New to scotch

[Logik]

My wife got me some Nikka Whisky for Christmas and I was a fan of it. Before joining here I got some Glenfiddich 12 and surprisingly liked it a lot! I did get a smaller bottle just in case I wasn't a fan. I'm still getting use to the 'burn' but I do like the flavor. I'm thinking about getting some 18 after this bottle. Any thoughts?

Cheers!

 

[shavefreak]

My two favs are Highland Park 12 and Ardbeg 10 being the more peaty one. They are great values you can you tube reviews. I researched a lot on my first bottle, the Highland and then looked for a more peat in the same price range and that was Ardbeg 10.

If you search enough HP 12 will come out on top for the price with just about anyone who drinks single malt. Ardbeg won awards also. There are so many and it takes time to appreciate complexities and flavors, best to work up to higher priced stuff so you can appreciate it.

 

[macdude357]

You'll find that the 18 y.o. Scotches are not necessarily the best. They are generally very expensive. Nothing like spending $100 or more on a bottle only to find out you don't care for it. Better to try a few others to see what you like (do you like smoke or sherry, etc.). Sometimes you can find miniatures of pretty good Scotch. I've been able to find Macallan 12 and 18, Glenfiddich 12, and other decent malts in 50ml servings. I've also been able to talk bartenders into pouring me a "flight" of 3 different Malts rather than paying for a full serving.

Also look up Ralfy on YouTube. He's very entertaining and has a ton of video reviews.

 

[Viseguy]

A teaspoon of water in your Glenfiddich will soften the burn and bring out more of the flavors. I tried Glenfiddich 12 for the first time a few weeks ago. I didn't think much of it at first, but it's been growing on me. Highland Park 12 is high on my list of malts to try.

 

[Benaminh]

You should take the first sip neat, then add water (a splash more or less) according to your taste. Some batches, bottles, brands, etc. have different amounts of fire. Some don't require water at all. Older is not always better, and if you find a great tasting bottle and it's within your means, buy a whole case. Because once that batch is gone, it's gone forever, and every new batch distilled thereafter will taste different. Instead of Glenfiddich, I recommend Cragganmore, or try these:


Balvenie Signature or Doublewood
Aberlour A'bunadh
Talisker 10
Bowmore 15
Lagavulin 16
Springbank 15
Macallan 18
Hibiki 30

Midleton Irish Whiskey

 

[ReAndyMator]

You'll find that the 18 y.o. Scotches are not necessarily the best.

Although frequently they are. They're still young enough to be fresh tasting, but old enough to have picked up a decent amount of wood. I've tasted malts from 15 minutes to 57 years old, and nine times out of ten, I'd argue they're best at around 18YO.

Bourbon is distilled once, Scotch twice, and then there's Irish Whisky...distilled three times.

And Auchentoshan. Also triple distilled. And most bourbon is double distilled - you couldn't produce spirit at the right strength with a single distillation in a pot still. But frankly, who cares how many times it was distilled? New make has little bearing on character - it's all about the wood with whisky (obviously it makes a difference with (say) vodka, where it can be out of the still at 9am and in a bottle at 10.

 

[CptBlueBear]

My wife got me some Nikka Whisky for Christmas and I was a fan of it

Which one? I've just picked up a bottle of From the Barrel after tasting it at a mates. My local specialist retailer has All Malt for $80 and I'm very tempted.

 

[Logik]

If not, Ardbeg and Highland Park are excellent suggestions for Scotch at this point in the game for you.

Thank you. A friend and I, who also wants to try scotch, are heading over to a few bars this weekend. Hopefully we will be able to try a decent variety.

Which one? I've just picked up a bottle of From the Barrel after tasting it at a mates. My local specialist retailer has All Malt for $80 and I'm very tempted.

I am not really too sure...The whole bottle is in Japanese, except for "Nikka Whisky" but thankfully she is fluent so I will get a translation tonight for you. This one was about $90 and came with the awesome armor.

I'm a little lost with the terminology around here, if anyone can explain the following I would be very appreciative!

- Dram
- Flight
- Neat
Any others I might have missed?

