I am just now going to begin a collection of single malts. Can you give me an opinion on five must have malts or five great malts to create the foundation for a future collection? I am not interested in putting bottles away forever. I want to use them from time to time.
Willie
"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live."
Ok, trouble here is that everyone has different tastes. You also haven't mentioned a budget, so I'm going to assume that money _is_ a factor:
Ardbeg Uigeadail - a stonkingly peaty bastard of a dram. Cask strength. Bowmore Dawn - a port finished dram (also cask strength) Dalwhinnie 15yo - one of the lightest whiskies. Talisker 10yo - a good 'salty' dram. Balvenie 12yo Doublewood - a sherry monster dram.
Those won't break the bank (fracture it a bit perhaps) and cover a range of styles.
There are two possible ways to answer. One possibility is own one of each major category, region or style, and this would allow you to gain an understanding of where your tastes lie. If you need further information, that might make a decent post: "What are the categories of scotch and their characteristics?"
The second is approach is to forget categories altogether, and mention personal staples. For me, this still spans the spectrum. If I could only have five reasonably priced bottles, they would be, in order:
1) Aberlour A'bunadh - cask strength sherry monster; my favorite--KAPOW!!
2) Laphroiag CS (cask strength) - Islay peat (iodine); love it or leave it--I love it!
3) Highland Park 18 (but the 12 is nearly as good, IMO) - everyone agrees
4) Craggenmore - not the popular choice, but I love it
5) Talisker 10 - half peat, half something else; best alone, not sampled with others
Which reminds me, I'm out of #2 and #4. Oh, and I'd be okay with just 1
- 3. In fact, if the price of A'bunadh trippled, I'd still buy it and drink just as much. Shhhhh! I consider these the true *personal* essentials.
Best of luck, and tell us what you decide (and, then, what your impressions are).
1) any Ardbeg older than about 15 years, they will be mostly indies for a while though I bought a '72 OB last year
2) any Brora, long gone now and getting harder to come by but worth having around
3) a Port Ellen even if it is the new expression... but I avoid those casked in Sherry
4) Any Caol Ila, (well maybe not the 12) indies are better, flora & fauna the best
5) Laphroig 15 y/o or better (the 40 is/was amaizing)
Can you tell I really like Peat? If you are trying to get an idea of what YOU like
in any order
Lagavoulin 16 Highland Park 18 Edradour 10 Talisker 10 (or 20! yeah get the 20 it would be on the list above around number 7 or 8 yeah well get the 10 since it is priced right.) GlenFarclas 17 y/o or older.. Springbank (any)
These are all pretty accessible and as you become familiar with what you like and when they make great stepping-stones towards the more esoteric whiskies. Don't start really collecting untill you are sure where you wnat to go.. I've got a couple of miscelanious spey siders that I never touch..
I have the Ardbeg 10 - nice peaty dram, and the Bowmore 17 - smooth and peaty, plus the usual suspects. A would also recommend the Aberlour a'bunadh (cask strength) - a delightful dram with a lovely lingering finish.
Thank you everyone for your input. Money is somewhat a limitation, but I can at least have a little fun, so the following is where I began (and I will continue!).
Craggenmore
Lagavulin 16 (This one cost US; is it this much everywhere?) I love this but not as the first dram of the evening. Probably the second. It's sooo rich it will take study. There is a lot to learn about this one.
Balvenie Doublewood 12
Glenmorangie 10 - I love the orange like flavors mixed with almonds;
Glenlivet 12 - ( and it was easy to understand) for me it was simple floral, nothing harsh or commanding.
Johnny Walker Green Label - Only later did I discover vatted did not equal single malt!!! But it's OK I prefer Black!
Speyside 12 () I don't seem to be able to break through to the individual flavors on this one; I keep focusing on the price for a SM.
I had an opportunity to try the Talisker 10. I liked it but there was a flavor I couldn't put my finger on, but now I am identifying it as a strong phenol (creosote?) flavor. Overall the dram was good but I didn't buy because of limitations.
Willie
"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live."
I'm gettng a bottle of this in the not-too-distant future. My hopes are high for it :-)
Not one I've tried yet. Added to the list.
Agreed, but I'm not too keen on their non-finished whisky - I find it too dry for my tastes. The Sauternes, Marsala and Portwood finishes are lovely if expensive.
The Chardonnay finish was possibly the driest whisky I've ever had - all the moisture in my mouth ran and hid somewhere. One of the few cask strengths where I've had to add water in order to drink it at all.
The Lagavulin 16 will have much more of the phenol overtone - I'm always a little surprised at just how much there is. The ultimate phenol is, IMHO, Laphroaig CS. As John mentioned though, it's a 'love it or leave it' dram. I always think of it as the Marmite[0] of whiskies.
Lagavulin 16 is a pricey one simply because stocks are alledgedly running out, so it's a sellers market.
The Green Label is something of a mixed bag - I actually quite like it (in a 'nothing special one way or the other' kind of way), others loath it.
I think you'll like the Doublewood - this one got recommended to me a few months back and came as a lovely surprise. It's possibly the most complex whisky I've tasted, although that probably says more about my ability to describe these things than anything else :-)
Jim [0] Marmite is a UK sandwich spread a bit like Vegemite.
"William Saens" skrev i melding news:Hq5of.2115$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews2.bellsouth.net...
Cragganmore
A somewhat steep price, heavily taxed Norway demands 74,60 USD, in Sweden it is 68,75USD and in the Danish 'Bordershop' in Germany it is 60,95USD. Anders
Willie, I see that you got a ton of response.... my two cents worth that I didn't see is a Macallen.... maybe 15 or 18 YO? I did see a Glenlivet 12 mentioned; try the 18 YO also.
Glen Moray is Elgin classic not so known (as the other part Glenlivet) about they single malts, but definitely one of the best speyside ones.
For example Distillery Manager's Choice Date cask filled 30/04/1974 Date bottled 1st of May 2002 Cask strength 53.4% vol. A full-bodied Speyside Malt matured in oak casks and further mellowed in on ex-oloroso Sherry Butt for an exceptionally creamy rich taste.
Their standard single malt is good for "everyday" use is light gold in colour and gently spiced with fruity butterscotch notes. This is for the days you do not want to have brutal Highland Malt (Deanston is a good Highland) or smoky/peaty Islay malt (Bunnahabhabin is nice Islay).
Any single cask Ardbeg from the 70'ties : OB or Douglas Laing Any Old Single Cask Bottling of Glenfarcleas Bladnoch Black Sheep Cask Strength A Brora : preferebly the 30y OB
well Only 5 bottles it tends to get expensice but as the 5th I woulk get me a bottle of
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