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In the US, the Glencadam and Speyburns are definitely the budget options in this category, usually $30 less than the GlenDronach and GlenAllachie.

The first one Mermaid was very pleasant and this one sounds solid as well. Salty, sticky sweet sounds fantastic. I don't think I ever tried Barolo wine let alone a finished whisky in those wine barrels. Thanks for the review Alan!

Greate review Alan, have two bottles from last years batch and really enjoy them. Could you tell me pls what bottle code your bottle has?

Hi Allan, great video. I would have expected a little rant there, so deserved by that certain people that mess up so much these last years with the products quality and integrity. You guessed it, it's the marketing department 🤑. Why rebrand GD? does anyone understand that? Went from that nice well setteled and recognized bottle, to that bland package and they hicked up the price just to make us feel we got some extra there. Glenallachie rebranded as well! man.... why again...? I am tempted to tell them(marketing) to just sit there, do nothing, just basic stuff, get your pay and DO NOT MESS UP WITH THE DAMN PRODUCTS!!! The most expensive 15y whisky I ever bought is the GD 15, back in 2019 and was already 79Eur here in France. Wont touch it again with the current prices, and after the marketting had messed up with it. When it comes to the 18yrs, spent 94E on Arran 18 3 yrs ago, 80E on deanston 18 2 yrs ago, 55E on The Glenlivet 43° 6yrs ago, and replaced it for the same price (got lucky) recently. An cnoc 18 for 84E. Just ordered its replacement yesterday for 82E (offer) along witha speyburn 15 for 52E (offer). It depends on the whisky, and whether I really want it, but there is a limit at which we all think twice before. I got a Craigellachie 17 for 110E, as a Xmas treat, 2 bunna 12 CS 2022 for 110E each, just as examples on which I break the rules(when the brand and whisky deserve it). Prices will continue going up imo, especially with the so well self-regarded brands that continue to invest in trying to convince us🤥 that their products are the best instead of putting the money in the damn product itself. Cheers everyone

Hello Alan, how does the batch 10 compare to the batch 9? Which of these two is sweeter and less ashy? I don't see a review anywhere comparing these two adjacent batches.

This is a fantastic dram. Is my favorite glenmorangie release. I love it because it is so different and so amazingly balanced.

Thanks Allan, Nice Review like always. Greetings from Germany

Salty and jammy. MMMMmmm That sounds so good. Cheers!

I mainly work dusting private clients whisky shelves. I do need complete privacy while I work, but I'm willing to give you a freebie..

Glen Scotia 👌Nice review Alan👍🏼. Last week I tried the 12 Amontillado 😊👍🏼

Looks interesting. Nice review.

I've been sipping this one these last couple of weekends Alan. Really enjoying it. I agree, give this a few months and it will just keep getting better. Oddly enough I find similarities with this to a bottle I took a gamble on a little while back called the Randolph Oxford Barrel Proof (58%) which is only £36. Dont get me wrong its much more cruder and harsh compared to this Glen Scotia, but I did find 1or 2 similar flavours in it. By the way, if you stick a torch to the glass of this Randolph there's lots of little floaty bits in it, so it's barely been filtered never mind chill-filtered! 😁. Cheers Alan. Keep up the good work. Love your channel fella.

Great video Alan. £70 is my maximum for a 15 and to be honest I don't like paying more than £80 for a whisky to drink so rarely buy any older releases now. For me it's Glenallachie 15, Cask Strength 10, Benrinnes 15 or Glencadam 15, or I look up some indi bottlers for my favoured sherry cask dram. Cadenheads rarely disappoints, I also picked up a couple of Red Cask bottlings of Dailuaine - Red Cask do some cracking first fill sherry releases if that's your thing - it is mine! Glendronach went downhill for me soon after Billy's exit, I no longer buy it.

I could never get in on Benromach craze. I have a CS Benromach, don’t know what’s wrong!

There's something wrong with the audio on this video, Alan. It sounds like you're saying the Glendronach 18 is £195. 5 years ago, the unbelievably great Allardice was less than €100 (when it was still more like a 21 or 22 year old in the bottle); even here on Ireland. Even allowing for inflation, that's insane.

Speyburn, Glencadam and Benromach are the ones that stand out for me. There are some solid drams in this range but as with everything the prices are going up. Cheers Alan!

The absolute maximum I'd pay for Cù Bòcan 15 is £100, and the absolute maximum I'd pay for Ballechin 18 is £150. Those are both quite exceptional whiskies though. I'd stretch to those prices to replace them if I had to, but would be nursing each bottle quite a lot. Knock about 25% off those prices for just about any other 15 or 18 year old whiskies. Glencadam 15 for under £70 & Ledaig 18 for under £100 are good benchmarks. Glendronach 18 is lovely stuff, but has roughly doubled in price in the last few years. If I had £190+ to spare on my whisky budget, I'd probably buy a bottle of Tobermory 21 & have enough change left over for a spare bottle of anCnoc 12. For a budget sherry bomb, Cadenhead's 7 star blend for £40 takes some beating.

