@PBMichiganWolverine Agreed, the core ranges are usually pretty good. I’m only missing a few in the set. For Tobias, my justification was that average price of a bottle of 23/25yr Clynelish or 30/35yr old Caol Ila is between $800 - $1k in the open market

@Anthology and CB is in about a month coming up with not one, but three, premium whiskeys. I bet they’ll be priced $400+ each. At this point, I’m not getting any non-core CBs. They seem to be more and more geared towards over priced marketing hits

@Rick_M Thanks. Damn collection bug!

@PBMichiganWolverine yup definitely creative and sounds like some cocktail one might order at a “fancy” bar. I shall call it Tryeavana! 😊 Agreed on the silly prices for T&TA. I tried really hard to resist but the collection bug (or itch?) got the better of me on that one haha

@Anthology sorry—-missed the earlier post. No...just a creative concoction. These Tobias’ have now gone from high price to silly unaffordable...I think I’ve now seen them for $700+

@Anthology - Congrats, it’s a good one!

Btl# 865, $600 HTWC in CA

@PBMichiganWolverine Do you have a name for this concoction? Sounds delicious though...😊

@PBMichiganWolverine will do. Have my always on hand Rittenhouse. Thanks.

@Scott_E nice. And try this : take some of that lapschong tea ( light..don’t leave the bags in there too long), let it get cold in fridge; add 1/2 spoon honey; 1 ounce rye. Mix well.

@PBMichiganWolverine just ordered same. Never tried it. Will have some in two days.

@Rick_M re: rauchbier...heresy!! However, I even had a hard time with lapschong albeit it probably wasn’t the highest of quality either.

@Rick_M well, this tea is SMOKY. Like burnt wood. I have it usually with 1/2 tspn of raw honey.

I hope this is not like the time I went out and bought a German beer made from malted barley dried over a beech wood fire (Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen). It was the just awful. Tasted like they strained the beer through a campfire and left in most of the shavings. Totally undrinkable.

@Rick_M I just got 50 lapschong teabags from AMZN —$7.

@LeeEvolved - you flushed me out. Actually, the record is 67 with my taste of CB Circus. When I saw we were getting close, I thought we could go for it. Thought it might be a bad omen for Tobias to be beat out by his little brother. Now, no way am I superstitious......just sayin’. :)

@PBMichiganWolverine - Thank you!!! It’s always good to get another take on the psychology of addiction. :)

@Rick_M - all I know is this non-tasting “taste” has over 60 comments now and I feel like the administrative team needs to lock it down. I was hoping one of my tastes would eventually get that record and hold it, but there’s too much idle chatter on this non-review of Tobias now. Everyone please disburse and resume commenting elsewhere. There’s nothing to see here. 🤣🤣

@Rick_M almost. I got paid for some market research on competitive analysis in cash. About 1 hour work. Used that cash to buy this.

@LeeEvolved - is there any cure for this sickness? I’m starting to loose all hope. :)

@PBMichiganWolverine - you found 2 and made a big profit on the 2nd one??? :)

@Rick_M @LeeEvolved yeah...but, I got mine for $10...through some skillful well timed events.

@Rick_M it worked out rather well that way, but not as intended. I'd rather not insult anyone :)

@Rick_M - of course @PBMichiganWolverine bought one. He has it worse than we do, he just refuses to admit it. Lol

@PBMichiganWolverine - oh, you did buy. Good man! I thought you did a hard pass.

@Rick_M considering us three that bought it, that lack of comma is just about the right reference

@dhsilv2 - you may have intended a comma after the word “odd” but the way it is written is the best description. :)

Odd people bought this and didn't open. Just bought mine and of course had a pour.

@LeeEvolved Can’t believe you have a weak spot for Macallan and hold a grudge against Balvenie :)

@Rick_M yeah...Talisker , Lagavulin and Compass Box for me

@Rick_M thx for the info. Good stuff.

