Ok, I'm about done with my first bottle of real scotch (Glenlivet 12). I'm ready for my second bottle. I was wanting something with a little more darker taste. If I understand this right, the older a scotch then the darker the taste. Is that correct?
I was wanting to try something around an 18 year old scotch. Any recommendations? From reading this group the last month or so I came up with these scotch's that seem to be mentioned a lot: Glenfiddich, Dalwhinnie, Highland Park, Glenmorangie, Lagavulin and Macallan. Any recommendations from this list?
Glenmorangie, Lagavulin and Macallan. Any recommendations from this list?
By darker if you mean richer, then Highland Park or Macallan.
Although the others you mention are all good, with the exception of the standard Glenfiddich, to quote from The Three Bears: The Dalwhinnie would be too fruity. The Glenmorangie would be too woody. The Lagavulin would be too intense for a 2nd whisky.
A lot of 18-year-olds will be even more light and ethereal than 10's or
Not really. It's hard to characterize oldness - its effects differ so widely from malt to malt. Perhaps one could say richer, more complex, more woodiness. I like the deepness of the older malts, but one should not just assume that younger whiskies are lacking. I have an 8 year old MMcD Ardbeg that's just divine!
Here's my opinions...
Glenfiddich - overrated, my least favorite of the list, although the Solera is quite nice.
Dalwhinnie - a light, tasty, if slightly undistinguished malt from the highest elevation distillery. Nice on the rocks.
Highland Park - from the Orkney Islands way up north, this is one of the very finest malts. The whole range is delicious, with some peat and full-bodied characteristics, and the 25YO is spectacular. Highly recommended.
Glenmorangie - very nice whisky, with some interesting alternate wood treatments - Sherry, Port, Maderia. Very popular.
Lagavulin - A very peaty (smoke, iodine, medicine, earth) Islay with a great deal of complexity - cherry, orange, vanilla. A great nose - one of my very favorites. Word has it that there are shortages, and it will be a couple of years until stocks are fully replenished. If you feel like trying a challenging malt, try this one. If you like it, Ardbeg, Laphroaig, Talisker, and Bowmore (the non-FWP vintages) are worth a try.
Macallan - highly regarded and heavily sherried. Some think the sherry is over the top, but I'm a fan. The expensive 25YO is very rich and worth a sip. The 18YO is the most sherried, and delicious, but the conventional wisdom is that the vintages before 1981 were better. The 12YO is worth a try, and the cask strength is a true competitor to Aberlour A'bunadh.
There's nothing wrong with the 12--it is consistently excellent. And didn't someone just write and say that the 18 was kind of thin? And that many independent bottlings of Highland Park just aren't as good as the distillery version (the distillery version is consistently rich, heathery, and honied)? I just picked up a liter of the Highland Park 12 for the grand total of 25.50 Euros at the Amsterdam airport, if you're in the neighborhood! But even at prices in the mid-$30s' it's worth getting.
I'd go with the Highland Park 12. It's incredibly smooth and drinkable, but it's got a little fire. If you like that, try moving on to Talisker 10 then the Islay malts. I just started drinking Scotch about 7 weeks ago and started with the Glenlivet 18. I bought a bottle of Laproaig 10 immediately after I found that I enjoyed the Glenlivet and that was a mistake. It was too much too soon, although now I think it is my favorite (my favorite is always the last kind I tried). I've managed to accumulate a dozen or so different malts over the last few weeks based largely on reading posts here. Cheers to the most civilized newsgroup on Usenet!!
Highland Park it is!! Ok, just a few more question: I read on the net a lot about a scotch tasting 'woody'. Can you describe what a 'woody' taste is? Anything like Jack Danials? Also, when you say 'fruity' do you mean it tastes a little like actual fruit?
I just ordered the whiskey bible of amazon. So once it comes I'll be done with all the questions - maybe lol.
You're right with your 'lol'. Your questions will just become more specific.
I've laid in a small spectrum of Single Malts and a few blends. As I taste them, I try to detect the nuances of nose, palate and finish that so many describe. Thus far, it's beyond me. But I feel it's a struggle worth continuing. Sure, I make notes, but in the end I have a sliding scale, ranging from adequate to my favorite (which right now is Aberlour A'bunadh). I still have a lot more tasting to do before I've slotted them all in, and of course the list will require constant review.
On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 05:11:26 GMT, the alleged grand poobah bear, may have posted the following, to alt.drinks.scotch-whisky:
I'd think that it might be best to wait until after we see how the Highland Park, Lagavulin, Talisker and Ardbeg are received, eh? He'll either love it or hate it. However, if he hates it, it could turn him off of Scotch (and this froup), and we wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?
Regards, Rob "we hates it" Crowe
-- "Or better yet, use the Jack Daniels `shot and a chaser' glass. An honest admission of the true nature of Tennessee whiskey."
