Are the Sample Bottle Programs worth the investment?

normanlao

Hello all!

I just had a question about the sample bottle offerings that some online vendors sell like:

https://www.masterofmalt.com/samples/whisky-samples/scotch/single-malt-whisky/islay/

Are these programs a good way to continue expanding my tasting experiences? Have any of you tried these product services and did you have a good / bad / indifferent experience with them?

I have my core set of casual drinking Single Malts - but I don't think I need anymore 750 mL expressions right now - but still would like to continue my tasting education.

I'd love to hear some feedback if any of you have had an experience here with these companies or sample offerings.

Thanks,

Norm

voskarp

Hello!

I can't say that I'm a very experienced whisky taster, and I haven't tried the samples.

I think the 200 ml bottles are better, as it takes at least three-four sessions to get to know a whisky.

But the small samples could be a good to get some general bearings.

Heidjer

I can't imagine tasting whisky without samples anymore. But I don't have to rely on commercial samples since the German forums are quite active in sharing bottles and offering samples (as I mentioned before). These days, I'm mostly buying 4 or 5cl samples (or 2cl if very expensive). If you taste 1.5cl per dram, then you can stretch those to roughly three drams, which is enough to get an idea of a whisky. I only buy 10cl or more if I think I'm gonna like the whisky but not get around to buying a bottle anytime soon.

If receiving alcohol via mail to California is allowed, I'm sure we can manage to organise something for you that would be cheaper than Master of Malt. We had this topic here already, but we never got a straight answer.
At the moment I ersonally do not have much to share but I know that SanctTom has a large variety of samples available in the other forums.

So if you can answer the question of legality, I'm sure you can taste a lot

If not - you wrote something about malt drinking friends - maybe you can buy sample bottles and swap some samples with them for starters.

Quin

"Heidjer" wrote:
I can't imagine tasting whisky without samples anymore. But I don't have to rely on commercial samples since the German forums are quite active in sharing bottles and offering samples (as I mentioned before). These days, I'm mostly buying 4 or 5cl samples (or 2cl if very expensive). If you taste 1.5cl per dram, then you can stretch those to roughly three drams, which is enough to get an idea of a whisky. I only buy 10cl or more if I think I'm gonna like the whisky but not get around to buying a bottle anytime soon.

Word!

SanctTom

Agreed, Heidjer!
Sharing samples in a community is a great way to get to know a lot of whiskys without spending tons of money.
For all of you out there, who don't have the opportunity to take part in this via the forum due to problems with shipping or laws - definitely try to find some people locally to get together and share - it's such a lot of fun!