ALL ABOUT MACALLAN...AND JAPANESE WHISKIES

I've been collecting whiskeys for more than a third of a century. Began when I took trips throughout the World from the 1980's. I must still have a dozen bottles still in the original cardboard box, mostly from Japan. Below are some of them. One is in a wooden box, Royal Lochnager. A 36-year old bottle of this scotch is today sold for $4774.

Another is Korean Bulhui folk liquor. Not sure what it is. It could well cost only $10, but don't know.

Another is almost as mysterious. Rokubee in a ceramic bootle made by Nikka , which costs $430/bottle.

Something more traditional, Royal Salute 21-years old blended whiskey, produced by Chivas, and costs $235.

I'd swear I bought this Nikka Yoichi 20-year old for around $100, if not less. Cost today? $3765!!

Some think that it was the 15-year old that broke the ice in 2001. Not true, but it did garner 2009 and 2020 Gold Medals. Costs more than $1000. But it was the 10-year old Nikka Single Cask Yoichi that broke the ice in 2001. #2 that year was Suntory's Hibiki 21-year old. The 10-year old Yoichi which once sold for way less than $100, now goes for $1300/bottle.

This all began when Masataka Taketsuru in 1918, went to Scotland to study chemistry at Glasgow University. He then trained as a blender in Campbelltown and Speyside, got married to a Scottish girl, went home, and with Suntory's founder Shinjiro Torii, exactly a century ago, formed Yamazaki distillery. He died, at age 85 in 1979, and did not live long enough to experience his tectonic impact of the field. Read his story of how love changed the scotch landscape.

Bringing you up to date, here are the World Whiskies Awards for 2023. They have so many kinds of awards these days that these values are diluted. Ichiro's Malt and Grain Japanese Blended Whisky, Taketsuru Pure Malt and Niigata Kameda New Pot Peated won awards.

Be careful about buying the current Hibiki in the same-looking bottle as the original:

Hibiki is the noble blend of malt and grain whiskies from Suntory’s distilleries. These are delicately blended to unfold a full orchestra of flavours and aromas. The core range includes Hibiki Japanese Harmony, Hibiki 12 Years Old, Hibiki 17 Years Old, Hibiki 21 Years Old, and Hibiki 30 Years Old.

Hibiki 12-year old, that not too long ago sold for $75 or so, is now $900. Hibiki Harmony is $100.

Must show these Japanese whisky bottles, for as much as I'm saving some long-ago purchased legends, here are what I'm drinking today.

Note that I'm running out of that expensive Hibiki on the left, the Suntory Yamazaki is upwards of $200 if you can find it, that 12-year old Suntory Hakusho has been many times called the best single malt ever made, and has won a whole range of awards, and an older brother of the Ichiro just was named the #1 blended whisky.

We have three more bottles, opened, but kept in original wooden cases, only drunk for special occasions.

The Kurayoshi 27-year old is $1400, Kurayoshi 25-year old $1000 and Tottori 23-year old $750. You'll see Kurayoshi, Tottori and Matsui on labels because Matsui Distillery is located in Kurayoshi, a city found in Tottori Prefecture.

One more thing, note the spelling. Whisky is used in Scotland, Canada and Japan. Whiskey in the USA and Ireland.

But this posting is supposed to mostly be about Macallan.

Distillery is in Craigellachi, Moray, Scotland.
Original distellery in Speyside in 1824.
Highland Distillers, now Adrington, took over the company in 1996.
It did not focus on single malts until the early 1980s.

Opened up the luxury whisky market.
Is the second or third highest selling single malt scotch, next to Glenfiddich at #1 and Glenlivet.
Can be found as 10, 12, 25, 30 and 40 year-olds.
1824 Collection and Quest Collection sold in duty free shops.

They also offer rare and special releases.
In 2010 a 65-year old in crystal was sold at an auction for $460,000, and donated to charity.
In 2018, a 60-year old was sold for $1.38 million.

In 2019, another 60-year old sold for $1.9 million.
A bottle of Isabella's Islay, however,is the most expensive whisky with a price of $6 billion. Part of this is because the decanter contains 8,500 diamonds, 300 rubies and white gold.

Well, earlier this week I brought down a bottle of Macallan Quest, and our 15 Craigside table drunk most of it. Thought I'd check how much this cost, and found prices from $300 to $500. This is what led to this subject today.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

Search This Blog