Evening all,

We chopped down a tree in the front garden and our (retired) next door neighbour has done us a solid and taken all of it to the tip over the course of this week (we didn’t even ask, he just offered).

He’s Scottish, so we’re naturally presuming that he must love whisky (either that or Irn Bru and tattie scones).

Want to get him a bottle to say thanks, but don’t have a large chunk of cheese to spend on it, say £25 maximum.

Can anyone recommend a decent bottle of whisky we could get him to say thanks? I’ve heard that Lidl/Aldi often have some decent stuff under their own brand. I’d also be tempted to get him a bottle of Japanese stuff as it might be something different to try.

We’re in Northampton if that makes any difference, so have all the usual suspects to buy from, but no specialist whisky shops!

yeah, I bought some nice single malts from Aldi and Lidl for around £16.

I think Aldi do glen moray which is nice.

Most supermarkets have offers on malts so you should get one for 25 quid. However not all jocks like whisky and malt tastes vary wildly so probably best to stick to a common one.

Aye £25 should get you an OK branded SM…you might want to check he’s not going to be giving it away at Xmas first tho?

black grouse is apparently very nice for about £20.

Glen Moray is horrible stuff – rough as hell. Try a Macallan or Glenfiddich – nice middle of the road stuff.

Sainsburys round our way seem to have nice stuff for around £25 regularly.

£25?

Jura, Highland Park, Glenmorangie, Laphroig should all come in around that sort of mark and will say “I made an effort” better than a litre bottle of Bells.

A present would be nice, but would your time be a better ‘thankyou’? ie. Invite round for a meal and a drink. Maybe when you’re chatting you may find out what to buy him in future.

ps. half the drinks people have suggested in the £25-30 bracket I think are crap. Individual taste I guess. I have a bottle of Hankey Bannister here, think it’s what they serve in the House of Parliament bars to MP’s. It’s drinkable, but I wouldn’t recommend giving it to a Scot unless you are telling the tale of how when we shut down their Parliament and insisted they came down to ours, they did and learned our language so well that after hundreds of years of fighting they managed to democratically get everything they needed 🙂

Maybe if I get him Laphroig and he doesn’t like it, he might pass it back my way 🙂