newcomer etiquette question

[riccosuabe]

Hi there, please delete or move this post if its in the wrong forum.im very new to the whisky world and my collection is now starting to grow and so has my budget,my only question is whisky shop etiquette. Can you try/taste a whisky before you buy a bottle? Or is it all down to trusting user reviews/research before spending a good bit of money on a bottle? considering every whisky tastes different to each individual persons pallete im assuming there must be a way to try the ones out that you have an interest in? I only ask as so far all my purchases have been online.thanks

[Bookie]

Is there any whisky specialist shops near where you live, they normally have a number of whiskies you can try before you buy. There is also a number of whisky tasting events throughout the year such as Whisky Live London, The Whisky Show run by The Whisky Exchange in London and the Edinburgh Whisky Festival, the Islay Festival and the Speyside Festival. You could also try visiting some more upmarket bars or hotels in your area to see what they have to offer.

[opelfruit]

What you have to bear in mind is that, even at specialists, it's unlikely they are going to have £100+ bottles open for samples. Each bottle they open they loose in sales and if they open an expensive bottle just for you and you don't buy it then they are stuck with an open bottle.

Masterofmalt do samples in 3cl measures, you can buy as many as you like and it'll give you an idea. I sometime buy 5-10 samples at once of whiskies I'm thinking of buying. It's expensive short term but you may avoid a bottle that you don't like and save quite a bit of money in the long term.


Other option is to find a friend with a well stocked cabinet/shelf
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[sorren]

Hi and welcome, some good advice above, if you are near any of the whisky specialist shops then you should pop in and see what is on offer to try, I often just buy n hope I like it, I know roughly what I want so it's not always such a big risk, if your getting a few bottles together then you should have a pretty fair idea what your after, as said most of the shops will not have high end bottles open to try so get yourself to s few tastings and festivals, if you also look up whisky lounge they do a varied assortment of festivals and tastings dotted around, and they are well run .... Good luck

[riccosuabe]

Thanks a lot for the replies, its given me a much better idea of how to approach it.now just to find that friend with a varied whisky collection haha

[sorren]

That's usually the hard bit, what area are you in ?

[riccosuabe]

Im in newcastle

[sorren]

In that case like I said do a search for whisky lounge, they do a fantastic whisky festival in Newcastle, it's usually around February time, I've traveled up a couple of times, you get to try some really good whisky and a lot of it, sometimes too much

[opelfruit]

Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough.
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"Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough."

[sorren]

My wife might disagree with you after my last visit to Newcastle festival..

[Newby]

I highly agree with the whisky lounge festival advice.

I only started drinking whisky recently, went to Liverpool whisky festival last year and it was awesome to get to try so many.