Most whiskey is not sold at cask strength so evidently most distillers disagree. On the other hand, the higher quality whiskies are usually the ones that have lower cask strength and higher bottle strength, i.e. less diluted.
"Cask strength" literally means it hasn't been substantially diluted from the cask. ie it's a higher percentage than you're typical bottled whisky. And as you stated yourself, the expectation is that the drinker would often dilute to taste themselves. So you're not actually disagreeing with the statement you're attempting to rebuttal.
> I'd say that's simply not true, at least for my "enthusiast" circles. 40% whiskies are becoming increasingly rare in those groups.
"rare" is hugely overstating things, even for the "enthusiast" market.
Performative whiskey nerds are really dumb about dilution (I'm setting off Kasey, across the thread, by roasting people for how they drink). Cask strength whiskey isn't sold that way because it tastes better (it doesn't --- past some threshold and all the extra alcohol is doing is anesthetizing your tongue), but rather so that the customer is paying for more whiskey and less water. You're supposed to dilute it. It's like saying the right way to drink orange juice is to sip the concentrate.
This is also a reason not to drink cask-strength whiskey straight: to wit, you're not meant to; you buy cask-strength so you're paying for less water, since you can provide that yourself.
Their scotch can be good, but look up the specific bottling. Sometimes it'll be something like a "factory second" of MacCallan 18... not the prime barrels, not as good as the stuff actually sold by macallan, but also about 1/3rd the price.
"Cask strength" usually refers to whiskeys that have been aged in the cask, angel's share and all. It means that the manufacturer didn't dilute the product any further before bottling.
For me, a great whisky is "spirit led" i.e. the flavour is dominated by the flavours present in the spirit itself before maturation.
It's difficult and expensive to make a really good "spirit led" whisky so many distilleries use casks as a way to imbue more flavours. Of course, a good cask helps (and you can't have whisky without casks) but beware of marketing departments trying to bamboozle you with fancy barrels.
Jim Murray aside, as a general rule with a lot of exceptions, when it comes to North American whiskey, the cheap stuff is usually the good stuff. The "premium brands" --- Templeton, WhistlePig, Stranahan's --- tend to be shady (usually: because they've sourced bulk whiskey from MGP and marked it up). Even when they're not shady, a lot of "craft" whiskey in the US is basically charging you for their inefficiency, not for their quality. So for instance while Few Spirits does a solid, authentic rye, it's a long way from the best value in rye whiskey. There is is whole lot of $50-$60 craft bourbon that is outdone by stuff in plastic jugs --- not necessarily because it's bad (though some of it is), but because the plastic jug stuff can be really good.
The best whiskeys in the world are made by the largest commercial firms; ironically, it's the "artisanal" indie stuff that's most likely sourced from huge industrial concerns like MGPI --- and even MGPI whiskey has merits (you just shouldn't pay extra for it).
I never buy cask strength.
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