My first impression was that it tasted like a smoky shot of Listerine (original, golden colored version.) And, now Googling Laphroaig and Listerine, I see I’m not the only one: One chap described it “like a Band-Aid that had caught fire and been extinguished with Listerine.” Sounds about right. Oddly, I like it.
You could also go for a single malt aged in rum barrels like this ~$75 Balvanie: https://rd.bizrate.com/rd?t=https%3A%2F%2Fwinechateau.myshopify.com%2Fproducts%2Fthe-balvenie-scotch-single-malt-14-year-caribbean-cask&mid=144256&cat_id=16060000&atom=10660&prod_id=&oid=11299675024&pos=1&b_id=18&bid_type=10&bamt=2fed68ce8c2e85f1&cobrand=1&ppr=7fdfaa3450868055&rf=af1&af_assettype_id=12&af_creative_id=2973&af_id=49985&af_placement_id=1&dv=e7c65bd20bf5097bc733ff6ea5bdc6c7575aa7b77f789000&af_campaign_id=1&af_rid=446226589
So a visit to my local liquor store yielded 12 year Aberlour. It cost $51 plus tax.
I asked for Macallan - again recommended by Neil Peart - but they didn’t stock it. Should I go out of my way to get a bottle anyway?
See how you get on with the Aberlour first - what flavour notes you like etc. I’d take Peart’s recommendations on setting up a drum kit and playing it, but not anything else.
For the hellovit, pick up something purely niche and local for you and your Irish friend. Your local rumrunner should give you a good recommendation. Don’t think on this one.
That is, actually, a damfine idea.
Since your guest is from Ireland, you might consider complementing the scotch with a nice Irish whiskey. The two most popular are Bushmills and Jameson but these days there are a few dozen brands that make high quality hooch. I like Tullamore Dew 12 year special reserve, but I’m not really a heavy drinking of Irish whiskey.
I picked up a bottle of Teeling Single Malt a few months ago while passing through the Dublin airport and it struck me as an excellent Irish to pair with a scotch. It’s got a hint of peat and smoke (not Laphroig, Lagavulin or Ardbeg levels) that lets it stand up to most Scotches without just getting washed out completely.
I’m personally a fan of John Powers when it comes to Irish whiskeys, but like most bourbons or Canadians, it wouldn’t taste like anything after a sip of Scotch.
This is almost word for word exactly what I was going to say.
To me, peaty scotches smell exactly like my grandmothers medicine cabinet and taste exactly like they smell. Avoid them without prior knowledge of preference.
That’s my point though - if he’s coming from Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 or Diplomatico Ambassador, going straight to scotch is going to be a pretty interesting experience- they’re not that similar at all, except maybe in color.
Something like bourbon is in between the two, which would be why I’d be recommending to start with it and then once accustomed, then move to Scotch.
But if you have to go straight from rum to scotch, I’d think a blend would be more approachable than a single malt.
Bumping this thread because I just came home from the liquor store with a bottle of Glen Garioch 1797 Founder’s Reserve for about $55, and wanted to see if it had been mentioned. I haven’t tried it yet, will pop it open after dinner tonight and have a taste.
I bought a bottle of Laphroaig a couple years ago after reading about it in one of these threads, and my first impression was that it had a very medicine-y taste and a kind of antiseptic smell to it. It took some work to polish that bottle off – it definitely wasn’t one of my favorites.
Oh, so the fellow’s from Ireland so get him Irish Whiskey? That’s RACIST, yo! 
If he’s specifically interested in whisky (from Scotland), and you yourself are not “into” single malt Scotch or whatnot, then you can hardly go wrong with a high quality blended Scotch like Johnny Walker Gold 18 or their “Green” label of blended 15 year single malts (meaning, they haven’t added the “neutral grain spirits” to smooth out the flavor - it’s a blend, but all of single malts of 15+ years in the cask).
The Macallan 12 the OP mentioned would be nice and smooth and won’t be too harsh (aggressively smoky and peaty) compared to other single malts.
If you’re just trying to get a bottle of “interesting” hooch that’s high level (would impress with some cachet) but not crazy expensive (in the sub-$100 category), that he may not have sampled before, try a Japanese whisky…?
Huh, I was going to recomment the Yamazaki 12, but it seems the cost of those have skyrocketed since I got my bottle a few years back, yikes. I guess they’ve been “discovered”…!
I like Glen Garioch quite a bit, particularly older batches of it, where its smoky character really came out. The latest versions of it haven’t had the smoke without the iodine, that made it an appealing sidestep from my normal Islays. Definitely let us know what you think.
Jonathan, is this $100 dollar bottle for you or for your friend? If your friend, do you know his tastes in Scotch? That said, if you are looking for something that you’d like as well, and since you like aged rum, I’d recommend an older Highlands for you. I find as they get older, all of them start losing the smokey, peaty character, and all of them, no matter their region start converging onto caramel, nutty, treacle flavors. Though even 25 Macallan still has that heavy sherry nose, at least it did the one time I tried it.
In that vein, I’d highly recommend some of the older Glenfarclas offerings, like the 17 yearon up. The 21 is a bit more than your price point, but I think a aged rum drinker would find it delicious, yet different than anejo rum.
Some of Ardbeg’s offerings stray far from the iodine, smoke, salt blast that you expect from Islay. ‘Alligator’ was a very sweet, almost PX tasting scotch, that was interesting, but not at all like I expected from Ardbeg.
Macallan has a variety, also Highland Park is great. If you’re in the mood for peat, Port Charlotte.