ralfy review 897 - Budget supermarket malt review, and how to make it better.
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- Опубликовано: 18 сен 2024
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Thank you Ralfy for this review , because I am in a low budget ( taxes , social security , children , housewife, landlord , car bills , food , etc , etc , etc ) and I Iike whisky very much , but the price must be "normal".
Sometimes my mother in law gives me a more expensive single malt , and also my oldest son does that , so I can explore the wonderful world of whisky.
My friend, thank you for mentioning Braille and people who are in a unequal condition. They deserve the same pleasures of life as all the rest of us. Thank you Ralfy, you are a real gentleman.
Lidl's 3yr Queen Margot is my budget blend...excellent quality for pocket change
It's great that Ralfy reviews these basic whiskies, and it's good that they exist to cater for all budgets, however...for £25, a quick search of the big supermarkets will show various bargains: Old Pulteney 12 Glenmorangie 10, Highland Park 10, Laphroaig 10...I'd say the best bargain to be had is Ardbeg 10 when it's on offer for £37.
You're so lucky ardbeg 10 can cost around $120 , HP12 and Glenmorangie 10 around $70-80 ish,
Laphroaig 10 around $90 in Indonesia. and with local brand being so fishy (tastes like petrol) we have nowhere to go.
@@liesandy291 we pay a premium for bourbon so it's all swings and roundabouts!
Ardbeg ten always 37 in tesco if clubcard offers. Laphroig 25 in asda non age statememt 20. Talisker skye 20. Glen fiddich 15
I have a Co-Op near me, and on occasion there has been a single malt that has been on the shelf too long, and the price is reduced to clear space for something that might sell better. Last week they had a case of Glen Keith reduced from £30 to £16. I had never heard of it but at that price I gave it a try. It was absolutely lovely and I bought a second bottle for xmas. I am looking forward to the next price reduction with bated breath
. . . bargain.
I'll keep my eyes peeled for that one, cheers.
Oh yes I’ve had a similar experience in Co-Op. i bought a special edition Glenlivet 15 for something like £16.
@@purestilton . . . crazy low prices.
So many people mistake price with quality. Often it does hold true, but, you never know when you'll find the hidden gem, which is why you have to rely on experience. It's why I subscribe!
There's been several times, I've made a ten or twelve year old bottle 'last' by taking the last fifth and blending it in a decanter with the non-age statement version of the same distiller. It works surprisingly well and it 'feels' like you're drinking 12yr old all night, when otherwise it would have been just one or two drams.🥃
Tried blending a few of my own quarter full bottles or there about of 10 year Talisker 45.3% with a peaty smoke head 43% and a cheaper Bushnell 40% with surprising results. We'll worth the experimentation.
Ralphy, i bought a bottle of this and i find my experience is completely the opposite of your own. I found it a beautiful flavoursome whisky to drink immediately after opening, none of this "leave uncorked for 24hours" business. Its an easy, no-nonsense whisky that im pleased i bought......ive even bought a second bottle, a bargain at £25!
Me and 6 friends did a blind sample of 4 grocery store scotches + 2 name brand scotches. The ASDA speyside won hands down, beating out a macallan 12 and singleton 12! We couldn't believe it, but thats whats in my decanter now :) no one needs to know it only cost 20 GBP lol
Hey Ralfy, great review. Delighted to see these whisk(e)ys get a chance. I bought a Marks & Spencer Highland 12 year old a few weeks ago and love it. Immediately returned to get a second bottle to put away for a rainy day.
100% agree with you on the Aldi and Lidl statement.
You're right about Lidl and Aldi, Ralfy. I like all their Ben Bracken and Glen Marnoch iterations, but especially Lidl's Islay single malt which is nicely peated and very cheap.
For those in the US and elsewhere, if Costco near you sells liquor, they have their Kirkland Signature brand malts and blends, some age stated. Malts have gone to 46% last few years. I've had the 16 and 18 highland, very good for the money. Bottled by Alexander Murray, who also bottle for Trader Joe's.
Scotch is my only drink and can't appreciate anything exceeding $100 dollars. I've lost count how many fabulous malts you've introduced and never disappointed! Thanks Ralfy~
Very nice topic Ralfy ... so much emotion in your explanation . Thanks .
