Apologies for not posting anything this week. To make up for it, here’s a little email exchange I had with David Driscoll, Spirits Buyer for K&L Wine Merchants and frequent source of inspiration for the things I write in this space.
I like talking about whisky almost as much as I like drinking it, and David has a unique perspective as a retailer and whisky blogger in his own right, and is an excellent writer and conversationalist. I hope this prompts some further discussion in the comments below, since the K&L Blog doesn’t allow commenting.
Cheers!
-Nathan
To me an age statement is important,It tells me that the distiller/bottler has certian standards and to me it says there higher quality.it also says that the distiller isnt mixing in young alchahol to meet demand all while charging the same amount of money.
in my experience (all 1 month of it haha) the bourbon i’ve tried with age statements has been much better than the bourbon without statements.I dont know it matters but i’ll list the ones i’ve liked the most Knob Ceek 9 years,Bookers(Mine was 6 years old,I’m not sure if there all that old) and Elijah Craig 12 year,So far these are my favourite whiskeys out of 15 different kinds.
ps I’ve tried 2 scotches so far but havent purchased more do to how expensive they are,i enjoy reading your blog about scotch though so you are absolutely not excused for missing my monday scotch review.
pps That was a joke,kind’ve.
Doesnt get any better than independent bottler signatory’s labels. Easy to understand what you are getting, easy to cross reference other people’s notes and ratings.
NAS is a slippery slope. I’m ok with it, but once you screw up my trust is gone and while i enjoy whisky it certainly isn’t a need for me and there are plenty, i mean plenty of other whiskys and spirits out there. Too many to get bent out of shape over NAS.
Beware big cult names (read macallan) that think they bulletproof.