The Greatest Scotch in The World

Higland Park 12 has a little bit of everything, and seems to be highly regarded by most. So I'll probably risk my neck when I disagree. In my opinion it has too little of too much; no clear direction, no definite style. I don't, know, it just doesn't turn me on, I think it's overrated. But then, I allways seem to fall for the Islay's... For an Island malt in between the Islay-style and HP 12, how about Talisker 10?

Gunnar

"Von Fourche" skrev i melding news:flIfc.12263$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net...

Hi Von Fourche

Well I will deny that :-)

I have tasted a lot of Whisky and the good thing about it is that there is NOT a single distillery that's THE BEST. Some of the best bottles I've have tasted are single casks, independent or special bottlings which aren't available in that many number of bottles, and sometimes it's easy to recommend them, but they are normally hard to find. So when you start to discuss the "Best malt" it good sense to discuss only standard, available bottlings from the distillery, well knowing that there's a lot of better stuff on the shelves around the world. The quality of the malt from a distillery often depends of the people who put it together. One good example of this is, in my opinion, the Bruichladdich. The quality of the 10y and 15y standard distillery bottlings can be compared, since both the old (Jim Beam) and the new owners (Murray McDavid) have done this ages. The new one is a lot better than the older stuff - but they had (have) the same casks in the warehouses to go and make it from

If you make a survey of "What's your favourite Standard Distillery Bottling, age 10-18", You will probably get votes for almost every bottle on the market.....

By Standard Distillry Bottling I mean a bottle that are continousely produced from de the distillery, over a number of years, like Glenfiddich Special Reserve, Glenlivet 12y and Highland Park 12y. Some standard distillery Bottlings are older than 18y but can be rare and expensive (Highland Park 21y and HP 25y are good examples)

Often people asks me, what's your favourite malt, and I usually can't name a single bottle, but lists a few. The keep on changing. What I had last week usually have a good chance :-)

Right now I would list these five, to limit myself

The Balvenie Double Wood 12y Ardbeg 10 Lagavulin 16 Bruichladdich 15 Cragganmore 12y

For more special bottlings, but still standard destillery Bottlings these five are on right now

Lagavilin Double Matured Glenfiddich Caoran Reserve Glenlivet 15y Johnnie Walker Gold (That's a blend) Caol Ila Cask

For very special Bottlings I can recommend

Lagavulin 25y Brora 30 Bruichladdich 1966 Caol Ila Rare Malt Yoichi 10y Single Cask

And there's still a lot of good independent bottlings as well

Slainthe Steffen

I bet you haven't tasted Ardbeg yet... ;-)

Luca

Had you said your favorite Scotch was HP 12, you'd have been fine. Stating categorically that HP 12 is the best without having tasted every whisky in existnece just characterizes you as either a fool or a troll. Do you understand that?

...And, btw, the plural of Scotch is Scotches. Apostrophes generally indicate possessives, rather than plurals.

-- Larry

To answer the question in one word....Ardbeg . To answer the question in one word and a couple of numbers....Ardbeg10. To answer the question in two words....Ardbeg Provenance !(also known as nectar of the gods!). Slainté

"Steffen Bräuner" schreef in bericht news:407fb191$0$28850$ snipped-for-privacy@nntp04.dk.telia.net...

Steffen. I see you've tasted Nikka Youchi. I'm fascinated by this whisky without ever tasting it (am saving for a bottle -72,50 euro- though, to taste this famous whisky myselve in a couple of weeks)... So, my question what's your opinion about Nikka? and was this list counting down or just randomly written down? And is it true that you get some sort of 'peat'-shock with the first sip..?

Thanks, Michel

Yep, I know. Everybody has their favorite. But I was just happy last night buying another bottle of the the first Scotch that I could really taste and recongnize the flavors. And to me it's almost perfect. It felt really nice drinking a dram of this last night. Still, I'm disapointed that they didn't have HP 18. I was ready to spend the $65.00 or so on getting a bottle. I can say that now I have two whiskies that I really love now - Highland Park 12 and Elijah Craig Bourbon. Actually, there aren't too many more choices of Scotch at the two stores I go to. I seem to have tried almost all except two or three. Maybe it's time to head to the big city to visit a premium store.

'peat'-shock

I would like to pitch in on this post and say, buy the Nikka if you see it. It is a quality whisky, distilled in true Scottish tradition, and is by far and away, right up there with the finest whiskies on the market. Japan's best offering for whisky by far.

It is a pleasurable experience to savour!

