I had some Ardbeg at my brother’s house last month when I was in town for a family wedding. While it still had that band-aid-y taste, I found it much more tolerable than the Laphroaigs and Lagavulins I’ve tried in the past.
A friend and I stopped in at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre (or whatever it was called back then) in Edinburgh. We picked up a dozen or so of the little “airline” bottles that looked interesting, along with a copy of Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch, and took them home and started sampling them. That’s how I found my favourite single malt: Lagavulin.
Nitpick: Palate. This is a palette.
Thay’s what I did, too.
Bourbon is typically made from corn while scotch is distilled from malted barley or grain.
One typically does not drink scotch out of a shot glass
Bourbon is often used in mixed drinks (i.e an “Old Fashioned” or “Manhattan”) while scotch usually isn’t (AFAIK).
Scotch is distinctly Scottish while bourbon is distinctly American.
They are both “brown” and forms of “whiskey” however. But I think there are enough differences that you can’t make an apples to apples comparison.
One typically does not drink bourbon out of a shot glass, either. You need a classier group of friends. 
No bourbon is 100% corn. They all have some portion malted barley and either wheat or rye added to the mash.
The cheap-ass versions of both are really blends of whisk(e)y and grain neutral spirits, and are no more “bourbon” or “scotch” than Cuervo is “tequila.”
A better comparison would be to match scotch against Irish whisky. Both are made with barley. It’s what hapens next that makes them both distinct beverages.
I think it was the Scotch Whiskey Experience my wife and I visited when we vacationed in Edinburgh years ago. They gave a whole tour going over the history of scotch whiskey, after which (or maybe it was during) you get to go through a flight of various scotches.
That’s where I developed a bit of a taste for scotch.
I also benefited from working at a company in my 30s in NYC that had a strong drinking culture. One of the bars in our rotation was a popular scotch bar in Midtown called St Andrews. So it helped to be out drinking with some senior partners who would buy rounds of high end scotch “we just had to try” that I could otherwise not afford.
Macallan 12 is a good “starter” scotch in that it’s pretty good, relatively affordable, and fairly ubiquitous at most bars and liquor stores. Glenmorangie 12 and Glenfiddich 12 (pretty much any “glen”) is similar in that regard.
Or at least a classier brand of bourbon that justifies getting a set of fancy Glencairn glasses.
There are Glencairn socks on my feet as I type!
Macallan used to age their scotch in an oak barrel made from a tree called Sherry oak I believe. The wood is almost extinct and no longer available for barrels. Some of the old scotch made in those barrels in now worth a fortune. I have an 18 year old from 1995, I paid about $100.00 for it now worth about $8,000. I actually gave it to my brother as a gift and he never drank it. We were supposed to drink it together but never did so the joke is that it is 1/2 mine.
Sherry oak is not a tree, but a kind of barrel. Specifically, Macallan finished the whisky at the end by resting it in used sherry barrels. It adds a bit of sweetness from the residual sherry left in the wood.
The Macallan Sherry Oak 18 Years Old forms part of our Sherry Oak range which features a series of single malt whiskies matured in exceptional sherry seasoned oak casks from Jerez for richness and complexity. A full bodied palate of mature oak, ginger and raisin flavors is complimented by a light mahogany natural color.
https://www.themacallan.com/en-us/sherry-oak-18-years-old
Fun bourbon/scotch fact. By law, bourbon must be aged in new barrels. Because they can’t be reused for bourbon, the barrels are most commonly sold to Scotch producers who then use the ex-bourbon barrels to age their own whisky. Sometimes those barrels get used multiple times as Scotch does not have the same limitations on what is used for aging.
That was interesting! Years ago I had read that the Sherry oak they were using was no longer available and just assumed it was a type of tree.
A good (and cheap!) way to explore the effect of the different barrels on the finished product is to dive into the World of Balvenie. They age their base malt is over a dozen different ways/casks/ages and all of them are delicious. Start with the basic, then try Double Wood. Or Sherry Cask. Or Port Wood. Or Caribbean Cask. Or…
Sherry casks give Scotch a very distinctive flavor profile. The longer it ages in sherry, the stronger the flavor but the fewer bottles you get when you are done. The average barrel will yield +/- 400 bottles. When Balvenie went to bottle a 50 year old, they only got 131 bottles out of the barrel.
