New-Make Malt Spirit

I haven't tasted this particular one but would like to comment on the whole "new make spirit" (NMS) phenomenon and its VFM.

I first tasted NMS at Scapa distillery on one of their distillery visits and was pleasantly impressed. Maybe something wrong with my taste buds but I found it more interesting and full of diverse flavours than what can officially be called Scotch whisky.

Coincidentally the other distillery on Orkney i.e. Highland Park bottles their own NMS and I bought a bottle to take home. Enjoyed it but was a bit surprised at how much it cost.

I happen to think that there is a lot of potential in NMS although the big bosses of the industry might be a bit sensitive about what it could do to the "official" Scotch market if it caught on. But having seen what I thought was overpriced NMS from other distilleries it has made me wonder.

A lot of new distilleries go in for gin first to get cash flow as their "Scotch" has to wait for at least 3 yrs. Selling NMS would address that cash flow issue.

The older the Scotch, the pricier it has to be not least because there is less of a cask to sell due to the angel's share increasing year by year. No such losses with NMS.

But NMS doesn't have a high profile premium cachet boosted by marketing.

So all in all I would have thought that NMS could and should be cost competitive with the cheaper malt whiskies. A bit like grappa - if you just want to drink some without getting over precious about its age, provenance etc you can get a bottle for a reasonable price.

Even allowing for the higher duty on higher alcohol content some NMS prices are outrageous. The comparison I would make would be with SMWS cask strength bottlings. A 20 cl NMS bottle seem to equate to a standard bottle of cask strength whisky in the £70 - £80 range. SMWS bottling lists (declaration of interest, I am a SMWS member) contain many good aged malts of similar ABV's for a lot less. And as I say, the distillers who sell NMS would seem to have the financial advantages of immediate cash flow and no angel's share.

My conclusions?

Generally - NMS may be the next great customer rip off.

Specifically - this particular one looks like relatively reasonable VFM compared to some other NMS offerings, though I'd still invite people to do a price comparison by recalculating bottle size and ABV to equate to a standard 70 cl/40% ABV bottle then compare price to a budget malt.

27th April 2021

The comments about the high price are embarrassing. This is probably an independent bottler who sources from a 3rd party producer. The cost of goods for packaging, filling, marketing with VAT and Duty do not leave a lot of margin. Just appreciate that you get to try a New Make Spirit for a fair price.

30th October 2020

New make spirit for 36.95 per half ltr! You must be having a giraffe. Agreed with "you must be joking...!" person here. Not a chance. Duty / vat / logistics does not come anywhere near this amount.

19th October 2018

I mix this new make spirit with 20cl Vimto and throw in a cinnamon stick superb stuff 5 stars.

31st December 2016

Really great stuff this is and I think good value for money.

6th September 2016

Duty. Duty mate. And VAT, and shipping, and logistics.

9th June 2016

Got a few of these when I was starting out making my own Whisky just to get a feel for it. Quickly moved on to getting my own still etc and fermenting my own malt new make but this is a great base and would recommend. Yes it is pricey but then so is every quality new make around it this one is competitively priced. Yes you can buy a fully aged single malt for not much more but then you wouldn't have the satisfaction of making it yourself and that is what it is all about.

7th August 2015

Why is it so overpriced?
As the other review says, I can get many decent single malts for £46 a bottle, which is the equivalent price.
Thumbs down!

3rd November 2014

This is a new make, straight from the pot stills. No storage, no cask logistics, no blending required. And you sell half a litre at roughly the price of a ten year old, fullgrown cask-strength single malt - not even telling me what kinda bang (distillery) I'm getting for the buck? I would love to start my own ageing, but I'm gonna pass on this one. Thanks for the effort, though.

26th October 2014

great product I've just started my first batch. I do like a heavy peated malt though. is that possible for the next batch ?
I put boiling water in for 24 hours and so far no leakage. only reason I've not gone fur full marks is the price.

24th April 2014