Best Scotch That Is Not Available In The U.S.?

[Goodfella]

Can anyone give me a recommendation?

I am looking for the best Scotch (or Scotch's) That are not avalible in the U.S.

Thank you...

Joel Marchello

P.S. I am lovin this forum!!!

[505Gibbs]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

Can anyone give me a recommendation?

I am looking for the best Scotch (or Scotch's) That are not avalible in the U.S.

Thank you...

Joel Marchello

P.S. I am lovin this forum!!!

Before you can do that - IMO - you need to explain those available that you do enjoy!
The are many available thru - The Whisky Exchange in England - which is a great source of many not usually seen in the states.
The old adage about one mans 10 is another mans 2 goes here as well as to what sprits you enjoy.

[Goodfella]

Good point. I am stilll fairly new to my love of Scotch. I have been enjoying Highland Park, Balvenie, Johnnie Walker Gold... Just to name a few.

I like sharing.... So ALL recommendations are good to me. Because even if one isn't MY favorite, My geusts my love it. I would just love to tell people "you cant even get that Scotch in the U.S.".

[bkblankenship]

Originally Posted by Goodfella

Can anyone give me a recommendation?

I am looking for the best Scotch (or Scotch's) That are not avalible in the U.S.

Thank you...

Joel Marchello

P.S. I am lovin this forum!!!

Hi Joel,

As 505Gibbs stated, The Whisky Exchange in London is a great source as well as Royal Mile Whiskies in Edinburgh. I have been buying from these retailers for years. One thing to keep in mind. In order to keep one from having a heart attack over shipping charges, I have found that a minimum of three bottles should be purchased to make it more palatable. No pun intended. Royal Mile Whiskies is a little bit cheaper on shipping charges, but both stockists are generally competitive. Keep in mind that the price you will pay is the "ex VAT" price as the whiskies will be shipped out of the UK. Also, always pay in POUNDS STERLING if given the option to pay in DOLLARS or in POUNDS. The exchange rate will be friendlier on your credit card. I keep up-to-date with the current exchange rate by frequently visiting XE.COM

But in answer to your question about whiskies that cannot be had in the US, there are several good whiskies currently on the market. As taste is subjective, one has to ascertain as you are doing. I highly recommend TALISKER 57 NORTH ( no age statement ). As I normally find the younger GLENFIDDICHS austere; there is a current bottling of GLENFIDDICH named GLENFIDDICH 14-YEAR-OLD RICH OAK which is a delightful and pleasing dram. Additionally, BALVENIE currently has two 14-year-old expressions on the market; a RUM and a GOLDEN CASK. The BALVENIE 14-YEAR-OLD RUM CASK can be bought in the US, but the BALVENIE 14-YEAR-OLD GOLDEN CASK is only sold in Europe and DUTY FREE. In my opinion, the GOLDEN CASK is one of the best bottlings that BALVENIE has come out with recently. I recently compared the two in a tasting. The GOLDEN CASK has loads of complexity and palate pleasing tastes that repeat themselves along with continuously picking up new flavors along the way. The GOLDEN CASK also has a long and lip-smacking finish. The palate begs for more. It is definitely a "moorish" dram. As I bought a bottle of the RUM cask for comparison, I found the RUM cask to be the fraternal twin that did not shine at all. I would not buy another bottle of the RUM cask. If you like peated whiskies, and especially Speyside peated drams, TWE bottles a 12-Year-Old CAPERDONICH at 57%. A good digestif to sip and savour to lose yourself in for the rest of the evening. Two of the drams I have recommended have age statements and one does not. A NOTE ABOUT AGE STATEMENTS: Never get hung up on age statements. The age of a whisky does not indicate the quality of the whisky inside. To paraphrase Michael Jackson, the noted whisky writer ( God rest his soul ), Americans for some reason feel the magic age for a whisky is 12 years old. Why? No one knows.

[Goodfella]

Thanks alot Ken. When I go to Scotland this year, I want to get ONLY bottles I cannot get here in the U.S.

Thanks alot

Joel

P.S. I also put a reply on a thread about finding a map of distilleries.... Maybe you can help?

[hewins]

I just got back from Scotland and was looking for the same thing. Stuff I can't get in the states. You were asking for "the best" but I can at least tell you few more that aren't available here:

All the Diageo "Flora & Fauna" series. They have pictures of animals on the labels and are often single malt bottlings of whiskies that are components of the company's blends. Mortlach, Daluaine, etc.

There is also a Duty-free Glenfiddich 19 year old "Age of Discovery" aged in madiera casks. Haven't tried it.

[Goodfella]

Where did you go? (what region)

What distilleries did you vist and/or recommend?

[hewins]

I went from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to Inverness to Isle of Skye, to Glasgow.

I visited three distilleries:
Glenfiddich
Glen Grant
Talkisker

But I only did the tour of Glenfiddich, which was a very good one and good for a first-timer like me.

The folks at Talisker were great and offered a sample dram even though we didn't do the tour. (Of course, it was March and there weren't too many other tourists around, relative to the summer months.)

Dan

[jwise]

My favorite whisky that isn't available in the U.S. is Glenfarclas 15yr. It is the best of the Glenfarclas line that I have tasted. It is superb. It is so good, I ordered two bottles from across the pond. One will be kept sealed for a while, but the other is slowly losing liquid.

[Goodfella]

I just watched a DVD about scotch whiskies.... and it talked about them.

I want to try one. I think I will order a bottle or two.

[Dale]

From distributors in the New York market, there are currently about 450 single malt expressions available. Thus, there were about 2000 more expressions bottled in Scotland last year. If you go to any of the great whisky stores in Scotland, blindfold yourself and pick a bottle off the wall like you're playing pin the tail on the donkey, you have about an 80% chance of plucking something off the wall which is not being imported into the U.S.

The big question: Why is so much good whisky being kept out of the states?

The simple answer: Bottle size and back label requirements.

An enormous amount of Scotch is bottled in 70cl (700ml) bottles. This bottle size is not accepted by the BATF. So unless the distiller, brand owner, or importer/distributor in the U.S. wants to afford the expense of a small and unique bottling run for the U.S. market, the bottles cannot come to the U.S.

For all bottles of wine & spirits for sale in the U.S., there is also the requirement of a back label which, in my humble opinion, requires the unnecessary prose about drinking too much of it minimizing our ability to safely operate a tractor while increasing our chance of getting pregnant. So the same distiller, brand owner, or importer/distributor also faces additional costs for a separate labeling run.

And this is just at the federal level. The importer/distributer must pay to have the front and back label of each bottle approved for each market they want to sell the bottling in. If they want to be in all 50 states, they pay for 51 label approvals - one for each state and one for the feds.

The label situation alone explains why the cost of single cask bottlings are more expensive than general bottlings such as Glenlivet 12, Macallan 12, Glenmorangie 10... Once there labels are approved, they're more or less good forever unless they change their label.

Anyway, any bottling you buy in a 70cl bottle is not something that can come into the U.S.

Edradour, 10 Yr, d'Yquem Sauternes cask finish is an incredibly interesting dram which isn't brought into the U.S. The other thing to look for are bottlings from mothballed and lost distilleries.

[Islay Peat]

Can't 'legally' call it scotch, but the whole original basis for the Japanese whiskies was to make their own scotch.

Masataka Taketsuru went and lived in Scotland to study scotch making and married a Scottish woman before starting up his own distilleries in Yoichi, Hokkaido, then Miyagichou, Miyagi.

Some of the best unavailable in the states would have to include Yoichi 10, Hakushu 10, Yamazaki 12, Miyagikyou 10, and that's just some of the single malts I've fallen for.