I for one like the amount of love you and Clive give the Co-Op - we don't have them where I currently am but everywhere else in the country I've lived has had one (or several).
No reason to not have braille on the bottles. I have nopticed it on Arran in the past and thought it was pretty cool.
I've been noticing the use of Braille on more and more wine labels, too, though it's still nowhere near common. I don't have difficulty seeing, but I definitely appreciate it. Imagine someone feeling around their cabinet unsure which exact bottle they're getting, or needing to have labels made for everything in their cabinet. Just knowing that this or that winery or distillery already adds textured Braille to their labels would make a world of difference for what someone may decide to buy.
Pleased you are reviewing the ones that are widely available in supermarkets. Can't wait for more reviews.
Agree! Could never understand why ingredients are rarely listed. No one likes being lied to, even through omission. Then again, here in Canada this bottle would retail for $40-80cdn easily. And no, still no "hard" booze at the grocery store. So appreciate your UK grocery stores, because the grass is rarely greener on the other side of the hill.
Great reviews as always. Im on my way to super liquor in Adrian Michigan. 3hour drive but the selection of single malts is very nice compared to grocery spirit stores
Morrison's does a 5 year old blended malt for £15, bottled at 40% but tastes like balblair and a decent dram that you don't have to think too much about. The M&S Kenmore 5 blended scotch for a similar price is also decent but merely due to actually using decent quality grain whisky which provided most of the character and flavour. The range of cask finishes by Glen Moray are also decent when on offer (£18), especially the sherry cask finish. In terms of more integrity malts which can be picked up on offer id recommend: Bunnahabhain stiuireadair (£25), Glen Scotia Double Cask (£28), Ledaig Rioja Finish (£30), Berry Bros Sherry Cask Blended Malt (£27), AD Rattray Cask Islay (£27)
Hell, what prices do you pay in the UK. Here in Spain the cheapest white brand (Mercadona, Aldi, Lidl, Carrefour) are usually around 7€ (blended) and € 15 for SM. The other day, in the supermarket, they had the Cardhu 12y on offer at € 18.
At Christmas you can get real bargains with some brands, although unfortunately most are from Diageo, almost never something with "more integrity" .
Such a cliffhanger :D Well done!
Ralfy is really fired up for this one 🤣
Thanks Ralphy. I can only afford 1 bottle of Bushmills a month well ok I only started last month and I'm looking for something different this month I will probably get Johnny Walker this month . Hopefully I can find a good single malt scotch for next month and a bourbon for December. December is a good month I will get myself a good dark rum as I do every year. By the end of 2022 my collection will be of a nice size as I only have a few drinks each month.
Good luck with your journey, mate :)
@@kareliask thanks. I'm hoping next year will be better and I can afford to get something to treat myself with.
Bushmills black bush is a fine dram, no limit. Consider Glenfiddich before you go for Walker, though. It’s the same (maybe less) and is a good single malt that even the snobs love.
Back in 2016/7, Richard Patterson, master blender for Whyte & Mackay, was reportedly involved in a project to supply the Co-Op with whisky. I believe this is a product of this project. I did a Google and it seems people are pointing the finger at Dalmore as the sourced distillery for this Single Malt.
. . . that would seem to be true.
Regarding ingredients. It's surprising how many "quality" ales from supposedly reputable brewers fail to state the ingredients on the label. Except to say, "Contains Malted Barley".
Personally, I think it should be a legal requirement.
This Co-op dram used to say Bottled by or at Dalmore Distillery a few years ago
@10:02 - Sane spray, lol. I'll take that as Sainsbury's :) Nice review as ever, ralfy :)
Would be interesting to taste all the supermarket own-brands and try and work out what distillery they have come from. I tried a bottle a few years ago (forget the name) because it was a peaty one that I would bet money that had come from Caol Ila.
We were chillin and 3BOG and then Ralfy pawed for my knee at the end.
Prices are rising here in US. - especially for scotch whisky - so this wisdom is well received
"They describe it as irresistible". I laughed out loud.
There s been suspicion it could be sourced from Dalmore.
Sounds like it!.... 😎
They.
"Irresistible" is the Co-Op's brand name for all manner of "premium" food and drink.
Invisible distilleries? Ralfy should tell us more!
Tullamore Dew, 0.7L, NAS, should cost about $15.