@Rick_M - I agree. I have a weak spot for Laphroaig, Macallan, Ardbeg, GlenDronach, Caol Ila, Highland Park and (fill in the blanks): ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ 😏

@PBMichiganWolverine - Ex-chairman of Sotheby’s, John Marion, once wrote that’s it’s better to buy for love than to buy because you think something is a good deal. Unfortunately, I have a weak spot when it comes to Lagavulin and Compass Box. 😊

@Rick_M wait...what? That alone must’ve at least raised the cost quite a bit for the bottle. I’d have been equally as happy if they simply left out any pictures, but lowered the price.

Another consideration: Compass Box paid the National Gallery in London a royalty for reproduction rights to the old master painting of Tobias and the Angel, purportedly assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, marking the 500th anniversary of his death. So, in addition to the whisky, what you have here are 2,634 numbered prints of the painting that will still have value after the whisky is gone! :)

@LeeEvolved - then maybe we crack one. :)

@LeeEvolved @PBMichiganWolverine - wow, that’s the same 30 year average as The General. No buyer’s remorse here. I plan to find a 2nd. :)

@PBMichiganWolverine - Caol Ila 35yo - 49% Clynelish 25yo - 51% That is an impressive combo! The question remains- who is gonna be the one to literally crack first and open their bottle? You, me or @Rick_M?

@Rick_M a little bird told me that the caol ila component here is 35yr old (!!!!) and is about 50%

@Rick_M I can just see @LeeEvolved coming over with a empty beer growler for “samples” 😊

@PBMichiganWolverine - of course, your Distiller friends get in for free........right??? :)

@LeeEvolved I last saw Yamazaki 18 at $600-700. That’s silly ( and gourmet 7 course meal level) money

@PBMichiganWolverine - wow, Yamazaki 18 has evolved to once-in-a-lifetime status now? And here I was thinking of opening mine. Guess I better lock it back away in the vault.

@Rick_M one day, my dream is to have an exclusive VIP event where I’d cook a full 7 course dinner, and open up the White Horse , Yamazaki 18 and a Brora. And charge $500/head.

@PBMichiganWolverine - I noticed a White Horse in your inventory. Maybe you should settle this debate once and for all. :)

@LeeEvolved - there’s always the possibility of a bad batch, but I suspect your bottle is going to be just fine. :)

@KRB80 @LeeEvolved for most of the people, I’m sure the difference will be nuanced. Same goes for the old Lag 16 White Horse vs recent bottlings...unless your name is Serge Valentin or Dave Broom, it’s probably unnoticeable. ( or so I’m telling myself, and if I say it often , I’ll believe it)

@LeeEvolved who knows? Maybe your bottle is great! I bought mine due to the same reason. I wish I still had the bottle so I could share the code #.

@KRB80 @Rick_M - I recently bought a bottle of L16 because I got it for a steal ($46). You guys have now officially bummed me out. I remember it being so good- it’s gonna be interesting to see how far it’s fallen, I suppose.

@Rick_M I definitely haven’t ruled out the fact of my palate changing and I’m sure it is definitely a factor but the last bottle of L16 I bought last year was unacceptable to me. Very thin, watery, weak profile which only had that good slow burning Smokey aftertaste going for it. I ended up giving up after about 40% of the bottle was gone and gave it away to a friend. My first taste was 18 years ago when I was 21 and I was pissed off at the $ I spent on an ashtray...until I ended up loving it. Ha!

@PBMichiganWolverine @KRB80 - We keep debating the subject of Lagavulin and quality over time, or more specifically, smokiness of current flagship 16yo vs. older product. I had tended to agree with Jim Murray’s assessment that the phenol level (ppm) had been reduced compared with older product. My first glass of L16 was 22 years ago and I thought it was undrinkable due to smoke and iodine profile. Now it’s my favorite whisky. I don’t think the whisky has changed as much as my tastebuds’ tolerance to phenol level. I think I proved this to myself recently with a bottle of L16, White Horse edition bottled 20 years ago. To me, it’s almost identical to current product.

