Favorite whiskey/whisky?

[Donk93953]

Living in the land o whisky...our opportunities to imbibe are like a rainbow....winter time i reach for the smokey Islay's...Laphroaig would be a reference for you.
Summertime, well hell, anytime there is new one on the market that has caught my interest....a blend...
Sassenach....which in Gaelic is a derogatory term for an Englishman....it has won a number of awards and is available in limited amounts stateside....
I do have a sweet tooth and find the sherry/port aged whisky to be a delight....The MacCallan & Balvenie always get my attention.
If you can find it try the Sassenach....

 

[urbino]

I tend to like Macallan and Balvenie, as well. The scotch I currently have is a Balvenie. The one before was a Highland Park, though.

 

[Zeno Marx]

I remember liking that Balvenie Doublewood quite a bit, and the price was a great value. It was only around $35-40 at the time, but now I'm seeing it north of $60.

 

[Blackhorse]

Everything has gone WAY up in the COVID era.

 

[ftrplt]

You are correct sir. However, whiskey with morning coffee is not unheard of, lol.

No where in my above reply did I insinuate that Whiskey with one's morning coffee was bad for you!!!! Of course, not that I would ever do such a thing!! FTRPLT

 

[urbino]

I remember liking that Balvenie Doublewood quite a bit, and the price was a great value. It was only around $35-40 at the time, but now I'm seeing it north of $60.

Yup. I liked that one, too.

 

[Blackhorse]

I never saw the sense of wasting a good whiskey on coffee. Isn’t that what 151 Rum is for?

 

[DWSmith]

I never saw the sense of wasting a good whiskey on coffee. Isn’t that what 151 Rum is for?

If the rum is Bacardi you are probably wasting good coffee on rum, IMHO.

I'm a fan of Myers's rums. Maybe not the greatest but definitely way better than Bacardi.

 

[Blackhorse]

Black Seal

 

[RSteve]

Port Dundas 18 Year and Glenlivet Enigma
In another thread, I noted that I was able to purchase a case (6 bottles) of the Enigma at $40/bottle, less than 1/3 of current price.

 

[sobx]

Laphroaig & Glenfiddich, respectively.

 

[Forrest]

I'm an Islay man. But I've learned that with a cigar, I prefer a well-made Old Fashioned of good, but not-too-expensive Bourbon, like Old Forester, with a splash of Old Forester Rye. (With or without the splash of soda, your preference; I like both equally.) And, with a pipe, I prefer a good, aged, Sherry. Yep. Sherry, not an Old Fashioned, not a neat Bourbon, not a neat Scotch. Who knew. (And I don't much care for Sherry any other time.)

But when it comes to the savoring of a dram of proper whisky (not a whiskey, since you've asked about scotch), the Islay's please the palate of this beholder most. And of the Islay's, Ardbeg Corryvreken beats Lagavulin 16 --although just by a nose, as long as you add few droplets of water to open its amino acids and esters. (Laphroaig being a bit distant following those to my palate.)

But I shall try your recommended Sassenach. It sounds like my kind of scotch; and I bet it's good with a cigar, what with it's being finished in sherry casks; and, it may be good with a pipe tobacco blend that has cigar leaf in it, like Warped --Kings Stride; and possibly Miskatonic, both C&D. Thanks!

An irreverent article that I wrote about scotch some years back:

Scotch. Ardbeg Corryvreken beats Lagavulin 16 --although just by a nose.

After those two, I’ve found no other scotch whisky that contends, not even from Islay.

(I HAVE since found that with a cigar, I prefer bourbon --either an absurdly expensive Bourbon, neat, or a well-made Old Fashioned of a good bourbon with a splash of Rye, like of Old Forester bourbon with Old Forester rye. But for SCOTCH…)

By Forrest K. Harstad

AFTER-DINNER, scotch is best if it’s smoky, and peaty.

BEFORE dinner, you want a smooth scotch. You still want complex whisky flavor with some subtle notes of fruit, but you want a softer punch in the palate, so your taste buds aren’t too knocked out to fully savor the flavors of the meal. Thus, before dinner, for its softer alcohol esters, The Macallan wins. “It’s smooth” --which usually means the taster describing it as such prefers lower alcohol esters. For “smooth” scotch, Maccallan’s 18-year-old is better than any other, including longer-aged scotches, even those made by Macallan. The even softer 25-year-old Maccallan has less flavor complexity than the 18-year-old. It’s past prime. 18 wins.

