hello malty malt mysteries
and thank you to poiter led chowsky ledachowski it's the leader chowski that's what it is
uh for not mention 927 extras here in the both in the middle of the irish sea because the both
is where the moments happen you know it's the way it happens and i've just reviewed this independent
bottling of mortlake cask strength natural color until filtered integrity malt first pour from a
sealed bottle so i've been mixing up a little bit doing a slightly different angle here and
giving first impressions which resulted in 87 out of 100 as a malt mark which is particularly good
i love these eccentric bottles from smaller labels belonging to bigger independent bottlers because
they're they're a bit off the radar people are not aware of them and um i know that with our
after our alpha review you will be more aware of them now but why not because if you are then
more of them will be bottled because there's more sales happening so it creates a virtuous circle
in the meantime that 87 out of 100 was a first impression mark i can assure you
that with experience with independent models particularly integrity at cask strength um
they they improve once the bottle has been opened and it's lying around oxygenating a
little bit and you might move it now and again take the cork off have a sniff put the cork on
pour a wee glass create a bit more of an air gap in the bottle and gradually you positively oxidize
the whiskey to make it loosen up a little bit from its hibernation in the water
and when it does it delivers more because it's in a position to deliver more because
it's more naturally presented virtually straight from the cast with a bit of barrier filtering
and that's it that's this away whiskey should be as natural as possible when you are getting
cosmeticized whiskey whiskey which is heavily chill filtered and i mean chill filtering
isn't a delicate process mates don't go thinking that flavor is stripped out of whiskey during
chill filtration that is a fact you ask anybody who works in a bottling plant when they open
up the concertina to remove the cardboard filters the place smells lovely it smells
beautiful with all these essential barley oils and long chain proteins which have been removed forced
literally forced out of the whiskey now that's fine when it's a blend and it's fine when it's
you know a non-age statement bargain basement supermarket shelf single malt something
masquerading is something equality that used to be equality but now selling in the name hey i'm
just giving an opinion i'm giving an opinion it doesn't matter the price i still wouldn't buy it
because even a bargain can be a complete waste of your money and if you're just starting out in
whiskey the problem for the industry is someone's going to taste this bargain non-age statement
heavily processed sanitized yeah sanit i like using that word but other folk like
me using it too sanitize single malt which looks just like a blend and is behaving just
like a blend to be honest these days and it's got burnt sugar in it but you're not
allowed to call it burnt sugar you call it e150 natural colorant natural my arse
i think what bugs me is there's a tension going on here it's like an elastic band getting stretched
where big producers they only want the one customer and they want to call them a consumer
and they want your customer in my custom but they don't want to recognize the quality that we are
looking for and saying we see when we start to walk away from their brand their brand's in big
trouble in big big trouble and they don't realize this they think that the passive consumer if they
discount it a bit and advertise a bit we'll bail them out but when they actually look over these
horrendous contracts that they are that they are making these quote-unquote some would describe
some would describe it as packs with the devil with amazon and the supermarkets and travel retail
they're starting to lose control of the product because they are trying to that they're putting
the bling on and that's waiting for who's going to deep discount the most to get the attention
the flash and dash of some transient consumer who is heavily in debt is cut is pulling in
their purse strings and can no longer afford luxuries and therefore just puts them right off
the christmas list the new year's list they say tell you what see my sober october i'm going to
remain sober in november december january february march who's left drinking the whiskey then
who's life buying the whiskey malt makes we are the true enthusiasts the faithful
but unfortunately the way i see it there are distilleries out there who do not keep faith
with the faithful and it's time to really stop buying from them
i have a friend who's actually she's in the wine business
and she's very good at her job she organizes events
and symposiums and stuff for big business down in london
and uh she commented to me recently i know she was fishing for an opinion and i gave a fairly modest
opinion perspective i'd call it a perspective and she was asking me she was single most because
she's chatting to the bar professionals and five-star hotels who have customers saying oh this
isn't what it used to be it's not just whiskey it's about other alcoholic beverage as well pims
great example great example campari another example they say oh it's not what it used to be
are they offloading all the junk on us at the moment because times are good
this is what she was asked now she's asking me hey ralphie do you think distilleries are
trying to empty out the inferior contents of their warehouse while the energy of sales is still there
before the recession arrives i said well it is an option put it that way is an option but i
wouldn't care to comment because i think it varies considerably between companies and this is why
i tend to spend one more time looking at smaller distilleries although even with small distilleries
you can have you can have issues and i'm talking official bottlings this non-age statements
it's no use to me this is why i take advantage of the fact of where i am and the access that i have
to the range of independent bottlers that out there that are now showing more and more
proper value for money in relation to the quality of this whiskey and other spirits that they're now
bottling there's a lot of little independent bottles sometimes they're getting it wrong
i bought a bottle of isle of iron recently it was bottled at eight years old
it shouldn't have been bottled till it was at least 10 years old it was too young
but i let it be it's a small company still finding their feet
just put it on the shelf for another day becomes part of the undertaker's stash archive
but with independent bottlings you've got to do your homework there are some duffers out there
but particularly for the more experienced whiskey drinker who probably has made contacts
online who probably is in an informed group a whiskey club perhaps an online whiskey forum