A "woody" taste is refered to the flavour of the oak cask that the whisky is matured in. Some whiskies are matured in sherry casks (oak) and are slightly charred before the whisky is poured in, thus giving off a more significant "woody" flavour. Others are new oak casks which give off a lesser or more subtle wood flavour.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@strangelove.net says...
Some distillery owners don't like seeing their distillery's name on other peoples bottlings. Allied (the owners of Laphroaig) sued Murray McDavid over the use of "Laphroaig" a few years ago resulting in MMD labeling their whisky "Leapfrog" for about a year. And the owners of Glenfiddich who also own Balvenie and another malt distillery called Kinivie (which has never been bottled as a single) add a drop of whisky from another one of these to every cask of Glenfiddich and Balvenie they sell to blenders so that it can never be bottled as a single malt. I think the last independent bottling of Glenfiddich was a Cadenhead vintage from the late 1950's. Glenfarclas doesn't encourage independent bottlings. And independent bottlings of the UDV "Six Classic Malts" are rare, but not unheard of. While Caol Ila, which they also own but don't market as aggressively as a single, has been bottled by everyone.
Which whiskies were in the Signatory sample pack?
I had a three whisky sample pack from them a few years ago that had a very nice Caol Ila, a Bladnoch that was O.K., and a very dry Linkwood from a fresh sherry cask that I didn't care for. While they were available I ended up buying a few of those sample packs, just to get at the Caol Ila.
The sinking dollar is making all scotches more expensive, if not immediately for the ones on the shelf, then later when retailers restock.
Sometimes we talk about the Quality-to-Price Ratio, or QPR. In your example above, the whisky that costs twice as much but is only a little better has a lower QPR. I don't begrudge those who can always sip the most expensive malts (I envy them!) but price remains a consideration for me.
It seems there are less really high quality inexpensive single malts around now than there were 10 to 15 years ago. Partly it's that old exchange rate. And I think it was partly a unique set of circumstances: the 1980's had been a hard time in the industry with lower sales, distilleries closing, blended scotch whisky in decline, and excess inventory. Then suddenly demand for singles began to grow, and producers looked through their warehouses and found lots of good whiskies they were only too happy to bottle and sell as a single, or sell to independent bottlers who would bottle it and sell it as a single. It seemed every week some single previously only available in limited markets was being introduced world-wide. And product from long closed distilleries was appearing on the shelf from independent bottlers. And many ordinary standard bottlings were quite good, sometimes filled with whisky older than the bottle's age statement. But now we've worked through that "bubble" of excess inventory and we're in a time of the reverse situation: the lack of production in the 1980's means stocks of many 12, 15, 18, 21 year old whiskies are low. However demand is still high and growing; also in some cases I think producers are saving the very best casks for expensive single cask bottlings and "special editions" rather than just vatting them into their standard product. The result is higher prices in general and less really great inexpensive drams. Well, that's my theory. I don't have any production numbers or insider information to back it up, just widely available general knowledge of some of these trends. I'm convinced though that a decade ago there were many 30 dollar whiskies that were the equal of 50 and 60 dollar whiskies today.
Anyone else have thoughts on this or am I off my rocker?
My marriage will not likely survive this foray into the abyss called "good scotch" but I need not worry, for no greater spouse is there that provides both pleasure and comfort, affordably, than great cheap scotch.
----- Cedrars ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) in alt.drinks.scotch-whisky --------------------------------
When I was drinking my Glenlivet 12 I kept thinking to myself how amazing it is to be drinking something that was stored in a cask for 12 years. Just sitting in a cask and maturing or whatever for all those years - cool!
How many casks does a scotch manufacturer go thru? How many do they use? Thousands? Can you drink a scotch and notice what kind of cask it was stored in?
I was afraid someone was going to ask that. I drank these while I was in the boondocks for Christmas. For some reason I lost two of the bottles, one of them I can't remember the name or the age. They were all bottled in
1997:
Glenallachie 1985 Clynelish 1984 Rosebank 1989 Port Ellen 1983 Caol Ila 1989 (I think the last one was a Bladnoch. I _know_ it was a lowland because it was two of each of Highland, Lowland, and Islay)
I hope to find the missing bottles eventually.
Same here. I picked up the pack because of this newsgroup's praise for the Caol Ila. I can say I was very pleased with it, though it was a shame it was only 5cl.
I consider the price spike to be the big reason why I ventured into Bourbons. Each day I see the Euro rise, the more I drink from my Bourbon supply to make sure that I can extend my Scotch supply. Though it could be sacriledge to admit this in this NG, I've found a few bourbons that compete rather strongly with some of the younger scotches and others that are great in their own right.
Nor I, though I am almost to the point where I may drop money on a short round trip ticket to Europe to buy the Scotch within the Eurozone. I can imagine that the supply there would be a bit more fluid since the US market is probably a bit stingy right now. It's all macroeconomics in the end. :)
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