Foreign Whisky of the Month

[squire]

Yes, three months would work, now all we need is a selection process.

[Yeti]

If the idea is that this will be a new sub-forum and that it will serve as a permanent discussion house for each distillery as well as a resource of knowledge and experience, I nominate these distilleries for the first three months.

1) Glenlivet - Perhaps the most ubiquitous single malt whisky in the world. I would be happy to discuss my experience with a show-stopping Signatory bottling, as well as pop open a Nadurra and/or a 15 french oak for the cause.

2) Cooley - an Irish distillery owned by Beam, Inc. Best known for producing Kilbeggan and Tyrconnel whiskies, as well as the peated Connemara. Connemara is the whiskey that introduced me to the peated flavor profile and will always be thought of fondly for that.

3) Ardbeg - The lustre is wearing thin, but this was the coolest kid in school for several years recently. They produce a respectable core range and have many fascinating limited releases from the past 10 years.

[squire]

Or the Grant family, who produce the World's most popular single malt (by sales) Glenfiddich and it's next door neighbor, Balvinie.

[AaronWF]

If the idea is that this will be a new sub-forum and that it will serve as a permanent discussion house for each distillery as well as a resource of knowledge and experience, I nominate these distilleries for the first three months.

1) Glenlivet - Perhaps the most ubiquitous single malt whisky in the world. I would be happy to discuss my experience with a show-stopping Signatory bottling, as well as pop open a Nadurra and/or a 15 french oak for the cause.

2) Cooley - an Irish distillery owned by Beam, Inc. Best known for producing Kilbeggan and Tyrconnel whiskies, as well as the peated Connemara. Connemara is the whiskey that introduced me to the peated flavor profile and will always be thought of fondly for that.

3) Ardbeg - The lustre is wearing thin, but this was the coolest kid in school for several years recently. They produce a respectable core range and have many fascinating limited releases from the past 10 years.

[Yeti]

Glenfarclas is my jam, as the kids say. Springbank would be great because I've never tried and hear such great things.

[ChainWhip]

My submission for the first 3:

- Suntory

- Balvenie

- Talisker

Edited June 13, 2013 by ChainWhip

[Virus_Of_Life]

OK, I'll touch base with the powers that be and have something up in a day or two.

I am leaning toward distillery at least to start, but very possibly with the mix of specific bottle thrown in occasionally, perhaps like this month when Ardbog would have been a perfect example because it was just released and a lot of people will talk about it... That said I do think the distillery is a good idea. I'll make the decision for now, but will likely solicit suggestions at some point, likely the first will be from the suggestions already given.

[BigBoldBully]

I like this idea and hope it generates some good discussion. Thinking about bottle vs. distillery, I wonder if maybe a hybrid approach would work--distillery of the month, with a particular affordable bottle identified as a good representative for those unfamiliar with much from that distillery. The thread could then encompass the whole range of the distillery's offerings, but with enough focus on the representative bottle that those who went out and bought it specifically to share in the month's discussion are sure not to be disappointed.

[compliance]

I like this idea and hope it generates some good discussion. Thinking about bottle vs. distillery, I wonder if maybe a hybrid approach would work--distillery of the month, with a particular affordable bottle identified as a good representative for those unfamiliar with much from that distillery. The thread could then encompass the whole range of the distillery's offerings, but with enough focus on the representative bottle that those who went out and bought it specifically to share in the month's discussion are sure not to be disappointed.

I love the distillery of the month idea. Just include some "highlight" bottles in the opening post as BBB suggests and we can all be free to go with those or dig deeper as we so choose. It will also help keep the price down since a lot of us will have some bottle in our collections already, even if it's not one of the highlights.

[AaronWF]

I love the distillery of the month idea. Just include some "highlight" bottles in the opening post as BBB suggests and we can all be free to go with those or dig deeper as we so choose. It will also help keep the price down since a lot of us will have some bottle in our collections already, even if it's not one of the highlights.

Somebody mentioned announcing the whisky of the month three months in advance. I think that may be a bit much, but having at least a month of lead time would give people unfamiliar with the brand/distillery the opportunity to ask questions, and those familiar with it the opportunity to make suggestions on which expressions to look for. So we could have two (or possibly more) active threads at a time: the current month where we're discussing our experience with tasting and the future month(s) where we're discussing the easiest or best way to approach the distillery, which will certainly vary based upon local availability.

[WhiskyRI]

I like BBB's and Compliance's take on it - distillery of the month w/ a representative bottle. The reason I thought announcing them in advance was solely to give people a head's up to look for better prices and plan their spending. Right now a store I only visit every 2 months or so is having a great sale on Laphroaig 10 @ $39.99 and Caol Ila 12 @ $49.99. Of course I picked up a bottle of each as insurance but they were also having sales on quite a few other things and if I knew something was the FWoTM, or should it be the DOTM, I’d definitely pick up a bottle or two from that Distillery.

I’m looking forward to this discussion. My nominations are:

1. Springbank – I really love their 15 year old
   
2. Edradour – one of my favorite malts to have people try – made quite a few converts
   
3. Compass Box – their Hedonism changed my view of grain whiskey completely
   

[tanstaafl2]

If I were to offer three to consider it would include:

1. Glenmorangie - readily available and reasonably affordable basic expressions including a regular and three different finishes (Just released a gift pack locally that has all four in it) and a fair number of more expensive specialty offerings.

2. Bruichladdich - generally easily available and affordable basic expression and many creative offerings that may or may not be as readily available.

3. Any one of the three main Irish distillers

Selections from places with more limited offerings/availability for most members like Australian whisky or to some degree even Japanese whisky may need to be more country or regional specific than by distillery for many people. Even some of the more interesting Canadian whiskies seem to be hard to come by outside of Canada.

[onewman]

The biggest problem with doing it by distillery is controlling how a distillery comes up. For example, Glenmorangie has many bottles that many people have and if they are all discussed at the same time, the thread will be very disjointed and difficult to follow. I don't necessarily have a better idea, just want to point out what I thought was a weakness.

[AaronWF]

The way I see it, a malt distillery's product falls into a few discernible categories. There are the official 'OB' releases that are usually age-stated starting at 10yo and going to 20, 30, maybe 40yo, often chill-filtered and usually bottled at 40%-46%. Then there are the LE or DE bottles that are aged in different wood and/or bottled at cask strength.

Lastly, there are independent bottlings, which can vary widely as far as type of wood used and are often (usually?) aged off-premise. Independent bottles are also very often the only way to experience the distillery character at CS and NCF.

Glenmorangie is unique in that it concentrates on differences in wood more than the same-or-mostly-similar-wood-different-age-statement portfolio that seems to be the norm.

Anyway, others have suggested it may be appropriate at times to specify an expression of the month rather than the more general distillery of the month, so that can address the issues Newman is bringing up. I still think that it's more interesting to think of a distillery's output as a whole rather than as individual expressions. At least when it comes to single malt.