Ronlap

The wife and I are Islay single malt drinkers and she raves over JWB. I find it decent enough, so we buy it as Costco when it goes on sale for half of the duty free price.

OHDL1

The Walker Brothers bought the Cardhu distillery to ensure the supply of Cardhu for some of their blends. It's used in Blue and others. There are mixed reviews for Cardhu as a single malt...I happen to like it.

OHDL1

So..how much is it at Costco?

javabytes

As with most "premium" spirits, you're paying big $$$ for perhaps a marginal percentage improvement. Given a blind taste test, most people are incapable of discerning between one bottle and another that costs 5-10x.

KDCAflyer

I'm generally very pleased with a Macallan 12. Had the 15 in a SC one time, and it was decent, but not really worth the premium.

ATLawyer

I disagree. I have been to many blind whiskey tastings, and almost everyone I've seen at one can discern black from blue, or 12 from 25. The issue is whether they can tell the difference between Macallan 12 and Macallan 15, or Glenlivet 12 to 18.

This isn't to say that everyone prefers the 25 or blue to the cheap stuff, although my experience is that those who prefer the cheaper have only ever been exposed to the cheaper and are tasting the "good stuff" for the first time. In other words they prefer what is familiar.

On topic, $30 for a double (a true double) of blue is a good price in pretty much any restaurant, and especially in an airport. I would probably never order it simply because I prefer to drink the good stuff at home or at a good meal, but it's a good price.

javabytes

My two statements still stand:
1. Most people cannot tell the difference. Test after test shows many of those that believe they can, really can't. I acknowledge there are still some who can, but most who claim to be able to are full of crap.
2. Once you get past a certain point of quality, you begin paying double, triple the price (or more) for improvements that are marginal. Let's accept the premise that Glenlivet XXV is better than 18 is better than Glenlivet 12. The price of Glenlivet 18 is 3 times that of Glenlivet 12. Is the 18 literally 3 times better than the 12? Is the XXV literally 11 times better than the 12? Everyone has their opinion, but I would suggest no. People who must have the absolute best are willing to pay luxury premiums to have something better than everyone else... and that's fine. But at the end of the day, it is still Scotch... maybe better than other Scotch you have had before, but not a mind blowing, order-of-magnitude better experience. You're paying as much for the exclusivity - probably more - than you are for quality. It's no different than Pappy vs. other bourbons. No different than a $350 YSL t-shirt vs. a $35 Urban Outfitters t-shirt.

And in general, I agree: $30 for a double poured from a bottle that retails for ~$180 is quite reasonable.

ATOBTTR

I have to agree overall. The only thing I claim to be able to tell the difference in is Pepsi and Coke (and the difference between other similar types of pop, such as Sprite or Sierra Mist). But when it comes to wine, scotch, etc. there's very little difference to me. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough to notice or care but at fancy restaurants with multiple brands of the same type of wine, I haven't found paying more for higher end brands to matter. I did the Macallan Distillery tour and tasting a couple years ago in Scotland and the one I was most impressed with, and ended up buying a bottle of, was a 10 year one. (It still remains unopened - I'm saving that for when I either separate or retire from
the Air Force. )

kettle1

Johnny Walker Blue in Las Vegas at Total Wine & More is $179.99 for a 750ml bottle.

RockyRobin

I was in a bar in London the other week and it was £24 for a single. The people I was with offered to buy a bottle for the table for me. I kindly said no but they insisted but five minutes later they returned to say they would give it a miss as they wanted £600 for it!

I'd only tried it at the LGW flounge and being a single malt man I was dubious.

However wow what an easy to drink scotch is that! It really does knock the socks off the other labels for smoothness, well the red and black I've had before that in my eyes were only good enough for Canada Dry.

As stated before it has no distinction of flavours like your malts but for pure smoothness it cannot be beaten. A real entry scotch for non drinkers but a bit expensive for that! To introduce new drinkers it would be more cost effective to use a Highland Park or an Auchentoshan which are both very accessible in my eyes.

JWB has taught me to be more willing to try the blends (another good one is the Chivas Regal Royal Salute £99).

ACYYZ/SD

It sounds like they're depleting stock. $30 for a double - not bad at all.

HeadInTheClouds

Wow. I just paid $140.99 at Total Wine in LA a couple weeks ago. I'm surprised at that gap.

anon2k2

I live in Washington State, where we have some of the highest liquor taxes in the country. At the local Bevmo a 750ml bottle of JW Blue is $235, a which is exactly the same as Macallan 18. Macallan 12 is $61, and Talisker 10 (my normal bottle) is $73. All prices include the liquor sales tax and the liquor bottle volume tax.

For people not from WA, liquor here is taxed in two ways to the end consumer: You pay 20.5% of the sales price in a liquor sales tax, and on top of that you pay $3.7708 per liter as a "volume tax."

griffy208

When I was in Edinburgh last month at a nice whisky bar, two tourists walked up and asked for a pour of the most expensive blend. I cringed, and the barkeep did as well once they had paid their £35 each and left. Mind you, this place had amazing single malts for <£10. Sigh.

Ardecos

I agree, people are being taken for complete idiots. Hundreds of dollars for a shot of a whisky (absolutely not whiskey, that is an outright insult; whiskey is for Irish and bourbon products!) is nonsense. As other posters have said good single malts should be available for GBP 30 (USE 50) per bottle and great ones for GBP 100 (USD 140). I live in Edinburgh, Scotland.