Whisky Forum - Decent independent Islay whisky

Hunter · Member Joined: 09 Nov 2010 Posts: 14

Hi all, i have been lurking around here for quite a while but this is my first post. I wondered what others thought are the decent independent Islay whiskies which dont name the distillery. I am interested in single malts, vatted malts or blends.

Cheers

Keith · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:26 pm Post subject:

Hi Hunter, good to have you here.

Have you tried the Peat Monster from Compass Box or Smokehead from Ian Macleod, both are excellent IMO

Calder · Master Of Malts Joined: 13 Nov 2008 Posts: 688

Douglas Laing has 2 very good Islay vatted malts, the more well known Big Peat and the lesser known Clan Denny Islay.

Innes · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:10 pm Post subject:

Ileach and Finlaggan were good but i havent had them recently so a possibility what is in the bottle has changed.

Brummie · Master Of Malts Joined: 08 Feb 2010 Posts: 661

A couple of decent Islay style blends are Black Bottle and Black Grouse in fact both these blends are very similar to each other, perhaps more than a coincidence as didnt the Grouse owners previously own Black Bottle. Maybe they held onto the recipe. Anyway both very good value blends.

JAB · Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:15 pm Post subject:

Must agree i enjoy a dram of Black Bottle!

Finlay · Single Malt Member Joined: 13 May 2009 Posts: 21

Hunter if you havent tried them Tesco, Asda and Sainsburys own label Islay malts are all very good indeed and also great value and if you have a good knowledge of all the Islay distilleries it is always interesting to try guess which distillery they originated from. And also great value for money.

I would 2nd Keiths recommendations of the Smokehead and Peat Monster, both very good and worth a try.

Big Mac · Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:08 am Post subject:

I had the Black Bottle 10 year old a while back which was very good but i believe they have stopped producing it now, not sure why.

Mark · Master Of Malts Joined: 27 Sep 2006 Posts: 1663

Manc · Member Joined: 30 Jan 2009 Posts: 14

I need to give the Big Peat a try as it seems to be highly rated and i tsee Jim Murray named it best Scotch vatted malt in the 2011 whisky bible.

Andy M · Master Of Malts Joined: 09 Jul 2007 Posts: 1212

Charlie · Master Of Malts Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 1405

I was looking at the new edition Clan Denny at the airport shop a couple of weeks ago but dodnt buy a bottle, i went for something else. It caught my eye as you dont see it many places, i agree the decanter style bottle was more attractive, i did have a bottle of that and it was very good indeed.

Hunter if you havent tried the Big Peat it is worth a try, so are the Peat Monster and the Smokehead also mentioned above.

DavidUK · Double Malt Member Joined: 20 Mar 2010 Posts: 174

Any of the Bladnoch forum Caol Ilas. Absolute bargain to. I recently bought a 30yo Cask Strength Caol Ila for Â£55.

Anam Cara · Member Joined: 07 Nov 2010 Posts: 8 Location: Germany

The Bladnoch Forum Caol Ilas are real good stuff !
Also most of the Adelphi bottlings like Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain (9y), Bowmore and Caol Ila
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Slán is beannacht

Tom

Keith · Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 1:00 pm Post subject:

I agree Adelphi does offer some very good bottlings which i think a lot of malt whisky drinkers miss. Not sure why, perhaps just because they are not familiar with the brand. I had a bottle of Adelphi Bunnahabhain 1997 a heavily peated cask strength 11 year which i wouldnt have known about if it wasnt for a recommendation i read on this site, it was excellent, i dont know why Bunna does not produce more of the heavily peated stuff.