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Oh, you love fancy whiskies?

Fair enough – a dram or two is a great way to finish off the day.

I have no idea what price range you consider when buying a bottle of the good stuff, but some rarities go for more than a $1 million a pop.

We’ll rule those out, and consider an option from Robb Report’s list of The 20 Best Whiskies You Can Buy Right Now.

Before we do, any “best of” list deserves to have the conditions laid out:

There are as many expressions of scotch as there are angels nipping at every whisky cask in the Hebrides and as there are snooty grammarians who want to take the fun out of the pursuit of incredible liquor…

As far as “best” goes, while the term is inherently subjective, if there is a person alive who can’t find their own personal “best” in here, I’d like to have a chat with them, preferably over a dram of Lagavulin 16 and explain to them, gently and with an excess of solicitude, that they should try more new things.

Oh, and one other caveat: No two products from the same distillery could appear in the list, because fairness. See you in the Hebrides, my sweet angels.

You can go ahead and read through all 20, if that’s your thing, but Seth has chosen Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

Perhaps it’s his tipple of choice. I dunno, you’ll have to ask him.

Anyway, the write-up is as follows:

Arguably the best-known premium blended Scotch in the world, to many a whisky lover Johnnie Walker Blue Label is like a favorite pair of Levi’s—comfortable, reliable and always in style.

The folks at the House of Walker claim that only one out of every 10,000 casks in their stocks will make the cut for this blend, and many of those come from distilleries that are no longer in operation. So this is indeed a rare treat. Blue is soft and mellow, with sherry, honey and vanilla notes.

One of the great sipping whiskies that’s ever been, it’s best enjoyed neat right after a sip of ice-cold spring water.

High praise indeed.

After some Googling around for reputable liquor retailers in South Africa, I have found these three options.

The first, at Norman Goodfellows, is R2 699, and available upon order only.

Over on Makro, we’re talking R2 699, although their listing says ‘not available online’. You’ll have to phone ahead and check if it’s in stock.

With a cracking R10 saving, there’s Takealot with a price tag of R2 689, and they have stock.

Look at it, so blue and labelled:

After more digging, we did find a listing on Pick n Pay’s online store, for a cool R2 599,99.

I never get why they don’t just call it R2 600 and save us the bother, but hey, we move on.

Pop one of these fine bottles in the locked cabinet, where the kids and plebs can’t get to it, for a special occasion.

Happy drinking.

[source:robbreport]