Hundreds of bottles available in CostCo near San Diego

UPS ground is nice. PM me

I find Costco in CA has the best Scotch selection, SFO, LAX, SAN. I always load up a few local Costco locations into my GPS when I am there.

The SF Costco has a great selection. Found the last bottles of Balvenie Rum Cask 17 there. It's like visiting Stalag 17 without all the charm of a Nazi POW camp though. What were the architects thinking ?

I am enjoying my Glenmorangie this evening.

I wonder if anyone has tried any of the Macallan 25 year Anniversary scotch? According to my local liquor board website, they can get a bottle for only $700, which seems low. If you've tried the Anniversary scotch, do you know how it compares with the "regular" Macallan 25 year sherry oak? I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on a bottle of one or the other. Just doing a little last more research.

A little dear for my wallet. I've only had the regular 25 and it's inferior to the 18 IMO. It always trails the 18 in blind tastings too. It ends up tasting more like sherry than scotch. An Islay, being so funky can hold up to all those years in sherry (like the Laphroaig or Bowmore 25). I'd be more willing to invest big $$ in them IIWY.

I have tried bot MaCallan 18 and 25. I personally prefer the 18 as well. Sometime the extra year might not be for my taste. FWIW I find the sweet spot for most of the "brands" that I like around 16-21.

^^^Bowmore 25, one of the exception for me.
Cheers

It's truly amazing how rapidly our palates improve in parallel to our incomes and assets (or pretensions to either/both).

I recall as a young college student, a Scotch drinker, a pretentious affectation here in the Southwest, I decided that Old Smuggler, Vat 69 and even upscale Cutty Sark were not for me, and I'd drink J&B and Harvey's.

Then it was off to the Navy (1962), where time in New York and thereabouts brought me to "White Label" (as it was seemingly most often called, Dewar's to the unfamiliar), but the "Standard Brand" (likely because of its price from bonded suppliers in European ports, about $1 for an "Imperial Quart") was Johnny Walker Red. Once escaped from the Navy and into the corporate world, I reverted to White Label which signified that the drinker thereof had actually been to NYC. In the early 80s, I spent 3 weeks in Scotland on business and fell into the trough of Famous Grouse, a pub favorite there at a time when single malts were available but hardly popular except among an affluent or sophisticated few.

Now, there are single malts for every locale, season and weather condition, a gamut of the tones, tenors and flavors with which distillers "dosed" those blends we used to drink.

An interesting pastime today....sampling the blended scotches you used to drink to attempt to determine the variety and origins of the single malts of which they are composed.

Inevitably, there's the suspicion that some of the "Single malts" which we have become so proud to drink and show off to our friends may have actually been products that the distillers couldn't sell to blenders, and simply put in casks to age, hopeful that time might cure all wounds.

When someone offers me what he calls a "peaty" malt, and it tastes of the scourings of an Irish hearth, I suspect that now and again, it may be more about the sizzle, than the steak.

Anybody try this ?

Went to a local restaurant two nights ago and ordered my usual Glenlivet 12 on the rocks. Was told they were out so I decided to try Macallan 12. They brought me a tumbler with the scotch in it and a glass full of ice which was something I wasn't used to. I think I put too much ice in my glass as I really didn't like the Macallan and it left me feeling rather sick. Of course maybe I just really don't like the taste of it. Still, bad night for scotch, I switched to wine after in fact.

Sacre bleu.

Mac is aged in Sherry Casks. Most believe that mellows it out and adds complexity. You probably just don't like Sherry. Next time - 1 or 2 cubes.

I have 8 bottles of single malt and tend to collect them more than i drink them, not that i dont like them, i just dont want them to run out!

Yamazaki from Japan is an amazing entry level Whisky which has a bit of a sweet taste perfect for beginners.

My favourite is the 1994 Glen Rothes, very smooth a subtle with light pepper flavours mixed in with sweeter fruits.

I also have a small bottle of 35yo Duncan Taylor Glen Rothes that i have been too afraid to open yet :o

The '94 Glenrothes is rather delightful. ^