any Single Malt fans???

My son and his family toured Scotland for three weeks last summer. Of course he brought me back a Single malt that is unavailable here in the US.

Prior to this I had only tried Mcallan 18 and 25 in Restaurants.

So I went on a learning quest to become educated on single Malts and of course see what I like.

There is a retailer in the UK that offers single drams of a huge varieties of Whiskeys, most I would never buy a full bottle of, simply of the price Vs risk factor.

So I bought 10 drams.

Favorites so far are Bunnanabhain 25 and Isle of Jura 30

do you have any favorites???

Laphroaig... but it can take some getting used to. My first impression was that somebody had put out an old cigar in it... but it has since grown on me...

Lagavulin is decent.

-Chris

Oban and Highland Park for me.

I'm not a connosewer, but I do like the Oban. Kind of a cross between the Islays (too smoky, but great for a "smoky martini") and the Highlands.

Highland Park, from 10 to 25 they are all famous.
Lagavullin 17
Bruichladdich 12 and 15, slightly salty, slightly iode
The Balvenie 10, 18 and 21. Even the 10 at its cheap price is a delicaty, though I do not like the double wood, too woody for me.
Talisker
Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, aged in porto cask, delicious, but I do not like much the base Glenmorangie
Glenfarclas
And many many many more.

Kevin, does it HAVE to be neat? I know ice dilutes good booze, but do any serious scotch drinkers like it less than room temp? I know I'm talking heresy.

My two favorites are these (You may have to give your birth date):


https://www.thedalmore.com/


Although this is not a single malt it is a blend of 3 single malts:


https://www.monkeyshoulder.com/


The only thing you are missing is a fine cigar to go with that drink.....I think you will be happy with the above.

Laphroaig is an old favourite, dad was very attached to Glenfarclas.

The parental advice I received; a little water is OK, if you must, ice is a no no, sip don't gulp. Took me years to fully appreciate the taste, in my earlier days I preferred the sweeter American bourbon styles

Andy G said:

The parental advice I received; a little water is OK, if you must, ice is a no no, sip don't gulp.

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I agree. Drink it "neat", meaning no ice. However you will find with a good scotch if you add 1 drop of water, stir and let it sit for a few minutes, it does change the characteristics of the malt.

Ken E. said:

Kevin, does it HAVE to be neat? I know ice dilutes good booze, but do any serious scotch drinkers like it less than room temp? I know I'm talking heresy.

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I am no connoisseur but I think neat is how it's done.

I'm getting ready to try another 10 drams, and having a grand time at this.

I am buying the samples from Master of Malt, who ships them very inexpensively via fedex next day air from the UK. Each sample is one dram (about an ounce) and costs about 1/12 what a full bottle would cost.

Here's the ones I've tried so far...

• Balveine 30 yo Speyside This was very smooth and drinkable to me
• Brora 37 yo Highland This was very smoky
• Bunnahabhain 25 yo Islay This was very smooth, one of my favorites
• Glenfarclas 25 yo Speyside This was very good, with just the right amount of sherry taste
• Glenfarclas 40 yo Speyside This was very strong, a bit too sherried for my pallatte
• Glenglassaugh 45 YO Speyside Very smooth
• Glenkinchie 24 YO Lowland This was very smooth, but since it's a cask strength bottling, it was very strong
• Isle of Jura 30 yo Island This is a favorite. Bold, robust, but also very drinkable.
• Springbank 22 Campbeltown Very smooth
• The singleton of Glengullan 38 yo This is a cask strength bottling and very strong

My bad I think it is neet????

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

My bad I think it is neet????

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I never thought of the spelling, but I am seeing it spelled both ways, neet and neat.

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

My bad I think it is neet????

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Holy cow......spelling is my problem, not temperature?

Aberfeldy 12

Kevin, welcome to the club....

No water and certainly no ice. The only reason to add water is when you taste a cask strength, then you add few drops of water to reveal aroma but nothing more. In regular single malt almost half of what you drink is already water so no need to add more.
If you are not used to it I would not recommend you to try ask strength now but better to first form your palate (cask strength are 70% of alcohol, not meant for everybody).

In the same way I would recommend a newbie to start with speyside or highland scotch as they are very good and easier to appreciate. I would not recommend to go straight to islay scotch as the smoky taste may disturb you, even if in the end you will learn to love it. A scotch like Lagavulin is smokey but at the same time very elegant and subtle. The only Islay scotch not smokey is the Bruichladdich which is exceptionally tasty because of the way they age it. Barrels are kept on the shore with sea wind, the iodine and salt are giving a very subtle taste to the scotch, very nice.

Anyway to find what you like you will need to taste, and taste a lot, and taste again even if you did not like in the first place.

ksanders said:

I am no connoisseur but I think neat is how it's done.

I'm getting ready to try another 10 drams, and having a grand time at this.

I am buying the samples from Master of Malt, who ships them very inexpensively via fedex next day air from the UK. Each sample is one dram (about an ounce) and costs about 1/12 what a full bottle would cost.

