All,

Some whisky I have.



Peaty scotches: Laphroaig Quarter Cask, Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist, Bruichladdich 3D3 ‘Norrie Campbell’, Bruichladdich PEAT, Ardbeg Uigeadail, Laphroaig 10 Murray McDavid Chateau Margaux Finish



More scotch: Glenlivet Nadurra, Mortlach 13 Murry McDavid Port Finish, Balvenie Portwood 21, Balvenie Single Barrel 15, Highland Park 18, Talisker 10



Some bourbon: Noah's Mill, Black Maple Hill 16, Eagle Rare, Maker's Mark, Bulleit, Booker's, George T Stagg



Whoa!



WHOA!!!

OP: Outstanding post.

PokerRon collection: The Talisker, Obans, Caol Ila, Bowmore, and Jura Superstition you have are all excellent, and all in the broad flavor profile of smooth with mild to medium levels of peatiness. The Ardbeg 10 is very good peatier scotch, but a little harsh. I'd suggest you try adding a Lagavulin 16 to the mix for a very well-balanced, very peaty scotch. The Dalwhinnie is an excellent, smooth/clean/sweet scotch. I'd suggest trying Balvenie 12, Macallan 12, and Highland Park 12 for a few other variations of that general flavor profile. The Rowan's Creek is great. Definitely check out a couple more bourbons and a rye. Given your interest in flavors/tasting, I'd strongly recommend trying a lot more scotches and bourbons before putting any money into Japanese/English/Irish/American single malt/whatever.

Dippy: Some of the more heavily oaked and smokier scotches can share some characteristics w/ excellent aged tequila. If you stick w/ Speyside and Highland scotches you are unlikely to run into that.

krmont: Start w/ some Speyside or Highland scotches and look for port/sherry/sauternes/madeira/etc finish. That means that after aging the scotch in a (typically) bourbon cask, they finish the aging process in a barrel of one of those sweet wines, adding a little bit of sweetness, balance and complexity to the flavor. Balvenie 12 (~$40) is an excellent example of that style, and a great scotch that I highly recommend to people getting started w/ scotch.

HoR: Blanton's (bourbon) and Glenrothes (Scotch) are two excellent whiskies that come in short round bottles.

el d,

it was definitely a fairly major producer like JW or Beam or maybe even Crown, but some sort of special edition that i have since been unable to find. i remember seeing the name on it and being like "meh" and then being pleasantly surprised. i know this is not much help, sorry.

basically does anyone know of a super high end scotch / bourbon by one of these big mainstream, i think american distillers that for some reason is not easily found on google, bevmo etc. and looks like this. i don't know much of the really high end market or whether some of these folks put out limited editions that aren't widely known or something.

It's not this that you're thinking of is it?

no, bottle is even more round & squat like a crown bottle. and it was much nicer stuff than that

For better or worse, I'm definitely starting to get into the scotch thing. It's becoming more or less my night-cap after a long-day of work. I'll have to make it my new hobby...

Started with a couple recommended here and by friends:
Dalwhinnie 15
Oban 14

Then added a couple from the liquor store guys recommendation:
Stronachie 12
Lombard 12 (I also tried their 28yr version after gifting it to a friend)

Obviously tons and tons of nuance and personal taste on what's a good quality item, but the Dalwhinne is my clear favorite so far. I wish that I could go into a little bit more about the differences, but still working out my pallet to identify the various flavors that come through. That'll just come with time I suppose. Last night, I was like dang this Dalwhinnie is sweet when I took my first sip. At least, that's how I presently describe it! May well change as I can start identifying things more directly.

Any additional recommendations that are more sweet/smooth are always appreciated

fwiw i believe it was dewars white label that first gave me that impression. It was all in the after taste. Like I said I never noticed it until my friend made the remark. Since then I've had various scotches that either didn't have this characteristic or had it to a lesser extent.

Great thread. Jameson is my whiskey of choice.

Love this pic..

Crown has cask #16 which is left in a cognac barrel if you are into that flavor it s very nice

The Glenlivet is the only way to go! i wish we could get the 21 year glenfiddich here in the states but we gotta have our embargo against cuba so untill that ends no gran reserve for us

Time for the first review of a whisky from my collection.

Oban 14yr old:

Having visited the distillery myself, I have a bit of an affinity with Oban. This is the flagship whisky from suprisingly one of the smallest distilleries in Scotland. Part of the reason that it is so much smaller than other distilleries despite being a very well known brand around the world is that 100% of it's output is sold as single malt in contrast to other distilleries that sell a lot of their whisky to blenders to continue it's life anonymously as part as a blend. They also only (afaik) only produce two expressions, the main one being the 14yr old, and the other being the Distillers Edition, which is created by taking the 14yr old and aging it for another 6-9 months in a sherry cask (review will come soon). The most suprising fact that I learned on the distillery tour was that the 1m bottles of whisky that they produce every year are made by only 7 people that work in the distillery.



Appearance: Light amber

Nose: A malty sweetness with some honey and a just a hint of peat smoke.

Taste: Rich and smooth, the sweetness of the malt continues through in the taste, and is joined by a woody flavour. The hint of smoke is also still there in the taste.

Finish: Woody, sweet and slightly spicy. The peat smoke also becomes more apparent in the finish.

Excellent collection you've got there.

From your reccommendations I've decided to add some more American whiskey to my collection. Went out today and bought a bottle of Makers Mark....



Will give it a go later and maybe try it alongside the Rowan's Creek to compare the two. I have pretty much zero experience of bourbon past that one bottle of Rowan's Creek, so will be interesting to see how the different brands match up to each other. Where would you suggest I go with my next purchase?

I am a big bourbon fan but mostly drink Maker's which I really like. I've also tried Woodford reserve, Bulleit and Buffalo Trace all of which I also liked although Bulleit was a bit harsh.

Any other reccs that aren't too expensive?

edit: pretty much asking what he is asking ^^

I've only had one try of the Maker's so far, but from first impressions it seems extremely smooth, but nowhere near as complex as the Rowan's Creek.

My screen name suggest my love for gin but I think I love whiskey more.

I'm glad to see so much Oban and especially Ardberg love itt. I can not find one person who likes really peaty scotches near me so I have to keep a bottle of Glenlevit or such around.

Also, Yamazaki is a pretty damn good drink. When it comes to single malts made outside of Scotland, this is my go to.

"""Any other reccs that aren't too expensive?""

People always look at me crazy but you should try Old Forester. I like Makers and all the other named bourbons as well, but OF is really bad ass for the price.

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