@dhsilv2 Maybe but you are assuming the fundamentals of supply and demand now are the same as they were back then. Firstly supply. There are literally a few hundred new whiskey distilleries worldwide all trying to target top end, niche etc. I lived in Ireland in early 2000's there were 3 or 4 distilleries. Now 49 are open or planned. Early releases for some of the distilleries go for stupid prices e.g. daftmill. Also existing distilleries are ramping up top and bottom end. 2ndly demand. There are two components - consumption and speculation. I'd argue that whilst both existed back in '09 the later is much more prevalent now and it's not all rich millionaires driving it. Macallan did a release recently 'Genesis' and there were literally a few hundred cards lined up around the cnr waiting to purchase and police had to close the roads... again not millionaires in their porsches

@Soba45 none the less we saw bourbon and scotch prices rise and more premium bottlings come out during the last recession. Nobody seems to want to address that. Cheap whisky got hurt during the recession, mid level whisky got hurt. The expensive stuff? It went up in price.

@PBMichiganWolverine I agree. The true recession hasn't hit worldwide properly yet. Personal, company and govt debt levels have been rising which has fueled spending on discretionary goods such as whiskey. When the deleveraging happens which it will things will get ugly and the whiskey market will suffer. Distilleries like Springbank have seen it all before which is why they deliberately don't ramp up production massively nor for their core range go stupid with pricing.

The 2009 global recession lead to less 50-75 dollar whisky selling and MORE 200 dollar whisky being sold. Something worth noting. It was a BOOM for the premium and ultra premium products while it hurt the middle class products. The demand of whisky seems much more driven by those of means than the general market as a whole.

@PBMichiganWolverine you're a bit overly focused on the US economy and not the general global economy where whisky is actually sold.

@dhsilv2 I don’t know—let’s see. My gut is telling me we’ll see a reduction in prices from retailers if we see a global recession. Between China tariffs, long term bond yield < short term yield...let’s see. If people’s 401k takes a hit, I’m willing to bet they’ll refrain from getting a $200 whiskey

@PBMichiganWolverine I like the "optimism" if that's fair when forcasting a recesion, but I'm not sure I agree. Liquor prices were rising and premium products were increasingly being made during the recession. Even now we're seeing a global dip in economics and I'm not seeing demand dropping elsewhere. It seems high end liquor is a good people won't pass up for now.

@dhsilv2 totally agree. It’s also built on rising economy the last few years. Our discretionary spending has gone up. If we hit a down turn ( hello inverted yield curve ), we might see some sanity and decreases in prices

@PBMichiganWolverine everyone's increasing prices. You think they can get casks for the same price as they did even 2-3 years ago? It's a problem with every brand, not just compassbox. And to make matters worse, whisky investors are just compounding the problems all the more.

@dhsilv2 @LeeEvolved. As good as they are ( and they’re damn good), they’ve been upping that price tag. I think they’ll go naturally as much as the market bears. And they’d limit production so supply < demand.

@dhsilv2 - I feel the same way. I really liked Hedonism, but that’s about it. Peat Monster was really good a few years back but there are so many good peated whiskies now it can be easily replaced

@PBMichiganWolverine to be honest, I'm not sure I like any of their core all that much. It's always been their special editions where they bring out older whisky and give me something special. Looking at that score, I might have gone a hair high, but if you like sweet compassbox, they nailed it.

I just saw this locally at $125. Personally, I think I’m going to keep away from CB special releases...they seem more and more marketing focused with higher prices. Their core range is still great value.

Nice, I haven’t seen too many reviews that give this malt a lot of credit. I’ll be opening my bottle soon. Cheers.