Slight thread hijacking here: @jonwilkinson7309 I also shared my inventory spreadsheet with you but forgot to mention it on here...and also lost the thread we were discussing it on :P

Thanks and cheers @ctbeck11 !

@ContemplativeFox Got it! And sent you mine.

BTW @ctbeck11 I also just shared by inventory spreadsheet with you. Tell me if you didn't get the email :)

Yeah, you're the shipping is pretty expensive if you're just buying samples @ctbeck11 :( I've bought a few bottles that were available at good prices when buying samples in order to mitigate that factor, but they have to be kind of expensive bottles to make it worth bothering, so it's kind of hard to justify the shipping cost for a purchase under $500-800 IMO.

@ContemplativeFox Thanks for the detailed response. I have seen a few places online that do samples, but the shipping usually comes out to $50+. I could see it being worthwhile if I had a few buddies around me to go in on a large order, but no luck with that yet. Funny enough, I just pulled an inventory list together last week. I would absolutely be interested in taking a look, and will send you mine as well. My email address is the same as my username here with a gmail domain.

I like a lot of stuff that's rough around the edges too @ctbeck11 :) It's definitely nicer to have some character. I won't say I'm a fan of harshness, but IMHO smoothness is not the be all and end all. As for trying as many things as possible goes, going broke is unfortunately the easiest way. Beyond that, samples and bars are the way to go for sure. I'm not sure what your area is like, but prior to the lockdown, I had a whiskey bar and a rum bar nearby, both of which had reasonable prices on a large selection of stuff and did half pours. 50% off on scotch Sunday was an extra big help :) Most online retailers don't seem to do samples and often getting them to ship at all is challenging. It can be a costly endeavor unless you buy a fair amount, but shops in Europe seem to have much higher proclivity to crack open a bottle and sell samples of it. They don't seem to do it as much now, but I still have a large selection from FineDrams waiting to be tasted and I bet there are folks around here who have suggestions for other places (I've heard good things about The Whisky Exchange, but I've never tried it). Swapping samples with others around here is also a reasonable way to go. I actually just got an inventory spreadsheet together and I'd be happy to send it to you if you're interested :)

@ContemplativeFox To be fair, I think the reason I like it more than the other Speysides I’ve had is because it’s a bit rough around the edges. I tend to shy away from the ones that are overly pretty and “smooth,” which seems to be a common theme for the region. On a separate note, do you have any advice for someone who’s trying to taste as many spirits as possible without going broke? At the moment, I have around 120 open bottles and a couple dozen miniatures in my arsenal. I like the minis because they’re cheap, but the majority of expressions aren’t available in them. Unfortunately, I also live in a state (Virginia) that most online retailers won’t serve, so I don’t have great access to purchasing the sample size bottlings of some of the nicer stuff. Any advice from a veteran like yourself would be much appreciated.

I've been a bit wary of Glen Grant because it seems like a very mild spirit, but I'm also quite curious. For it to be this good at only 10 years gives me a lot of hope for the bottle of 18 on my shelf!