Great King Street New York Blend Limited Edition

[William]

Compass Box have announced the release of the first in a series of one-off, regional Scotch whisky blends under their Great King Street label - the Great King Street New York Blend.

The New York Blend is made up of 80% malt whisky from the regions of Islay, the Highlands and Speyside and 20% Lowland grain whisky. A quarter of the recipe is from heavy-peated single malts, mostly from Islay.

More about it here:
www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/greatkingstreetnewyorkblend.htm
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[albo]

Sounds interesting, I wonder how much it will retail for over here and how available it will be?

Also interested in what other releases there will be.

[William]

albo, it is £60 for the 75cl bottle over here, it is available from Compass Box (compassbox.specialitydrinks.com) via the Speciality Drinks which is the company that owns The Whisky Exchange, i cant see it listed on TWE for some reason, i would guess there is a very limited number available here in the UK.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[albo]

The price of whisky at the moment really is taking an upward turn, which isn't great news for the consumer, I know this is a 75cl bottle, but still £60 is some ask for a NAS blend.

Maybe it's me getting grumpy becasue the clocks have gone back and its dark all the time, but I do feel that I'm being pushed harder and harder to get what I class as a resonable price for a bottle these days. Aside from the supermarket's doing offers (on a standard handfull of drams), it's beomcing increasingly difficult to pick up a good bottle for less than £50.

[William]

I totally agree that the price of whisky at the moment really is taking an upward turn at and there are some very big whisky distilleries/companies cashing in.

But to be fare to Compass Box i would say this isnt the case with this expression. The Great King Street New York blend really is a very limited release whisky with only 1800 bottles. I havent tasted it but i am sure it will be a very unique expression created in a way that only Compass Box does with their passion for crafting something unique and special for those of us that like to drink unique quality whisky which is a little off the beaten track of the distllery bottlings or indeed other independent releases

I dont have the ages of the whiskies in the blend but i know from talking to them in the past that Compass Box dont just throw in young cheap whisky into the blends they create, they are carefully hand picked and will have varying ages and brought together to create something special.

Personally i think £60 isnt way over the top for such a unique limited release which was made exclusively for the US market, Compass Box have simply made a few bottles from the release available here to give some of the whisky drinkers here who like their unique approach to whisky creation a chance to taste it.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[Fergie]

I am a big fan of Compass Box and have nothing to moan about as far as they are coNcerned. £60 isnt over the top in todays market for such a limited unique edition, although i think all whisky is today is over priced compared to just 4 years ago.

[albo]

Thanks for the updates.

I guess the price of this was my tipping point, rather than thinking this was excessively priced, hence my rant in the new topic I started. I appreciate what Compass box do and some of their stuff has been excellent, that I have tried.

Out of interest William, you seem to have the inside track on a lot of whisky info and talking to the right people, am I right to assume you are involved in the industry in some capacity, feel free to tell me to mind my own business of course, I'm just interested (jealous).

[William]

albo, i am not involved in the industry in any capacity other than running this site which no one has an influence on except myself. I have built up a good relationship with many of the whisky producers over the years of running the site through meeting them at whisky events and visiting distilleries.
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There's no bad whisky. Just good whisky and better whisky.

[albo]

William, thats really refreshing to read, nice that someone with an interest in whisky who runs what is a friendly and informative site, can get to know some of the players in the industy and get some personal enjoyment (I assume you do) while bringing enjoyment to others who use the site.

Thanks