$2.10 to the pound

Yep, $2.10 to the pound means that my recent trip to London was not going to be an excessive one. Or at least I thought I would be good. When I studied in London in 1996, you could get a pound for about $1.40. Sigh...

That said, it was a good trip. I ventured over to Berry Bros to check out their current supply of scotch. I was being quite careful given the exchange rate -- which means generally I ignore the distillery bottlings. Even in the best of times, the prices in the States are much better. The only bottle that caught my eye was a 25 yo Caol Ila under the Berry Bros bottling. At 50 pounds, it was a little pricey, but not overly so for such an age. I regret actually not buying it.

I didn't buy the Caol Ila because I next headed over to Milroy's of Soho, fully expecting to find much more to my liking there. It was not to be. The selection of non-distillery bottlings was disappointing, in fact. I spent about ten minutes looking up and down the bottlings, but nothing caught my eye (well, there was something -- but at 160 pounds, or nearly $330, I wasn't going to bother).

I ended up at Cadenhead's in Covent Garden, which I had not visited before. I am told they will open up a newer, larger store in the coming months, but I rather liked the small shop with its blackboard listings of bottlings. I ended up buying a bottle of 11 yo Arran. They were out of a number of bottlings of interest. I ended up spending 40 pounds for the Arran, which may be a bit on the pricey side, but I am looking forward to trying it. I've never had an Arran before.