Concluding the Teaninich Cluster

(Teaninich cluster homepage)

Ah, finally a quiet night here at home. Autumn is finally falling. I've fashioned a hot dinner just for me — tofu is best when cooked in bacon fat, just sayin' — and have a glass off orange wine from the Allan commune at hand. I can finally take a look back at this long Teaninich cluster.

Going into this cluster I thought I was about to find my new favorite hush-hush distillery. Previous experiences were very good, and no one (including Diageo) talks about the distillery. But now that the cluster has completed, while I did find the whiskies pretty darned good, I'm not convinced enough to buy a Teaninich bottle blindly. As long as the whisky remains bright and sweet it starts to blend in with many other Highlands and Speyside distilleries, thus its role in actual Diageo blends. When it tilts a little darker, I'm smitten, but that didn't happen often in this series.

Out of 16 whiskies, 14 graded in the 80s, 2 in the 70s. Here's the list:

These average out 84.2, a low B. The whiskies under 20 years, whiskies within most of our price ranges, have a mean of 82.8, a B-.

The market is flooded with B- whiskies, which wouldn't be a tragedy if prices plateaued at some point. A very experienced whisky geek once declared, "Life is too short for 85-point whisky." And though he has a good point, I'd amend it to, "Life is too short to buy full bottles of 85-point whisky, pending one's budget." Of course I want the 35yo Signatory, but its price tag averages about $700.

My favorite cluster members under the age of the 20 were bottled seven and fifteen years ago. Of the <20yo Teaninichs bottled in this decade, I don't think I'd try them again, let alone buy a whole bottle.

This is not a terrible situation for fans like me, folks who already have more bottles than we can consume. As prices inflate, we have to curate. We can lower our standards or raise them. I always encourage the latter, both to hold producers accountable (macro) and to fill each of our cabinets with delicious drinks (micro).

This was fun, Teaninich! Keep filling up the blends that keep this industry alive.