Douglas and Laing + Other Independents

[Stevedigs04]

Hello Everyone,

I was looking around the internet as I usually do to see what scotch is out there as I feel like you cant possible ever see every bottle for sale!

To preface this story I am getting married in October of this year and was looking for that special bottle for such an occasion!

Now I have 2 bottles from D&L currently ( old and rare platinum Jura 18 Y/O, directors cut 16 Y/O Blair Athol) but both remain un-open and more show/collectible pieces for my cabinet. I was just curious as to what exactly the "game" so to speak that D&L is in?

What I mean is I am a big HP fan and was contemplating the 30 y/o for my wedding... upon further research I found that D&L have a 28 y/o HP release in the directors cut series. Also there are a few other bottling in the 25-30 y/o range from other bottlers besides a pure HP bottle.

To get to the point quicker HP 21= 135 pounds, 25= 188 pounds, 30 = 285 pounds. (based off whisky exchange and master of malt).

Now just to add a few of probably 100's of examples from non HP bottlings.

Highland Park 1987 / Macphail's / Gordon & Macphail (26 y/o) = 75 pounds

Highland Park 24 Year Old 1988 (Signatory) = 78 pounds

Highland Park 28 Year Old 1985 - Authentic Collection (WM Cadenhead) = 120 pounds

Highland Park 28 Year Old 1984 (cask 9968) - Director's Cut (Douglas Laing) = 228 pounds.

So my biggest question is "are all these whisky's from HP and actually HP whisky with the correct age statement??" AKA is it worth spending the extra 160 pounds to go from a 28 y/o cadenhead to a 30 y/o HP? and what is the difference between a 28 caden and a 28 D&L for 100 pounds?

Purely drink ability nothing to with collecting and investing this time

Thanks alot guys sorry if it was a bit jumbled!

-Steve

[TheWM]

[Blackadder]

Some good info here on the independent bottlers
http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/independentbottlers.htm

and info on Douglas Laing here
http://www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/douglaslaing.htm

The distillery bottlings of Highland Park 25 and 30 year old ar both outstanding.

[TheWM]

Yes, great info on this site

I would also add, that you could, if you were that way inclined buy a cask and have a go...

[Stevedigs04]

Thanks for the info guys!

I guess a follow up question would be these days ( D&L for example ) being very reputable there is a very very small chance in getting a "bad" whisky from them.

Would you waste the money in going with an age statement from the distillery or save and buy 2 bottles of an independent ( or one and something else) and have an equally delicious dram?

-Steve

[Big Mac]

Steve in the case of Highland Park I would say go for the distillery bottlings especially as it is for a special occasion. The Highland Park 25 and 30 are both equally brilliant. If it wasn't for such a special occasion i would say give the cheaper indie bottlings a go. The thing about independent bottlings is they are very limited releases with very little if any reviews but you can get very lucky and get a cracker for much less than the equivalent age distillery bottling. For your money i would say the Highland Park 25 year old.

All the best with the wedding

[albo]

All very good info so far in this thread.

It's really down to your specific tastes and desires at the end of the day.

The distillery bottles are rather expensive and it's only you who can say if it's worth it or not. Many of the Indi bottlers come out with excellent bottles equally as good as what the distillery turns out. There is no guarantee of quality from either I'm afraid as this is down to personal taste as to what's good for you and what's not, or in this instance what's value for money and what's not.

For me personally, I'd be picking up the indi bottles rather than the HP distillery bottle, that's got nothing to do with me thinking one is better than the other, and everything to do with my current financial state of affairs.

As others have said here, the HP distillery bottles are excellent at 25 and 30 (though I've not tried the 30) HP wont want to bottle anything less than stellar whisky at this age as it would do their brand no good at all, that said the same goes for G&M and D&L and cadenheads, they too have a brand to protect so you can expect their whisky to be excellent also.

If you are able to try any or all of these that would be the best suggestion, see which one you like best and go for that. Failing that, I'd pick up 2 indi bottles for the same price as the HP distillery bottle. Chances are you're getting 2 excellent bottles, your just not being able to say I'm drinking HP30 yo. That said you may look back on this in 18 months time and think I wish I'd have gotten the HP30 as these 2 bottles were nice but not quite as excellent as the HP30 would have been.

For what it's worth when it comes to indi bottlers, I'm a member of SMWS and I can hand on heart say not all of the stuff they bottle and sell is excellent whisky (some of the stuff I wouldn't give to my dog to drink*), the good thing about the SMWS is it enables me to try these whiskies before I purchace them, that way I'm getting something I know I'm going to enjoy. That said I've had bottles from distilleries what were not to my taste too, so there is never a cast iron guarantee of quality or enjoyment unless you can try first.

Sorry I'm not being a great deal of help here, but you have to decide what's for the best

* I don't have a dog, nor am I advocating giving whisky to dogs.

[bifter]

I think most points have been covered off. However you haven't stated what styles you usually have a preference for. If you like single cask, cask strength releases you may prefer an IB. If you tend to prefer a rounded OB expression at 43% you may think the OB prices are worth the extra.

I like both. I've had a stunning 16yo SMWS Bourbon cask HP that I compared head to head with the OB HP18, it'll be in the tasting notes forum if you're interested. The 16 had a better nose, the 18 won out on the palate. All the sherry cask HPs from SWMS that I've tried have been badly sulphured, a danger of single sherry cask releases. This is all the more pertinent to HP because the house expressions are almost entirely sherry-cask based. Many of the Bourbon cask HPs from SMWS have a lemon sherbet note to them, I don't know if that's true of other IBs?

HP has shot up in price lately so the OB prices are a stretch these days but it is pretty special whisky. The HP30 is an incredible dram.
_________________
"Whisky is liquid sunshine."
[George Bernard Shaw]

[Stevedigs04]

Thanks everyone for the info!!!

I think for this particular event I'm going to go with an OB bottle from a distillery.