.. an easy and affordable way to gain enjoyable malt-experience with your Blended Scotch.
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Local shop had Bushmills for .99 USD. Got four of them for my Dad for Christmas. Used your tasting notes for how to drink it. Dad was over the moon! Best eight bucks I’ve ever spent on a gift. Thanks, Ralfy!
Great advice Ralfy. I’m using small bottle gift sets to introduce myself to Scotch. It’s economical and allows diversity in sampling. So far it is going very well!
you’re absolutely correct Ralfy !…..the miniatures are a great way of having the adventure without the expenditure !…I found that some of the sample kits that Master of Malt and other online whisky place are ideal for this …especially if you want to sample the Japanese whiskeys …or the Irish pot stills which seem to becoming into their own revival of late !…and of course once the dram samples are empty they are reusable to make your own sample etc….keep up the good work it’s excellent and informative …slainte beatha !!
@ralfystuff thank you so much!
Can you do a video with your hat off.. Please let’s get unchilled filter !
I never actually have given a thought for the option of miniatures.
As I saw this review I immediayely ordered 6 different brand 0.2l bottles and give it a long long night of some good tasting.
I was considering some 4 brand tasting so it wouldn’t be a night to get pissed. Thank you Ralfy! you rock! But never on the rocks, you know.
Malt Mini’s 🙂
@Hamporkcheese I got that one myself. What did you think of it? The sherry nose is pretty fantastic, but I wasn’t super impressed with the actual taste.
Hi Ralfy,
Could you recommend which single malts might be compatible to add to Teachers Highland Cream and Adelphi ‘Dancy Man’ in the same manner you demonstrated with the Black Bottle/ Ardbeg combo?
Unfortunately, the liquor stores around here don’t have a very good selection of miniatures of better-quality whisk(e)y. We also don’t have any specialty whisky shops around here. 🙁
Why not just pour the whole single malt mini into the blended bottle?
just bought a Mac 18 year miniature… i cant afford $150 a bottle… but now i can taste an 18 year!!! yay miniatures!!!!
My grandfather used to sell whisky in his shop, back in the sixties and seventies. He was one of the few shops that sold quality single malts in town (only two other shops sold single malts, one of them is now specialized in selling high quality liquors and their selection is freaking amazing, it’s my go-to place) and he used to get a lot of these little bottles and collected them. If he got more than one, he would try and taste them, but he turned those samples into a small collection of small bottles of liquors (he also got rhum, vodka, national liquors and everything that a salesman could bring) and now my grandma keeps them in a nice glass cabinet. I love to dust that cabinet, it’s a trip through history. There’s stuff, quality stuff, bottled in 1959 in that cabinet. I’d never open one, for sentimental value, but that collection never stops to amaze me. And ever since I discovered your channel, I found out there’s some rare stuff in there.
Hiya, Ralfy, My husband loves your channel. I lived in Glasgow for 3 years back in the early 2000’s. He’s a native of Kentucky (An Ulster Scot from early 1700’s USA) and of course loved Bourbon. He’d not had good experiences with Whisky say, as a college student etc. Well I brought him home Miniatures from a Whisky shop, and a Whisky book or two, and the rest is history. So it was a GREAT way to get his palate broadened. Now of course, he buys the expensive stuff now, but even still, I pick up the odd miniature cause I think it’s a good experience. He’s nae toffee nose! So I say Amen to what you’ve said above! The wee wifey, San Francisco!
Do all the miniatures in the UK and Scotland come in glass bottles? Over here in America, just about all of the bourbon minis come in plastic bottles which I believe can negatively affect the nose and taste of the whisky. I recently bought a mini of Old Forester in a plastic bottle which smelled and tasted HORRIBLE.. I have had Old Fo’ before from a glass bottle and it was a very good whisky. I also have a bottle of Jim Beam 7 year old which also does not taste right coming from a plastic bottle. If I could get my hands on some glass minis, I would be all over those bourbons and Scotches.
less than a drink in a bar!!!!
I think if the experiment doesn’t work out that well then you wouldn’t want to ruin a whole bottle. I tried to put a bit of Talisker Distillers Edition in with a glass of JW black label and it was a good experiment!
@Taylor314T5 it is the same with Islay Mist. I hated it at one time but now it is one of my favourite session drams. Black Bottle is similar because it is a peat orientated blend.
Good evening Ralfy. Would it be wise of me to buy samples on Masters of Malt, because none of the stores near me have a good selection. Or is the upcharge too much buying it from them? Thanks for any help!
