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> Aberlour A’bunadh

Where are you getting cheap Aberlour A'bunadh?? It's my favorite scotch but I cannot find it for less than 2 to 3 times the price of Macallan 12.

Also, Glenmorangie is a delicious sherry scotch. Tastes a lot like Macallan and usually cheaper.

> The big trend in Scotch is towards “no age statement” (NAS) bottlings, because Scotland is not keeping up with resurgent global demand. NAS bottles are younger spirits, but tend to have more interesting casks, which is a bonus if sherried whiskies are what you’re into.

Interestingly, Macallan in the US still has an age statement. This, however, is not the case in other countries. They have names instead (like "Ruby").

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> Interestingly, Macallan in the US still has an age statement. This, however, is not the case in other countries.

I wonder if this is because the USA allows it? In a country where you can sell Argentine cheese as Parmesan and Oklahoma beef as being from Kobe, it doesn't seem like a stretch that you could sell 3-year-old coloured vodka as fine 18-year-old Scotch whisky.

Glenmorangie isn't sherried unless you get the "La Santa" version, which I don't think is as good as the original, and then it's only finished for two years in sherry casks after the usual maturation in bourbon casks.

Aberlour A'bunadh is great, as noted, as is Glendrodach, but they've run out of 15 year old casks, and the 18 isn't enough better to justify the price hike.

Another favorite is the Bunnahabhain 18, a non-peaty, sherried Islay whisky.

Australian prices:

Aberlour A'bunadh $140 (Dan Murphy's, so pretty much everywhere)

Bunnahabhain 18 $199.00 (Nicks, mail order only)

Glenmorangie Original $80 (Dan Murphy)

It's actually not that much higher that US prices, which is surprising

The US particularly has high "sin" taxes on alcohol. I live in Germany, which has lower taxes on alcohol than the US and Scotland, so ironically, both bourbon and Scotch whisky are cheaper than in their home countries:

These are the lowest prices for each in the 3 places I usually buy stuff online:

Aberlour A'bunadh: €53 ($61 / AUD 84)

Bunnahabhain 18: €91 ($105 / AUD 144)

Glenmorangie Original: €29 ($34 / AUD 46)

The Aberlour has gotten back down (interestingly) to what it used to be when I started buying it about 7 years ago. Glenmorangie used to be €25 at the grocery store. And the Bunnahabhain used to be about €65 when I found it.

> Where are you getting cheap Aberlour A'bunadh?? It's my favorite scotch but I cannot find it for less than 2 to 3 times the price of Macallan 12.

I was going to ask that, as well. :-) In Chicagoland at least, there isn't a huge price difference, though ($67 for Macallan 12, $90 for A'bunadh). On the other hand, last time I had a bottle of A'bunadh, it was in the $60-$65 range.

Fortunately, being cask strength, the A'bunadh bottle can go farther, provided you dilute it properly.

While I like the Speyside style, I like peated Islays as well. I'm interested in the Lagavulin 8 - the 16 is still just a bit too dear (though down in price from a few years ago).

Weird. I just paid mid-60s for a bottle, from Binnys, off Instacart no less, but yeah the price right now is just shy of $90.

It’s not worth $90. You can get a Dronach for that much.

A good relatively inexpensive sherry Speyside is Dailuane (in my experience only the cheap Dailuanes are good).

Whisky became hip in the last 5-ish years and all of the stuff I used to recommend to people has gotten too expensive. I've expanded significantly towards other matured spirits where the prices haven't gotten as redonkulous yet: rum, brandy, and even some good tequila.

Weird side effect: I found Scottish whiskeys were cheaper in Japan for the past 5 years compared to the US. That and buying in a spirit's native country saves me a chunk of change. I'm almost out of good rum, so I might need to plan my next vacation to the Caribbean..

Go Barbados or Jamaica.

I suspect you're in the US but for Europeans whiskyauction.com is interesting. See https://whiskyauction.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?action=... for Aberlour A'bunadh for instance. I don't know anything about price differences between EU and US.

Even here in the ABC state of NC A'bunadh is readily available and goes for about $87+tax. Macallan 12 is about$65-70.

ABC NC prices are reasonable. It's the selection that sucks. I guess you can always order a case on their special order form if it's something you really want, but I've never tried that.

I'm annoyed that even though the warehouse is right here in Raleigh, many of the local stores have crappy selection. I don't even understand why the selection varies between stores, especially within a county, since they are all state run.

Or cheaper Glendronach for that matter? It's 40-60% more expensive than Macallan here.

Than Mac 12! Yeah, sorry: Mac 12 is probably a good value. The comparison I’m always seeing made is to Mac 18.

(Actually, Binny’s current Mac 12 price in Chicago appears to be higher than Abunadh or Dronach 12 [which is fantastic]).

I wouldn't really call anything Macallan good value. For a basic sherried whiskey Aberlour 12 is just about as good, for substantially less, and for what Macallan 12 goes for these days you have tons of (imo) more interesting/better options.

I will say I had a dram of the 18 in a bar once, and it was indeed very very good, but I can't really justify spending ~$250 bottle for it.

$250 for a bottle of Macallan is insane. It's not worth it. You're paying for the name.

Yeah, in the early 2000s, there were bottles of Macallan 18 for $75 or so at Costco. It was a wonderful time.

interestingly in the UK the prices on those two are pretty much the same (in fact at the moment the Aberlour is a bit cheaper than the Macallan)

A'bunadh is 60% ABV, so it's better value if you add water/drink smaller measures

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