Pat=Pals Update 20/6/23

I just realized I missed it! Damn.

What time is the whisky live presentation?

. . . excellent comment, if you don't mind, I will feature this in a Pat=Pals Update !

Great fun as usual malt mate. I'm one of those folk with a mortgage (7 years to go) and that is really making me change my whisky consuming and purchasing habits. I really couldn't care about the price of milk and olive oil when my mortgage has rocketed by hundreds of pounds a month. It's also making me become even more critical of the sharp practises of the whisky industry. I know that whisky has always been about business but where does it think it's going? Is whisky to become the domain of the stinking rich only? It seems like a certain sort of whisky is. The price of 18 year old whisky is racing away and the price of anything over 20 years is so out of touch with what's in the bottle. Like you, I enjoy my independent bottlers but that has become a highly specialised purchasing strategy. There are so many mediocre whiskies in very 'iffy' casks and very average age statements. It really takes an experienced whisky bloodhound to sniff out a worthwhile one. I've made this point with you before, and It's been confirmed by some contacts in the whisky industry, that we are in a cask crisis. There's not enough to go around and that's why all the huge variety of methods to impart any character into so many single barrel expressions and distillery releases these days. There's scope for optimism because of the new wave of great young distilleries doing everything the way we like and in a very old school way. However, they aren't at their best yet and they really are expensive. Balcones always said they would reduce their prices when volume allowed them to do so and that has happened at long last. Will our young Scotch distilleries do this or will we have to wait for years before it happens? I just see prices going up and up and whisky moving away. I guess I'm saying that the current economic crisis and whisky do not mix. It's a toxic relationship. We were paying rip-off prices but now that economic crisis is really burning us we can't afford to any more. I've a fair bit in the bunker but I'll be spending far less on whisky this year than previous years. The combination of the financial restraint and flagrant rip-off cannot be sustained. Cheers. WT

Welsh Toro

. . . just posting a comment that was 'missed' by Patreon, . . . who really need to upgrade their soft wear.

Willem Kilian commented on your post. Sure, my question for Ralfy, or now that I think about it, all the malt mates who've been in the game for a while now, is whether you are getting an overall sense that the industry is being taken over by people who are not directly involved enough in whisky making; and whether this is detrimental to the industry in the long run. And, if that's the case, would the seemingly positive trends from some of the newly emerging smaller distilleries we're seeing lately be enough to be its saving grace? Does it even matter, or will the volume sales market where a lack of quality may not be as observed or appreciated by the average 'consumer' remain the lifeline of the industry as it continues to ride on brand recognition and people's established habits? I think, in hindsight, this may have been a stupid and very generic question :-)

hahaha, I spent the first few seconds adjusting my PC's sound :-D Glad to see the cyber man again by the way!