Any One for a Scotch? - Page 3

My favorite scotch is Talisker, a bold, smokey, spicey 10-year-old...

Highland Park, any.

I am partial to sweeter single malts aged in sherry and port casks rather than smoky, peaty scotches. For regular drinking I usually have Balvenie 12 yr Doublewood, Glenfiddich 15 yr Solera Reserve or Macallan 12 yr; Dalwhinnie 15 yr and Glenmorangie Portwood are very good too.

For special occasions, the Glenfiddich 18 yr and the Balvenie 21 Portwood are excellent. So is JW Blue Label of course.

Has anyone tasted the 175th anniversary release of Talisker? Impressions? Thanks in advance.

Single Malts:
Tomatin 12 year
The Balvanie DoubleWood 12 year
Talisker 10 year
Macallan Cask Strength

Blended:
JW Black
Dewars 12 year
Pig Nose

I'm no Scotch expert, but I recall a glass of Glenmorangie that I haven't been able to get out of my mind.

My normal drink would be JW Red ('cause that's what I have in my house) and Laphroaig (ditto), but sometimes the latter is just to peat-y for me.

Anyone ever send in the free title to land in Scotland that comes with the Laphroaig?

Yes, from memory all you need to do is go to their website, and enter the barcode from your bottle of Laphroaig. You join the 'friends of Laphroaig' club, and receive regular emails about how thinsg are going at your favourite distillery.

I've just discovered a liquor store within walking distance of my house that has the best selection I've ever seen and offers 10 ml tastes served in a cellar master's glass for a nominal sum. So far I've tasted several varieties of Chartreuse I didn't know existed, several cognacs including a 70-year-old Tesseron Premier Cru, and a 25-year-old rum.

Then I bought the Caol Ila 12 year.

If I can find it I'll drink a 12 year old Dalmore. So far for a resonably priced single malt I have never enjoyed one more. If I can't find that then sometimes just go to a 10 year old Glenmorangie, but that may be nostalgia and price helping with that desicion. I am after all a student on a budget.....

Does someone know Oban?

I drink Oban. It's one of the Six Classic Malts.

I'd be wary about putting a lot of stock into the classic malt distinction, since the six classic malts line was a promotional ploy by the large umbrella company that owns all the lines, Diageo (which also owns Johnnie Walker) to draw attention and hype up their distillery lines. I haven't really cared enough to do too much reading into the background and history of Scotch whisky producers, but what I have skimmed apparently suggests that marketing is the only real reason less critically admired brands like Glenkinchie and Cragganmore came to mainstream prominence. Plus you can tell that they fudged with the official regional distinctions (four exist) to accomodate the range of their holdings, e.g. adding two Highland malts and not selecting a Campbeltown malt. Also, the list came out in the late 1980's, so it's stretching it a little bit to call every malt an outright classic.

That said, I don't have anything against buying scotch or any other fancy liquor owned by a large conglomerate, Diageo included (Talisker was the first intensely flavored single malt I've tried, and I also enjoyed my experiences with Oban and Lagavulin). I also don't consider myself enough of a scotch enthusiast to get too riled up about seeing any brands excluded or included undeservingly, but it did take a lot of thunder out of the "classic malt" distinction when I learned it was just a relatively recently created gimmick by a company trying to artificially generate snob appeal for its own products, especially seeing how a lot of scotch drinkers and liquor stores/distributors seem to put a lot of stock into the classification.

Okay, had a little shootout on Tuesday, since this thread was on my mind.
Although an amateur when it comes to scotch, I was surprised at the stark difference between JW Red and Black. The Red tasted like petrol after the Black. Laphroig wasn't doing it for me, just too much peat.

So, what would I look for if I wanted a single malt, but not so heavy on the raw peat notes?

As I mentioned above, I'm a fan of the Glenmorangie 10 yr old. I find it to have a nice, full taste, but it's light on the peat. I've tried and tried to like the Islay scotches, but I've come to the realization that I just don't.

The problem with Caol Ila is it is too light in colour, so whenever I drink it I end up very, very drunk.