The pleasures of the drammed (1 Viewer)

jordan

jordan

lothario speedwagon
i bought a nice bottle of scotch when justine and i moved into our new apartment, and i enjoyed it over the course of a year... then, last weekend after a bad day at work, i replaced it with an even nicer bottle, and it has pretty much been the key to opening up the whole luxuriant world of scotch (my "ham on rye" if you will). whereas the first one was good, this one is great, and i'm wondering what else is out there.

so - anyone else drink scotch and have a favorite bottle to talk about? i realize there are forums for this, but i know everyone here, so i'd rather hang out with my friends than a bunch of weird scotch-snob losers.
 
Laphroaig and Lagavulin.

if I can't smell the peat through the sealed bottle, I don't want any part of it.

(I'm talking about sipping scotch. if it's drinking scotch that I chase with beer, I'll have whatever's going).
 
ahh... lagavulin is on my "must try" list now, after reading about it. the bottle i referred to above is talisker 10-year - it is peaty, but (i'm to understand) not on the level of the two you mentioned. i've had laphroaig before - at a bar in new zealand - but i was already kind of drunk, so i don't remember much except it tasted like drinking a lit cigar.
 
Laphroaig and Lagavulin are the ultimate if, as Dr. Hines points out, you're into the moss. I u$ed to drink tho$e but I have been on a small batch Kentucky Bourbon jag for the past year or so.
 
GRD_1777_24350-6.jpg
 
On my budget, it's either beer, a bottle at a time, or the $3.33 bottle of white wine (3 for $10 sale price, but who's got $10?). Scotch? Sounds exotic. I hear it's good.
 
I predict hosh will have something to say, Lagavulin wise...

not snobbish, this thread. just booze, right? I know from whence you come though; back when I had money (for about a couple months) I used to drink damn good wine and got plenty of grief for discussing it.

now it's mostly just bathtub meth. keeps me in touch with my roots here in the south...

now I will disappear into Lurkville again...
 
Smoky peat is where it's at; found in all Islay single-malts. Lagavulin is King for that. Talisker is definitely lighter on the peat smoke, but is quite good. Try the Talisker 18 too. Laphroaig is excellent too - but it has a certain oilyness that some find off-putting (I love it). I happen to prefer the rawness of the Laphroaig 10 to the 18, which is a good thing because it can deplete the old wallet in short order. Another to try, if you do like that oilyness of Laphroaig, is Caol Ila.
 
hoochmonkey9 said:
Laphroaig and Lagavulin.
Click to expand...

My 2 favorites as well...though I dig Oban, and Talisker as well. I had the $ in my pocket, and the chance to buy a bottle of Springbank Single Vat from 1966 in Edinburgh in 1997 -- it came in a crate, and packed in hay -- but didn't think I could backpack across Europe for another 3 months without breaking it -- so I passed.

I've regretted it since.
 
But it begs the question; is there a bottle of scotch that's really worth $2,000?

A guy I knew received a very expensive ($500 range) 30 year old bottle of scotch as a gift and by the time he opened it it was 36 or 37 years old. I happened to be there when he opened it, so I got to taste it, and it was like drinking - I don't even know what. Lighter fluid? Antifreeze? Skid row puke? Not good, in other words.

But I choked it down and smiled through my watering eyes because, what else can you do when someone shares such an expensive bottle with you?
 
The aging only counts in the cask, so no matter when you drink it, it's 30-year old scotch. Of course a poor seal can screw it up; alternatively, I don't see why a bottle that was $275 in '97 would go up so much - it's still a 30-year old scotch. It's not like wine storage whereby the wine can still improve with age and therefore the price goes up.
 
mjp said:
Laphroaig and Lagavulin are the ultimate if, as Dr. Hines points out, you're into the moss. I u$ed to drink tho$e but I have been on a small batch Kentucky Bourbon jag for the past year or so.
Click to expand...
Bourbon is not even close to being Scotch, shame on you.

