Mailbox: Whisky Advocate Winners

Rather than the standard, rubber-stamp answer I usually have to give people when the year-end whisky awards come around—"I'm sorry, we sold out of that months ago"—I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of Whisky Advocate award winners we still had quantity of when the victors were announced; or at the very least something similar. When the Last Drop won "Best Blended" we still had a few bottles floating around for people to purchase. When Arran's Devil's Punchbowl took home best Highland/Island single malt, we still had (and maybe still have) six or so bottles on hand. When Craigellachie 17 was awarded the best Speyside malt, we at least had the 13 and 23 year on hand to steer people towards (which I wasn't even aware of until David OG told me he had just ordered them for the LA store). My favorite emails so far, however, have been in regards to the Islay whisky of the year: the 1998 Laphroaig 15 year refill sherry butt cask from Signatory.

"David, can you get this?" some emails said.

"David, have you ever seen anything like this at K&L?" some readers asked.

Have I? Do you mean to ask if would I have access to something like this?

Yes, in fact I do. We bought the sister cask to that very same Whisky of the Year winner. Distilled the same day (22/09/1998), aged in the same type of sherry butt, matured in the same warehouse, from the exact same stock as the one you're asking about (our cask was probably right next to this one). This particular cask just happens to be entirely for us (the award winner was for a shop in the UK). And, of course, we bottled it in the standard white label 750ml to make shipping orders easier (those fat bottles are a pain) and to knock a few bucks off the retail sticker. So, yes, I do have something just like that whisky in stock.

Sherry butts are big (like Kardashian big), so there's still plenty of this to go around. I'm really enjoying the Whisky Advocate awards so far! Here's to more awards for whiskies we can still get!

-David Driscoll

David Driscoll