpet has been laid in one's house. I have the Auch Three Wood in my safe at home. Now I'm hoping it will pass muster. Yikes!

Compass Box Hedonism. Expected more. Not for me.

@rigmorole - That's an appropriate description! I've never read anything quite so negative about anything else from Auchentoshan. I've tried the Three Wood, I own the Valinch, and they're both good B / B+ whiskies.

Glenrothes Robur Reserve, tasted too strong of anise. Me and my buddy ended up blending it with other whiskies for a dinner session with a bunch of friends. Also tried the Classic Malts Gentle, as someone mentioned, very forgettable but as Ralfy would say, "It was an education".

Great thread.

Thanks to SquidgyAsh for steering me away from the Nadurra. It's the most affordable CS by me, and I've been tempted by it for the upcoming warm months, but I'll look elsewhere for my summer peaternative.

My worst buy has been Loch Lomond NAS single malt. It tastes so flowery that I had to hold my nose in an effort to push past the smell to the (OK) palate. This was the bottle that first pushed me to create a "dump decanter" with undesirable bottle remnants that I hope will offset each other. Now granted, this was not an expensive bottle (18 pounds, maybe?). But it DID take up a precious bottle slot in my luggage when I returned home from my one (and probably only) trip to Scotland. I MUCH rather would filled that slot with something from Islay. Younger me was such a fool!

I have a few, since I like to taste as much as I can. Tap 357 was an obvious one - I knew it would be shit, and it was shit - but I wanted to try it. Maybe the most disappointing was Scapa 16. I bought a bottle, and afterwards, tasted it at an SAQ in Montreal and really didn't like it. My bottle is still closed...I should sell it back to the LCBO...

Canadian Club 20 year old......so nasty. In my personal opinion, anything C.C. is nasty! Another regrettable purchase was Wild Turkey Rare Breed. Another overrated whisky. I should use it as paint thinner.

I have purchased over one hundred bottles over the past two years. I can't say I've ever actually regretted a purchase. I tend to do a bit of research before I buy most bottles but do buy blind on occasion. To me it's all about the journey. I want to try everything. There are so many dif styles and flavors out there... if something is really that bad to can always make an expensive cocktail out of it! I have yet to find something I'd put in that category though.

@SMC...hold out some hope for Canadian whiskey. Like you, I am not a huge fan of most of it, but Corby Distillers Lot 40 (100% rye whiskey) I have found to be simply awesome! A pour that I had last weekend (one month after the bottle had been open) smelled and tasted like drinking a lightly buttered slice of rye toast. Awesome stuff. This is what Canadian rye should aspire to be, imho, and it would be interesting if they came out with this in cask strength form.

@talexander...since your Scapa 16 is still sealed, you should be able to take it back to any LCBO store (since it has been carried there) for an exchange of equal or greater value. I wish I had that regret in my cabinet! :)

Anything below 100$ that tasted bad I don't consider a mistake, more of a necessary evil during the tasting process. Luckily you can find what distilleries produce "not so good" scotch by tasting their entry level malts. Distilleries I avoid are Auchentoshan, Cardiff, Jura, Knockando, and some others not worth even mentioning. The only true mistake I still have in my cupboard is Johnny Walker Blue Label, what a waste of money. Bought it in my pre-malt phase. Other super premium blends weren't so bad at all, Chivas 25 and Ballantines 30 are quite tastefull and interesting drams.

I've bought two whiskies that wouldn't go away.

The first was Compass Box's Great King Street — Artist's Blend. I may be the only person alive who doesn't like it. The bottle that I had was very lemony. Too lemony. I tried everything. I added water. I added ice. I put the bottle in a freezer. Finally, I added it to diet coke where it worked great. That was the only way that I could finish the bottle.

The second is still with me: Elijah Craig 18. I must have bought a bottle from one of the few bad barrels. Now I’ve never actually tasted wood, but I’m pretty sure that I know what wood tastes like thanks to my bottle of EC 18. The bottle is only ? empty. You may say that I’m a pessimist because an optimist would have written “? full.” If you tasted this EC 18, you would realize that “? empty” is being optimistic. I look forward to the day when, without spilling the contents down the drain, it’s completely empty.

Tullamore Dew last night at McMennamins. It was only one glass. Nothing tragic. But it tasted like Pledge furniture polish smells

Don't know if you've had it @rigmorole but the Tullamore Dew 12 is quite nice actually. Definitely worth a try!

Roger that. I'll give it a whorl.

@lmann86 I've had the same experience friend. I have around 40 Single Malts in my collection and have tasted about 40 more at a great scottish bar in STL. I honestly haven't tasted one that I didn't like...my first go on Laphroig 10 was not a hit but now I love it. Johnnie Walker Blue was definitely my worst purchase at $149...but still have to say it's very enjoyable.