AFTER dinner, the Lagavulin 16-year wins. (Actually, Ardbeg Corryvreken won my taste test by a nose, but only when carefully adding the perfect splash of good water. And only the Corryvreken. No other Ardbeg. But straight out of the bottle, no ice or droplets added, then Lagavulin wins --though only the 16-year, for the same reasons as the Maccallans, above. And Lagavulin is a little better value than the Corryvreken.)

I prefer to taste/smell/feel the flavors of the nectar open up in the back of my sinuses, from behind my palate --retrohale, if you’ll allow me the use of that word here rather than for describing tobacco flavor-- after the mouth warms it from its cooler temperature in the glass, rather than too much in the front of my nose before I taste the whisky; but I don’t want to sacrifice too much of the complexity just to avoid those esters in the nose.

And I learned years ago that any and every whisky, as well as any good, not cheap, but good, whiskey, is better with just a few drops of water to "open" the compounds --literally unwinding the chains of amino acids and esters chemically. (If you want connoisseur write-ups, I recommend malts.com.)

That brings me to fussing with water droplets versus ice cubes and ice spheres.

I learned years ago that when I ask for a good scotch from a busy bar TENDER, when the bar is busy, to ask for it with “just one of your smallest ice cubes, please” --to make his or her job easier, with fewer steps. (This also works best when asking a Delta Airline’s flight attendant for a whiskey --Woodford’s Reserve being the best available on Delta; they have no decent scotch.) But from an UN-busy bar tender, or from a server at a table of a fine restaurant, I recommend ordering it neat, along with a glass of water --or a “water back.” (And then drop a few drops of water into your scotch by yourself.)

A few years ago, I shared the above in a post on line, and that sparked ribbing from a couple fellow scotch aficionados who argued that I was audacious for having altered the distiller artisan’s intended flavor by introducing the flavors of ice or water. The “flavors” of ice or water! What the!

I replied with this:

Aren't you scotch snobs something.

For the record, I avoid fluoride in my drinking water. You should, too.

And I carefully avoid both fluoride and chlorine in my scotch, thank you.

I have tried many, many different waters for my drinking water.

My drinking water preference used to be Fiji --until the military coup there.

Chippewa water, from Wisconsin, is as pleasing to my palate, albeit with a slightly different mouth-feel than that of Fiji --due to its different mineral make-up, of course. Fiji has a silica content that I like for its mouth feel. (Not in Scotch, though.)

After Chippewa, then next in line, is Smartwater --for its mouth feel, nothing more. (It’s not “smarter.”)

But the difference between any of them is splitting hairs.

My own home well water, filtered, tastes so very nearly as good --both for drinking, and for cocktail ice-- and, of course, for its cost being a tiny fraction of what bottled water costs. Not to mention convenience.

Back to ice or droplets in scotch:

I have also tried distilled water for a few drops in my scotch compared to a few drops of my well water. I have not made ice from distilled water to try in my drinks because I had already learned that when adding a few drops of water, I prefer mineral water to distilled water. Hands down. No comparison. (For mouth feel, not “flavor”, by the way.)

And my preferred mineral water comes from my own well, in my own yard, thank you.

(I live in The Minneapple, Minnesota. The Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Where the water is revered, especially by master brewers.)

(When I am King, it will be illegal to add fluoride in any amount to whisky --or to the supply of public water, for that matter.)

You drink yours your way, I'll drink mine mine, thank you.

But since you’ve prompted me, I offer you the following personal lesson from my experiment that, due to your prompting, I have just now proven to myself once again, since I’m older now; and, since tastes change with age. I offer it for you to learn from, now, too --to hopefully improve your enjoyment, too.

Because of my esters-in-the-nose consideration above, and because smoother scotch makes the differences of the following experiment clearer to discern, I did the following ice, water, or neither, taste test, with The Macallan. (I have in the past proved to myself that the same is still true for the smoky scotches.)