There are also webshops selling “tasting samples” of single malts that are not available as miniatures. Basically they rebottle the spirits… Converted to full bottle prices they’re obviously very expensive but worth a shot to see what you like… nothing worse than having 700ml of something you hate sitting around in the shelf for a decade.
I like Miniatures being 5 CL small size being 10/35 CL because I don’t much but that way I can get 1-6 drams at a time without buying a 75 CL there are a few I’d try if I could get them that way…
Damn good idea for those of us on a budget! Thanks Ralfy.
JUST regarding processing
..PEOPLE like clear filtered product to be sure there is no biological contamination,, screw the taste, this comes first especially when buying at at bar..it’s a sacrifice you never talk ABOUT,, have you EVER got food poisoning from a bar product,, I have , and millions have…SECOND, those little bottles are in no way as biologicaly sound as larger bottles and when contaminated by bacteria or air the effect on your body or on taste is 100x WORSE…..the small bottle is more susceptible to damage of every kind, what the hell is wrong with YOU??
I’m poor :D.And In my country Laproaig is not on market.It’s so sad. :’-(
Malty Monarchists….
hey Ralphy, another great video, i’m just starting to gain interest into the world of whisky. I’m thinking of buying a few miniatures to start off with. what is the exact name of the whisky miniature you used in this video? thanks
@LordGeorgeRodney
Sorry, but I feel the same as Taylor314T5.
Also tried the Black Bottle and the Islay Mist. First impression was not good, so I tried them both over a longer
period at different times of the day. Still nahh.
So I decided to mix them with a 1.5lt bottle Glenn Talloch, which is often drunk by my wife, if she just feel for a common whisky in stead of her Quarter Cask Laphroaig.
I must say that combination ended in a nice smoother Glenn Talloch with a nice decent taste of peat!
Do you finish the left over whisky from your demonstrations?
Miniatures are not so able in Russia, as in The UK, and more than that,oficial distributor of Glenfarclas, GlenDronach, BenRiach, alcohol-selling company Veld-21 now is a bankrupt (someone’s ditry hand did it). Dear Mr. Putin said that he want to introduce a new tax. It will be a tax for premium alcohol. Now it’s just a chat, but it if it become real, that will be worse, than a nightmare.
fantastic. I have inherited a number of minatures from my dad. blends, malts etc. I have full size bottles but never thought before about buying minatures just to try before buying a big bottle. I will in future. Thank you Ralfy. loving you’re Vlog’s.
Hi Ralfy,
Are there any pitfalls to beware of when buying old miniatures – off Ebay perhaps – in terms of quality? Any advice gratefully received.
i found a miniature of The Macallan 18 Yo for $20
Single malt miniatures are harder to find in the USA, but I have ordered a wide variety from the Whisky Exchange and had them shipped to me. While it’s not terribly cheap, it’s still cheaper than buying drinks at a bar or buying a full-sized bottle of something you may not end up liking.
Loch Fyne Whiskies actually has a pretty nice little selection of miniatures on their website as well.
And what about the XXL bottles, the 3 liter and 4.5 liter bottles. Have you got any? Do you like them?
Does the plastic miniatures bottles affect the taste…?
Thanks. Great review!
These minis are great! I’ve been using them in my study for the Wine & Spirit Educational Trust (WSET) Diploma Unit 4 exam.
Blend?! Single Malt. forever. Islay forever.
Is there a particular way to decide what single malts to blend-in to the blended whiskey?
Really looking forward to seeing a review of the sheep dip and pigs nose blend… Both bottles contain some excellent juice, IMHO.
Love watching your videos, Ralfy. They’re always entertaining and extremely educational. Keep up the good work!
Cheers
@ralfystuff almost the same for Ukraine. Premium alcohol (e.g. everything except crap vodka) costs twice as much as in their origin countries. And pay attention, that we earn 3-4 times less money, than people in Europe. But pay more.
One of the few choices for us is to use Duty Free and friends as much as we can. Sad but true.
Hi Ralfy, what version of Black Bottle is it? I’ve got a bottle of the stuff that looks exactly like that which I bought last month. I’m a bit confused since I remember you re-reviewed a new version of it in 2013. Could you tell me more about the various versions of the whisky?
Cheers.
Master of Malt has made a good go at this with their Sample Drams. Better prices that most pubs for a 35cl bottle.