BLUEMOMENT

Full Circle will be visiting Scotland again soon. As well as going sailing, always a primary aim, I have a secondary purpose this trip.

I am seeking to bolster my pension tax free by the shrewd purchase of some whiskies from the 'dead' distilleries of the 70s-90's.
I have dusted off a couple of bottles of St Magdalene and Port Ellen, and the prices on Whiskyexchange have surprised me somewhat. Well, quite a lot actually.
I believe these have significant investment opportunity rather than drinking, (which I will continue to do) so I need a reliable whiskey shop or dealer local to the Glasgow-Cumbrae line where I can pop in and discuss my plan.
I am not looking for a boutique or tourist trap, but as I can't get to Loch Fyne Whiskies or Gordon & McPhail in Elgin, I would like a sensibly stocked shop with realistic pricing.

Any help?

We could make a minor detour(by car not boat) to this place:

http://www.whiskyshop.com/

Any good?

Pete Cooper wrote:We could make a minor detour(by car not boat) to this place:

http://www.whiskyshop.com/

Any good?

Crikey, they appear to be 20% iup on price compared to most others.......

I have a 1/3 full bottle of Loch Dhu the black whisky that was produced as a novelty in the 80-90's matured in charred barrels. I got it at duty-free (reduced) for about 20squid. If I had bought a couple, unopened ones are now changing hands at over £300. A rare novelty & slightly sweet, but not particularly special.

Anyway, my point is that you have to be VERY knowledgeable or lucky to make money at it. Why would any dealer sell you something for a song that will be worth hundreds later if he knows for sure it will? It doesn't make sense does it? They are only going to sell you the risky ones that may or may not do well & keep the certainties for themselves. It's like buying jewelry or gemstones, the dealer will always have the upper hand.

Buy & enjoy, but FFS don't bank your pension on your skills against the experts!

But, hey it's your money & faint hearts & fair ladies etc etc. So suit yourself, but don't expect sympathy if it all goes tits uppermost

A better bet is buying a barrel from your favourite distillery and bottling it yourself. You probably need to go into this kind of deal with a few friends - just in case the value doesn't escalate and you have to drink it all.
Here's one most of you won't have experienced - whiskey?

Arghiro wrote:I have a 1/3 full bottle of Loch Dhu the black whisky that was produced as a novelty in the 80-90's matured in charred barrels. I got it at duty-free (reduced) for about 20squid. If I had bought a couple, unopened ones are now changing hands at over £300. A rare novelty & slightly sweet, but not particularly special.

Anyway, my point is that you have to be VERY knowledgeable or lucky to make money at it. Why would any dealer sell you something for a song that will be worth hundreds later if he knows for sure it will? It doesn't make sense does it? They are only going to sell you the risky ones that may or may not do well & keep the certainties for themselves. It's like buying jewelry or gemstones, the dealer will always have the upper hand.

Buy & enjoy, but FFS don't bank your pension on your skills against the experts!

But, hey it's your money & faint hearts & fair ladies etc etc. So suit yourself, but don't expect sympathy if it all goes tits uppermost

Ah yes. The Loch Dhu. We pished one of those away on Silkie one night in Dunstaffnage. It was a bit of a joke at the time.

I do have a certain knowledge of whiskies, as I have been a collector for about 20 years. I last had a serious spend in 1998, and I bought quite a few of the Rare Malts collection at thte time. They were between £55 and £75 then. On Whiskyexchange today, the remaining 2 of mine are priced at £385 and £485 respectively. So conservatively they have amde around 5-600%, better than the stock market or my building society.
I also note that my (now depleted) 1975 Ardbeg is apparently changing hands at £1100.
I have sold a couple of bottles on ebay, getting £325 for a !977 Laphroaig and £250 for a Bruichladdich.

I know that dealers wont stock a whiskey for 10 years - wouldn't make sense for them to have that captial tied up.
However, the dead distilleries which will not come back to life are looking like good value, especially the single cask offerings. A case of Tamdhu 12 year old will only get rarer.
Also, young distilleries like Arran are worth a punt, as they have a reasonable issue of limited bottlings, but don't oversprinkle the market.
Of course, the big names in limited edition will also only climb. There is a Talisker 30yo which is looking a tad expensive at £235, but is probably a good idea over time.