And no doubts it's a good one for this price. ;)
When I tried the co-op budget offerings a while ago I thought they were pretty decent. Better than most supermarket mystery malts. And where else are you going to get a bottle of Scotch from at just gone 4pm on a Sunday afternoon? :-) Fully agree that Tesco and Sainsbury's have slipped lately and that Lidl is king. Cheers!
Are these basically independent bottles without any reference to the origin? I’ve never seen them in the US.
@@robfut9954 basically yes. Independently bottled on behalf of the supermarket chain. Sometimes there'll be an independent bottler's name on the back label but almost never a distillery.
@@WhiskyLock I wonder if this is similar to what Total Wine liquor stores do in the US. Thanks for the answer 🍻
I’ve left the cork off for a few minutes before, but how long would you recommend? I’d never have thought to leave it off a whole night.
12 to 15 hours uncorked seems to work well at improving a freshly opened bottle in my experience. Sometimes I'll decant half the whisky into a clean, empty bottle to get a bit more air in contact with the spirit, then re-cork them and put both bottles back on the shelf for a week to a month or more, taking small test pours periodically to determine how it's progressing. If you're patient, you will often discover that a seemingly mediocre malt may eventually blossom into something truly special. A 22yo Mortlach bottled by Alexander and Murray was the best example of this transformation I've yet experienced; it went from a "nice" but rather bland whisky to a truly fine whisky with the sort of depth and complexity you would expect a good 22yo whisky should have. Even though it was an older whisky, Costco (US) was selling them for only @ $50.00 a few years ago. Unfortunately, that particular bottling seems to have disappeared from the shelves now.
Amazing stuff, always when I se a bottle like that with age and if it is e150,chill filterd on the label. Then normaly i buy it nomater what the age is only fore suporting the onesty and integrety, i always buy integrert bottlings the other stuff i buy but it getting less and less if it not integrety Offcorse the price cant be crazy fore a 3-8 yo of the cheap bottels 40 abv stuff.
"Invisible distilleries that supply large amounts of volume to supermarkets", sound like an interesting extras.
Just bought makers mark 46 from Tesco on offer at £25 . Fantastic bourbon for the money
From a USA perspective on this side of the drink: Occasionally supermarkets like Kroger will stock some pretty decent MGP sourced bourbon that is cheaper in price than it probably should be. Occasionally, and I mean occasionally because whiskey inflation is a very real and egregious reality that we are all wishing would subside. Stocks of well aged MGP and Barton bourbon is back and abundant after a long period of well aged shortages. I can find 7-8 to 12 and 15 year old bottles much easier than before.
Interesting price. Possibly due to the tax difference between US & UK. I can get Finlaggan (Old Reserve) from my local Trader Joe's for $20 US here in Northern California.. My understanding is TJ's import it in to the USA so perhaps they give themselves a price break (it is availablefrom other retailers in the US like BevMo) and not all locations of TJ's across the USA sell hard liquor, or even beer and wine for that matter. Every State has its own laws regarding alcoholic beverage sales in food markets. BTW, I can also get Laphroaig 10Yr at my TJ's for $43 US which beats all the other discount markets (unless you purchase by the case). I find Finlaggan to be a very palatable daily tipple and I believe I've seen Ralfy praise it pretty highly, especially for a "contract" product.
i will now buy a bottle to support their integrity. Every little helps
Great video. I wish Aldi in the United States carried liquor.
I bought the Singleton 12 for 26euro here in Cyprus and I really like it :)
But you can get Glenfiddich 12 or Glenkinchie 10 for same (or up to 5e more)...me, myself, i would buy it (curious as i am)
I'll guess some spoons of Ardbeg lol Cheers!
The RUclips subtitles randomly turned on for this video, and I'm amazed at how well they do with your voice compared to how it used to be.
Cheers for this ralfy, been telling folk this for a number of years now.
Yeah pretty good. Though it wrote "space site" for Speyside haha.
Hmmmm not sure £25 is much of a bargain. You can usually find a bottle of highland park 10, old pultney, even Laphroig 10 for £25. I saw Chivas Regal for £22 recently! Supermarket own brand should be cheaper than age stated quality brands. Aldi and Lidl are good value indeed
Hi nice cool review 😎
Thats the base philosophy...the best quality for the lowest prize. Can be applied for all stuff cars, electronics and etc...And popularity of single malts increased and prize too. I bought Jura The Sound 1l for 25 EUR in Duty Free shop. What is your opinion about Travel retails whisky version? Thank you for very interesting video.
