THIS time of year has always for me been a great time for whisky bargains. With the festive season nearing, every supermarket and off-licence bids to outstrip the others with special offers on both blends and malts – and other drinks as well – so I can only urge whisky fans to keep their eyes peeled and their wallets and credit cards well-resourced to take advantage of the offers on hand.
Can I also say that sterling’s recent dire nosedive has not yet fully filtered through to shelf prices for wines, brandies, bourbons and other imported drinks, so buy them now because prices may soar in the new year or even well before.
This is also the time of year where many favourite spirits are available in litres rather than 70cl bottles and it is often hard to work out which size may be the better bargain. As a ready reckoner, can I say that £15 a litre equates to £10.50 a bottle, £16 to £11.20, £17 to £11.90, £18 to £12.60 and £20 to £14. Always ca’ canny, as sometimes the bottle rather than the litre may still be the real deal.
Although festive season special deals tend to last for weeks rather than a few days, the best bargains usually run for a short period and often all the bottles are gone even before the special offer period finishes. One early bargain I spotted was Haig Club Clubman, with a supposed RRP of £35, on offer in Morrison’s for £17. As a single grain, it’s best drunk as a mixer but at that price it’s well worth a try.
Another hint for bargain hunters is hunt for end-of-line or discontinued drinks, often found on lower shelves or the short shelves at the end of main aisles. OK, they may be obscure liqueurs or even obscurer alcopops but every now and again there’s a fine malt or other spirit at a knockdown price. And rare is the week when a supermarket doesn’t have a special deal on one good malt or another, sometimes £10 or more off a bottle. True, it’s not worth buying one of your pet hates just because it’s cheaper than usual, but sometime one of your favourites is bound to come up.
If you like little known malts that supermarkets rarely if ever stock, look on the internet. Outlets such as Royal Mile Whiskies, The Green Welly Stop and many others have interesting whiskies at keen prices. True, once you’ve added postage and packing, it puts the price up but many offer free, or much-reduced, p&p on orders over a set sum. Or even make a day trip of it and visit the place.
