Favorite Whiskey?

Smaller bottles are usually in a different row all together with other types -vodka, tequila, gin... usually near the end of and aisle towards the front so clerks can keep an eye on them.

 

Yea they’re behind the counter here.
Thieving bastards

 

Our Total Wine has them on the sales floor.

 

Maybe more trusting people up there

 

https://www.whiskeystill.net/

They’re having a sale

 

It's like a bulleit inversion

 

Looks like cattle cubes

 

Yeah, they had 3 of those spinning multi level carousels that each hold 30 or so different types of of liquor up by the registers, however there was only a teeny tiny selection for whiskey/whisky. Only 1 scotch, Glenfiddich, which I already tried, and a few American types. The plan still is to hit up a few places that offer tasting flights and see what's what.

 

Not those. Those are minis. You want a 375 (or 500 if you can find it)

 

First taste of Highland Park 12 -- not a fan. It wasn't supposed to taste like band-aids, but that's exactly what I got. That and sea salt. No oranges, no "fruitcake", no nuttiness.

 

It’s peat. If you don’t want peat flavor in your scotch, drink a bourbon. Peat-dried malt is a hallmark of scotch. Or try something like a dewars that is blended for the world market to basically taste like a generic whiskey.

Nothing wrong with not liking peat, but trying to fight it in scotch is like trying to find the lemonade that tastes the least like lemons.

 

Or try a lowland

Still have a slight peet flavor (malt is cooked with it) but nowhere near the amount of an Islay.

 

Highland Park is the first scotch we've had with any peat/smoke. The others (Macallan, Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Glenmorangie, even Chivas Regal - all Speysides or Highlands) had no peat, or there was enough other stuff going on that it was undetectable. I'd say these are more bourbon-like (vanilla/butterscotch/oak).

I'm going to give HP another try in a day or two. It's possible the garlic/spices I had earlier affected the taste/smell of the whisky. Maybe try a taste without nosing the hell out of it first.

 

Peated tends to be a product of Islay.

 

One of my trusted friends who got me into good whiskey recommended Bowmore 12 for my first scotch bottle. His reasoning was that if one can appreciate the crazy, peaty smokiness of that inexpensive (but not cheap) Islay, then they will probably enjoy just about any other type of scotch as well. That certainly was the case for me.

I remember the first sip and thinking that I was drinking mesquite bbq seasoning. But I kept with it and sure enough, there were a bunch of other really cool notes underneath the peat and the smoke that played really well as a whole. That led me to a bottle of Balvenie Single Barrel, then a gifted bottle of Auchentoshan Triple Wood, and the rest is history.

Bourbon and Rye will always be my first loves, but I do love a good scotch now and again. I just had to give it time for my palate to really appreciate it.

 

Like poo poo?

 

Bourbon

 

Cheers from somewhere south of Eugene OR.

 

Got a bottle of Booker's as a gift my brother for helping him move

 

Slaine's Irish whiskey has been a pretty good irish whiskey blend