B.K.

AERSTONE by the Glenfiddich gang. Was introduced to this yesterday, it comes in 2 expressions , something like "smooth & mild" and then "rich & smoky" we had the first one, nice, easy, gentle dram that's a pleasantly smooth offering. My mate did not tell us anything about it, he just gave us a glass, I thought it was nice malt from his wide range and once we were all finished he brought the bottle out to top us up and broke the news to us that he only paid £25 for it in TESCO. Turns out its a new entry level malt from the people at W G S based out of the Girvan site and loosely related to the Ailsa Bay brand. Can certainly recommend it if your just looking for something mellow to enjoy !!

I worked with a guy, late 90's early 000's (he was my equivalent covering the Midlands & Wales) Twice a month he would claim for staying in a hotel somewhere around the Cardigan Bay area, which was nothing unusual back in the day, as that was all our normal work patterns, staying out 2 nights a week, every week. Problem arose when a new boss started in the accounts department in the groups head office in Swindon and just happened to notice his expenses one month and took it upon himself to check his previous claims. Home printed hand written receipts or as was the rumour at the time that he had nicked a book of receipts from one of his official stays there, none the less ...... silly b*****d hadn't realised that the new boss man was originally from that said town in Wales, what a coincidence there, and enlightened everyone that the hotel he had claimed to be staying in for all these months had in fact burnt down and been condemned the previous January, some 16 months earlier. Like I said silly bugger, but not a well liked guy, so no tears shed !! Dilemma he was offered by the big wigs was, pay back the missing £000's immediately and sack yourself OR lets see what the police have to say (& still pay it back) !! LESSON TO BE LEARNED HERE.

OH YES !! That's a lovely dram and not what people expect it to taste like, the word ISLAY tends to put certain folk off. Just try it !

Sorry, but am I missing something here, I just don't get this McKenna love in, both in here and on the media channels, every time people put their preferred teams up, his name is always in there & a lot of the times the media are doing interviews, you guessed, its a comment from S McK. I stand to be corrected but we have players in the squad who are every bit as good as or maybe even better, so why clamber to shoehorn the guy into a relatively settled and confident back line, when he is nothing better than bang average. In the interest of fairness, I have nothing against the guy and will wholly support the team the managers selects, but just wondered if I was missing something about this lad, other than his size !!

Dulled the effects of a 4-1 defeat yesterday with a few out of a bottle of Glenrothes Robur Reserve Single Malt Whisky 1 Litre: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery Only this morning, sore head an all, did I realise it was a ltr bottle. Never mind, I still fair enjoyed it !!

When I read that and you said you had a few winners this week, with the prices of some of the winners, you should be shootin' for the top shelf !! Hope you've faired better than I have, but there's always today ?

Like previously said, the auction houses will do whatever you want , because which ever way you cut it, they will make a profit from you, the trick will be getting best value for money for yourself. Obviously not knowing the facts of your situation, but why not consider asking the auction house how much they would charge for long term storage for you because they will have insurance in place to cover it ! Just saying like !!

Yes I know where your coming from, to be honest I've tried doing it a few different ways, but the last couple of months I've just blotted out a Thursday night as whisky club night and settled down on the couch with my samples and watching Kristi & Andy on YouTube on the big screen, then if I fancy another dram after their finished I just dip into my collection, fair passes the night !! Fair enjoy P&S, its a great way to try samples in the comfort of your own home and with expert advice on hand without taking the cash & taste gamble in The Pot Still, Bon Accord, The Grill etc, lets face it, if you break it right down your "double" from P&S only costs you £6, no a bad return !! Slanj !

Plastered all over it "Not suitable for dishwashers", schoolboy error !! I bought it along with a "good" bottle, as a wee treat off a recent works bonus, but yes, I AGREE, a bit pretentious. Recently tried the Tomintoul Cigar Malt, it was one of the 5 Pour & Sip samples the other month, always thought Tomintoul was "mild & gray" if you know what i mean, but this was a game changer, most enjoyable, slanj !

Recently this has been my glass of choice. 1920's Professional Blenders Nosing Glass. Bit on the dear side at £25 each from Master of Malt, but I'm worth the treat.

Like I said, I'm only the messenger ! But the comments made above, about the Islay malt, were 2 of the same points I made to him, my other point was & I think its more relevant, I doesn't need to be one of the 8 traditional distilleries on the Island that produce it, knowing the poetic licence that Aldi & Lidl use to lure you in to buy their produce, it could be any distillery that is prepared to produce a sufficiently peated expression in their desired volumes. When you think about it, there are some cracking smoky / peaty expressions from distilleries that are on the polar opposite side of Scotland to Islay, for instance, Balvenie do one, H P are another one, even Ardmore !! Then you have the more likely candidates of either Tobermory or my suggestion ........ Ledaig, although that doesn't fit the age statement argument.. The game continues !!!!!

