Scotch Whisky: The Topic

[vice]

I'm a big fan of the Macallan cask strength. It's great in cocktails.

[mkayahara]

It's been a while since I've had either Dalwhinnie or Cragganmore (so you can take my advice with a grain of salt), but I seem to recall preferring the Cragganmore overall. Dalwhinnie is lighter, though, so it might come across as "more different" from the Laphroaig. Though really, any of the ones you named is going to be quite different from Laphroaig. There's absolutely nothing wrong with either Glenfiddich expression, but I would suggest you avoid them both because they're going to be easily found in any restaurant or bar that might offer a handful of single malts, so you should have lots of opportunity to taste them elsewhere.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm a big fan of the Macallan cask strength. It's great in cocktails.

+1 on the Macallan cask strength, which is also a good sipper if you like 'em potent. Which, by gum, I sure do.

[evo-lution]

Yesterday I visited Glen Garioch (which was a really good trip - selection of pics below);

Mash tun at Glen Garioch - http://yfrog.com/h4eczhgj

The South African Yeast used by Glen Garioch - http://yfrog.com/h78csnij

Wash Back Room - http://yfrog.com/h4qcnxknj

Where the magic happens - http://yfrog.com/hs9i0zyj

Wash still with Spirit stills 1 & 2 in the background - http://yfrog.com/h483xbvj

Spirit stills 1 & 2 - http://yfrog.com/gz4l6clj

Glen Garioch Distillery, Distillery Road, Oldmeldrum - http://yfrog.com/h8pp0izj

and Strathisla (which was closed, the lazy so and so's). Picked myself up a bottle of Glen Garioch 1991 whish is quite sensational. I'd write more about it but at the moment I'm too busy drinking it so you'll have to wait I'm afraid...

Got a number of trips planned over the next couple of months, Aberlour and Glendronach to name two.

Edited February 10, 2011 by evo-lution (log)

[Chris Amirault]

Adam have you (or has anyone) been way up north to Old Pulteney and Balbair? I recently went to a tasting that included a vertical flight of each -- pretty wild stuff. More soon on that.

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks for the suggestions. Macallan and Glenrothes are not local options but they are LCBO options if nothing local fits the bill. Highland Park 12 is a local option as well but I'm not sure if that's considered a Speyside or not. Still new to this stuff (just to state the obvious).

Matt, I was leaning towards the Cragganmore before I decided to ask here so it sounds like a fine suggestion to me.

[evo-lution]

I recently stayed very close to Pulteney but sadly didn't make it to the distillery although intend heading that way again in the summer as it's very far north and can get bloody cold, I know the two whiskies very well though

[mkayahara]

Thanks for the suggestions. Macallan and Glenrothes are not local options but they are LCBO options if nothing local fits the bill. Highland Park 12 is a local option as well but I'm not sure if that's considered a Speyside or not. Still new to this stuff (just to state the obvious).

Matt, I was leaning towards the Cragganmore before I decided to ask here so it sounds like a fine suggestion to me.

Highland Park is not a Speyside, being from Orkney. But by God, buy a bottle if you're not firmly committed to having a Speyside (or if you have the budget for both). I recognize that my tastes in Single Malt are fairly pedestrian, but Highland Park is one of my top 3 bottles.

Edited February 10, 2011 by mkayahara (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

Thanks for the suggestions. Macallan and Glenrothes are not local options but they are LCBO options if nothing local fits the bill. Highland Park 12 is a local option as well but I'm not sure if that's considered a Speyside or not. Still new to this stuff (just to state the obvious).

Matt, I was leaning towards the Cragganmore before I decided to ask here so it sounds like a fine suggestion to me.

Highland Park is not a Speyside, being from Orkney. But by God, buy a bottle if you're not firmly committed to having a Speyside (or if you have the budget for both). I recognize that my tastes in Single Malt are fairly pedestrian, but Highland Park is one of my top 3 bottles.

Second, Highland Park is a purchase you won't regret. A friend's restaurant I used to drink at frequently before I moved had some sort of Lone Star Cask barrel proof Highland Park. One of my all-time favorites, no idea how he came by the stuff.

