Hello!

Kuba2112 · January 2 2016 at 6:38AM

My name is Jakub and I'm polish but moved to Norway at young age!

I have worked as a bartender in a divebar/cocktail bar for the past 5 years and have always been mostly drown towards bourbons. Simply because they're more acceptable in a cocktail rather then a good single malt.

As far as whiskey selection at my bar it is really bad so I wanted to seek other sources to learn about the collecting part of whisky world.

I have had some friends at one of the greater whisky bars in Oslo (Jackells and Hyde)so I have had opportunity to try som whiskies that were interesting for me. Several of the Ichiros card collection bottles,Hibiki 21yr some nicer bourbons(Blantons,Pappy van Winkels family reserve both 20yr and 23yr). And of course most of basic whisky that may be found commonly.

As I turned 25 lst year and my 5 year anniversary at the bar the owner gave me a bottle of whisky as a gift. Much appreciated but I had no idea what it wasor the value of it. The bottle we are talking about is a 1.5l Macallan Signatory 2000 from 1988. I tried to find some info on it and figured out that it's not a lot about it online. Some auctions suggested a price between 100-140£ which for me makes me want to consider starting a collection.
Do anyone have anything to tell me about it other than what I found online about it?

And as I plan a quick trip to London at the end of the month I found a nice store that I may use to buy my 2nd item to collection. May I get any suggestions?

Norway has monopolized alcohol sales so you can only buy it through State owned store. Which makes it maybe a tad more difficult for collectors, not to start talky about prices. Yet again I may be wrong so if you have any info about that I would appreciate it!

Thank you so much for the help beforehand and I'm looking forward to discovering and learning more with your help!

hwchoy · January 2 2016 at 7:56AM

welcome to the forum Jakub, from a fellow newbie from Singapore.

recently whisky.com sent out newsletter number in which Horst discussed about whisky collecting and the three kinds of collectors. a very interesting and useful article. it might be posted here on the forum, or if not I could forward you a copy.

btw I am firmly a type 2 collector :wink:

horst_s_2 · January 4 2016 at 12:39PM

Nice to follow this discussion. I can add a little to the Signatory bottle. There had been only a few distilleries bottled in these Magnum bottles. So this is really a rare item. The quality is good, but not overwhelming. The amount of bottles sold worldwide was quite small. It must be noted on the bottle. I do not know of a second 1.5l bottling of Macallan from Signatory.

The whiskeys and whiskies you had in Oslo belonged to the good ones. No bad start.

My advice would be to start tasting the 'big' Scottish single malts. My tier one would be:

The Peaty Ones
Lagavulin
Laphroaig
Ardbeg
Bowmore

The Sherry Cask Matured
Macallan
Glendronach
Glengoyne
Aberlour
Dalmore
Glenrothes (not all)

The Normal Ones
Dalwhinnie
Knockando
Auchentoshan
Cardhu
Glenmorangie
Arran

The Intermediate
Highland Park
Springbank
Talisker
Oban
Clynelish

And then the complete varity of the finished whiskies is waiting
Balvenie
Glenmorangie
Arran
Benriach
Glendronach

hwchoy · January 4 2016 at 7:12PM

Dear Horst, I see you did not mention Glenlivet. any particular reason?

Kuba2112 · January 5 2016 at 1:08AM

@hwchoy Thank you for the mail!

@Mr.Horst
Thank you for the information about the Signatory :smile: I'll set of to discover your suggestions through the next month's :biggrin: Many of the names sound very familiar and I probably have tried several of them before without thinking about how they are supposed to be tasted and enjoyed.

MejorWhisky · May 26 2020 at 9:26PM

@Kuba2112 Hello, you can find a very good list of good whisky to drink in "mejor whisky", it is a spanish page but it is easy to change the language with google translator. You should tray Hibiki Harmony Whisky Japonés, very delicious. That people is doing things very very well, it can explain they are as popular as they are.