@PBMichiganWolverine that’s yet to be seen. I guess it comes down to how high of standards are being upheld on the quality of ingredients/casks especially referring to sherry casks which would have an inverse relationship to ramped up whisky production. Not to mention higher costs unless, of course, they cut corners and lower the standards. Time will tell...However! With all the ramped up bourbon production, there shouldn’t a shortage of great bourbon barrel-aged whiskies. 😋 jmo

@KRB80 @Rick_M so...that means that if they’re ramping up production, bottles coming out 5-10 yrs from now will be even lesser quality than those coming out today?

@Rick_M further...at least 8-10 years

@KRB80 - By “older” are you going back 2 years or further?

@Rick_M which is also a concern of mine with all the ramped up production. Did they rush it to meet demand and settled for inferior casks? Time will tell...

@Rick_M batch variation/QC. The recent L16’s don’t hold a candle to older bottling from my experience.

@KRB80 - Two years ago you rated Lagavulin 16, at 5 stars. Recently, you rated it at 2 stars. Why the drastic change? Inquiring minds need to know. :)

@Richard-ModernDrinking RI/MA...the said price decreases have all been in MA stores so far.

@KRB80 Interesting.... where are you located?

@Richard-ModernDrinking. Indeed. I completely agree. I was recently thrilled to see that, at least in my neck of the woods, Diageo lowered the price of Lagavulin 16, Talisker 10, and Clynelish 14 all by $20 per bottle. It may be Diageo flexing their power and starting a price war or the beginning of next inflated inventories. Either way, it’s a good thing for us consumers.

@KRB80 Hard for an outsider to know, but they are surely keeping back enough of the maturing stock so that they can start releasing more 12-year-old aged statements in 2021-2. The fair pricing and generally good quality of the Game of Thrones collection was the first reflection of swelling inventories, in my opinion. If that’s a taste of what’s to come, then I say it bring it on.

@Richard-ModernDrinking they also started releasing a shit-ton of NAS since then. Do you think that may kind of negate any overstock?

@LeeEvolved there’s a tsunami coming from the big distillers - they ramped up production nine years ago.

@LeeEvolved - There is iron in your words, Kemosabe. :)

@Richard-ModernDrinking @PBMichiganWolverine @Rick_M - is don’t foresee a whisky crash until the boatload of aged whisky, from all these distillery expansions, hits the market in a decade or so. Keep buying. The only good stuff by then will be the stuff we are paying highly for right now, lol.

@KRB80 - @PBMichiganWolverine likes to talk about how he doesn’t overspend, but I know better. Ask him how he got his hands on the 2016 Brora 38yo for short money. :)

@PBMichiganWolverine $400?! That’s actually a great deal. Typically, it’s going for $500 but I’ve seen retailers, and especially the secondary flippers already charging hundreds more. I got mine last week for $489 and was happy.

@Richard-ModernDrinking likewise. I’m attached to the ones I bought ages ago ( Broras, Karuizawas, Hanyus, Rosebank and Yamazakis). Others...I’d be glad to sell

@PBMichiganWolverine The imminent crash can’t come soon enough. Thinking of selling almost all my whisky and buying back for less in three years.

@Richard-ModernDrinking it’s now upwards of $700 here. I’m guessing in a few months, will be higher even in secondary. This one seems particularly meant for buy-and-flip

Passed on several opportunities to buy. Silly money.

@Rick_M it was Whiskyworld from UK. They had it for $400 post VAT. Gone now though. I was tempted, but it’s extremely rare for me to get that high. I think the only one in my stash that I paid way over was Lag25.

@SolanaRoots - it’s already occupying a place of honor next to a Picasso. :) @PBMichiganWolverine - where online? I’d like to find another at that price.

@ScotchingHard - I found a store that has it for $500 and will ship to DC- I believe that’s where you are, right? www.lukas.store

On my buy list if I can find it

Nice score. The big question is whether you plan to drink this bottle in the near term or just admire it as a trophy on your shelf

I saw this online for $400...just can’t fathom getting it that expensive. I did a hard pass.