Absolutely great video Alan, I’m sure it’s what we are all thinking about the prices

I've paid up to 140 euros for 18yos and am willing to go 120 for a great IB 15yo at CS, but no more than 100 for an OB and that's really stretching it. Glen Scotia's charging 55 for their 15yo and Singleton's not asking more either. If they can do it, so can the others. edit: your second question/observation: there are no 15+yo's in the OSWA nominations as it's also a popularity contest sadly. It's something Roy and Ralfy recognise and regret as well. If you have ~100 people nominating one or two bottles and the most nominated 6 make it into the race, your age statement bottle is not going to be nominated by enough other people to make the final cut. I think in the next OSWA's we'll see a category for NAS-12yo and 15+yo. Adding ex-bourbon VS sherry and peated VS non peated to add some layers would be too much for the common folk (tho arguably very valuable information). Relying on nominations from the huge selection available is one of the major drawbacks of community-based projects. But there is no valid alternative.

Brown Forman look to be trying to "Macallanize" the Dronach. Chill-filtered (?) and a shadow of its former self. My sherry fixes come from Bunna CS, Glen Garioch, Glen Allachie. My 18 year old fixes come from Ancnoc or Tomatin (all slightly under €100 here in Germany). Also plenty of IB's with much better value these days. So glad I listened to Ralfy and built myself a stash ;)

IB’s only now, integrity and cask strength

I’m glad I bought what I bought WHEN I bought it…

I don’t bother looking at 18s now. Kilkerran 16 is about as high in age and price as I roll. With patience there’s plenty of bargains to be had these days but it kind of gets rid of the permashelf route as the bargains tend to be random and mostly in the £40-£60 bracket. Picked up a Glenturret 12 for £48 yesterday which I probably wouldn’t have gone near if the the 15s were not running away in price.

Whisky Friend Big Al Buddy Boy, is that big pickle jar with the pouring spout your infinite jug ❓If so does it taste like magic yet ❓

Alan - great video! 100% with you, the 18YOs are just pricing themselves out of the market. Do we have any idea why the 3 yrs are doubling the price? Sad really. Kicking myself for drinking all of my Glenfarclas 25. Can't replace it anymore. I have moved to NAS and Independent Bottlers. Thompson Bros is the value for money right now. Cheers!

Pretty much agree with all of your choices but I can get benromach 15 for around 70-80 US dollars the glenallichie is now over 115 so I would swap it for cask strength for 90 cheers

I have never bought a bottle over 100 euro and anything near that is a special occasion buy. Im usually hovering around 50-70. So needless to say I dont get many bottles 15 years old or over. But I have many good bottles. So I don't think I need to spend more.

If you buy all those bottles of Springbank in the rest of Europe there are few left and the price is definitely exaggerated for that 10 years. Well made and intriguing but even if I could I would never spend 100 euros for stuff that is half as good. The same is happening for Balvenie

Well said Alan. Prices are daft, glad I have a generous stash to see me through. Sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while, I started a new job. Slainte

all my 12-15 yo collections are from the Independent bottlers. IMO, indies provide the most value.

Love the permashelf subject Alan. I’ve got about 15-20 bottles on the ‘permashelf’ myself. Always a work in progress. A lot of influence from your channel though.

I purchased most of my 15 yr malts for $80-90 US. Two extra bottles of Glencadam 15 went in the stash 3 years ago and I paid $80 each. Same price for an extra Glen Scotia 15 yr during the same year. Only time I will pay more is if it is a single barrel CS...but even those can be found for 90 US if you shop around. The prices at our local stores have gone insane ($140 for Ledaig 10) so I only shop online these days.

Thanks for sharing Alan. Hardly any permashelf bottles at Peathead HQ. Main reason is I kinda only buy (single cask) IB's. However, I have replaced Ardbeg 10yo and Craigellachie 13yo... but haven't recently and not checked the prices. Slàinte mhath

Don't buy 15 or 18 year old now..I buy blends and Irish whiskey between £30 and £50 and bourbons between £30 and £50. Cheers Andrew

My favorite 15 is not in your list, but I am always buying my beloved Balblair 15, despite the expense ($109 USD/ ~84 pounds), it is worth it, for me. I'm always restocking the Speyburn 15 (and 18, though it is rather pricey in my area) and the Glencadam 15. BTW, Speyburn 15 averages $65 USD here, but I recently found a shop near me that is selling it for $50 (< 40 pounds), which made me very happy. My favorite 10's (Arran & Glencadam), 12's (Balblair & Deanston), Craigellachie 13 & Clyenlish 14 are still all very affordable, thankfully. As for 18's, Speyburn is pretty expensive, but worth it, and Glen Moray 18 is a really lovely dram for under $100. I have not been able to get my hands on Deanston 18 in my area, and the new Arran 18 & Balblair 18 are simply out of my comfort zone, price-wise. I did find an old bottling of the Arran 18 last year at a reasonable price and it was amazing. I hear that the newer bottling is better, but it is over $200, so as much as I'd like to try it, it is well past my financial responsibility trigger point. Thanks for another great video. Slainte!!