Don't shoot the messenger !! I have a mate (also a whisky drinker) who from time to time works in and around the bottling halls at some of the drinks companies, he swears by the fact he was told a few xmas's back, that the discount supermarkets version of the Islay malt is Kilchoman & the Speyside expression is Tamnavulin. On tasting, I can see where he's coming from, but have absolutely no proof, but I suppose that's another layer to the beauty of tasting, sampling & guessing, everybody will pick up something different. The old adage is "If you like it, its a good one"

Mr Tourette, can I assume, that like me, you are a subscriber to Pour & Sip, these drams were recent tastings and not the types you could wander out and buy a bottle of just anywhere. For what its worth, I recently tasted the Swedish dram, Mackmyra, Gront Te (green tea) @ 46.1% and must say it was pretty enjoyable, not saying I would rush out and hunt a bottle down, just a very palatable drink !!

In ! ..... whatever it is

Wow, u may have unwittingly set up our next competition. 2 OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE SCALE that you have recently tasted ! You started with Pendryn to Bunna 18 I give you Haig Club to GlenDronach 15 Over to you lot.

Doogie is now lead singer with a group called La Paz.

PENDERYN I have only ever tried the slightly smoky one they have in their range, from memory its something like Gael or Celt or similar, but I have erased all memory of it, as it was a bit of a failed attempt at a full bodied dram, it just wasn't sure what it wanted to be !!

Believe it or not, they guy doing the interview in the second clip was a neighbour of mine and was more famous as being the lead singer of Richie Blackmores group RAINBOW through the 80's and 90's. Still singing to this day (I think). Look it up !!

And I believe he still holds this record !!

Nice varied selection, hope you enjoy them & belated birthday wishes !

Yip, it was a no !! What they said was that they allegedly had over 4000 applicants for just 70 bottles.

4 failed attempts still left in one “lottery” with Master of Malt, so fingers crossed remember the good old days, not that long ago, where if you wanted a bottle, you just went out and bought it

Depending on how serious you are about this, there are actually quiet a few whisky auction sites available now .... Grand Whisky Auction Just Whisky Scotch Whisky Auction Speyside Auction Whisky Auctioneer Whisky on-line Whisky Hammer Whisky Shop & as mentioned by someone in an earlier post, catawiki, but that's not as straightforward as the others. These are just some of the more common ones, but like everything else, it really just depends what your looking for and where your budget stretches to. Macallan still dominates most sites followed by the Islay distilleries and the Wm Grant brands like Glenfiddich and Balvenie, but if its just a time filler / pastime / hobby, as the old saying goes, "There's no harm in looking". I tend to follow, collect and drink "Forgue's finest" which has seen a massive increase in pricing over the last 2-3 years, so the drinking bit is starting to turn into the collecting part. Like everything else, "look before you leap" and study it closely for a couple of weeks before you go bidding to understand the mechanics of the operation, remember there are various fees to pay on your purchases / winning bids, like a delivery charge (which can sometimes be hefty) and in some cases a site registration fee, so that £200 bottle you thought was a bargain, could end up around £230 - £250 mark, bringing it back to market value or even above. But as I always say, if the arse falls out the market with the prices, then at least I can still have one hell of a party !!

On the subject of Auctions .. Over a period of years I have bought a fair few bottles from the various auction sites & on the whole, I have no complaints, as its the only way to access bottles you would otherwise be unable to attain and lets face it, is a very good pass time during lockdown, trawling and hunting the net for a 'guid dram. I have a bit of a thing for drinking & collecting a particular East Highlands brand and keep a close eye on releases, prices & market trends with it, bit of a passive hobby you could say. Anyway, what intrigues me about the auction sites now and its only really been over the last 2-3 years that its been upper most in my mind is this … pick any identical brand, expression and condition of whisky that is up for auction on any given site and if there's more than 1 of that bottle for sale, why do they always go for almost an identical price., whether that's under, bang on or vastly over the perceived market value, life just does not roll like that !! For instance, I was bidding on a particular expression at Christmas time on one of the main sites who had 3 identical bottles up to be bid on, great, I thought, I'm bound to get one of them, having placed a maximum bid that was slightly above the previous 12 months average price (£240), I was surprised to see that my choice bottle went for £310, but to my even bigger surprise, the other 2 bottles went for £300 & £310, now I can live with losing out on "my" bottle , because lets face it , there is nearly always someone out there that wants it just that bit more than you, so therefor pays a price that guarantees success, fair play, but 3 of them !! come on. This is not an isolated instance as I have noticed it happening more and more recently. Have the learned P & Bers' in here had any similar experiences like this or want to cast their penny worth on the subject ?

As a lockdown project I have been compiling a historical archive on my Grandfathers brother, who between 1913 & 1929 played with Bradford City, Motherwell, Cowdenbeath, Morton and the Scottish League Select, he also made some guest appearances for Third Lanark and some other clubs. Here's my dilemma, I have the majority of the information regards appearances, goals etc but the info is all over the place and in different formats for each of the teams inc newspaper cuttings. What I am trying to find and that's where I need help, is some sort of resource that's available, where I can get the stats for each of the teams where its all in the same format, in other words a searchable database of Scottish Football by years/season for players or clubs. Does anyone know if such a thing exists ? I know the Programme Monthly guy (Lister ?) used to sell a CD many years ago with similar info on it, but wondered if this had been transferred onto the web yet !! Thanks guys.