My limit was $50 but the ones that were that price are now up to $65 now [per bottle]
I wish supermarkets here in New York State sold whisky.
Hi Ralfy loved the review and the coop in my part of the country has an over 60’s 10% off on Tuesdays! 🤔👍. I was also wondering about letting this type of whisky “breath” in the same way I would with a red wine? I sometimes pour it between two containers a couple of times to let the air get into it and then let it stand for a while, do you think it would be relevant to do this to a whisky or am I being a bit harsh? 😃
. . . let it breathe.
As a food & beverage manufacturer, i am required to list all of our ingredients, with percentages declared for defining ingredients. I have long thought, "how does the whisky industry get away with not doing this?!"
To be fair, how many beers or wines have you seen brail on? I can’t think of one.
With the cost of Whiskey being what it is in Australia, if I can’t afford something good, I’ve been switching to a Malturnative cheap Brandy
Kirkland 12 year old here in the USA is as good if not better. It comes in a big 1.75 L bottle and is less then 40 US dollars.
Ralfy, do you have Dun Bheagan Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky? I know it's no age statement, but it's right up the alley for this topic.
Cheers.
I honestly expected Ralfy to say “…A restricted whisky diet…”
Would your smell and taste be enhanced if you closed your eyes and drank in a quiet place?
Hi there ralfy. Any chance you’ll be giving your opinions on the Glenmorangie Signet anytime soon?
. . . decent and pricy.
Can't wait for the next vlog Ralfy.. This topic has me all ears "innarested". I'm most fortunate to have enough loot to buy some nice 12 Yr Scotch uisces.. Glengoyne.. Bunna.. Glenlivet "illicit still" Some proper order Scotch N. A. S... Tho as a "Paddy" I give me own cowboys a wide berth. Come Christmas I'll spoil meself with a Spingbank 15 and a Bunna Toiteach A Dhá.. Why.. Because I'm worth it.. Just sayin..
What are you planning for the glorious 900?:P
Not everyone needs to buy whisky every week) I think, sometimes it's worth to save some money and buy something more worthwhile after a month or two) "Quality, not quantity")
Trader Joe's in the US aren't too bad either. Blending the Islay Storm (fine on it's own as well) they have with something else from their budget Scotch isn't too bad either.
Asfa even has a islay regiin whisky thats single malt akways 20 quid
When does the age does not mather anymore, and is it all about exclusive? i buy older whiskies with friends since a short time, had the Glenmorangie 18, And next one we gonna try is the Glendronach 21.
But i wanna keep it between 18 and 21.
Ralfy the "Whisky Whisperer" ...
What's the name of the product 🤔
Making a budget malt better: take a marker and credit your receipt for the amount u spent, also put a great single malt into the affordable single malt box and pretend you paid nothing for awesome juice.
Denial. Deception. They work.
Guys in the comments, help me out. Is it worth it to buy a bottle of Macallan 12 for $65? It would be my first venture into Single Malt, having had blends before (mostly Chivas Regal)
No it isn't. Only my opinion of course.
Yes
Have a look at the candidates for best entry level whisky in the OSWA awards. Some great bottles to start out with in there.
We can't buy anything but beer in Canadian supermarkets.
CoOp have made this for years and have stated the ingredients for many years. Wee bit sweet I find but for the price, hay I can't knock it.
This is not a Single Malt, but are you anyhow interested in Queen Margot 8yo from Lidl? When reviewing red NAS version, you have told that similar bottled at some decent age statement would be interesting. It is actually pretty decent, and for the money is absolutely must have.
Indeed it is. It's a very pleasant drink.
Tesco sell a 12 Yr old Glenlivet for £28.
Asda sell a 12 Yr old Glenfiddich for £27.......you can't be bad to that 🥃
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this or Whyte & MacKay?
. . . this.
First
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Cheers Ralfy
They should add rainbows to the box to show inclusivity… lol jk
They should...to just piss you off?
lol braille on the back...inclusiveness is overrated
What are you saying?
@@DeerHunter308 "Do you know what I am saying" -Leopold "Butters" Stotch