hello mighty morphing mates i'm ralphie in the bothy welcome to ralphie review 914
extras just a quickie um because i've just recently reviewed
hang about and thank you to afram cct afram cct for that not mentioned
i've just been reviewing port charlotte 10 year old bottled at 50 and ralphie review 914
and it's a damn good single malt and i recommend you buy it simple as i scored it 90 out of 100.
now there's something i want to tell you about this score and there's something i want to tell
you about this bottle and it's something that many of you are aware of but i want to really highlight
it to bang it home is that this review is in 2022. now if this review was in 2018 when i reviewed a
previous version of this bottle it never scored 90 it scored 86 because it wasn't as good
simple as that it was not as good put that out of the way there in a safe place where it would smash
so i can put them all marks away now they've served the purpose and
as i can occasionally glance back towards 2009 when i started
i look at reviews early reviews for whiskies which i now hesitate to buy and yet then
um 12 years ago they were really good and i was impressed by them my obvious example would be um
what's that one winter this winter's gold comes
is a version of this particular distillery it's not beyond pit lockery it's a wee white
building in a very very windswept place and i know the name and i'm trying to remember
the name but i can't remember i just can't remember it's gone it's just totally gone
i can't believe this anyway you know what it is because you're a monk mate and you've guessed it
and when i i reviewed this whiskey as a 15 year old i was really impressed with it i gave a high
mark and then i bought a bottle five years later and it was nice enough but it wasn't the same and
the reason being the casks weren't the same the casks were inferior and you could taste
it in the whiskey um and then a little bit later i had a taste from a friend who asked my opinion
and said you know you reviewed this and you gave it a really high mark but i wouldn't give it
anywhere near that i said well stop right there because you're reviewing it now i was reviewing
it then see even the space of a couple of years some distilleries are losing their reputation
for quality other distilleries are building and growing their reputation for quality and
the common factor that affects both is the cask policy it's nothing else it's just the cask policy
some distilleries are spending proportionally more
on better quality casks and underwood than others others tell winnie
it's still winnie thanks thanks for shouting at me thanks for letting me know i heard you mop mates
dale winnie 15 yo i really used to love that as a lowland single malt drinker it was a really
good highland whiskey but now i wouldn't even buy it i wouldn't buy any version of dalwinny
because i don't want to be disappointed and i don't want to be spending my money
and risking the disappointment when there are other whiskies out there like arden american
and torah vague and aaron which i know and deanston and bona haben which i know
are going to give me better returns why should i even take the risk these days
why should i and it's because things do change and i know some of you you'll look at a review
and you may not initially spot when i have reviewed it but when
and and you say well hang about ralphie's rated this so highly or he's not rated this so well
but i'm tasting it and i think it's greater i think it's terrible
and it's because of time sensitivity the internet's still fairly recent but even in
that fairly in the space of a decade we're seeing dramatic rises in reputations in some distilleries
and falls in reputations in some distilleries but they all put the prices up some do so modestly
some do so and with sensitively others just bang the price up dramatically shockingly
and it's a turn off because it should be when you see it happen just don't buy walk away
it is better you walk away from a high priced whiskey then spend the money and have your
disappointment and the smell and the taste compounded even worse by the money that you
were persuaded to spend on it nothing malt mates nothing is worth more than you're prepared to
pay for it it doesn't matter what the marketing people say oh this is worth 200 pounds 300 pounds
500 pounds 5 000 pounds a hundred thousand pounds for a bottle of single malt whiskey
when you spend that money it's nothing to do with a whiskey anymore is to do with a tangible
asset collectibility in the same manner of fine art and that all
is it's all prompted and it's all valued through pretension delusion and [ __ ]
every whiskey review is time sensitive our pilots two are time sensitive even it used to be with
before the internet it would take you even ten years to get a half decent pallet with whiskey
but now with the internet you can get a very decent pallet for whiskey within two or three
years with the variety of what you experience the patience the practice the perseverance and
the benefit of tuning in and seeing what people have to say whether it agrees with your opinion
or disagrees it doesn't matter what mates it's the journey it's all about the journey
and the journey is taking place over time and be aware of the changes respond react
and be ready for these changes because they will help you to find better whiskies where you didn't
expect them and to let go whiskeys which used to be a favorite of yours but now they're just
letting you down simple as that i'm ralphie in the bottie having a dram painted stuff very nice
i'm wondering now should i buy a couple of bottles
in case the quality goes downhill in five or ten years perhaps even sooner i don't know
decisions decisions my mom mates