…a breezy winter’s eve, cats and wife to cuddle with…what more can you ask for?
Is there any single malt that can compare to The Macallan?
I think not.
A fireplace with a wood fire.
That’s what more I can ask for in that scenario.
Macallan is definately tasty and was my gateway single malt. That said, I think the price performance isn’t what it was a decade ago.
Pappy van Winkle. I’m not generally a scotch person. Although I haven’t had Macallan and tomorrow is payday… 12 year?
The 12 is good, but the Cask Strength is great.
I got a bottle of the Cask Strength as payment for a photo shoot I did as a favor to a friend a few months ago. Tasty stuff.
That said, the Macallen is a little bit sweet for my tastes. Variety is the spice of life, and all that, so I do like having a selection around (although that rarely happens, as I tend to drink through one bottle before buying the next), but for affordable single malts, I’m going for the Ardbeg Uigeadail. That’s one amazing whiskey and a great price (~$60), but you do have to like your peat. When I drink Scotch whiskey, I need a healthy dose of peat in it.
I’m more of a Speyside man myself, but I will admit, Talisker and Bowmore 17 are tremendous malts. I have to be in the mood, but when I am…
I tend to buy single malt at duty free and usually try whatever 12 year old is cheapest. For about two years in Shanghai that was Balvenie double wood for about $30/bottle. Very nice. I used to see Bellvenie single cask for IIRC $50 or $60 but never tried it.
These days, in Taiwan, I get Spey 15 year for about $34/bottle. It’s decent and the price performance is quite good. So, if I’m looking at 2 bottles of Spey 15 year versus 1 bottle of something else for the same price, I will go for the Spey. I can’t quite justify upgrading my taste and budget to 18 or 20 year as my baseline when 12 is usally pretty good. (I do find 10 year olds like Laphroaig to be pretty harsh.)
My old boss had dinner with one of the founders of smart phone company HTC at his ultra nice condo in Taiwan (eg, the guy is in the $100M dollar club). After dinner drink(s!) featured 50 year old McCallan. My ex boss, who is both English and does enjoy his single malts, was unusally impressed.
I do like the Speysides. It’s what originally got me hooked on Scotch. I was also just given a Glenlivet Archive 21 as a wedding present which I thoroughly enjoyed. (So much so, that there’s none left.) But, man, it’s that peat smoke that really does it for me. The West Highland malts (like Talisker or Oban) are nice when I want something in between.