Help in selecting a whisky

[craig-mcgill]

I found Talisker 10 to be quite smoky but nice.

[Peat Sampras]

Glen Scotia 14yo. Lightly smokey and sea-breezey (is this a word?)

[Blackie-05]

I suggest you go for the Caol Ila 12yo, it's lovely. Had a couple of drams of it yesterday. The price is reasonable and it's widely available (I gather)... Have you already tried peated Connemara, by the way?

i wasnt aware there was a peated connemara!!! Some great suggestions!! And its payday tomorrow!!!

[Peat Sampras]

i wasnt aware there was a peated connemara!!!

There surely is. I haven't tried it yet though, so if you do, don't hesitate to post your feedback

[C57]

More heavily peated than you are looking for, I suspect

[Peat Sampras]

More heavily peated than you are looking for, I suspect

If he just doesn't like the Laphroaig "peated style", he mightn't have a problem with heavily peated stuff. By the way, just poured a Laphroaig Quarter Cask

[Malt-Teaser]

i wasnt aware there was a peated connemara!!!

There surely is. I haven't tried it yet though, so if you do, don't hesitate to post your feedback

I wasn't aware of an unpeated Connemara.
But yes, this is peaty and smoky in a gentle Irish way without any iodine or seaweed.

Malty

[C57]

Yes Malty - I think it IS the peated Cooley, but they always emphasise the Peated in the name?

[Blackie-05]

Well guys! I bought a bottle of the tesco islay malt.....

It is just the ticket. Its not overpowering! it is malty, smokey, peaty, and suprisingly delicate! more peated on the nose, but when you get into it these is a fruityness to it that is lovely. almost appley/peary fruit, with a nice rounded malt falvour and a nice dolup of peat/smoke.


£15 very well spent!



thanks guys for all the help. i appreciate it! keep on commenting any further suggestions as I am looking for more stuff like this!

[The Craw]

Good stuff B5 - nice pick

Not sure what other supermarkets you have in Lisburn (not sure if you have any eg Asda or similar or just the likes of Dunnes) but other Islay own-labels are good as well and worth looking out for, and similarly priced.

You may want to explore Caol Ila and Bowmore too, as I suspect (but don't know for sure, nor will anyone else) it will be likely either of these that go into own label stuff.

Other than that just pick up what Tesco have on offer and you can afford, the like of Highland Park and Talisker as mentioned above, but these are a different style entirely being a good bit less peaty.

All the best and Slainte from Edinburgh

[ralfy]

... Signatory Ardmores and older Ledaigs get my thumbs-up here, examples both reviewed at ralfy.com (plug plug) and as for the Tesco Islay, it's a young minerally Laphroaig of rather good character and excellent for the price.
.... or how about some Irish Connemara for a milder peaty-moment.

Note ... at the moment the Supermarkets are continuing to do some great whisky offers so buy a bottle of Aberlour 10yo for £15 at Asda and add drops of Ardbeg 10yo till it tastes just peaty enough to suit you. Ardbeg blends well.

... hurrah !!!

[Blackie-05]

Funny you should say it is laphroig ralfy...

it tastes nothing like the ordinary bottling.....much much much less medicinal! So much more delicate. wee spot of water changes the appley/pear notees to just like munching through a nice unripe conference pear. Loverly.

go on ralfy.....if you know more about this whisky, please tell. Is there bourbon casks somewhere about here? How do they get the same start product, to end up so far apart. The peat and all is there, but the iodine (which i dont care for) doesnt seem to be at the fore...what age is this then?

is this the "Blasda" of the Laph stable? Perhaps there is hope for me an the old peat hurricane after all!?!?!

As for the aberlour 10 and ardbeg combo....good call. Some people may have stock piled the aberlour already (5 bottles stashed away)

I remember getting a wee 50ml bottle of ardbeg and doing the "celtic connection" idea with blackbush......it was a real revelation, even if I did go slightly lean on the ardbeg to save it alittle.

[The Craw]

it tastes nothing like the ordinary bottling.....much much much less medicinal! So much more delicate. wee spot of water changes the appley/pear notees to just like munching through a nice unripe conference pear. Loverly.

go on ralfy.....if you know more about this whisky, please tell. Is there bourbon casks somewhere about here? How do they get the same start product, to end up so far apart. The peat and all is there, but the iodine (which i dont care for) doesnt seem to be at the fore...what age is this then?

is this the "Blasda" of the Laph stable? Perhaps there is hope for me an the old peat hurricane after all!?!?!

Blasda is of the Ardbeg stable.

As for Tesco Islay 'what age is it?', the bottle states 10yo:


Ralfy, I don't think it's a Laphroaig but could be convinced (BTW congrats on the 100 reviews, well done and with a Bladnoch too )

As I stated upthread, we 'heard' that Tesco Islay used a batch of heavily peated Bunnahabhain 'Moine' a year or two ago but that's the thing with these own labels, they tend to change from batch to batch, perhaps intentionally so to protect the brand after any insider info has been spread. It could well be a Laphroaig now (at least in the Tesco batch stocked near to Ralfy) but the next batch, or indeed the batch available to you in Lisburn, Liverpool or Luton, could well be a) Ardbeg (less likely) or b) Bowmore or c) Caol Ila.

I say, forget about where they from just enjoy them for what they are and that is great value.

[Blackie-05]

What I meant by the Blasda comment was is this laphroaigs version of ardbeg "blasda"? is this just a lightly peated laphroaig?

