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a nice bottle of irish whiskey for ye's

I've been on a cocktail kick lately and I've been using this for my whiskey sours. Excellent stuff.

On the scotch end, I brought a bottle of the Macallan 18 yr a few weeks ago at a family party. Most of them drink Crown or Jack usually mixed with coke but everyone really enjoyed that bottle.

This thread is making me very thirsty.

I just started getting into scotch in the last few months and have purchased bottles of Macallan 12 and 15 and just recently tried the 18 at a bar. The Macallan 18 is pretty awesome but is a little pricey as a standard go to drink and I still really enjoy the 12 and the 15. I really like Macallan but I want to widen my horizons and I'm wondering which other single malt brands I should check out.

If you want to try some different stuff I would check out the Lagavulin 16 year. It's an islay malt, so it's very peaty and pretty intense stuff, but it's ridiculously good whiskey for the money (I get it around 50/bottle). Aside from that I would just find a good store where there is some knowledgeable staff that can recommend you some things based on certain things you like about the macallan. I really like a lot of the Glenmorangie stuff. The oban 14 yr is very good, and I had a Talisker the other night at my buddy's place that I enjoyed. Check out some higher end bourbon if you wanna try something different (pappy van winkle, parkers, blantons). Been playing at foxwoods much lately? I've been on a month long hiatus or so, but will be kicking around there a bit more in the coming month. Hope to see you around.

Cool man, I'm gonna give the Lagavulin a try. I've only been to Foxwoods once since NAPT but will probably get down there a few times before Vegas.

An OK whiskey.
Until you drink Red Breast Irish whiskey.

I've never tried the Macallan, but I can guarantee you that Lagavulin is a totally different beast. It's rich, oily, heavy, peaty and a truly fantastic whisky, but obviously these characteristics mean that it's not to everyone's taste. I definitely recommend you give it a go though.

yeah lagavulin is not much like macallan at all, great stuff though and i prefer it to macallan, but not similar.

if you're looking for something like macallan you could try balvenie or glenlivet, both are pretty well regarded speysides (like macallan). balvenie doublewood is very good and has been mentioned in this thread.

Just picked up a bottle of Makers, and I'm kind of conflicted.

It's super smooth, probably the smoothest whisky, or even 90 proof liquor, that I've ever drank straight. At the same time, I feel like it's really lacking flavor, it's almost too smooth, doesn't leave you with much, or something.

Definitely recommend it to anyone trying to get into drinking whisky neat, though.

Eh, ok, its good, but yea, very very smooth.

Am enjoying a few glasses of this independent bottling of Caol Ila tonight while watching our election results....



It is aged 12yrs the same as the previous bottle of Caol Ila that I reviewed, but it is an independent bottler that has selected the cask as having special characteristics. It is definitely the same whisky but much softer and sightly sweeter and more citrussey. I just love this whisky, can't wait to taste some more expressions from this distillery.

In terms of drinks when I get out here in bangkok it's pretty limited, clubs will usually only have JW red-gold and Jack along with a few others scattered around town here and there. Thread is making me miss/want other whiskey, gonna have to head out today when I wake up and pick some up I think

I am a whisky newbie. I tried MacCallan 18 last night at the bar and got to talking to the bartender and asked him to recommend some for the future. He gave me a taste of Midleton (Irish whisky, I think he said it is made by the Jameson people). It was really good! I only have really tried Bushmills in the Irish whisky department which I like but this was even better.

love knob creek and woodford reserve was suprisingly kickass when i got it.

picked up a bottle of basil hayden's and i'm a little underwhelmed when i compare it to knob/WR.


whatever, i just like drinking whiskey ,feeling like a cowboy and beating my old lady up.

Finally got delivery of the bottle of Sazerac Rye I ordered weeks ago. Not tried it yet, but it definitely smells the same as bourbon.

To the bourbon drinkers out there... do you find that there is a lot of variety between the different brands? Out of the 10 or so bottles of Scotch I've got, I can instantly tell from just sniffing it which one I'm drinking, but when I drink bourbon (I only have 2 to compare atm) I can't really tell the difference. I'm guessing that it's mainly down to inexperience of bourbon, but I also think that it's maybe partly down to there being less variation in bourbon than there is amongst Scotches.