Kirkland Macallan Scotch

Thats a scary thought... If it's anything like the quality of their toilet paper.. STAY AWAY!!!

 

is it a blend or single malt? curious to know

 

LOL

 

Trader Joe's does a Glenlivet 18 for 39.99 and it's fine for an everyday.... I would imagine the K-Land Macallen is just fine as well.....

 

It's possible that it's slightly different. The Kirkland/Noah's Bagels look and taste a little different than the ones you get @ Noah's Bagels. (as in not as good)

 

just try it

 

$60 Macallan. How can you go wrong?

 

Kirkland/Macallan 18 for $60???? Wow, there has to be something different about that. The regular 18 is $132 here in CT, and the 25 is $250 or so. I drink the 12 as a regular scotch, buy the 18 when I'm feeling flush and enjoy the 25 when my rich friends are feeling flush.

There have been a lot of different types of Macallans around lately, mainly in the airport duty free shops. Hard to believe though that they are going the big box discount route. If I see it, I will definitely try it and see how it compares to the real deal.

John

 

I haven't seen it at the Costco here yet but I will grab a bottle when I do.

 

same; costco here is selling the actual Macallan 18, but i havent seen their version yet.

 

I remember brushing by this posting and had an opportunity this evening to have a glass of Macallan 12 year. I’ve never tried the scotch whisky variety before. Everybody has different tastes when it comes to whisky and mine favors the bourbon whiskies. I usually reach for my all time favorite, Crown Cask No. 16 followed by Jack Daniels Single Barrel, then Makers Mark. Tonight, I discovered that I did not care for the flavoring of scotch. With a straight glass of Macallan 12, no rocks, the smell was that of a buttery flavor, very appealing smell. The texture was silky smooth. The taste was a hint of that buttery flavor, but to me, was a combination of alcohol distilled through a copper tube with heavy patina. The rich vanilla, almond sensation that I was so very used to out of Cask No. 16 was nearly one hundred and eighty degrees off with the scotch. Sadly, my palate is not ready for scotch.

 

yeah.............

 

not yet?

 

I haven't seen this in the Indy Costco yet, but will watch for it.

I used the Kirkland Vodka to make the last batch of Limoncello. Very tasty and excellent price for 1.75L.
Not enough alcohol to not develop ice crystals in the freeze, need to do half/half Vodka/Everclear next time.

Kirkland Twany Port is another great buy. Sill need to try their sparkler.

 

The Costco stores in NJ don't sell liquor directly but have a third party store run in their facility. I assume this has to do with NJ liquor license issues, but this may apply in other states as well. The NJ stores don't carry Kirkland scotch and possibly won't/can't carry it. I will ask about it next time, but it definitely hasn't been on the shelves.

 

SCOTCH TASTING EVENT
AT
RUTH'S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE
KING OF PRUSSIA

THURSDAY JUNE 12TH
6:30PM

COME OUT AND SAMPLE SOME OF MACALLAN'S
FINEST SCOTCH!

 

Wish I could........

 

In today's (7/12/08) WSJ Weekend Journal Section...

Costco's Kirkland Brand's 18-year-old scotch was distilled by none other than Macallan. If you can find it, it's priced at $60 a bottle.

Here's the text:

The Macallan is one of the best-known and best-loved single-malt whiskies, with prices to match. A bottle of The Macallan 18-year-old Scotch generally retails for around $140. So it must have been distressing for the distillery's management when Costco started selling 18-year-old Macallan-made whisky for $60. The bottles are labeled with the discount house-brand "Kirkland" at the top; but just below, in letters nearly as large, are the words "Macallan Distillery."

Plenty of chatter on Web bulletin boards has questioned whether the Kirkland malt could be proper Macallan whisky -- perhaps, some speculated, this was a batch gone wrong that the distillery offloaded at a discount. Not so. It was just that 20 years ago, Macallan had excess capacity. "We were still producing more liquid than we could sell," according to Patricia Lee in Macallan's marketing department. "We sold the surplus new-make spirit to independent bottlers to store and bottle in their own time under their own label."

This might seem like shocking carelessness with one's brand equity -- imagine if Coke sold off excess syrup, letting anyone and everyone market independent versions of Coca-Cola. Ms. Lee allows that "it does cause some confusion." But Scottish distillers have been doing business this way for well over a century.

