What was the last bottle you finished?

@TracerBullet

I have 2 bottles purchased at $73 Canadian all in. They won’t be opened for a long long time.

I let six others go at the time I bought them. They went to a good home and I have tasted from one or two of those bottles. Had I only known how much they would increase in value....

.....I would have done the same thing.

But maybe we would have hung on to the 2 we bought at $93 and then returned when we got these. :(

@TracerBullet that's a very different looking label and box from the Macallan Cask Strenghs which I own. I bought mine late, between 2011 and 2013. Approximately what year did you buy yours?

The big tell for me about Mac CS was what happened to the nose after it took a year or two of air exposure. If I had fully experienced that effect much earlier I would have bought 8 bottles of Macallan Cask Strengh (North American release) rather than the 3 I did buy.

@Victor I liked it right from the beginning. I would have been happy to have more but while I think it’s really good, I know someone who likes it even more than I do and I’m glad those bottles went where they would be most appreciated.

@Victor I believe it was purchased in early 2000's probably 2001-2003 range. Picked it up for a Thanksgiving dinner treat for my FIL and we never had a chance to open it. I threw on the scotch cabinet and for got about it. When I pulled it out again years later, I decided to see if I could get another bottle but it had been discontinued and the current price art that time was much higher than the $60-70 I paid. Now the price on some auction sites is insane; going as high as $1,500+ !

Boy I should have bought a case of that back then!

I'll try to remember to get a picture of my bottle tonight...

Nothing as crystal clear as hindsight

@TracerBullet , as with so many opportunities people often take for granted what they can buy today. Tomorrow it may be gone, and sell for $ 1,500. There is the tendency of many to overly enjoy the perch of critic, to carry on long conversations discussing the very minor shortcomings of the top level products available, which they may or may not deign to buy one day. That satisfaction in playing the role of judge often means more in practice to them than does drinking well. The top quality bottles come and they go. Staring them down with the eye to being their judge and jury often means more to a lot of people than does having a good drink. Then they seem surprised when they own no bottles of the good stuff, and it has skyrocketed in price.

The only things that work in choosing your whiskies to buy: 1) get your own experience, 2) get a lot of experience, 3) trust your own taste, and 4) act quickly and decisively when you get a clear inner perception of excellence at a reasonable price

@Victor

I completely agree. And while I do envy those who have things I don’t to some extent, I know that in my home there will always be something to taste that will be quite satisfactory.

I think though, there is a role for criticism, and I enjoy that quite a bit as well.

On deeper reflection, as much as there is to criticize, one should focus on valid critiques.

Saying A $500 whisky sucks because it’s heavily marketed isn’t fair. The marketing may suck, the whisky may not be value for money, but it may taste good.

As Rabbi Small used to day (I paraphrase) : “ I don’t say shrimp is disgusting. I’m sure it’s delicious. But that’s not the point”

This was brought home to me this spring when I opened one of the two bottles of JW Blue I was gifted last winter. I’ve had little but contempt for it for years. It’s quite good. Not necessarily in my wheelhouse, but good. Certainly overpriced, over-marketed? But not a bad blend.

@Nock - I've not tried An Oa to be fair but your experiences seem to confirm my suspicions. Not one I'll be searching out I'm afraid to say.

@RianC i beg to politely differ. Yes, it is different from uigeadail and the 10 but on its own stands up quite well I think. Give it a spin!

@RikS I agree. Not my favorite Ardbeg expression but I don't think it is bad at all.

@RikS - Well, I'd never turn a dram down of course . . .

@RianC I’d happily be the one offering you one, were the occasion to arise! My point though - I read plenty harsh comments on An Oa once I’d fallen in with the Ardbegs. And then I tried it. And yes, I’d take the oogie over it no doubts. And, I’ve also come to appreciate the 10 to new heights since back then. But on it’s own, and for a moment disregarding the ‘relativity’ of things, I think the rough opinions often given to An Oa have been unfair once I got a bottle.

I have never had a single taste of An Oa, so I have no opinions about its quality. I do think, though, that An Oa, like the other Ardbegs, is likely to vary greatly among batches in flavour and quality. So it is entirely possible that @RianC may like the sample of An Oa which @Weirdo sends him and still dislike all the batches which @Nock has tasted.

@TracerBullet, that is my favourite single malt. Mac CS is the benchmark for sherry cask whisky...no longer available at retail...a pity.

@Nozinan I agree. It is possible to simultaneously enjoy a whisky and critique the marketing and price point of said whisky. I think Macallan’s marketing is absolutely ridiculous. I think the majority of their whiskies are currently the worst value-for-money whiskies on the market. That said, I’ve tasted some very good to excellent Macallan whiskies. I thought Highland Park’s Viking Everything was kind of neat before they put out 67 different Viking NAS whiskies. That said, unsulphured HP whiskies are still delightful to my palate.

