Now that’s 2017 is officially over, let’s take a few minutes and remember the top drams of 2017. These are not the BEST whiskies in any category, just a few whiskies that I think deserve an honorary mention for being very good, ultra interesting or a real Value for money. I shall split the choices to three price ranges, and pick one item i fancied this year. since one can not compare apples and oranges, and what I expect from a 250 EUR whisky is hardly what I expect from a 50 EUR whisky. This is not the “best of 2017” by any means, not my best, but just some drams I especially liked.
Affordable whiskies
The Whisky Exchange Black friday 16 yo speyside single cask
At 60 bucks or so, this year’s Black Friday edition by TWE , was one of the most appealing whiskies released. a 16 yo single cask from Glenfarclas A family owned Speyside distillery , selling for this price in 2017 is something we rarely see, and no wonder this one sold out in 10 minutes or so (at 6:00 am UK time). I know this was quite a limited edition, and only a few 100’s of people managed to get hold of a bottle. but you can still get some on the secondary market at auction sites (for example: SWA) sometime it pays off to wake up early 😉 (no worries, I am not selling any of mine).
Mid Price
Compass box have been making awesome whiskies for quite some time now, and this year they released two intriguing whiskies : the No name, and the Phenomenology. This one is their peatiest yet, and is an excellent blended malt featuring a lot of older Ardbeg (75.5% Ardbeg) , 6% Caol Ila and 13.4 % Clynelish, and a bit of highland blend. Islay and some Lovely Clynelish, can this go wrong? It’s a delicious whisky, NAS (but you can get info from CB if you email them, which I did, but I can not reveal the information per their request). at €115 it’s not a bad deal if you’re into some aged Ardbeg (beyond 10).
High End
An exquisite example of a well aged Craigellachie at Cask strength, something you don’t see everyday. I loved the younger Craigellachies,but this one blew my mind. It was so complex, so excellent and left quite a mark , at least, that’s my opinion. Some are available on auction (currently at above 500 quid, but will closer much higher). Excellent stuff anyways.
Thank you all for reading , commenting and loving Whisky Israel this year, may 2018 be even better .
Slainte, all!