Whisky

[VeritasVincit]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll bear them in mind when next out.

[m4rkb]

I'd suggest a very blind eye is being turned towards the length of time producers claim they hold maturing whisky stocks versus what is actually the truth.

In the whisky world itself it is a known fact.

You what?

There was even a report about it in the Daily Mail a few years back claiming the ages are being faked as the distillers seemed to be able to supply unlimited amounts on demand for countries which have only just switched onto it. And all this must have happened 12 years in advance for a 12 year old. Suspicions are therefore aroused.

I can only presume something like adding one drop of 12yo to an otherwise full bottle about 2 years old allows them to make such a statement.

Any road, I had a few glasses of one which cost about £350 a bottle and I have to say it was fucking awful. Normal Grouse pissed all over it.

Fuck knows what it now as it was a good few years back and I've forgotten. But the label was something like a goblin sat under a bridge. It must have been donkeys years of storage costs and rarity which made it £350+ a bottle because it certainly wasn't anything to do with taste.

Nah, I simply don't believe that that sort of thing goes on - not in Scotland, anyway.
Customs etc has records of all activity in a distillery, and they have to present records etc of what they do very regularly.

Also, the age statement on a bottle of whisky refers to the youngest component, so if I had barrel of 18-year-old whisky and put just a teaspoon of 10-year-old in it, I could then only release it as a 10 Year Old.

The point is that at the moment, demand exceeds supply, which is why so many distilleries are removing age statements and launching non-age-statement (NAS) bottlings, eg Talisker Storm/Skye, because they just don't have enough aged stock at the moment.

Re your £350 bottling - that's very hard to gauge. Just because a whisky is old doesn't automatically mean it will taste good.
I personally think that the sweet spot for ageing is between 15 and 21 years. That gives the spirit enough time to soften and interact with the wood, but once whisky has been in a barrel for 25 years or so, there's a big risk of the wood influence becoming too great, so blenders have to taste frequently, and once the balance is right, they have to get a wriggle on and decide what to do with it.

That was a very interesting answer and a good one. You claim this could not happen in Scotland or presumably other parts of the UK due to Customs control but what are the chances of the laws being flouted or somehow bent elsewhere? What if stocks of Bells for instance fell outside of its control? There's an awful lot of VAT , and I don't mean 69 so is it possible a blind eye is being turned?

As a whisky / whiskey drinker myself with a good few mates the same, it is more than suspicious that the stocks have been questioned. I'm open minded on it if there is valid reason. But when the world suddenly discovers a taste for 12 year olds (other than Gary Glitter ) , it does beg the question about forward planning and was it enough back then to satsify predicted demand years later.

[m4rkb]

^ I should qualify that and point the finger at bigger distilleries with huge sales volumes , rather than the smaller more obscure ones as you partially answered the question.

[subsub]

What if stocks of Bells for instance fell outside of its control? There's an awful lot of VAT , and I don't mean 69 so is it possible a blind eye is being turned?

Do you know how many distilleries Diageo (the owner of Bell's) owns? And how many millions of litres of pure alcohol those distilleries produce in a year?

[Sid Pervcat]

Diageo is Guinness as well innit?

[subsub]

Diageo is Guinness as well innit?

Yes, and Smirnoff, Baileys, Gordon's, Tanqueray, Captain Morgan, you name it

[m4rkb]

What if stocks of Bells for instance fell outside of its control? There's an awful lot of VAT , and I don't mean 69 so is it possible a blind eye is being turned?

Do you know how many distilleries Diageo (the owner of Bell's) owns? And how many millions of litres of pure alcohol those distilleries produce in a year?

No. Which I why I'm asking the question and trying to get to the bottom of it.

[The Ghost of Alex Higgins]

What if stocks of Bells for instance fell outside of its control? There's an awful lot of VAT , and I don't mean 69 so is it possible a blind eye is being turned?

Do you know how many distilleries Diageo (the owner of Bell's) owns? And how many millions of litres of pure alcohol those distilleries produce in a year?

No. Which I why I'm asking the question and trying to get to the bottom of it.

The barrel?

[m4rkb]

Scraping it.