I tasted my 18-year-old neat vs. with a very small amount of room-temperature water vs. with cooling stones vs. my years-old preference of one small ice cube vs. a large ice sphere vs. Ballz. (Ballz is an ice sphere mold that makes smaller spheres sized so that two fit into a whisky glass --and then evoke their namesake. It was marketed by an irreverent lady friend of mine. Great fun, she.)

(By the way, not only doing this taste-test, but even the slightly iced scotch itself, warmed my soul all the way down to my… Oh, never mind.)

First, as an aside, take a minute to notice my wonderful scotch glass.

While the glass is balloon-shaped and tapered --so it has a large area at the surface of the drink, to maximize evaporation of the strongest, alcohol vapors, and then gathers the remaining aromas with its tapered top-- it nonetheless has a longer lip in front so that one's nose need not be fully IN the glass when sipping.

This saves one from that alcohol punch in the nostrils, because the more volatile, faster diffusing, harsher and stronger alcohol esters can escape past one's nose while sipping. So, the flavor nuances get to the mouth and palate without the alcohol esters assaulting the nose, thus enhancing that back-of-the-palate tasting/nosing/feeling “retrohaling” that I, myself, prefer.

(Of course, if it’s more your style, turn this glass around to concentrate the aromas for your nose. I do like that after the first esters have escaped my scotch glass --and especially with the softer-ester whiskies.)

Here’s what I learned from my experiment:

I found that when I compared a larger sphere to two Ballz to one small ice cube, I find no difference in flavor or mouth feel or nose until the last slug or two. Then the larger sphere wins and Ballz come in second. (There’s another inuendo joke in there. But I’ve again digressed.)

The single small ice cube melts fastest and dilutes the flavor a bit more than ideal; the spheres dilute the whisky less, presuming you don’t fill the glass to the widest diameter of the sphere. That’s how they perform their magic --and, of course, presuming you don’t take too damned long to finish your whisky.

Of course, measured water droplets control dilution the best. (And remember, afficionados do teach us and recommend to us that a few droplets of water improve whisky by opening its amino acids and esters chemically. I recommend the same from first-hand taste-testing. Try it and you’ll find it to be true.)

With ICE --which IS nice for helping your sips then have opportunity to warm from cooler in your mouth and thereby give off more flavor nuances-- the large sphere dilutes the whisky the least; Ballz come in second, and a normal ice cube, even if small, dilutes it the most as it melts the fastest.

For COOL factor, Fonzarelli-style coolness, Ballz win.

(After my lady friend asked me to give her my honest afficionado’s review of Ballz. I wrote her a review that began with “Ballz improve whisky --and whisky drinkers”-- followed by my writing above without the large single-sphere segment; and, ending with, “any 18-year-old ready for consumption is improved by minerally Ballz.” I attached the following photo.)

.

 

[Forrest]

I'm an Islay man. But I've learned that with a cigar, I prefer a well-made Old Fashioned of good, but not-too-expensive Bourbon, like Old Forester, with a splash of Old Forester Rye. (With or without the splash of soda, your preference; I like both equally.) And, with a pipe, I prefer a good, aged, Sherry. Yep. Sherry, not an Old Fashioned, not a neat Bourbon, not a neat Scotch. Who knew. (And I don't much care for Sherry any other time.)

But when it comes to the savoring of a dram of proper whisky (not a whiskey, since you've asked about scotch), the Islay's please the palate of this beholder most. And of the Islay's, Ardbeg Corryvreken beats Lagavulin 16 --although just by a nose, as long as you add few droplets of water to open its amino acids and esters. (Laphroaig being a bit distant following those to my palate.)

But I shall try your recommended Sassenach. It sounds like my kind of scotch; and I bet it's good with a cigar, what with it's being finished in sherry casks; and, it may be good with a pipe tobacco blend that has cigar leaf in it, like Warped --Kings Stride; and possibly Miskatonic, both C&D. Thanks!

An irreverent article that I wrote about scotch some years back:

Scotch. Ardbeg Corryvreken beats Lagavulin 16 --although just by a nose.

After those two, I’ve found no other scotch whisky that contends, not even from Islay.

(I HAVE since found that with a cigar, I prefer bourbon --either an absurdly expensive Bourbon, neat, or a well-made Old Fashioned of a good bourbon with a splash of Rye, like of Old Forester bourbon with Old Forester rye. But for SCOTCH…)

By Forrest K. Harstad

AFTER-DINNER, scotch is best if it’s smoky, and peaty.

