Help me pick a few bottles for my 40th

[zenmonk]

My good wife is treating me to €400 worth of a pressie and I have decided to spend it in the Celtic Whiskey shop.
I'm not completely fluent in whiskey but I do buy a few bottles a year and enjoy a dram most nights.
Presently I am drinking Power's John's Lane and it is perfect. I like pot stills and am partial to a smok(e)y scotch from time to time.
So far my list would include a Madeira Tyrconnell, maybe a Laphroaig but would love to try a Japanese or an American whiskey (apart from the obvious ones).
Would love a bit of advise lads here and maybe on a Scotch or Irish that might be worth a look.
Thanks in advance.

Shane

[DavidH]

The new Celtic Cask Madeira is fabulous. I tried it at Whisky Live. As is the Celtic Cask single pot still, though that would make a bigger dent in your fund at €350.

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

Welcome to the 40 club, I recently joined too, but didn't get such a generous gift.

I tried the Yoichi single malt on holidays earlier this year and loved it. I got the 15 soon after and have not regretted.

An interesting American? I think they have Jefferson reserve which is tasty.

You could alway try a new Writers Tears Cask strength. The new Irishman is good too.

I finished a bottle of Scapa recently and liked that. You could also get the Redbreast 21.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

My suggestions would be to go for a lot of more reasonably priced bottles rather than 2 or 3 expensive bottles. I also would pick my Irish from CWS AND the others from the whisky exchange.

However if only buying local these from CWS.

American

Eagle Rare 10yo €50

Japanese (not a great selection)

Nikka from the Barrel €40

Scotch

Aberlour A'bunadh (cask strength heavily sherried) €65
or
Lagavulin 16yo €77
or
Laphraoig QC €60
or
Spring bank 15yo €70

Irish

And 4 out of these 5

Bushmills 1608 Anniversary €70
Lockers 8yo (lightly peated) €40
Tyrconnell Maderia €75
Writers tears €41
Yellow Spot €70




However if you shopped with the whiskey exchange you could get

Laphroaig QC £37.15 (€44.75)
Eagle Rare 10yo £33.65 (€40.50)
And
An interesting
Karuizawa, spirt of asana single malt for £55.45 (€66.80)

Plus £17 (€20.50) postage would equate to just under €175 for those 3.

[pigs nose]

I'd agree with Irish Whiskey Chaser and would recommend getting several smaller bottles.

In particular, you could use it as an opportunity to try some different styles. So maybe a glendronach parliament or the mortlach 16 for a big sherry monster, kilchoman for a young peaty whiskey from a new distillery, get the tyrconnell maderia finish if it's on your list or (if they still have it and you have the sponds) the teeling company silver release which is a like the tyrconnell maderia finish only more so!

I'd also recommend seeing what they have by way of independent bottlings at the back of CWS. These change from month to month, but usually they have a few good independent bottlings. These are usually slightly more expensive than the standard bottles from most distilleries, but they are often cask strength (or at least 46%), non chill filtered, usually a single cask and invariably more interesting than the standard bottlings.

[zenmonk]

Lads thanks so much for all the help and words, some great ideas there. Will finalise tonight and let ye know!
Shane

[zenmonk]

Ok lads I went for the following

Redbreast 12 yo cask strength
Tyrconnell Madeira Finish
Lockes 8 yo
Springbank 15 yo
Ardbeg 10 yo
Highland Park 12yo (a personal favourite)

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Looks good,

Enjoy

[Good Whiskey Hunting]

Ok lads I went for the following

Redbreast 12 yo cask strength
Tyrconnell Madeira Finish
Lockes 8 yo
Springbank 15 yo
Ardbeg 10 yo
Highland Park 12yo (a personal favourite)

Good choices. Have a good one.

[danny56712]

Nice selection to have at once!

[pigs nose]

Ok lads I went for the following

Redbreast 12 yo cask strength
Tyrconnell Madeira Finish
Lockes 8 yo
Springbank 15 yo
Ardbeg 10 yo
Highland Park 12yo (a personal favourite)

All good choices, although I wouldn't be mad on the ardbeg.