Besides, it keep it out of the hands of the government, and the pension providers. The only fee you will pay on a bottle of whisky after puurchase is the Angel's share.

To Marisca: Is a Scot seriously trying to sell an Englishman a barrel of 3yo ENGLISH whiskey? I had to check the date on the calendar!!

So, back to my original question, I want a dealer not a tourist trap!

FullCircle wrote: To Marisca: Is a Scot seriously trying to sell an Englishman a barrel of 3yo ENGLISH whiskey? I had to check the date on the calendar!!

Serious? Moi? Someone's got to buy it if it is going to survive and who better than an englishman, 'cos I can't see the Scots being enthusiastic.

marisca wrote:

FullCircle wrote: To Marisca: Is a Scot seriously trying to sell an Englishman a barrel of 3yo ENGLISH whiskey? I had to check the date on the calendar!!

Serious? Moi? Someone's got to buy it if it is going to survive and who better than an englishman, 'cos I can't see the Scots being enthusiastic.

Precisely mate, precisely.

However, I do still have a bottle of the 1st Welsh Whiskey which was a Scotch but bottled in Wales. The Directors were jailed for fraud. Dunno how much that one is worth?

Slightly off the Glasgow-Cumbrae route but I often use http://www.robbiesdrams.com/main.asp which is in Ayr.
A digression, but somewhere in the Lochranza distillery there is a barrel of the first distilling with my name on it. I paid £400 for a bond when Hall Currie was raising investment money and needless to say, I lost the paperwork in the intervening years.
Supermarkets occasionally come away with some suprises. I bought a Springbank 15 for £18 from a new branch of Sainsbury... I had gone in for Laphroaig Quarter Cask they were selling for less than a ten year old. Needless to say they were sold out of that gem.

Gordonmc wrote:Slightly off the Glasgow-Cumbrae route but I often use http://www.robbiesdrams.com/main.asp which is in Ayr.
A digression, but somewhere in the Lochranza distillery there is a barrel of the first distilling with my name on it. I paid £400 for a bond when Hall Currie was raising investment money and needless to say, I lost the paperwork in the intervening years.
Supermarkets occasionally come away with some suprises. I bought a Springbank 15 for £18 from a new branch of Sainsbury... I had gone in for Laphroaig Quarter Cask they were selling for less than a ten year old. Needless to say they were sold out of that gem.

Thanks Gordon. - I agree you occasionally find an illogical deal in the supermarkets, and I usually scoope the shelf when I find them. Waitrose do it deliberately. I like BNJ as a drinker, and they sometimes have that at £13.

I have a nice bottle of Glenrothes 1994 - it will be drunk and enjoyed though......

Cheers!

Donald

Not quite on your route but, I always enjoyed a trip to Constantine Stores near Falmouth, I notice they now have a web site which may be worth a look. here:http://www.drinkfinder.co.uk/whisky.htm ... ur=101-102

FullCircle wrote:Ah yes. The Loch Dhu. We pished one of those away on Silkie one night in Dunstaffnage. It was a bit of a joke at the time.

You rated it so lowly that you didn't even finish the cratur and Silkie and I were forced to polish it off later in Balvicar. I definitely preferred it to my own urine.

FullCircle wrote:Ah yes. The Loch Dhu. We pished one of those away on Silkie one night in Dunstaffnage. It was a bit of a joke at the time.

Ah' mind it fine - well, sort of.

I still can't quite believe you brought such an expensive dram and a litre to boot. With a few more bottles like that you could have bought a Hurley 22 rather than just spending a weekend on one.

We must do it again some time.

Silkie wrote:

FullCircle wrote:Ah yes. The Loch Dhu. We pished one of those away on Silkie one night in Dunstaffnage. It was a bit of a joke at the time.

Ah' mind it fine - well, sort of.

I still can't quite believe you brought such an expensive dram and a litre to boot. With a few more bottles like that you could have bought a Hurley 22 rather than just spending a weekend on one.

We must do it again some time.

Ah, if I had looked up the book price of Loch Dhu, I would have flogged it and bought 7 litres of Tamdhu or sim'lar. Now that woyuld have made the Late Night Lorne even more skewiff than I vaguely remember it.
So what were we drinking here, that does not look dark enough?