My bang for the bucks whiskies

If you have been into whisky for a bit and think you are well acquainted with the front row at your local supermarket and ready to venture into new territories, things can be a bit of a jungle. The amount of bottlings out there these days is high. Wonderfully high. There's more to the world of whisky than top brands like Glenfiddich, Highland  Park, Glenlivet and Macallan.Nothing wrong with those I will say before going on.

Amongst bloggers and in forums it's always a reoccuring subject to name cheap whiskies, which is looked upon as great value for money. Who isn't interested in good deal ?

Here's MY list of a set of whiskies, which might not be the cheapest whiskies around, but I think you won't get better value for money than these. I don't think it's a coincidince that 9/10 of these are bottled at 46+ ABV, as my personal preference is for unchillfiltered, not watered down whiskies

Deanston 12yo, 46.3%
The new revatted, unchillfiltered version of Deanston, and what a comeback. Creamy, delicious single malt. Available for less than 30£

Deanston mini

Old Pulteney WK499
Available in selected airports World of Whiskies shops...Heathrow and Edinburgh from personal experience. I have seen this at 50£ for 2 1liter bottlings making this the best deal in whisky I have ever seen. It's a NAS Old Pulteney cask strength in a typical style of the distillery. Seaside vanilla and mint!

Balvenie 15yo Single Barrel 47.8%
Cask variation will of course be there, but these are typical delicious ex-bourbon vanilla whisky. Yum Yum. Not more than fortysomething quids usually

Tomatin 18yo 46%
Another solid comeback and a living proof that whisky at 46% just is better. One of my favourites at the whisky fringe 2009

Amrut Fusion 50%
First time I got this blind I guessed it as 20+ year old lightly peated speysider. Nuff said

Back label of Amrut, bottle almost gone

Glenburgie 10yo Gordon and MacPhail 40%
Sometimes seen at below 20£ on offer in UK, and below 300Dkr as standard price in Denmark, this is a delicious continous bottling from Gordon and MacPhails. It has got special touch that I often find in G and M sherry casked whiskies

Bladnoch Forum Bottlings
Apart from their own whisky, Raymond bottles a big selection of other distilleries. Bladnoch Forum bottlings is probably the greatest value for money whiskies around! Even includes Bladnoch whisky itself now and again.

Bladnoch Forum Bottling example : Cambus Grain 

Lagavulin 12yo Cask Strength
Bottled at cask strength and 12yo this is one of my favourite Islays. 44£ in Edinburgh airport

Tweeddale blend 46%/ Black Bull 12yo
A pair of excellent delicious blends and delightful newcomers to the whiskymarket. And it's great to see a blend that's not watered down to 40%. Less than 30£

Aberlour A'bunadh
Legendary small batch NAS cask strength fullsherried whiskies. Beware, there can be some batch variations

And here is one that you might have missed.

Arran Peacock
This was out 1½ year ago and sold out most places. Still available at Juul's in Copenhagen. Voted whisky of the year 2009 by whiskywhiskywhisky.com. One of my favourite whiskies

Glenburgie

Glenburgie 1890

 Glenburgie is considered a Speyside destillery, it's located just outside Forres on the road towards Elgin and is geographically not Speyside but more Findhornside if that's a name used.

Glenlossie 1956

Lomond Stills at Glenburgie

 Glenburgie distillery was founded as Kilnflat distillery in 1810 and renamed Glenburgie-Glenlivet in 1878. From 1958 to 1981 the distillery had Lomond Stills installed where a malt named Glencraig was produced

 When Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) acquired Allied Domecq in 2005 Glenburgie became part of this group. Chivas has Glenlivet as their malt flagship, Strathisla as combined visitor center for the Chivas blends and Strathisla 12yo, but I guess that Aberlour is their highest regarded distillery among anoraks, at least that's how Aberlour appears when you visit it - tours on several levels, opportunity to bottle straigh from a cask (two when I was there, actually) - a chance to purchase something really unique. The A'Bunadh series of cask strengths batches Aberlour is a famous and highly regarded series of bottlings amongst whisky entusiasts. 