following various channels looking at various reviews and jumping in quick
to buy bottles that are recommended before they disappear or the price jumps up too dramatically
these things happen it's all about getting in quick
much more than it used to be not that long ago you could
see spring bank gathering dust in the shelves of smaller shops around the uk
not now no far from it and there'll be another distillery next which one who knows
for the experienced that's coming along really well by the way nice and zesty lemon zest a bit
of sour and bitter grapefruit about it it's a lovely single mom i'm finally going to enjoy it
but it's not conventional it's for the experienced i've been at this over 30 years seriously so
i find my i can find my way can navigate this sort of whisky
and at this point you want to be considering navigating your purchase options a little bit
wider spreading your net a little bit wider and looking at what's in the auction houses
why should you look at auction sites who are selling whiskey and other quality spirits
for independent bottlings one independent bottlings are less collectible therefore there
will not be such fierce bids on them unless it's bulmer nerd bag or macallan as you can imagine
the usual you know the script and um also they're less likely to be faked
there'll be less interest in them if they're not going to make huge amount of money there's no
point in faking them therefore the chances with independent bottlings that are not
investable are quite simply you're more likely to get an honest bottle of the genuine content
i bought a 17 year old mortlak recently bought it for 50 pounds if that was an official bottling
it would probably be 135 to 140 pounds seriously
i've had a taste it's fascinating it's been one refill but ex bourbon cask
it's whole life i can just tell and it's got that old-fashioned softness to it a real soft version
of quite a heavily flavored single malt that is more like and when you're looking at the auction
leave it to the last hour and then go down to the bargain basement you'll see a whole
load of tatty old blends some of them they're just not worth it no matter how tatty they look
how authentic they are they may well not be very nice at all if you're buying it leave it sealed
and just leave it on your shelf as a little bit of a historical archive part of your whiskey stash
but um there's other more recent bottlings people have bought them and said i bought two i enjoyed
one i'll get rid of the other and i can buy another whiskey and this is where we get advantage
from this because the person selling it isn't looking to get massive big returns they're just a
small scale old-fashioned flipper that bought two models or maybe three bottles and say right i'll
have enjoy one enjoyed it maybe keep one but i'll sell one and do some other have a swap with one
in my whiskey club and that's the way it works and during this time you get the information you get
to know which independent bottles have had a good run at which point in their history with certain
single malt profiles and you look at whiskey base and you look at whiskey fun
and whiskey fun i just like to briefly say um that whiskey fun has always been somewhere that i've
occasionally gone to reference and double check my own tasting notes and honestly i don't always
agree with serge but he gets samples given to him a lot of the time because he's very well connected
whereas i'm buying stuff off the shelf of shops so it can account for a certain difference
but the quality of the archive that he's placed free of charge on the internet of this
cornucopia of historical high quality quality spirits is frankly second to none and i think it's
a real real shame that the malt maniacs website um just did not develop further because there was
huge potential there but fortunately whiskey fund has kept on going hasn't changed the formula gets
whole loads of stick for not giving glowing review i mean he gives worse marks than i do
mom mates he does he gives much more critical marks i cut a little bit of slack you see
because i'm too generous i'm too kind-hearted in the buffy it's one of my problems but i tell
you what there's times i've been tasting some whiskies recently and i can tell you right now
why the hell did they bottle them what are they playing at it's no use
i'll be reviewing one shortly and the mark will be below 80
because i cannot i cannot find it in myself to buy a [ __ ] whiskey
which should be good and can be good and we know it can and open the bottle and a pour a glass and
what's that what should what should be there just isn't there it just isn't there and that's
fundamentally wrong that is not good i hope you've enjoyed this i've meant a little bit by the way
i was intending to i will conclude now will conclude
which is the best independent bottling for you to start with right
here is your infinity bottle it's your project it's your budget you control it
it's the one independent bottling you own you're responsible for it nobody else has it
no one in the world no shop out there can push the proposition the price up no flipper can flip it
no spark speculator can sweep in and buy it
and then sell it on to ever staffed enough to buy it an infinity model just isn't like that
and you will be amazed and i know many of you comment in my comment section my videos
of you've started either a small cask and you're learning quickly how dramatic the influence of
the small cast wood can be how quickly it works too quickly at times and how you've got to be so
careful preparing that cask but also with your infinity bottling you can literally take two
two single marks together put them together put them in an empty bottle leave them a week come
back to them because they've married together pour that drum and it's stunning because you see
your direct learning experience as a blender and when you understand blending you understand
whiskey simple as that whether it be single malts because single malts are blends as well most of
the time but blends of one single malt into a batch i'm rafi from the bothy telling it as
it is saying what needs to be said and if you've enjoyed this click like subscribe leave a comment
um i've been struggling to keep up with the comments recently because a lot of been getting
left but bear with me i try and leave a wee smiley heart thing that's what i do most of the time just
to let you know if i've noticed your comment and thanks to all my patreon subscribers and who i
respond to most of the comments there because it's a great little group and they're really enjoying
um the the conversation that's going on um within the comments so if you'd like to join
my patreon channel patreon.com it's ralphie yeah um providing additional content and live streams
uh to patreon subscribers and uh other exciting stuff hi i'm ralphie from the both hope you've
enjoyed this and we'll see you soon you lucky monsters keep your luck lucky bye wisely