Just grabbed some caol ila the other day. The peat monsters have ruined me because I didn’t think it’s strong enough. Fine enough, but I wanted more smoke
I bought a bottle of Laphroaig Four Cask on the ill-fated cruise. It tasted kind of ‘light’ to me, compared to the regular 10-year-old.
Drifting a bit from single malts but I found Jameson Black Barrel to be surprisingly good and very reasonably priced. And I like Scotch. I gather the barrels are charred a second time before use. Regular Jameson doesn’t do anything for me. My first single malt was Bushmills Malt - 10. Its a good beginners whiskey
As far as being a Protestant whiskey, I have a friend who grew up Catholic in Belfast. He had some involvement with the IRA as a young man and did some time in jail over there as a result. Anyway, he came to the U.S. and made it as a carpenter/builder. He had enough money to fulfill his dream and opened an Irish pub. He would no sooner have Bushmills in his bar than eat his boots. Which created a bit of a problem, since his cook (also a Belfast native) loved the stuff. To a certain segment of the Irish population, drinking Bushmills is downright traitorous.
There is perhaps no substance that someone won’t try to overcomplicate, gentrify or divide into complex taxonomies.
That doesn’t bother me much. It might make economic sense to be or act distinctive. You sometimes see reports saying experts were fooled by red food colouring added to wine, or had difficulty identifying identical glasses, etc. But there is usually a difference - sometimes huge - between what you enjoy or don’t, blended and single malt whiskeys, and the effect and complicated chemistry of aging booze and the specifics of how this is done.
The best way is to join a whiskey club that splits the cost of bottles, has them periodically with a nice dinner, and lets you taste a bit of the good stuff at a reasonable cost. You will find some countries and their islands have different amounts of smokiness and peatiness and other things and find some you enjoy much more than others. You might learn to appreciate the character of single malts as well as the complexity and mellowness when blended by real experts.
Failing that, you could just call yourself an expert. Wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. But there is some expertise in enjoying good whiskey or whisky and knowing the differences (including that one). If you have unlimited funds you could buy many bottles. Bar markups tend to be substantial and choice limited to a small group of highly praised ones or inoffensive middle-of-the-road offerings with nothing too distinctive. A group of enthusiasts with similar interests is the best way to do it. Cheaper and more fun.
Ew! People!
People are easier to get along with when fine booze and good food is involved, in my experience.
I think the way I’m doing it is fun. I told my local bartender that I needed to know about whiskies, and learn to appreciate them.
I’d make it in about three times a week, and he’d say “Okay, the LaFrog was a little too peaty, so let’s try some highland malts tonight…”
And it’s certainly cheaper than having to buy a whole bottle, only to say “WHY do people like this? Wait… are those single malt snobs just putting us on?”
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eta: I just looked, and I told this tale upthread, almost a year ago. Oops, check post 26 for more detail.
And yeah, I’m still learning. Bartender’s still there, I’m still heading over a couple nights a week. And it’s paid off: I had to stock up for a huge Thanksgiving crowd that loves single malts, bourbon and rye, and thanks to that COMPARATIVE BOOZE 101 class, I was able to pick an excellent range of whiskies (without going into debt).
For those looking for truly great single malt whiskeys, look no further that American made single malts. I much prefer these over Scotch single malts, a cleaner taste and non of the environmental taste of many Scotch single malts. I have 6 bottles currently in my bar, Westland, Westward, Stranahan’s, Balcones, Cedar Ridge and a surprising good single malt from Jack Daniel’s. Each is made in a different state and thus has it’s own unique taste. Westland is my favorite, and it’s made locally in Seattle. I visit the distillery a couple times a year. Also, for those that like smoke, there are many fine peated American single malts too. I am not a fan of peat so I avoid them but a buddy swears by Colkegan, made in New Mexico. He says it’s better them most peated Scotch whiskeys. He says it makes Johnny Walker taste like piss water.