 To me it seems that the tours available at their 3 visitor centres are aimed at different audiences to some degree.

 The rest of their distilleries is not really open for the public, but we were lucky to get a visit at Glenburgie, when being in the region at the Spirit of Speyside whiskyfestival 2010. We also visited Aberlour and Strathisla that weekend , so we saw different aspects of one of the biggest operators in the malt whisky business. 

With the acquisition of Allied Domecq, Chivas got hold of the Ballentines blend and at Glenburgie they promote this more than Glenburgie itself

Glenburgies new production building

The moderne all-in-one production building of Glenburgie. Here you see the stills, with a tiny bit of the mash tun. All the washbacks are located just next to the mash tun

Glenburgie Mash Tun

Glenburgie isn't being promoted as a single malt. Gordon and Macphail does a good 10yo where they have matured Glenburgie in their own casks. This is actually very cheap and some of the best quality for money whisky available. From Chivas self, Glenburgie is available in the Chivas cask strength edition series, a series of 0.5l bottlings, bottled at cask strength, supposed to be avilable only at their distilleries

If you want to explore Glenburgie and Glencraig further you have to go hunt down independent bottlings. Recently a friend, Thomas Korsgaard hosted a Glenburgie day, where we went through this huge set :

Glenburgie newmake, G&M 10yo, G&M 41yo 1964, Glencraig 35yo Duncan Taylor

Glencraig SMWS 34yo, Cadenhead 11yo, 15yo and 18yo

OMC 12yo, Chivas CE Edition 15yo (sample) Signatory 25yo

Carn Mor 25yo, Bladnoch Forum 26yo and 25yo, and something special :

Michael Langelund and Thomas Korsgaard getting some old Glenburgie 30yo straight from a cask

Thanks to Alex Robertson from Chivas for taking the time to show 4 anoraks around Glenburgie, and sharing some old Glenburgie photos with us

More details on the bottlings at Thomas Korsgaards vertical here : 

http://bit.ly/9iQd8B

(Google translate might be needed !)

1. Glenburgie-Glenlivet 11yo Cadenheads 59.8% 20cl bottle

Nose : sweet honey

Palate : spicy woody sweetness, nutty, clean and crisp warming ex-bourbon

quite bitter on the finish

Rating 80

2. Glenburgie Chivas Cask Strength edition 15yo 1992-2007 GB 15001 58.8% (Thanks Karl Ejnar)

Nose : mild, slight vanilla

Palate :  apple and pear fruityness, nutty, clean and crisp warming ex-bourbon

Clearly associable with the Cadenheads, both being ex-bourbon it's not in the minty-vanilla catagory, more the "warm" nutty kind of whisky

Rating 85

3. Glenburgie 25yo 53.5% cask 9804 Bladnoch Forum

Nose : delightful sweetness like a fruity winegum

Palate : earthiness combined with a candylike sweetness, the wood is quite giving with mint and some bitterness

Finish : Slightly bitter and minty

From the whole range of wellaged Glenburgies tasted, this is a true and typical expression of old Glenburgie

Rating 85

4. Glenburgie 26yo 53.6% cask 9803 Bladnoch Forum

Nose : warm, earthy

Palate : more earthiness, mint, quite bitter

Finish : Medium and more bitterness

Rating 85

Thomas Korsgaard is guestreviewing  the two Glencraigs :

Glencraig 35yo 42,4%, Duncan Taylor, Cask 2922, Dist. March 1974, Bottled July 2009, Bottle 18/224 
Nose: Floral, hay, earthyniss
Palate: vanilla, winegune and a typical Duncan taylor old age thing.
Finish: Medium, soft and warming
Rating: 90

Glencraig 34yo 48,4%, SMWS “Angels on Horseback”, 1 of 191 bottles 
Nose: Banana, Toffee
Palate: Leather, hint of sharp perfume, but still sweet, beewax
Finish: Mediumlong, sharp

Rating: 88 

he also supplied WhiskyEmporium with Glencraig samples here : http://bit.ly/3vyofm