Just bought my first Bourbon, Bulleit, just the cheap one. Will try tonight and see how it compares to scotches.

Bought my first 2 bottles of scotch thanks to this thread. Balvenie doublewood 12 and Oban 14. Opened the Balvenie last night. I'm a complete noob but I really enjoyed it. Much more smooth and light compared to others scotches I've tried.

As a disclaimer I don't have the pallet some in this thread do. That said, I do enjoy scotch.

I'm from Canada originally but live in Barcelona now and got a bottle of Speyside Cardhu Special Reserve. It cost 38 euros for 70 cl at the local market. I thought it was excellent. I usually drink blends (Johnny Walker Black), but really enjoyed this one.

I didn't want to spend much money today and got a Scotch called "Loch Castle" which is a blend. Tastes like water compared to the Speyside, but it was 5 euros lol.

Couple questions I guess...

Anyone try the Speyside Cardhu Special Reserve? Is it considered decent by the more experienced Scotch drinkers and is 38 euros a good price?

Isle of Arran 14yo



The Arran distillery is a new distillery, only starting production in 1995, so this 14yo bottling has only been around for a couple of years.

The first sniff is extremely fruity (citrus and christmas pudding) and rich, then adding a bit of water brings out a whiff of the sea. This salty aroma becomes more pronounced over time after pouring.

The taste very much as the smell would suggest, and is rich and oily. It reminds me a lot of Bowmore but without the peat, and probably slightly richer. The finish is amazingly spicy and peppery, but not harsh at all.

Overall a cracking whisky from this new distillery, highly recommended. A good bottle for Islay-lovers that want to have an unpeated alternative.

I've not tried any Cardhu, but if this is the one you're talking about then it looks like you got a very good price.

Yep that's the one.

PR: What's your primary recommendation for intro to a good peaty scotch? I typically drink The Glenlivit Nadurra 18, or Glenfiddich 12...neither are peaty. I've not liked the peaty scotch I've had it the past, but I've never had anything decent.

I'd try something that's only lightly peated to get you used to the smokey taste. Oban 12yo and Highland Park 12yo are very lightly peated and are a good introduction to the more intense island style. Jura Superstition is a full, fruity and peated version of the normal Jura bottling. Imo though, Talisker 10yo is the perfect introduction to peaty whisky. It's got more peat than the others mentioned but not quite as much as most Islays, and is simply an awesome whisky at it's price.

There are probably tons of other suitable bottles that would fit the bill, but these are ones I've personally tried and liked.

Much appreciated. I think Talisker 10yo is in order. TR to come.

Found an amazing bar at my area that has many single malts at an incredible price.

Tried Balvenie Double Wood because it was very recommended here, to me it tasted like Aberlour 10yo, but much better and with a dry finish. I think this malt is as good as Highland Park, going to try it again for sure.

Then I ordered some Talisker 10, and OMG this stuff is something else. It doesn't smell sweet, but more like leather and smoke, it has very rich body and many layers of taste, some pepper, peat, (some honey? sweet malt?), some salty bacon-like flavours. Lots of personality in this single malt, I'm still dreaming about it.

My favourite scotch whiskeys are made in scotland, when i've been there I had a tour in every scottish distillery,it was a very intersting trip and I've learned a lot from it.

Wow your fired

This might have some interest to people in the UK:

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/D-513.aspx

Some ultra-high-end whiskies here - one is on sale for USD4.5k, down from 5k.

Wow, 43yo Bowmore for £2200.... looking at stuff like that makes me wish I was actually decent at poker.

Royal Mile Whisky is currently selling a bottle of 50yo Glenfiddich for £11,065.00.

^ holy hell thats like 18k for a bottle. Id love to but at some point you have to say no thanks. Id hate to see what a super fancy bar would charge you for a dram. 3k+?

On a side note i wish we could get the 14 year rich oak over here with out having to pay out the ass for shipping.

There's a gigantic liquor store in downtown Toronto that has that bottle for sale for $26,000. When I win the lottery I plan to haggle them down to 24500.

Give me a case of 1982 mouton rothschild before i ever think about spending 15k on a bottle of scotch

Meh, it's all relative. It's easy for me to be shocked at the idea of spending 15k on a bottle of scotch, but somewhere out there there's a guy who thinks "less than $100k is basically free," and another guy who thinks "give me a case of Black Velvet before I ever think about spending $150 on a bottle of whiskey."

I finally learned the differences in spelling. "Whiskey" is usually on bourbon and "Whisky" on Scotch. This may not be breaking news but I didn't know that until two days ago.

The spell it "Whiskey" in Ireland too.

Had a glass of this tonight:

Inchgower "Flora and Fauna" 14yo



It's a Speyside but it reminded me of an island style. It was pretty fiery with soft-fruity and slightly salty taste, with a spicy peppery finish. Didn't seem massively complex, just clean and simple. Very nice. Might look into getting a bottle.

this isn't a whiskey but i think i'll get the best responses here.

i was over at a family friend's place for dinner and saw this and almost passed out lol:







i think this is legit since it says "bottled in 1724" on it and there's an attached description of when this batch was served and for what purpose.

i looked up some prices and saw the bottle alone (ignoring the history) was ~1800-2000.

so does anybody here know how i could best go about selling this? i almost wanted to just drink it to see what it would be like lol.

ebay? other specialty retailers/auctioneers?

That's ridiculous. If legit it will be worth serious money. I'd def take it to a specialist retailer, or maybe just find some specialists online and email them.

it's almost surely real. it matches everything i've seen online except for the added description.

i'll email a few and see what they say. thanks for the idea.