Graeme san (no Suntory...thank you very much)

'peat'-shock

We went to a japanese night in my local pub (that's japanese whisky :-) )

We rated the whisky on a 1-5 scale :

Lars Søren Steffen Average

Pure Malt Red (Sendai), 43%

Pure Malt Black (Yoichi), 43%

Pure Malt White (Sendai), 43%

Sendai 12 år, 45%

Yoichi 10 år, 45%

Yoichi 15 år, 45%

Yoichi Single Cask 10 år, 62%

3.74

IMHO japanese whisky are in the same league as Scottish (But Scottish is off-course much more interesting due to a larger amount of distilleries)

I couldn't find a common Yoichi taste or Sendai (Both distilleries are owned by the Nikka company)

I think they do batches with a variation of peat content. Some of the Yoichi's were quite peaty. A yoichi, was the first time I had a whisky with the a taste of rubber, synthetic, sulphur, rotten .Like when you by a new pair of wellingtons....

I have found the same and more powerful in an independent Port ellen (Provenance), and independent Bowmore, and less powerfull in other Yoichi's, but not all of them, in some independent Brora's and HP 18y !!

Some people find it very amusing when I say something like : "This one tastes of rubber, synthetic, sulphur and something rotten. It's an excellent whisky. I love it" :-)

One thing for the Japanese the whisky's. they are overprised compared to Scottish. In Denmark they certainly are !. 25-50% more expensive than similar Scottish.

And the list was arbitrary. I just listed the first 5 whiskys that came into my mind. if I do it next week the lists will look differently

Aarh, tomorrow we are going to try a 24y Yamezake Single Cask from SMWS. I'll let you know what I think

:-)

Slainthe

Steffen

Don't get me wrong Von Fourche

Highland Park is a VERY good dram

I just have to tell something. Last year I went to a Highland Park tasting where we mostly had a lot of independent bottlings and a 1 or two special distillery bottlings. Some of (most of actually) the independent bottlings where single casks matured on former bourbon casks. The destillery Bottlings have a high content of sherry-whisky and a lot of the independent bottlings are from sherry casks as well. Sherry will dominate a whisky and trying a bunch of bourbon-HP I got a chance to taste "the real HP". Quite interesting and surprising. HP has a citrusfruit flavour, (not fruity but lemon/lime) that I very rarely have found in other coastal whiskies. I think you can say the same about Islay's.... here the peat covers the citrus. But this was a common thing of all the bourbon-cask HP I had that night

Have anyone experienced the same ?

Slainthe Steffen

If my Murray Mc David Highland Park 10 and my Signatory Un-Chillfiltered Highland Park weren't both BETTER than my distillery edition Highland Park

If they weren't glaring at me menacingly I might still consider agreeing with you.

every whisky in existnece just characterizes you as either a fool or a troll. Do you understand that?

He's not a troll--he's a dedicated lover of malt whisky--and that's good enough for me!!!

indicate possessives, rather than plurals.

And we don't want to seem too possessive.

Hello Larry,

Von Fourche is not a troll...he is a regular poster to this newsgroup and many of us enjoy reading and responding to his posts. None of the regular readers of this newsgroup would have taken his post to be the work of a troll. This is not a formal forum...grades are not issued here...except for whisky, of course! If you are an English teacher on a mission, then please go back to grading your pupils' exams...and please be careful before branding other posters as trolls. If you are a lover of single malt Scotch whisky...then welcome to the discussion.

Regards, Sean

P.S. What if other a.d.s-w readers were to hold you to the standards that you insist on holding Von Fourche to? Should we criticize you for your having not spelled "existence" correctly in your post? I wouldn't criticize you for your having misspelled a word. Let's all just relax and discuss Scotch, OK?

Steffen, if you don't mind me asking... The Yoichi I can buy at tonovermars.nl is a 12 years old, 45%. I don't see this one at your list... But looking at your list, I see that two Sendai's are well appreciated, and does have some better scores than Yoichi sometimes... So what would you try for you first Japanese whisky, the Senai 12 yr 45% or the Yoichi 12 yr 45%? Price of both bottles is the same... Thanks, Michel

"Steffen Bräuner" schreef in bericht news:4080595d$0$28844$ snipped-for-privacy@nntp04.dk.telia.net...

Hi Michel

Actually they are quite similar. My rating is 3=good and 4= very good and

If I could I would go for one of each, but try the Yoichi if only 1. I rated that one better

Had the Yamezake tonight. Didn't like it. But the others did. Sold the rst of the the bottle for a bargain so everybody were happy

Slainthe

Steffen

No, it just means he's quick to form an opinion...too quick perhaps. Personally, I happen to think that the best Scotch in the world is whatever Scotch happens to be in my glass at the time.

FatWalt

I'm very possessive of my Scotch!

FatWalt

Depends on the size of your world.

Andreas