 

[Kazeryu]

I'm a little lost with the terminology around here, if anyone can explain the following I would be very appreciative!

- Dram
- Flight
- Neat
Any others I might have missed?

- Dram - a drink, in scottish parlance
- Flight - ?
- Neat - drinking the spirit by itself, without any additions (no ice, no water, just booze in a glass)

 

[SamF]

Highland Park 12 is excellent. Aberlour A'Bunadh is great too (cask strength, non-chill filtered, no added colouring). Ardbeg is also fantastic (best Islay by a good distance in my book, again, non-chill filtered, no added colouring, bottled at a very respectable 46%)

Don't be afraid to add water to your whisky, I add about a teaspoon to most. But unless you have very soft water, use bottled water over tap water.

There's loads of good whiskies out there, both blended, vatted (mix of malt whisky, no grains like in regular blends - There's an independent bottling that's a 50/50 Macallan/Laphroiag split bottled at 53% which is fantastic) and single malts, try a few, see what you like and go from there.

 

[Benaminh]

A dram is also a volume unit of measurement, approx. 3.7 mL, but Kazeryu is right.. a shot of whiskey.

A tasting flight can be anything, wine, olives, beer, scotch, etc... just small portions or samples of different varieties to try out at an affordable price. Depending on how much the bartender likes you, the amount of scotch served in a flight is much less than a dram per variety, but usually adds up to about one or two shots of booze overall.

 

[LarryDarrell]

You should take the first sip neat, then add water (a splash more or less) according to your taste. Some batches, bottles, brands, etc. have different amounts of fire. Some don't require water at all. Older is not always better, and if you find a great tasting bottle and it's within your means, buy a whole case. Because once that batch is gone, it's gone forever, and every new batch distilled thereafter will taste different. Instead of Glenfiddich, I recommend Cragganmore, or try these:


Balvenie Signature or Doublewood
Aberlour A'bunadh
Talisker 10
Bowmore 15
Lagavulin 16
Springbank 15
Macallan 18
Hibiki 30

Midleton Irish Whiskey

Wouldn't disagree with any of those.

 

[Stateref05]

Aberfeldy 12 yr old. Awesome

 

[acesn8s]

If you like the Glenfiddich 12, I would suggest trying the Glenfiddich 15 before the 18.

 

[buffdaddy]

Glenfiddich 12 is a good place to start if you want to experiment with Scotch. For the price it's great and it's in my rotation. Not sure if you have a price point or not but you might want to try some of the blends as well. JW Black is around the same price point and it's not bad either.

Macallan 12 is my personal favorite but at $50.00 it may be a bit steep.

 

[CptBlueBear]

I am not really too sure...The whole bottle is in Japanese, except for "Nikka Whisky" but thankfully she is fluent so I will get a translation tonight for you. This one was about $90 and came with the awesome armor.

That sounds like the Samurai duty free bottle. I think it's Gold & Gold underneath the armour.

I'm a little lost with the terminology around here, if anyone can explain the following I would be very appreciative!

- Dram
- Flight
- Neat
Any others I might have missed?

As already said:

a small measure, usually a shot or around 50ml
a range of products assembled for sampling
on it's own, no water, mixer or ice.

 

[ReAndyMator]

Any others I might have missed?

Draff? Wort? Feints? High/low wines? Sad to say, whisky contains far too many bits of obscure terminology.... (How many people actually know what the difference is between a hogshead, puncheon or butt?)

I've been in the industry for many years, and yet I still keep learning new terms...

 

[buffdaddy]

Actually whisky teminology would make a nice thread. I'm not that current on my terminology as well and could always use a refresher.

 

[arghblech]

Instead of Glenfiddich, I recommend Cragganmore, or try these:


Balvenie Signature or Doublewood
Aberlour A'bunadh
Talisker 10
Bowmore 15
Lagavulin 16
Springbank 15
Macallan 18
Hibiki 30

Midleton Irish Whiskey

Nice job suggesting a ~$700 bottle of Hibiki 30 to a noob. Surely you are The Man now.

 

[gegarrenton]