Safeway Islay single malt ten years old.

[Torodd]

Sorry guys....

I have seen that this malt has picked up some medals at the last wine and spirit awards.

I have tasted this malt and it is quite good.

Am I mistaken if I say that this malt in reality is a Lagavulin 10 years old ?

[Ian_Hamilton]

Interesting!
I should go to Safeway when I am in Scotland at Christmas.
How much is it?
Unfortunately I dont think you will get many replies as many users on this site wont know what safeway is!

[Torodd]

Iain.

This good malt cost around £ 15. It is worth it. The bottle is not for snobs, but it is still highly enjoyable if you just want the whisky.

Btw, where does Tesco Islay comes from ??

[timbus]

Hey Guys: I have it on good authority that the safeways 10yo Islay malt is definitely Lagavulin. Ian McLeod (Peter Russel) buys cheap stocks from UDV and has been told he can bottle them as Islay malts, but that they cannot bottle them under the Lagavulin name. I am off to safeways to find a bottle!!!

[Ian_Hamilton]

Thanks for the excellent info
15 pounds to try a 10 yr old Lagavullin cant be bad!!

[Frank]

Best Islay on the market for the price :->

[Gate]

Beezer! There's a Safeways just down the road. I'm gone

[This message has been edited by Gate (edited 13 December 2002).]

[Spirit of Islay]

Hi ,
I've got a bottle of this which i'm going to open at a chat later on , the only thing is just how is there so much (cheap) Lagavulin going around on the market ?
I know Laga's in production quite a bit (24/7 at most times ) but i was under the impression that 95% went into bond for SM and the other 5% went to various blendings (White horse , Black Bottle etc) . The only thing i would be wary off is that if you taste young Caol Ila it is very Smoky and peaty , try the SMWS bottlings they're crackers at 7/8yo .In a way someone on another posting threw a spanner in the works (Erik i think )in saying Diageo only sold Laga upto 5yo ! The other strange point of this is that not that long ago there was a panic that stocks of Lagavulin were going to dry up , if so why are they selling stock on ?
After trying other supermarket bottlings i'm looking forward to seeing which distillery this might have come from .
Tesco's offering (the old Glen Cairn and the newer Ardnave , did we throw a dart at a map of Islay to get this name?)comes from The Laddie , Morrisons seems to come from Bowmore . If you can try the Islay offering from Oddbins , a cracking 10yo (again i think its from Bowmore) . I'm off to my tasting , i'll post my findings on the safeway bottling at some point.
Slainté .

[This message has been edited by Spirit of Islay (edited 15 December 2002).]

[Ian_Hamilton]

Looking forward to more info "Spirit of Islay"........

[Spirit of Islay]

a try of the Safeway 10yo last night , here's my thoughts ,tho i'm not very good at identifying tastes/smells.
On opening there is a hell of a smell of peat , there is a slight hint of smoke .It has a large peat taste and a long finish .
It tastes stronger than the 40% it says it is , at times it reminded me of the Conn.Choice Ardbeg 1990/11yo .I'm still not sure if its a laga it still reminds me too much of a young Caol Ila , still a nice dram for £15 , perhaps Michael Jackson should do a proper tasting comparison of the supermarket own labels?

[Steve]

Michael Jackson says in his book he doesn't because they change so frequently and vary from bottle to bottle - it would be good if he did though. I have just been given a safeway Highland 10yo - anyone know where this comes from?

[Spirit of Islay]

I know this is a bit of an old topic but somethings been on the news that might affect this malt .Safeways has been taken over by Morrisons (the supermarket group not the distillers!) , this usually means that the original safeways products vanish as Morrisons bring in their own (going off past supermarket take-overs).
You have been warned!