This that nado has posted is the right stuff, none of that smokey shit. Smoke is what you do to bad tough meat. As for nado, good job on this:
nado said:
balvenie_doublewood_12yo.png


It's good stuff and your wife/girl friend/SO is happy because you gave her/him doublewood
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There is no hangover with Scotch if you drink it properly. That means not mixed with anything other than water, ice or straight soda.
 
It's sweet and it was made for sissy's by goofy hillbillies. Scotch is for men and made by genius' who perfected it to avoid the hangover. Scotch is so good because Scotish food sucks.

I do drink bourbon but I have to mix it with that industrial cleaner we all know as Coca-Cola. Then it tastes okay but it can cause a hangover.
 
Wow, my favourite subject. I absolutely love a nice whisky. I'm lucky in that I like peated and unpeated styles so I can enjoy the whole bloody lot. As mentioned Laphraoig (or however the hell you spell it) is great. A nice one (and relatively cheap) is their quarter cask, which is matured in smaller casks for a period to give it more exposure to the wood. It's great for lovers of that peaty / iodine flavour. They also do a (much more expensive) 18 year old which is beautiful for a special occasion. I also agree with Lagavulin. It's probably my favourite of the lot. Apart from their 16 year old you could try the 12 year old cask strength one which they release most years. The latter definitely needs a drop of water though. Talisker is great too. Both their 10 year olds and 18 year olds are fantastic whiskies.
Some others I like which you may not have tried are:
Tobermory 15 year old - not smokey/peaty, more of that dried fruit / spice / Xmas cake type of taste.
Glenfarclas (any of theirs are great, but the 21 year old is my favourite) - a bit like the above and will appeal to the Balvenie fans in this thread.
Springbank (again, any of theirs are great) - a little bit salty/smoky but only ever so slightly so.
Longrow (made by Springbank) - this is a heavily peated style like Islay whiskies. Springbank is one of the few distilleries still independently owned by the way, which is another good reason to support them.
Caol Ila - peated Islay whisky but lighter in character than some of the others.
I could go on and on but I've probably bored you lot already. Such a shame it's Monday morning, I could murder a drink right now.
 
Purple Stickpin said:
The aging only counts in the cask, so no matter when you drink it, it's 30-year old scotch. Of course a poor seal can screw it up; alternatively, I don't see why a bottle that was $275 in '97 would go up so much - it's still a 30-year old scotch. It's not like wine storage whereby the wine can still improve with age and therefore the price goes up.
Click to expand...
Whisky is enjoying one of its cyclical upturns in popularity and rare bottles are very collectible at the moment. China (amongst other places) has recently become a big market. There's no way I'd have been able to hang onto that bottle without opening it though. Where's the fun in that?
 
Purple Stickpin said:
I don't see why a bottle that was $275 in '97 would go up so much - it's still a 30-year old scotch.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that they made 1 cask of this in 1966, and they bottle 'x' amount every year. So each year the bottles are more expensive...

And now a question for all your fans: how do drink it? Neat? With water? Ice -- or no ice?

I like 3 small ice cubes -- to 'wake it up,' as they say.
 
all the whiskey blogs i've been reading (yeah i know) recommend not using ice, since the cold can dull some of the flavors (or "flavours").
 
Gerard K H Love said:
I do drink bourbon but I have to mix it with that industrial cleaner we all know as Coca-Cola.
Click to expand...
Then you're just drinking the wrong bourbon, that's all.

Hudson Manhattan Rye, Eagle Rare, Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve, Makers 46. In the grocery store; Baker's, Woodford Reserve, Bulleit Straight Rye (not the Bulleit with the red label, though that's good too) - there are a ton of great bourbons that you don't have to hide under half a can of corn syrup in order to choke down.

But I understand if you dig swallowing liquid sod and mud. To each his own. I like the Islays too. Once in a while. In small doses. They're great for people who like to believe that the British Empire is still relevant and good at something.
 
Ideally, just about 3-4 drops of water, dripped from your index finger to warm it up a bit is the preferred snobbish and lame procedure.

If anyone wants to move on this business idea, feel free to steal it. At one point I considered trying to market small bottles of water (possibly with dropper caps) taken from the regions where the various distilleries are located. A limited market, no doubt, but some pretentious group of filthy rich people might have gone for them.
 

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