My mates have been trying to get me into drinking decent scotch but whenever I try it neat I find that cos I’m not used to it I can’t taste anything more than the “burn”.
(They talk about ‘subtle peat notes and light honey finishes’ while I gasp and reach for a cooling glass of 7-up).
I was under the impression that with the finer single-malts some water was needed to “release” certain more complex features of the drink…
I don’t want to start on crappy “lesser” whiskies cos the are, well, crappy - but I don’t want to look like a complete prune by asking for water with my scotch.
Is is simply a matter of personal taste, or is it genuinely “bad form” to add a splash or two of decent spring water?
Oh yeah, and how much water are we talking about here? A tumbler full or literally just a dash?
Scotch is something of an aquired taste. I am aquiring the taste for it, but am still rather limited on what I like. I do like the tiniest splash of water (kinda swirl a little water around to coat the inside of the glass them dump out the rest). My favorites are Macallan and Balvenie. I think they are probably the least scotch like of all the ones I’ve tried. Macallan is the only one aged in a sherry barrel the whole time, so I find it has a light, pleasant cognac kinda taste to it and I’ve only tried the 8 year Balvenie, but with the light splash of water, it has a slight orange-honey-ish thing going as it makes your tongue dance around in your mouth.
Think barest splash of water with Scotch, Just enough to open up the flavors and nuances, not enough to water it down. Cheers.
I used to drink Glenmorangie but price club stopped carrying it. So now I drink Balvenie and sometimes a’bunadh that my brother in law brings me when he comes down from the big city to visit us country folk. I think the 12 year old Balvenie is about as good as the 15 year old. I keep telling my brother in law to get the cheaper 12 year old but he brings the 15. Oh well, my burdens are many.
I also used to always drink it straight until I got a bottle of a’bunadh it is 59.9% alcohol which I found somewhat strong so I put a little bit of water in it. Now I put a little bit of water in all the Scotch I drink. If that offends the sensibilities of some well then you need to relax.
Others have mentioned bourbon so I will say that I like Makers Mark. It is certainly less expensive than most of the Scotches mentioned here. I find it to be pretty tasty.
For all you people who sang the praises of Laphroiag, may I suggest its superior Islay brother, Ardbeg?
No one appears to have mentioned it yet, but many whisky critics rate it near to perfection. Like the also excellent Laphroiag, however, it is not a beginner’s whisky.
mmmmmmm… is my favoured as well, ranking right up there with Bruichladdich.
As for the whole water/ice/nothing discussion, I belong firmly in the nothing brigade. But really, as long as you don’t walk into a bar in Auld Reekie and ask for some coke in your Laphroaig, I think you’ll be ok.
mmmmmmm… is my favoured as well, ranking right up there with Bruichladdich.
As for the whole water/ice/nothing discussion, I belong firmly in the nothing brigade. But really, as long as you don’t walk into a bar in Auld Reekie and ask for some coke in your Laphroaig, I think you’ll be ok.
I think Big Iron was referring to “Auchentoshan” when typing in “Auchentauchen” and I would strongly agree with the choice as a nice, light, and really affordable single malt.
I would also highly recommend Caol Ila, assuming you can get your hands on it (has to be special ordered here in Canada) [my younger brother brought me back a bottle from Scotland and I decided I was glad I hadn’t drowned him as a child].
If you are going to go for blended, I would recommend Teacher’s over anything else (esp. Ballantine’s which tastes like rubbing alcohol and Chivas which tastes like someone has added saccarhine).
And ignore the single-malt snobs… drinks what ya likes.
