After a busting your ass at the office you may want to kick back and enjoy the finer things in life like for example gorgeous women and Scottish Whisky. Of course the former is often revealed to you after copious amounts of the latter, or at least that’s how your tale will unfold.
While at the bar staring into the abyss of colorful temptresses and back lit containers of appealing shape and color, you are faced with a difficult choice: what do I order to woo the chicks, impress the boys but more importantly, satisfy my thirst?
Below, some finer points of finest, single Scottish malt.
• Pass on the blends. That Johnnie Walker is for posers only.
• Ice? Are you kidding me? You want to taste this don’t you? Freezing is for vodka.
• Straight up: it will put hair on your chest…especially at 50% abv (Ladies. Forget the chest hair. It was for effect only)
• One drop of spring water will open the bouquet. A little more if it’s over 50% abv.
• Less expensive singles make for good foreplay, too much and you miss the crescendo. (still talking whisky here)
• 18 years and above: crescendo. (yes, still whisky you degenerate)
• Well dressed single malt: a thistle glass of fine crystal vs wife beater shirt and briefs: drinking out of the bottle like a heathen.
• Spilling whisky on your hand for any reason at any point in the evening is strictly forbidden, unless: you are trying to get your date drunk.
• Aged in sherry casks for the uninitiated. Smoke and peat for the experienced…..all three for the ultimate.
• After 6 craft beers, 1 glass of Glenfarclas 105: the ultimate high.
Now that you have some general points regarding fine Scottish whisky, you may want to know your options. The choices below will help break the ice at parties, and make you look sophisticated to that gorgeous bartender....
Here are some (of the many) outstanding whisky choices:
• Glenlivet 12: the starter whisky. Perfect for the uninitiated and a price performer: Hold
• Highland Park 12: Foreplay. The best 12 year for the price. Taste nectar and honey: Strong Buy
• Highland Park 18: Crescendo. Break out the cigar. Top Pick.
• Macallan 12: Foreplay. Sherry cask only. Buy.
• Macallan 15: Sherry cask. Better than the 12 or 18 in the past: Strong Buy.
• Lagavaulin 16: Smoke. Peat. Awesomeness: Strong Buy
• Lagavulin double matured: The ultimate. Crescendo: Top Pick.
• Cragganmore 12: Foreplay. Sleeper whisky. Sherry cask. Complex: Strong Buy.
• Ardbeg: This is a cult whisky back from the dead. Skip the 10 year and take anything else. Smoke and Peat. Crescendo: Top Pick.
• Bowmore 15, Mariner: Sea air. Salt. Imagine you are at the beach: Buy.
Yes there are many more, but this should get you started.
Remember: smoked salmon lox on a bagel with cream cheese is your best friend the next morning…..if you try them all in one sitting.
Have you had a crescendo lately?
Very well done. Making me thirsty...
Just want to put out a warning on the peaty drops for the virgin drinkers. Please avoid, you'll look like a tool and it'll scare you off whiskey, build up with some lighter stuff like Knockando and Singletons.
Second this, peat can shock you if you're not expecting it
I'm a Dewar's guy on the reg, McCallan 15 after payday and never tried any of the others that are claimed to be better than the McC. I copied and pasted the list and saving for Christmas as I'm going to to get a top notch bottle for my girlfriends dad. He's a retired BSD at JPM and thinks I'm actually classy because I can sit around and drink scotch all night with him. Little does he know that when I'm not around them I'm more than likely in my room smoking pot and playing GTA.
I can't drink liquor, especially whiskey. I just can't seem to build up the taste for it. Help??
Try this - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023044598045772814340459902…. Even women love it. It's super easy to drink and after having it, other straight whiksy will suddenly seem infinitely more enjoyable.
If you want to order samples, check out www.masterofmalt.com. Or go to the bar.
The Balvenie 15. That is all.
You sir are correct. Try the Caribbean cask as well as Dahlwinnie 15, my top picks.
Whiskey is for pussies.
It's all about Southern Comfort mixed with Diet Coke and a dash of stevia. Drink that sh*t with a filet of tilapia and you'll be the manliest guy in the office no doubt.
Real talk.
Lagavulin 16 is without a doubt my favorite Scotch to date. Excellent recommendation.
Laphroaig Quarter Cask - delish also Dunedin Distillery DoubleWood 15 Year Old
Laphroaig is hands down the best whiskey I have ever had.
hear, hear
Hello... First post, but I just wanted to point out, this guy is a novice when it comes to single malts... possibly even Scotch in general. I am not even that well versed in Scotch and I can already tell this guy is a poser. It's like a first year analyst pretending to be an MD...
How can you start off talking about SINGLE malt whiskys with this jewel of a statement: "Pass on the blends. That [Johnnie] Walker is for posers only."
A blended whisky is not a single malt! Do you know what a single malt is? Great job name dropping the biggest single malts that are readily available at most liquor stores and duty free shops.
I hope you also know it's the peat that gives those whiskies their characteristic smokiness, so saying "Smoke. Peat." is redundant.
Lol.
You sir need a drink, right outta the bottle.