So far I´ve been lucky purchasing 30-50 euro whiskies :) Some of them were a little weird to me at first meeting (Laphroaig, Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain, Edradour, Old Potrero, Bulleit) , but then I grew into them, and started to appreciate them for what they are. Sometimes I just have to get used to a certain flavor profile and sometimes a bottle turns into something different halfway. That said, I used to like Clynelish 14 a lot a few years ago, the last time I bought it it did´nt do it for me, it was a bit stringent and it certainly did´nt ´open up´ halfway.

@Onibubba Funny, your miss was my hit this year. Did´nt the Longrow open up a little since the first drams and do you add water to your whisky in general?

1) Corby's Royal Reserve Canadian Rye - almost like drinking caramel coloured water. Luckily it was a 20cl bottle.

2) Cragganmore 12yr - came as part of the Classic Malt's Strong Collection (3 x 20cl bottles) with a Lagavulin 16 and Talisker 10. It was really quite boring and uninspiring. I don't regret buying the Collection, as it means I won't be shelling out on a full 75cl bottle of Cragganmore.

3) Old Forester Signature 100 Kentucky Straight Bourbon - far too woody and hot, even for a bourbon. I didn't even really like baking with it, so I mixed with 50/50 with Wild Turkey 81, and the result has been fantastic...

I bought a bottle of Crown Royal Maple Finished on the recommendation of the store clerk. It was a big mistake. It was much like drinking maple syrup straight up.

Like others, Auchentoshan Classic and Auchentoshan 12. I have yet to try the Three Wood, but I am scared to after all of my negative experiences with the distillery.

However, I have heard good things about the 3-wood...I will have to try before I buy though...I have lost faith in them.

@whiskyjourney I am not a fan at all of the Three Wood. But there are a number of good independent bottlings of Auchentoshan, and many of their limited releases are interesting, like Valinch and 1998 Fino Sherry.

I agree with those who say that all whisky encounters have a valuable learning aspect, and I prefer to keep any sort of grousing about bad products to a minmum.

That said the ones I most regret having spent my money on fall into two groups: 1) relatively expensive whiskies for which I would not have paid the bottle price if I had known how they tasted, and 2) off bottles and seriously crappy products at any price. Of course, any litany of this sort is going to separate one's own taste and individual bottle experience from some who are fans of the whiskies in question.

In the category of way "too much money for what it was", for me: 1) Greenore 8 yo, 2) Wiser's 18 yo, 3) Wiser's Small Batch. The Greenore just wasn't much better at $ 56 than a $ 12 bottle of Mellow Corn. The $ 75 Wiser's 18 was annoyingly cloying and artificial. The Wiser's Small Batch was just chemical.

As for dud bottles and "hard to take under any circumstances" products, I had a bottle of Elijah Craig 12 that just tasted of nothing but soap for two solid years, a 1.75 L bottle of Charter 8 yo bourbon which took over a year to oxidise enough to become something I could enjoy drinking...and, even at $ 10, and strictly for educational purposes, that 3/4 full bottle of Georgia Moon is mighty damned hard to take. This post was intended to be mostly about money spent, but I have to say that I regret just as much the first minis I had of Buffalo Trace and Knob Creek bourbons, which were both terrible, and put me completely off of both of those products for a couple of years.

Onibubba, I almost never spend $ 100 on a whisky which I have not previously tasted. (and I have never liked Glenmorangie 18 much either)

@StevieC - I hear you man. I have half a bottle of 1981 CC 10 yr-old. It took me twenty years to open it and two years to drink half. I tried the 20 yr-old and struggled with it; I kept an open mind...perhaps the 30 yr-old?

@Victor As always you manage to say volumes of great insight and information in your approach to discussion threads like this. Thanks for all that you bring to my whisky journey. I find that I really would like to stay focused on the brands that I like and not really mention the ones I've had regrettable experiences with, keeping with the old adage of If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all. Thanks for the perspective check. :)

@PMessinger, I completely agree with you that accentuating the positive is by far the best way to discuss whisky. There is a place to communicate the unenjoyable experiences, too, though. Unpleasant as it intrinsically is, negative feedback still remains useful information. Of course it is completely up to each one of us to filter negative feedback according to our own tastes and experiences. For example, I find negative feedback more useful from those whose list of "don't likes" is relatively short, compared to those who seem to only be able to appreciate a handful of products, and dislike everything else.

I do think that overdoing the list of "don't likes" merely pollutes the air and makes connosr an unattractive environment. So I am keeping my list of "don't likes" short.

@Victor Absolutely right that both positive and negative feedback is needed. The regrettable purchases in this thread were all learning experiences to be sure and that when I did my home work on the Speyburn, Auchentoshans, Glenrothes, GlenGarioch, I got about 50% pro and con so I took a chance on them. Those troubled me in the writing of this discussion thread because those are some very historic and long storied distilleries and I didn't want to say don't buy this whisky it's junk or sound like I was beating them up with bad reviews. Maybe I'm just over thinking this discussion thread. Thanks again. :)

One word - Laphroaig!