it’s a bit of a gimmick but some of those whiskies are decent enough.
gordon & macphail have a number of lines. i would avoid any of their releases you might see with abv’s of 43% or lower. their cask strength series has had many good releases over the years.
of the indies available in the u.s–only a fraction of what’s in the eu–signatory are probably the safest bet. a.d. rattray can be good too. checking whiskybase for crowdsourced ratings is not a bad thing to do before taking a flyer on expensive bottles.
it used to be that indie bottlers were reliable sources for decent at worst single cask whiskies at fair prices. but those days are also now gone. the producers have become stingy with casks; prices have gone up and you’re taking more of a chance with quality.
k&l in california have a cask selection program–mostly via signatory and hunter laing. unfortunately, it’s all hit and miss. they hype up every single release and tout good prices for old whiskies but in my experience a) the word soup they throw up to describe the whiskies only occasionally matches what’s in the bottle and b) the prices often turn out to in fact be too good to be true–i.e you pay what seems like a good price for a whisky with a large number on it but it turns out to not be very good whisky. still, they put out some good casks every year. it’s just a bit of a lottery which of those will be the good ones.
they’re much more reliable with their armagnac selections. though prices have gone up there too you should feel comfortable snapping up anything from l’encantada (indie bottlers) or from the baraillon or pellehaut domaines.
generally, the days of value in single malt scotch are long gone. producers have moved to more and more high-concept releases and the price to quality ratio is poor across the board (with some shining exceptions). still, it’s not as bad as japanese whisky. contrast with bourbon where for less than $40–often far less–you can get excellent bourbons such as henry mckenna and evan williams single barrel (both from heaven hill); the higher proof old grand-dad and knob creek* (both from jim beam); four roses small batch and single barrel; etc. (the index of my bourbon reviews is here.)
*store selected knob creek casks are often rather excellent. some friends and i bought an entire cask last year that i selected.
4 Likes
Enjoyed reading your cask adventure. Always wondered what a cask would cost, answered that question 
1 Like
Had some left over brewed Mate tea -so i chilled it down and make a Manhattan with it. Have to say pretty good 
1 Like
Nice to see Russ Parsons writing in the times again!
1 Like
1 Like
Now making some homemade vanilla extract for Christmas gifts! Starting with a control group of Elijah Craig Small Batch bourbon and Skyy Vodka.
3 Likes
For you BTC 