It's shocking how different it is, right? And it wasn't even a particularly gradual change IMHO. As soon as they dropped the age statement it just became a very different beast. What you say about the Reynier wine casks makes sense. I wouldn't mind so much if they at least gave us some more traditional expressions. Cheers.

Honestly I'm not surprised! Back in the good old days I remember preferring the Laddie 10 to the Laddie 16 and 22. And not just on the value for money front. Cheers!

Thanks!

Thank you! I'm glad you got something out of it :-)

Cheers buddy!

Thanks John! No offense meant to American chocolate 😬it is very different to what we have though! I actually enjoy the stuff you guys make occasionally. Possibly because it reminds me a little of Laddie 10 😂 Cheers!

@@WhiskyLock actually I prefer dark chocolate with high Cacao %…. Hershey milk chocolate is Mass produced low quality imo….

​@@justwhisky Classy! Ever pair it with a heavily sherried dram?

@@WhiskyLock No…. Not Ralfy recommend 🤣

@@justwhisky 😂 I must say that I agree. It goes well and is a nice experience... but good whisky deserves more respect.

The glory days! When we could go online and buy a whole case of this stuff at £35 a pop! I bought my first bottle of the NAS replacement in person at Bruichladdich. It had just been released and the shop staff were visibly apprehensive about recommending it to someone who they knew loved the old Laddie 10. It's not too late for them to salvage things but their prices, especially of the new 18s and 30 send a rude message to us enthusiasts.

@@WhiskyLock Yes they do and the entire range is creeping up in price as well. They've adopted the slow creep but we are watching.

Nice! Hopefully you have some left. Yes there were a few other 46% releases in those first few years before they decided that 50% is where it's at. Rocks, Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 I remember. Laddie 10 was always my favourite. Its funny that they decided that 46% wasn't quite enough when there are so many distilleries who still insist that 40% is fine 😕

I have tried the Laddie 8 and I liked it quite a lot too. I think it's closer to the old Laddie 10 than the new Classic Laddie but the Laddie 10 beats it on the palate. Cheers!

Whenever a distillery talks about their processes, 9/10 you can bet that you're going to get some BS about how their slow and traditional processes are what makes their whisky the best. Often accompanied by references to whatever process is the quality flavour of the month: for a while it was trendy to talk about still size and shape and water sources, then it was barley varieties, then cask finishes. At the moment it seems to be worm tubs. What I'm seeing is marketing folk trying to reduce what is quite a complex process into one selling point that can be used to sell bottles and justify prices 🤷‍♂️ What's more worrying to me than the usual BS that all salesmen give us is the trend for distilleries to reopen, produce really, really good stuff and then let the quality slide. I think that's what has happened with entry level Bruichladdich, Glendronach and a few others. Laddie 10 was more of an inaugural batch than a core release and was made with super attention to detail and care because the reputation of the reopened distillery depended on it. I think that is what made Laddie 10 great. I haven't tried Bruichladdich 18 yet but I hope it will be similar to Laddie 10. As for Bruichladdich distilled before the reopening. I haven't had much of it but the Laddie 16 and Laddie 22 would have been from that period. I tried those and honestly I preferred the Laddie 10 that was distilled by the new owners. We need to be careful there though, casks that were cherry picked from the legacy stock is unlikely to be representative of what the older owners were doing on an average day. Same as how the modern reputation of Port Ellen is now entirely defined by a handful of the very best of the best casks that remain and nobody remembers the millions that were tipped into blends.

unique inside and out! Cheers!

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone... as they say! Talisker has definitely changed over the years and honestly I'm dreading Diageo doubling the price of the 10 like they did with the 18. Or just getting rid of it like they did with 57° North 😕

That's valid for many other young whisky too.

@@Soldano999 especially this one for me. My first bottle, I opened it and thought it was horrible. Three weeks later I tried it again and loved it.

@@revolvermaster4939 i have the same experience with "writer tears"

A little air can truly work wonders. Especially for younger and/or stronger drams. Cheers!

Oh it is (was) fantastic stuff! And a real curve ball that doesn't show the new house style. Raicilla you say? I haven't had any yet but I am partial to some agave juice. Cheers Scott.

Thank you very much Benny! Oh my... Arran 14. That was a truly incredible whisky and funnily enough I had the same experience with Arran 14 that I had with Laddie 10. With both of them, I tried that expression, fell in love, they discontinued it and I pretty much stopped buying from those distilleries for a few years. The Arran 14 is rightly legendary and I have one bottle left on my shelf. I hope to be able to compare it to a re-released 14yo soon. Cheers!

@@WhiskyLock Yes, it could indeed be quite interesting to compare it to a new 14 yo release from Lochranza.

The 10 was a stunner and I really miss it! Make the most of that 16 while you can. Cheers.

Oh yes! Just a few years ago Ledaig used to be a total butter-bomb! There used to be an OB Ledaig NAS bottled at 42% years ago that you could get in the supermarket for £20. I really enjoyed it despite the low strength. Excellent budget dram full of that cheesy character. I hope somebody will start making this kind of whisky again. It's getting hard to find.

The 2nd edition was nice. Better than the Classic Laddie IMHO. This original is very different but I love it! Hope you find one for a good price.

Great to hear 🙂

Normally probably not... but sometimes! I remember back in 2011 some people accused Bruichladdich of colouring Laddie 10... and honestly it kind of looks like they did because it has that orange Irn Bru glow... but it says natural colour on the label 🤷‍♂️

Bring on the cheese 🙂I agree that it can be taken too far but generally I love this style. Shame that it's becoming rare. Cheers

Ohh... that's some very high level grammar policing! I changed it just for you 😂

​@@WhiskyLock Haha, that's much more better indeed. "Used to" is a particularly idiotic one as well; we really only use(no pun intended) it in the past tense these days, but a couple centuries ago it just meant "to be in the habit of/be accustomed to".

@@osirisgolad I think OED say 'used to' for past tense with the exception of negative or interrogative (why?). Fowler and Burchfield list examples of use to and used to being correct for both and don't take a side but do recommend restructuring in order to avoid the problem entirely 😂This problem has been debated for at least 40 years... I must admit that I've always been inclined to agree with Fowler's on this one as I do like an easy life... That and I can't stand some of the things creeping into Oxford Spelling, such as -ize endings for words that can be traced back to Greek (bloody hell!) because apparently we should all know which words are Greek and it's better to used an Americanization than spell like a Frenchman 😀 I swear things usedn't be this complicated 😉

@@WhiskyLock It's all very confusing because we really only use this archaic verb in the past tense these days, so restructuring would indeed be better. When we have to add "do", as you would in a negative or interrogative, you end up with double past tenses. You wouldn't say "I didn't went to the store" or "did you went to the store?", after all. Centuries ago, you could say things like "Tom uses to shower in the evening" to mean "Tom is in the habit of showering in the evening", but I doubt anyone would understand you these days. I'm just glad I learnt the English language naturally as a child, through books, music, video games and the like, so I never had to study it; I had already absorbed all the nonsense by the time I was old enough to question it. 😅