Sure, I'll drink my Pappy straight out of the bottle while you do your little circlejerk around Scotches you clearly have very little knowledge of :) People should be listening to posters like shifty and the waterpiper instead of reading your uninformed BROOOOOOO post. But keep on trucking, trooper!
Yum. I'm an Oban guy myself. Love the smokiness particularly with a good hard cheese. I'm less into the super peaty stuff although I can understand the appeal. The nose is just too intense on those for me.
A dozen Big Gulps of Maker's and ginger while staring at the wall or gtfo.
Surprised no one has mentioned Glenfiddich. Don't let its popularity put you off, they sell a lot of whisky for a reason - it's very good. The 18 is superb, and the 15 is very good value. Classic Speyside stuff, along with the Glenlivet 18 and Glenfarclas 15.
Highland whisky - really recommend the Dalwhinnie 15, which is incredibly smooth and light, great for beginners and very good value. Other personal favourites are the Dalmore 18 if you're looking for something more fruity and spicy, Glengoyne 21 for a 'woody' whisky, and Highland Park 18 for something more floral.
For smoky, peaty Islay whisky, can't really go wrong with Ardbeg / Laphroaig / Lagavulin / Bowmore. The Ardbeg Uigedail is like getting smacked in the head with a cricket bat. Bunnahabhain is another interesting Islay with less smokiness to it.
+1 for the entire Balvenie line but at the end of the day its just like cigars. The best one is the one you like.
Lone Wolf, you have good taste. (think you were also a beer geek?)
Cragganmore is highly underappreciated and my favorite 12-year old. The Lagavulin 16 is great. Missing from your list would be stuff from Glenfarclas and Bruichladdich.
Kudos for bringing up one of my favourite topics. There are some delicious ones in there, but there are so many others worth tasting: Benriach (Peated despite being from Speyside), Glendronach (Interesting and tasty but pretty Sherry heavy), Bruichladdich Bere Barley (Unpeated Islay - reminds me of a Japanese single malt because of the sea water / air aspect that's usually masked by peat on Islay). On that note there are some amazing Japanese Single Malts (No, those aren't "Scotch"), the best I had recently was a 14 year old Karuizawa. No one can possibly touch on all the amazing whiskies out there, so the best advice I could ever give anyone is to go to a quality store with a good selection (We have Kensington Wine Market here that is one of the best in Canada for Whisky) and talk to them. Not only will you likely get to taste something but you can get a personalized recommendation from someone who KNOWS what they're talking about. Alternatively, check out some of the guys online like Ralfy (he's done a huge number of reviews) or scotchnoob (good breadth of reviews and some good discussion).
Now that I've said all that, I'm sorry, but I have to make these comments: If my first experience with Scotch was Glenlivet 12 I would have never been interested... there are so many better Single Malts to try as a first, particularly Highland Park 12.
Skip Ardbeg 10? It's a great value for Islay and a good introduction to Ardbeg in general.
Cheers.
I'm a big fan of KMW, bought many bottles there.
fucking love Lagavaulin 16. Bought it based on WSO recommendations. I think I have learned as much about scotch from this website than I have about finance.
Bruichladdich Port Charlotte Peat Project is a good one if you like peat.
I like the sweeter stuff: Macallan, Buffalo Trace, etc.
What do you guys recommend in that area?
My first single malt bottle was Lagavaulin 16 a few years back - absolutely fell in love with it on my first glass. Still new to the whole Single malt world, but every now and then I wander in on a scotch tasting and end up purchasing a new bottle.
It's damn near impossible to buy Pappy in NYC.
@Frieds, I think you've got some competition here buddy
For the purists, have to take a trip to Cadenhead's... Single cask one offs
Not Cadenhead's but was just at Royal Mile where I picked up a single cask bottling of a 32-year B'hain (done by Signatory).
Another source I'd highly recommend is Masters of Malt. Apart from being a great website to learn about and buy whisky, they also have their Single Cask Bottlings range, which appeals to a lot of serious whisky drinkers. Essentially, they buy up individual casks from top distilleries and bottle directly from the cask. The result is a pretty unique whisky (since unless its a special / rare edition, commercially available single malts are still going to be a mix of multiple casks from the same distillery). They have tasting notes on the website so you can get a decent idea of what to expect, and they also let you order samples.
@thewaterpiper Great site... going to have to use this one!
Good list. I noticed Laphroaig in some of the comments. I think the 10 year is possibly the best, or one of the best, Islay single malts you can get for the money. Sure maybe it's not as refined as an older whiskey but I think what it gives you is great. Personally, I would take that over the Ardbeg 10. I'm a younger guy and at this point in my life I enjoy some of the younger scotches that are less refined and essentially kick you in the face...in a nice way. Macallan cast strength is a great bottle to have on hand when you are in the mood for an event. Compass Box "Peat Monster" is basically like the name says. I don't think you can find a readily available scotch that's more powerfully peaty than that.
Sounds like you folks are going to get some pretty serious whiskey dick after all this. Everything has a cost...
A bit of a scotch newbie myself...made my first scotch purchase ~2 weeks ago. Glenfiddich 12. Haven't opened yet. What do you guys think of it?
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