@Slainte-Mhath I sometimes dream of retiring to Scotland - maybe a little flat with an ocean view in Campbeltown, or in Inverary a short walk away from Loch Fyne Whiskies :-)

@cascode Fair enough, much of what you outlined applies for Norway as well. High living standards, decent wages and social securities. The only reason I notice (and occasionally complain) about bottle prices in Norway is the fact that I buy many bottles abroad, mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.

@Slainte-Mhath We live with it so we just shrug and pay up. If you buy slowly over a long period of time it's not too bad, but I feel for young folks just starting out and trying to acquire a stash quickly. On the positive side Australia has an enlightened social infrastructure - virtually free universal health care, education, social support etc and our medicines are state-funded and very reasonably priced. We have a guaranteed basic wage which is enough to live on without requiring tips (tipping is not part of our culture) and aged care is generous and well structured. We whine a lot about our government but apart from one or two matters I'd rather live here than anywhere else. In that context slugging people like me who can afford it with excise taxes on luxury items does not seem so bad.

@Slainte-Mhath couple of years ago, I had a business trip to India. Apparently there, anything over a certain ABV can’t even be sold ( which is why Amrut and Paul John’s high ABV is all export), and in addition, you can’t keep more than a few whiskey bottles at home.

@cascode Ouch! That sounds almost more expensive than what we in Norway have to pay. How did you survive all these years? Doesn't this spoil all the fun?

Yeah thats crazy tax/pricing sorry gents. This isnt even the 101 rye

@cascode I always think of you when I complain about how high the taxes are here.

@Slainte-Mhath Yes, for imported and domestically produced spirits. Individuals pay a tax of about $80/litre of alcohol landed (not spirit, alcohol- so if you import four 700ml bottles of 40% abv whisky it would be 1.12 litres of alcohol and so $160 tax. Then on top we pay 10% GST on the purchase price AND on the tax already paid. Wholesale importers and local distillers also pay high excise fees, but not quite as high. These fees do not apply to wine or beer, just spirits. New Zealand actually has notably cheaper prices than Australia. As a rule of thumb, a bottle of UK or EU spirits costs 2 to 2.5 times as much in Australia as in the country of origin and a bottle of US spirits 3 to 3.5 times as much.

@cascode I didn't know that whisky is rather expensive in Australia as well, is this the case for all bottles? I noticed that prices were rather high when I visited New Zealand in 2018.

@Slainte-Mhath Your prices are even more outrageous than ours in Australia, this rye is generally the equivalent of US$45 here. Good review, BTW - it's my "affordable" rye of choice. There are IBs and IBs - I figure it's worth reviewing brands like North Star, Signatory, G&M etc as they allocate widely but there are others I don't bother to review.

@PBMichiganWolverine Problem with most of the IBs is that they are not widely available, so chances are low that you would actually be able to find and buy them where you are. That's why I didn't bother to add all the bottles here, from the feedback I received I concluded that reviews are more useful when focussing on official bottlings that everyone can buy.

@PBMichiganWolverine Yes, I was referring to Vinmonopolet, no competition allowed. You pay approximately $25 in alcohol tax per bottle, meaning that low-cost bottles do not exist. I usually buy in the $100-150 price range where the $25 don't hurt so much. Sucks anyway.

@Slainte-Mhath is it that monopoly Vinopolis in Norway —-just no competition for pricing ?

@Slainte-Mhath I’m always curious of your IB finds — they all seem fairly priced and really good.

Additional comment: In recent months, I posted fewer reviews on Distiller, which is mainly due to the fact that I am for the most part drinking independent bottlings which are not in the database. Occasionally, I add these bottles and review them here, but to be honest I think this is not of interest to most users here. Hence, I focus on widely available bottles for my reviews on this platform, but you can find all my reviews here: https://www.whiskybase.com/profile/slintemhath/lists/notes

Additional comment: Believe it or not, but in Norway this bottle costs $58 at the local alcohol monopoly shop. I would probably review more bottom shelf bottles, but at these prices it is simply not worth it.