It really does amaze me the way distillers can work whisky into different styles and shapes, creating really different drams from the one start product.

...and the bottle says ten, which means it is, but just cannae figure out how the standard 10 and the tesco 10 could be so different!!!

Doesnt really matter either way, I like it, and it was well worth buying! Had another dram last night and I am really enjoying it....just wish I could put my finger on what it was!!

(Lisburn has a Sainsburys, Tesco, the Largest M&S in NI, but our Dunnes is a clothes shop only....and Asda is 10 miles down the road on the outskirts of East Belfast.) But good deals and great whisky is worth travelling for. So I will be keeping my eyes and ears open for deals!


oh and congrats to ralf on the big 100 and an excellent choice for your whisky of the year!

[Tim F]

B5, have you tried The Vineyard off-license on ormeau rd? If not it's definitely worth a look the next time you're in Belfast. If you're coming from town, it's just past ormeau park on the other side of the road (ie on the right) before you get to where the curzon cinema used to be. The prices will obviously be a bit higher than the likes of Tesco etc, but the range should be a lot better than anywhere else. It might be worth ringing them before you go if you're looking for something specific.

[Blackie-05]

B5, have you tried The Vineyard off-license on ormeau rd? If not it's definitely worth a look the next time you're in Belfast. If you're coming from town, it's just past ormeau park on the other side of the road (ie on the right) before you get to where the curzon cinema used to be. The prices will obviously be a bit higher than the likes of Tesco etc, but the range should be a lot better than anywhere else. It might be worth ringing them before you go if you're looking for something specific.

Good man! will try that next time im down the road!!! Didnt even know there was such a place in Ballynafeigh!

[Blackie-05]

....Two points to make....


One: Gave an old friend who is a bit of a whisky buff a dram of the tesco islay 10....and according to him it is laphroaig. been over recently, and he said before he tasted it, that it was laphroaig and he had saved a tenner and bought it himself...but never being one to refuse a dram he took a glass and confirmed that it was indeed laphroaig. 100% - well done ralf. never would have put it as laph myself!? didnt seem anywhere near as seaweedy/iodiney.
Would love to know what they do to make it so different from the dist. brand 10??????

Second: Bought a bottle of Talisker last night. WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!! What a whisky!?!?!?! Absolutly bloody brilliant dram and just what I was after! So, cheers for that one! really enjoying this (as I type) superb.

[Blackie-05]

Right, here is a side question for the peat-heads


I have this bottle of tesco islay malt. got half way down it, and loved it. Then I bought a bottle of talisker...which i love even more. After a week away from the islay, i poured a glass last night...and to my horror it appears to have changed?!? the light peary fruit has slipped to the background, and now it has a grapey foretaste (pinot noir), leading to what i can only imagine is sucking rubber. it has lost its balance. the smokeyness has faded too...and its all just a bit flat! i would go as far as to say, i would rather have the ordinary 10 laphroig, even though the iodine is a put off, at least the flavour seems to stay in tact. this just doesnt deliver on flavour the way it did.

i know people talk of whisky oxidizing, but surely it doesnt go like this? such a change for the worse in a week. do you have to decant islays whiskys into smaller bottles as you get down the bottle? it is quite a broad bottle? does that make a difference? pardon my ignorance.

any help will be gratefully recieved.

and thanks for the talisker tip.......what a whisky!

[Yello to Mello]

First off, Im glad you like the Talisker, I didnt think you would have liked it either.

i know people talk of whisky oxidizing, but surely it doesnt go like this? such a change for the worse in a week. do you have to decant islays whiskys into smaller bottles as you get down the bottle? it is quite a broad bottle? does that make a difference? pardon my ignorance.

Whisky oxidizing like that shouldnt make that much of a difference like that. I had whiskies where the best drams were the first, 1/3 in, and I like Laphroaig and think their last drams of the bottle are the best. Nevertheless this "oxidation" never made me change my opinion on any whisky.

The change could have came from a change in your environment. Perhaps you had the recent dram just after a big dinner and the dinner aromas from cooking were still in the air. This can greatly affect it. I made a whole thread a few months ago how my Bowmore tasted like cauliflower.

[Peat Sampras]

I agree. Very often I'm most astonished how a dram can taste completely different from the last time I've tasted it. It depends on what you ate, drank, smoked before, on the time of day, on the mood etc.

So there are two possibilities:

a) You were in a good tasting mood when drinking Tesco malt for the first time but actually it's disgusting and the second time it revealed it's true ugly face;
b) You had a "bad palate day" the second time and will like it again when drinking it the next time.

There's only one way to find out: pour a dram.

[Blackie-05]

will get back to you....


will have a dram when i get home this evening!

[Blackie-05]

....er.......


....the rubberyness has faded alittle again to the background, however the green fruits (peary taste) still has faded to the background and obscurity.

This is now a rather bland affair. the first half of the bottle was very good. just what i was after......but returning to it. it just is not the same. £17 im not going to cry into my glass. but will i buy this one again.....i dont know. it was good, now its average. with some others hitting the £20-22 mark, for a fiver more, I might try that.

may give a bowmore a rattle, and need a new HP12 as im running dangerously low. And Gfiddich 12 is on offer atm.

so several choices across the board there, but I appreciate all you comments. if anyone comes across any more whiskies like this, dont be affraid to say. The talisker tip was a great success. wonderfull stuff.

[Blackie-05]

praise God for bottle swaps....

...gave a nip of the tescos islay to my mate and he took the bottle home with him in exchange for 1/2 a bottle of glenlivet 18.