[Tri2Cook]

So I have to confess that maybe I should have spent some time learning to swim before diving into the deep end of the pool. I'm having a tough time learning to appreciate the bottle of Laphroaig I picked up a few weeks ago. I've used it in a couple of drinks that call for a splash or rinse of Islay and I've been happy with it for that purpose but as far as pouring some in a glass and sitting down to enjoy it for what it is, it's been a difficult battle. I seem to be having a hard time getting my brain to register anything accept bandage. My initial reaction to it was that it was going to be a fun challenge and I know there's something more in there to discover but I'm having trouble digging it out. I'm starting to think I should move on to another region and work my way back around to this one.

[Clark D]

You'll probably get a few different responses but I would agree that you should move on and come back. A couple of versions of Laphroaig are in my personal top 10 but if you haven't ahd a lot of whisky yet it would be pretty harsh! The Highland Park they are talking about above would be a really good starting point, especially if you can afford the 18 year. If you want to stay Islay side but a little calmer check out the Bowmore, even the 12 year is pretty good!

Clark

[Blether]

So I have to confess ...

If by 'in at the deep end' you mean starting out with Scotch, you might be happier spending some time with Speysides. No point exploring the medicinal- and iodine- flavours if they're just now your thing - some folks love sour apples, some love sweet. My own natural inclinations are toward the smoother & mellower.

How are you drinking it 'poured in the glass' ? Straight ? Room temp water 1:1 ? 3:1 ? 15:1 ?

1:15 ?

Edited March 23, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Tri2Cook]

If by 'in at the deep end' you mean starting out with Scotch...

How are you drinking it 'poured in the glass' ? Straight ? Room temp water 1:1 ? 3:1 ? 15:1 ?

1:15 ?

By "in at the deep end" I mean that, when researching, I came across many references to Laphroaig being a somewhat in-your-face example even among other Islays. I have the type of personality that frequently gravitates towards the extreme so I started there thinking if I could tame this one, the rest should come easy. When I taste it, I can sense initially that there's a world of stuff going on but it's quickly washed away by the "bandage" thing. Once that takes over, it's hard to get back to what lies beneath for a while. So far I've tried it room temp straight and with a splash of water (no idea of ratio... maybe 8-10:1 scotch to water as a guess but I just drizzled a little in).

[EvergreenDan]

I find the Laphroaig 10 to be a bit hard to like, and I don't think its the valedictorian of the Islay school. The 15 year is more expensive, much much more refined and easy to like (although this is from memory as I haven't had it in some time).

An easy (and cheaper) introduction could be Bowmore Legend. It is still plainly Islay, but has much less iodine and smoke. Lagavulin is my favorite, but it expensive enough that I wouldn't recommend a bottle until you've tried it to make sure that you like it.

I have Laphroaig Quarter Cask on hand, but no other expressions. The bottle doesn't state an age. Does anyone have any info exactly what this stuff is?

[mkayahara]

I agree with Clark: re-cork the bottle, try something different when the budget allows, and come back to it at a later date. And who knows? You may never really like it. Doesn't mean you won't find whiskies that you do enjoy. My father-in-law is an enthusiastic drinker of single malts, but doesn't have time for what he refers to as "ashtray Scotches." There's no rule that says you can't be a Scotch aficionado because you don't care for Laphroaig.

For me, I came to single malt from the other direction: I loved the brutal clobbering of the more intense Islays, but found a lot of others to be too milquetoast. After a while, though, I started to suspect that I was enjoying intensity at the expense of nuance - especially after I discovered Bourbon - and now I have a much more widely varied palate for whisky (and whiskey). Currently, sacrilege though it may be among a certain subset of connoisseurs, I'm starting to explore Canadian whiskies, which are more subtle still.

[mkayahara]

Another thought, Tri2Cook: Have you tried a Dreamy Dorini Smoking Martini? It's an interesting and, I think, rewarding way to explore the layers of flavour in Laphroaig on a canvas other than water. Might be worth a shot, anyway.