Great review older whisky's are just getting dearer If I like a whisky I buy it That will have to stop

Speyburn 15 was my only permashelf 15 year distillery bottle. With inflation of prices 10's and 12's are now it. I am lucky to have a vere large selection of independent bottles always coming in. Many of them at really great value prices so my older bottles are all coming from them now. Still have some old distillery bottles stocked away but they won't be replaced. Cheers Alan.

At the moment, you can get a Speyburn 15 for 37 EUR (31£) in Germany.

Top price for a 15 year old? Ideally no more than 80 quid. 190 for a Glendronach 18yr? A Ledaig 18 is 100 CHEAPER.

Alan..... excellent reality check. I'm having a hard time with Bidenomics over here in the US but when I was still able to spend $$$ a few months ago and the Bruichladdich 18 hit the market at $180-210 I had lost all sense of reality. There was no rationale for the prices. Back in the day..12's were 50-65, 15's were $70-95 and 18's were up to $130. Now we have inflation, hype and price gouging. We have to really work hard balancing expectations and value. There are so many new NAS youthful options that a well aged perma-shelf seems out of reach. But I don't really want to drink new make. Lindores just appeared locally for $65. I never bothered to much with 15's. Once I experienced all the 10's and 12's and 13's I moved on to the CS NAS, then the young CS's and then onto indie bottles. I was able to try a few official 18's, and they are the pride of my collection but now they are impossible to replace. I think Glen Allachie is the worst temptation and the best avenue back to reality. The basic 12 is perma-shelf for me with the sherry influence and the integrity. But with all those special cask finishes to try and the never ending batches of 10 CS it's a little crazy. The 15 and 18 I never did and I'm glad in a way because it's all old stock. There was so much content here on the Tube that I could taste it vicariously. I do have 3 MeikleTors but I decided a year ago that I'm not buying any regular GA until it's all Billy's distillate. And a decent age.

No need to apologise for this rant, Alan, as I quite agree with the points you raise and suspect many others would likewise. As others have said, I don't have a fixed dollar "limit" for a given age per se, it also depends on which whisky (producer/bottling) it is. Craigellachie 13 seems not too excessive at ~ukp50 in my market, but that's because I really enjoy its flavours rather than a slide-rule price for that age. Fair rather than bargain. I'd love to have a Benromach CS but those have been absent from my market (nz) for >3 years. I'd love to try more IBs but I suspect local importers are over-greedy with those--e.g. James Eadie the prices here are quite a bit more than what they go for in the UK. Old Malt Casks I've only ever bought when there was a significant discount (15-20%) which is quite rare here--not quite hen's teeth/blue moon but nearly. The nature/joys of uncompetitive markets.

Hi Alan, don’t know when these price hikes are going to stop. 18 yr old malt’s are long gone for me and the 15’s are sadly heading in the same direction. I wouldn’t really go above €80 for a 15 yr old malt though.Luckily I’ve got enough 15 and 18 yr old malts in my stash that I bought a while back. Saying that just ordered the Speyburn 15 on offer for €37 (around £31). 👍Think you’re saying what many whisky lovers are now thinking twice about ,replacing bottles with older age statements.Slàinte Alan🥃

Hugely important talking point Alan, thanks for addressing it and taking it head-on.

Nice selection

For me I generally do not replace bottles at all as I like to discover new whiskies since I am into whisky for about 4 years. Therefore, I am more willing to pay a bit more sometimes but there is a max. 12 about 60, about 90 at cask strength 15: about 75, about 100 at cask strength. Maybe I will buy a Springbank Whisky for 150 if I find it for that price. 18: 130, maybe 150. At cask strength not much higher Btw. I think there might be a big 15 year old whisky which is still affordable: the Glen Scotia 15. I had it on offer for 55 + 5 shipping = 60.

I kind of draw the line at £70-75 for a 15 year old and to be honest I’m a bit reticent to buy an 18 year old as they tend to be well upwards of £85. I did splash out £75 on a 33yo North British single grain (61% ABV) which I thought was a fair price…and it’s really good stuff. The Glencadam 15 is a belter, I will definitely replace that one and the Glen Scotia 15 which retails for £60-65. I tend to steer towards the 11/12/13 year olds which can be much better value for money. For example Craigellachie, Balblair, Glenallachie or some interesting independent bottlings which can be very good indeed. Interesting vid Alan, makes you think! 👍

Nothing can challenge this whiskey by quality and price together

Alan, great topic and timing. Met up with a bourbon friend this morning and went over to the scotch section. GD 12 was 65, GD 15 was 120 so about 10 ti 20 over what I has paid 3 years ago. The GD 18 was 250. Then went to a BigBox store and their GD 18 was 325. CRAZY!!

Great match-up, Alan. Imagine this was a tough call. Cheers!

The importance of barley...👍❤