I’m not sure why so many people have trouble with separating critiques on marketing/pricing and evaluating the aroma/taste/texture of the whisky itself.

@Victor Finally got around to getting a few pictures of that Macallan CS.

@Victor And the bottle...

@TracerBullet yes that's an earlier release than the ones I have.

@TracerBullet that bottle would have been late 90's and early 2000's. What is the ABV on your bottle? I can't quite make it out.

That style bottle was old design from the 1990's and early 2000's. Macallan changed to the current bottle design when the Fine Oak range came out in 2004. I remember I had picked up a few bottles of these CS bottles in my early days of scotch drinking. It was my first cask strength whisky. It was really good and not that expensive.

I also remember the venerable Michael Jackson (not the singer) raging on Macallan for dropping the exclusive use of Golden Promise Barley in 1994. He claims that this is the main reason for the drop off in character of the Macallan spirit since that time.

That bottle you have would almost certainly contain malt distilled from Gold Promise Barley, and it would have those classic old sherry casks from Jerez Spain. Very good stuff indeed. I can understand why auction prices are so high. You might look inside the box and see if there is a number code. It might help date the bottle.

@Nock Here is the ABV.

@Nock and the code in the box. (which was a bear to get a picture of!)

@TracerBullet Well done! If my guess is correct that box was stamped in early 2003. My "code reading skills" would lead me to think it was the 76th day of 2003. But I can't be certain.

Now if you really want to have some fun (and difficulty) pull out a big flash light or use a bright lamp. Often you can find the bottle code behind the front label near the bottom and backwards. I am not sure if they were doing that for the bottle you have (it might be higher in the bottle). Here is a picture of mine (which is hard to make out). The bottle code reads: L01170 L10 24/02 08:19.

Either it means it was the 170th day of 2001 or it could mean the 24th day of the 2nd month in 2001. Or I don't know what it means at all. Sadly, I no longer have my old box. I got rid of it long ago. If you can make out the numbers and share I would be delighted to know.

@Nock So the bottle code is this: LO505C L10 01/07 17:42 I think the character after the first L is an O not a zero (but I could be wrong)

@Nock The rest of the code:

Kilkerran WIP #1. The last dram from the last bottle from the flock of Kilkerrans I opened for my club last November. Solid stuff, but not as good as sentimentality would have me believe.

I enjoyed it on my back upstairs balcony, up in the treetops, with a moon shining down on me, with The Lord of the Rings score playing on the stereo, on this most perfect of cool late summer evenings, where I've been longing to have a dram ever since we moved into this house last October. A fitting end to a cherished bottle.

@MadSingleMalt moments like those in the right setting can be magical. I have found that whisky always seems a bit diminished when I drink it outside. As much as I love the idea, and the experience, the nosing and tasting never quite hits the mark that I know a particular whisky should in other circumstances. Nice that you enjoy the last of that bottle in a memorable way.

@Hewie I agree that a controlled setting is best for tasting.

That said, my first taste of bourbon was magical. It was at a camp ( we were all adults) outside NYC. We were outside. Beautiful stars. Huddled together for warmth, singing songs with one guitarist... magical

The bourbon? Basil Hayden. Never had it since. But I remember it well.

@TracerBullet you might well be correct in your reading of LO505C L10 01/07 17:42

I would have guessed it to be L0505C

It could be that mine reads: L0117O (or C?) L10 24/02 08:19 Here is the code from a bottle of Macallan CS I picked up in 2013: L0573M L10 11 08 22:33

And here is the code from a 1.75L bottle of Macallan 12yo I picked up in 2018: L0277Y L4 26/06 17:01 While I bought it in 2018 but clearly the bottle had been around for much longer. The more we pool our resources the more we might figure out.

@Nock, @TracerBullet, L10 is likely the bottling line. The letter C, it has been suggested to be the third batch of Mac CS with the letter M representing the 13th batch.... as good a theory as any.

@paddockjudge, @Nock, and @TracerBullet:

Edrington which owns both Macallan and Highland Park use this arcane bottle code on the back of the front label. Ardbeg and Bunnahabhain in the past used this type of coding on the bottom back of the bottle. My best interpretation(which may not be accurate) read right to left:

L0505C

2003 = C

5 (month) = May

05 (day) = 5th

Thus: 5 May 2003

The exception to letter year are O, L, and Q. The "L", in the code stood for "Bottle Line" - according to my research. E&O

Springbank old codes were easy to interpret yy/×××.

yy = year

xxx = days in the year.