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. It's not so much that I'm determined to love this particular bottle, it's that I don't want to decide I don't like it just because it's something more intense than I'm used to. I was loving the idea of heavy smoke, the problem I'm having is digging that from beneath what I assume is the iodine (the "bandage" thing). That iodine thing is what's going to take some work. I accept that I may never love it, I just want it to have a fair shot.

Matt, I haven't tried that one yet but I have it on my short list. I have a huge file of drinks I want to check out but I also have some of them on a short list that I want to get into soon. The drinks I've used it in so far are the Penicillin and the Curse of Scotland.

[Blether]

8 or 10:1 scotch-to-water isn't going to dilute the intensity much at all. Did you think about somewhere more like the other way round, say 5:1 water:whisky, as an experiment ? You might find you're able to approach it - or reach an armistice - if you start by keeping at at a longer arm's length.

Back in November David Croll of whisk-e ran a whisky bar for us at the Tokyo St Andrew Society's St Andrew Ball, with a grand selection of single cask and vintage malts. There was a bar provided by the ANA Intercontionental on the other side of the room serving wine, beer & soft drinks and I'm an inveterate Luddite, so I made a number of round trips between the two, and my notes from the evening record in sequence my top 3 single-cask choices:

1 Glen Scotia

2 Craigellachie

3 Caol Isla

- for mixing with coke, ice & a slice. Worth it just for the facial expressions and conversation - David & his Japanese barman played along in very good spirit.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Blether (log)

[Clark D]

Hey Matthew, just wondering if you have tried any of the Glen Breton varities? I have a friend bringing me a bottle of the 15 year in a couple weeks.....

Clark

[PetersCreek]

I'm an Islay fan, myself. My go-to has to be Lagavulin (when it's on sale), followed by Laphroaig, Talisker, and Oban but I also favor Highland and Speyside malts as well. I rotate and explore a lot so I don't have any one daily dram, for the most part.

[mkayahara]

Hey Matthew, just wondering if you have tried any of the Glen Breton varities? I have a friend bringing me a bottle of the 15 year in a couple weeks.....

A couple of times, but it's been a few years, and I wasn't following whisky very closely at the time, so I'm not sure which expression it was. I remember the first time thinking it had a rather oily mouthfeel. In general, I've always thought it was a bit pricey, but I guess when you're unique, you get to charge a premium.

Of course, the Scotch Whisky Association would probably not be happy with us for having this conversation in this thread.

[brinza]

I was a bit hesitant to try Laphroaig at first, only because of what I'd read about it. My first taste of any single malt was Lagavulin, so I was spoiled from the get-go. I instantly fell in love with it and went from there. I was intrigued by the idea of Laphroaig but kept reading warnings like "not for the faint-of-heart," "love it or hate it," etc, so I wasn't sure if I would like it. What I did was try Ardbeg first, which was a good choice and enabled me to muster the courage to try Laphroaig. By then it wasn't much of a shock and my reaction was "And to think I hesitated." I'm just thankful that no one gave me Glenlivet 12 as my first single malt, because I would been nonplussed, wondering what all the fuss was about, and might never have bothered to try any others.

For smokey, peaty malts that are not as medicinal as Laphroaig, I'd suggest Caol Ila, Ardbeg, Talisker, and Lagavulin.

I once marinated a steak in Laphroaig . . .wow.

[Katie Meadow]

One of my most memorable meals was a grilled steak that sat atop a mound of barley that had been cooked with moderately peaty scotch. No idea how it was done or how much scotch went into the liquid, but it was fabulous.

[OliverB]

I rarely drink liquor, but after a nice dinner last week I ordered a Japanese "Scotch" named Yamazaki. I was curious and pleasantly surprised, it had a nice scotch flavor, but also some flowery/fruity overtones that were unexpected but worked perfectly with dessert.

wikipedia entry

They served the 12 year old that cost about $35, there's also an 18 year old that appears to sell for about $45. I'm gonna get me a bottle some day, a fun thing to have.

Might make a true Scotch lovers toenails curl, as it's not from Scotland, but I think it's worth trying. Figured it's worth mentioning here.

[PetersCreek]

I recently tried the Yamazaki but it left no real impression on me. It was certainly drinkable but gave me absolutely no urge to go out and buy a bottle.