Here's the ones I've tried so far...

• Balveine 30 yo Speyside This was very smooth and drinkable to me
• Brora 37 yo Highland This was very smoky
• Bunnahabhain 25 yo Islay This was very smooth, one of my favorites
• Glenfarclas 25 yo Speyside This was very good, with just the right amount of sherry taste
• Glenfarclas 40 yo Speyside This was very strong, a bit too sherried for my pallatte
• Glenglassaugh 45 YO Speyside Very smooth
• Glenkinchie 24 YO Lowland This was very smooth, but since it's a cask strength bottling, it was very strong
• Isle of Jura 30 yo Island This is a favorite. Bold, robust, but also very drinkable.
• Springbank 22 Campbeltown Very smooth
• The singleton of Glengullan 38 yo This is a cask strength bottling and very strong

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You may say you are not a connoisseur but I wish I had your wallet as you listed soe of the best ones

Lou_tribal said:

You may say you are not a connoisseur but I wish I had your wallet as you listed soe of the best ones

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The trick is that I am only buying a dram of each, so the cost is minimal.

If I had to buy a full bottle I would never get the opportunity to try 90% of them. Thats why I'm preparing my next 10 dram sampler.

This was interesting...

You would think for example that the Glenfarclas 40 woud be better than the 25.

What I found was that the 40 has way to much sherry taste, but the 25 was a fantastic sherry aged whiskey.

The 25 year old is $120 for a bottle...very affordable. The 40 year old is over $700 for the bottle, not affordable at all. If I buy as bottle of Glenfarclas it will be the 25 year old. Better taste, and great value.

Right now I am sampling the Bunnahabhain 25. This is a fine Islay whiskey. Smoth, with a little smokiness. Very tasty! At over $300 for a bottle I would never try this whskey. At $20 for a dram sampler I feel that it's a great value.

If you never tried one I would suggest you a Highland Park, any of them are really a delight, these are among my top 5 for sure.

So I just ordered these from Master of Malt

I really like thast site. I can try things, and learn abut the different tastes out there for a very reasonable price!

Bowmore 26
Bunnahabhain 33
Dalwhinne 25
Highland Park 30
Talisker 30

Great website. Tried to create an account and the screen keeps disappearing. Will try later. I see you can save a lot of money if you buy in bulk, not so much single bottle...

Costco in Anchorage had a $16,000 bottle of single malt for sale a couple of years ago. I went down to look at it a couple of days after I heard about and it had been sold. That should have been a news event. Don't know what it was but I hope it was good.

Tom

Scotch is aged in used Jack Daniels barrels. I like a good single malt, but more often I go to the source.

tpbrady said:

Scotch is aged in used Jack Daniels barrels. I like a good single malt, but more often I go to the source.

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Not sure I understand what you mean? Scotch are aged in different kind of barrel from new to used for a whole lot of things and in a lot of different places and conditions. This is part of the art of elaboration of a perfectly balanced scotch to manage the barrel aging.

I just checked out the Masters of Malt website. I picked out two bottles of the 10 yo Glenfarclas that you recommended which I recall liking very much from a trip down the whisky trail 30 years ago. $32 per bottle. All looked great, until I checked shipping- $58 for two bottles. Exited the site without going any further.

Is there an Amazon Prime of single malts? On Amazon I found scotch fudge, books, glasses and even a kit to make your own for $100, but alas, no booze.

David

Up here we have the chance (or disease) to be forced to go through our monopolistic store to buy any alcohol so we cannot order anything either online or even simply from any other store. Whatever you order that have a shape of a bottle you are sure to pay huge taxes on it. As an example, an bottle of wine that cost 3$ in France (in a store not even from the producer) will be sold 12 to 15$ here. And do not put this on import duty, local wine are sold the same price, just a heist nothing more.

Lou,

Jack Daniels uses only new white oak barrels to age their whiskey. When I was in college we could buy the barrels at the Lynchburg hardware store for about $7.50 put a few gallons of water in, roll it around for a couple of days and end up with 3 gallons or so of mixed drink equivalents. Today the distillery ships them back to the cooper in Kentucky who reconditions them for sale to scotch distilleries and wineries.

Tom

Last year when I was in Sidney BC, the state run store had a bottle of scotch that I pay $32 in the states. BC, $70cd......Not good...

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Last year when I was in Sidney BC, the state run store had a bottle of scotch that I pay $32 in the states. BC, $70cd......Not good...

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Beer and wine, same thing....hugely expensive in Canada. The margin above US prices must be all federal and provincial taxes.

Ken E. said:

Beer and wine, same thing....hugely expensive in Canada. The margin above US prices must be all federal and provincial taxes.

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in fact the margin is taxes plus the exorbitant profit taken by the store who is the only one allowed to sell wine. On lower price wines the profit is 300% and it is getting lower when price range increase as if not nobody would buy these wines. Here when you look at a bottle of wine of 60$ or more the price difference is not so much but any wine below 20$ is just a robbery.