Scotch distilleries traditionally did not themselves bottle or market their whiskies. They sold it by the barrel to brokers and blenders who mixed them to create blended whiskies such as Chivas Regal, Johnnie Walker and Dewar's. For decades, just about the only way to get a bottle containing whisky from an individual distillery -- that is, a single malt -- was from an independent bottler. Many of these, such as William Cadenhead, were liquor and wine merchants who bought barrels of whisky for their shops and offered them, unblended, to their customers. Savvy Scotch drinkers learned to look for these single malts because they had quirky and compelling character lacking in even the best blends. Were it not for independent bottlers, there might never have been a single-malt revolution. Thanks to the success of the independents, the distillers realized they should start bottling their malts and create marketable brands of their own. "Independents molded the industry," says Euan Shand, managing director of one such firm, Duncan Taylor & Co Ltd. "Multinationals who bought into it are reaping that benefit."

And reaping a few headaches too. Take Caol Ila (pronounced cull-EE-la), a lovely, well-balanced malt from the peaty island of Islay. It's only in the past five years that drinks giant Diageo has decided (and a very good decision it was) to make the whisky one of its core, premium brands. But Diageo has had to contend with a surfeit of Caol Ila on the market: In the 1970s, the distillery expanded to six stills from two, and it long had plenty of excess spirit to sell to the brokers. Now that Diageo is investing serious money to promote the malt, umpteen independent bottlings have hit the market.

I had to visit only two local liquor stores to come up with three independent bottlings of Caol Ila, a 10-year-old version from Gordon & MacPhail's "Connoisseurs Choice," and 14-year-old versions from Murray McDavid and the Signatory Vintage Scotch Whisky Co. Ltd. None were Costco-style bargains -- in fact, the 12-year-old official distillery bottling was the best buy. Nor were any of the bottles second-rate examples of Caol Ila. They were like fraternal twins -- not quite identical, but with interesting personalities of their own. The Gordon & MacPhail was slightly drier than the official Caol Ila; the Murray McDavid, stored in sherry casks, was much sweeter and fruitier; the Signatory had a bright, fresh quality.

The official bottling remains the best bet for "the majority of our drinkers [who] look for consistent character and quality," says Diageo's global malt director, Nick Morgan. And there's a lot to be said for consistency. When you're spending $50 or $60 for a bottle, you may not want it to be a crap shoot. But the risk is small -- most of the independent bottlings I've bought over the years have been perfectly worthy. Not that I haven't run into the occasional stinker -- pallid stuff from an exhausted barrel that had been recycled too many times. Even so, if there is a single malt you love, it's well worth exploring the variations to be found in independent bottlings of the brand.

But do it while you can: As demand for single malts has grown, distilleries have become shy about supplying intermediaries. "It's a sign of the times that major distillers are no longer willing to sell casks to the independents for private bottling," says Mr. Shand of Duncan Taylor. "I believe the multinationals will slowly squeeze the lifeblood out of the independents." Diageo's Dr. Morgan doesn't disagree: "As distillers recognize the importance of their single-malt brands," they will increasingly want "to protect their brand equity and control the quality of the final product."

Anticipating a drought, the middlemen are looking to guarantee their supply. As Alistair Hart of the independent bottler Hart Brothers slyly puts it, the "poachers have turned game keepers." Gordon & MacPhail led the way, buying the Benromach distillery in 1993; Signatory now owns tiny Edradour; Bruichladdich is humming under the ownership of the Murray McDavid crew; and independent blender and bottler Ian Macleod Distillers Limited is proprietor of the stills at Glengoyne.

Now that bottlers are on the other side of the branding divide, how eager are they to do business with other independents? Not very. Says Gordon & MacPhail marketing manager Ian Chapman: "Production of Benromach under Gordon & MacPhail's ownership is owned and bottled by Gordon & MacPhail."

CW

 

Just an FYI...

 

Better if they kept it in the barrels and wait another 7, get 25 years in and make the difference.

I guess selling it to Costco was always better than selling it to the bio fuel crowd!

 

I tried it vs the regualr bottle of macallan i have in my wetbar. It is the same.; SLIGHT hint of almonds and caramel with a VERY slight hint of peteyness to it. Buy it up guys . its legit. The singlemalt scotch god ( self proclaimed)has spoken. For the price the oban 14 has very similar characteristics of the "fine oak" macallans

 

Where are you finding Macallan 25 for $250?! Unless I am reading it wrong that is a serious bargain