BEFORE dinner, you want a smooth scotch. You still want complex whisky flavor with some subtle notes of fruit, but you want a softer punch in the palate, so your taste buds aren’t too knocked out to fully savor the flavors of the meal. Thus, before dinner, for its softer alcohol esters, The Macallan wins. “It’s smooth” --which usually means the taster describing it as such prefers lower alcohol esters. For “smooth” scotch, Maccallan’s 18-year-old is better than any other, including longer-aged scotches, even those made by Macallan. The even softer 25-year-old Maccallan has less flavor complexity than the 18-year-old. It’s past prime. 18 wins.

AFTER dinner, the Lagavulin 16-year wins. (Actually, Ardbeg Corryvreken won my taste test by a nose, but only when carefully adding the perfect splash of good water. And only the Corryvreken. No other Ardbeg. But straight out of the bottle, no ice or droplets added, then Lagavulin wins --though only the 16-year, for the same reasons as the Maccallans, above. And Lagavulin is a little better value than the Corryvreken.)

I prefer to taste/smell/feel the flavors of the nectar open up in the back of my sinuses, from behind my palate --retrohale, if you’ll allow me the use of that word here rather than for describing tobacco flavor-- after the mouth warms it from its cooler temperature in the glass, rather than too much in the front of my nose before I taste the whisky; but I don’t want to sacrifice too much of the complexity just to avoid those esters in the nose.

And I learned years ago that any and every whisky, as well as any good, not cheap, but good, whiskey, is better with just a few drops of water to "open" the compounds --literally unwinding the chains of amino acids and esters chemically. (If you want connoisseur write-ups, I recommend malts.com.)

That brings me to fussing with water droplets versus ice cubes and ice spheres.

I learned years ago that when I ask for a good scotch from a busy bar TENDER, when the bar is busy, to ask for it with “just one of your smallest ice cubes, please” --to make his or her job easier, with fewer steps. (This also works best when asking a Delta Airline’s flight attendant for a whiskey --Woodford’s Reserve being the best available on Delta; they have no decent scotch.) But from an UN-busy bar tender, or from a server at a table of a fine restaurant, I recommend ordering it neat, along with a glass of water --or a “water back.” (And then drop a few drops of water into your scotch by yourself.)

A few years ago, I shared the above in a post on line, and that sparked ribbing from a couple fellow scotch aficionados who argued that I was audacious for having altered the distiller artisan’s intended flavor by introducing the flavors of ice or water. The “flavors” of ice or water! What the!

I replied with this:

Aren't you scotch snobs something.

For the record, I avoid fluoride in my drinking water. You should, too.

And I carefully avoid both fluoride and chlorine in my scotch, thank you.

I have tried many, many different waters for my drinking water.

My drinking water preference used to be Fiji --until the military coup there.

Chippewa water, from Wisconsin, is as pleasing to my palate, albeit with a slightly different mouth-feel than that of Fiji --due to its different mineral make-up, of course. Fiji has a silica content that I like for its mouth feel. (Not in Scotch, though.)

After Chippewa, then next in line, is Smartwater --for its mouth feel, nothing more. (It’s not “smarter.”)

But the difference between any of them is splitting hairs.

My own home well water, filtered, tastes so very nearly as good --both for drinking, and for cocktail ice-- and, of course, for its cost being a tiny fraction of what bottled water costs. Not to mention convenience.

Back to ice or droplets in scotch:

I have also tried distilled water for a few drops in my scotch compared to a few drops of my well water. I have not made ice from distilled water to try in my drinks because I had already learned that when adding a few drops of water, I prefer mineral water to distilled water. Hands down. No comparison. (For mouth feel, not “flavor”, by the way.)

And my preferred mineral water comes from my own well, in my own yard, thank you.

(I live in The Minneapple, Minnesota. The Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Where the water is revered, especially by master brewers.)

(When I am King, it will be illegal to add fluoride in any amount to whisky --or to the supply of public water, for that matter.)

You drink yours your way, I'll drink mine mine, thank you.

But since you’ve prompted me, I offer you the following personal lesson from my experiment that, due to your prompting, I have just now proven to myself once again, since I’m older now; and, since tastes change with age. I offer it for you to learn from, now, too --to hopefully improve your enjoyment, too.

