Comments on: The CÀRN MÒR Vintage Collection

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:07:10 +0000

Jon W, good point. And yes, it would be nice if Bruichladdich offered sampler packs, given the number and diversity of their releases.

By: Jon W

Jon W — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:37:53 +0000

I love the smaller bottles and sampler sets. I wish more were offered, especially from distilleries like Bruichladdich that seem to release a gazillion different whiskies every year.

Of course the price per volume of whisky will be higher for smaller bottles, but I am certainly willing to pay a (reasonable) premium in order to try more whiskies.

By: H.Diaz

H.Diaz — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:47:41 +0000

I would be interested in purchasing such a variety of whiskies. Kind of like a whisky buffet. A little bit of everything.

By: Rick Duff

Rick Duff — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:23:01 +0000

FYI.. my cost on the 4yo MacDuff was 8.99 UK Pounds per bottle (plus shipping of course.) Seemed a reasonable price.

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:09:08 +0000

Harvey, please do report your thoughts. Don’t worry, many of my blog followers only check in weekly, and then they go through all the postings.

By: Scotch Whisky News and Tasting Notes | Whisky Party

Scotch Whisky News and Tasting Notes | Whisky Party — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:30:10 +0000

[...] Hansell blurbs the release of CÀRN MÒR vintage collection, a release of 20cL bottles from 24 different vintages from 24 different casks, from 24 different [...]

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:16:45 +0000

And yes Jeff, it IS a nice shirt. I have to get me one of those…

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:16:09 +0000

So, it looks like they have a good thing going here, if they can keep the quality of the product high, and the price reasonable.

By: Jeff Hershauer

Jeff Hershauer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:12:48 +0000

I feel like Whisky Party and I just showed up at a party wearing the same shirt. Kind of embarrassing, but it IS a nice shirt.

By: Whisky Party

Whisky Party — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:42:34 +0000

Depending on the price points, this is brilliant. I was just talking with a friend today about how there are not enough miniatures and small (20 cL) bottles sold in the US. It would greatly expand my ability to try new whiskies if distilleries (or distributors) would release more of these types of products.

One of my favorite purchases in the last few months has been the Islay Gift Pack from Whisky Exchange – 5 20cL bottles of Port Ellen 7th Release, Lagavulin 12 and 16, and Caol Ila 12 and 18.

I want much more whisky in these sizes at my local stores (I’m in NYC, so that fact that I can’t find them here means they’re pretty scarce).

By: Jeff Hershauer

Jeff Hershauer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:36:16 +0000

I’m a big fan of the 200ml bottle if it’s priced right.

Two of my favorite buys were the 2006 and 2007 “Classic Islay Collection” gift packs from Diageo. I got both packs for half the price of a single Port Ellen Annual Release bottle, and scored 400ml each of Laga 12 & 16 and Caol Ila 12 & 18, plus 200ml each of PE 6th and 7th Annual releases. I probably never would have tried the PE otherwise, which would have been a shame.

With all of these single cask and batch releases lately, I’d love to have access to smaller bottles of those, too. It would be fun to compare multiple batches without the commitment to full cost and full storage.

By: Harvey Fry

Harvey Fry — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:44:07 +0000

(in 70cl bottles) i’ve ordered 2 of their
recent releases= a Linlithgow <(=cask)#2220,
25/82-08, 61.8% @GBP 68.08, ex.vat & a Glen
Keith <#13676, 19/90- , 52.3% @56.48, from
different UK retailers. when those arrive
& i try ‘em, i’d like to report, BUT, as we
have previously discussed, the blog doesn’t
have a practical way to do that. the same
problem will occur when the new Benriachs & Glendronachs come, are tasted & celebrated=
the existing blog posts will by then be so
out of date, only the curious wanderer thru would find anything later deposited there.
an archival solution is possible= But it’d
take up valuable space on the right & be a
right fair piece of work to set up.

i’ve yet to see a retail offering of the 20
cls, but WELCOME any format that allows me to try something for less than it’ll cost if
& when i later take the plunge. the 4 times
a regular miniature size seems to me to be just about right= enough for a small tasting
with the possibility of returning for a 2nd
refresher dip^ i only wish they’d make a
few of ‘em cask strength. many retailers
might think this will be a royal pain, BUT,
in this economy they should be happy for any
idea that has a chance to sell.

beyond that, after the novelty wears off, the 4 to 25 year old thing is probably going
to seem redundant/less attractive. why not just offer a few of the smaller size items alongside as many of the regular bottles as
might be thought a good sell? on occasion,
RMW has brought out a 10cl to go with it’s
70 &, when the bigger bottle sells out before the smaller, you’d think it’s been a
good thing. then again, a complete set of
anything whisky is probably as good a gift
for the collector as the enthusiast. i’d
suggest doing both the set & the big/small, but maybe that should wait ’till they see
how this works out.

BTW, these people appear to have put a lot
of thought into their fairly new opperation.
their bottles/packaging are well designed &
far more attractive than some other recent
efforts. i just hope the contents of the
bottles measure up to the PR shenanigans^

By: John Hansell

John Hansell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:14:17 +0000

Rick, that sounds great. Anyone else try these yet?

By: Rick Duff

Rick Duff — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:57:05 +0000

I just received two bottles of their MacDuff 2005 4 year old. It was a nice inexpensive way to try something this young without needing a big bottle of it. Also nice was the fact the spirit is not coloured. as mine was still white. Great chance to drink from my favourite distillery a young almost new-make whiskey. I emailed them and even got tasting notes.