Because of my esters-in-the-nose consideration above, and because smoother scotch makes the differences of the following experiment clearer to discern, I did the following ice, water, or neither, taste test, with The Macallan. (I have in the past proved to myself that the same is still true for the smoky scotches.)

I tasted my 18-year-old neat vs. with a very small amount of room-temperature water vs. with cooling stones vs. my years-old preference of one small ice cube vs. a large ice sphere vs. Ballz. (Ballz is an ice sphere mold that makes smaller spheres sized so that two fit into a whisky glass --and then evoke their namesake. It was marketed by an irreverent lady friend of mine. Great fun, she.)

(By the way, not only doing this taste-test, but even the slightly iced scotch itself, warmed my soul all the way down to my… Oh, never mind.)

First, as an aside, take a minute to notice my wonderful scotch glass.

While the glass is balloon-shaped and tapered --so it has a large area at the surface of the drink, to maximize evaporation of the strongest, alcohol vapors, and then gathers the remaining aromas with its tapered top-- it nonetheless has a longer lip in front so that one's nose need not be fully IN the glass when sipping.

This saves one from that alcohol punch in the nostrils, because the more volatile, faster diffusing, harsher and stronger alcohol esters can escape past one's nose while sipping. So, the flavor nuances get to the mouth and palate without the alcohol esters assaulting the nose, thus enhancing that back-of-the-palate tasting/nosing/feeling “retrohaling” that I, myself, prefer.

(Of course, if it’s more your style, turn this glass around to concentrate the aromas for your nose. I do like that after the first esters have escaped my scotch glass --and especially with the softer-ester whiskies.)

Here’s what I learned from my experiment:

I found that when I compared a larger sphere to two Ballz to one small ice cube, I find no difference in flavor or mouth feel or nose until the last slug or two. Then the larger sphere wins and Ballz come in second. (There’s another inuendo joke in there. But I’ve again digressed.)

The single small ice cube melts fastest and dilutes the flavor a bit more than ideal; the spheres dilute the whisky less, presuming you don’t fill the glass to the widest diameter of the sphere. That’s how they perform their magic --and, of course, presuming you don’t take too damned long to finish your whisky.

Of course, measured water droplets control dilution the best. (And remember, afficionados do teach us and recommend to us that a few droplets of water improve whisky by opening its amino acids and esters chemically. I recommend the same from first-hand taste-testing. Try it and you’ll find it to be true.)

With ICE --which IS nice for helping your sips then have opportunity to warm from cooler in your mouth and thereby give off more flavor nuances-- the large sphere dilutes the whisky the least; Ballz come in second, and a normal ice cube, even if small, dilutes it the most as it melts the fastest.

For COOL factor, Fonzarelli-style coolness, Ballz win.

(After my lady friend asked me to give her my honest afficionado’s review of Ballz. I wrote her a review that began with “Ballz improve whisky --and whisky drinkers”-- followed by my writing above without the large single-sphere segment; and, ending with, “any 18-year-old ready for consumption is improved by minerally Ballz.” I attached the following photo.)

.

https://whiskeyreviewer.com/2021/12/the-sassenach-scotch-review-121321/

 

[Gaius Marius]

I seldom drink and when I buy alcohol, its usually to cook with, clean with, or to make something odd like a tincture.
If I buy whiskey, it's either Lagavoulin or Wild Turkey. An alcoholic who's company I enjoy says they're good so I trust him not to steer me wrong.

 

[denholrl]

Which is your favorite?

I don't have a sophisticated palate but I'm learning. My current go to is Jameson. My prior go to was Wild Turkey 101. In the past I had some rye and scotch I liked. Need to branch out. Looking for suggestions.

I've been drinking (and liking) Makers Mark bourbon for years but recently tried a greatly enjoyed Buffalo Trace . . . smooth and spicy.

 

[Singed]

Received a bottle of Glen Garrioch Founder's Reserve this Christmas, a nice treat but I lean more towards briney malts like Talisker. I also tried some Bulleit Bourbon recently, took a shine to it.

 

[Timbo]

Enjoyed a lovely bottle of Glenmorangie over Christmas, very smooth and well rounded.