Ok guys, what's the deal with single malt scotch. I have never been a liquor drinker and my golf buddies are all bourbon and scotch officianados, to the extent that they look down their noses at Mcallum 12. What's the big deal and what am I missing. They say I have to develop a taste for it so we can go to Scotland drink scotch and play golf. Am I really missing something. I am fine with a bud light or two. Help me out here - am I a lost soul or what ?
High End Scotch - What's The Big Deal
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jeffsmith
Member
I like Single Malt Scotch & Good Bourbon
But like anything they are acquired tastes
If you don't like them that should be fine with anyone
Still go to Scotland and Golf
But like anything they are acquired tastes
If you don't like them that should be fine with anyone
Still go to Scotland and Golf
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UncleEd
Member
I've heard some say---I can't
attest to the truth of it---bourbon
drinkers are excellent people of
refined taste.
I've also heard others say that scotch
drinkers, again I can't attest to it,
are not very sophisticated.
So, what gins do any of you like?
attest to the truth of it---bourbon
drinkers are excellent people of
refined taste.
I've also heard others say that scotch
drinkers, again I can't attest to it,
are not very sophisticated.
So, what gins do any of you like?
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I'm just a beer drinker. If I'm out on a bender and my mates have decided we need to change from beers to spirits (usually around the 8-9 beer mark), they will drink bourbon while I'll have a Southern Comfort. On the odd occasion, I'll drink port with a beer chaser.
I used to say the same thing about good Whisky and good Cigars, they are all overrated. Well Sir I'm here to tell you they are not. I have sipped two hundred year old single malt that was not all that great, and 20 year old that was the water of life. You need to find out whether or not you like the flavor of Highland or Isley Scotch Whisky to fully determine where to go. I had a friend that was a local judge and could afford a fine Scotch collection, I went through his collection and settled on The Bowmore, a fine Islay single malt whisky.
Cigars...I used to think that Cuban cigars were all hype, having never smoked one, plenty of Cuban seed grown in Honduras, etc. but never a true Cuban cigar. While up in Canada I stopped in at a cigar store and I see Cuban cigars for sale...the real deal. I splurged on a $20 Romeo/Julietta, pre warmed it, poked it, cut it, lit it with a wooden match and enjoyed that damned thing all the way home, nearly two hours later I had it down to the point where I could not hold it anymore and let it burn out, it was great all the way to the not bitter end. After that I would place an order for slightly lesser quality Cuban cigars and wait for the Greyhound bus to deliver them once a week to enjoy on the weekend while up at the lake. Life was good...Its too short for cheap cigars or cheap whisky.
Cigars...I used to think that Cuban cigars were all hype, having never smoked one, plenty of Cuban seed grown in Honduras, etc. but never a true Cuban cigar. While up in Canada I stopped in at a cigar store and I see Cuban cigars for sale...the real deal. I splurged on a $20 Romeo/Julietta, pre warmed it, poked it, cut it, lit it with a wooden match and enjoyed that damned thing all the way home, nearly two hours later I had it down to the point where I could not hold it anymore and let it burn out, it was great all the way to the not bitter end. After that I would place an order for slightly lesser quality Cuban cigars and wait for the Greyhound bus to deliver them once a week to enjoy on the weekend while up at the lake. Life was good...Its too short for cheap cigars or cheap whisky.
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llowry61, I’m guessin’ yer a big boy by now.
Ya know what ya like and what ya don’t. No need to take any guff off buddies who are into stuff you aren’t, trying to play the sophisticate card and all. Life’s waaaay to short to go along with that. No need to be confrontational. Just tell ‘em, “Enjoy yourselves, but I’m happy with my Bud Light or two.”
(And, truth be told, it is a blessing to be content with a Bud Light or two. I like alcohol in all it’s guises, and think high end bourbon and scotches are wonderful. Love ‘em. But, I have also learned to watch myself pretty close when in comes to drinkin’. So I’d just say, from the other side of the fence, be content in who you are, and don’t worry about guys trying to encourage you to appreciate whiskies, etc., that you don’t.
)
Ya know what ya like and what ya don’t. No need to take any guff off buddies who are into stuff you aren’t, trying to play the sophisticate card and all. Life’s waaaay to short to go along with that. No need to be confrontational. Just tell ‘em, “Enjoy yourselves, but I’m happy with my Bud Light or two.”
(And, truth be told, it is a blessing to be content with a Bud Light or two. I like alcohol in all it’s guises, and think high end bourbon and scotches are wonderful. Love ‘em. But, I have also learned to watch myself pretty close when in comes to drinkin’. So I’d just say, from the other side of the fence, be content in who you are, and don’t worry about guys trying to encourage you to appreciate whiskies, etc., that you don’t.
)
Why would anyone want to acquired a taste for something they didn't really like?
Especially something expensive.
Especially something expensive.
Meh
Give me a grape Swisher Sweet and Captain Morgan.
Give me a grape Swisher Sweet and Captain Morgan.
Coldshooter
Member
We once visited the Speyside Cooperage and during the tour they mentioned that the best casks lose 2-5% of the liquid per year according to where in Scotland the distillery is located. The older the malt the more has been lost to evaporations. Drives the cost and flavor. That noted the 200 year old mentioned due to evaporation would be a bit like George Washington’s hatchet. You remember this is Washington’s hatchet but the handle was replaced 8 times and the head 3.
riverrat38
US Veteran
I have never understood how the beer stays in the stein down there. Do you have to drink it off the bottom?
I guess it would be even worse in space!
Best,
Rick
Yes, exactly.
By Scottish law, today's largest casks are 700 liters. If you only use the 2% rule as the "Angels share," as the Scots call the evaporation, after 200 years you'd have about 10 liters.
200 years ago they moved the casks on the sides of mules. Can't imagine a mule hauling two 700 liter casks.
I love single malt Scotch. Before I quit keeping track I had logged more than 600 different ones in my log book. Yes, I was a bit OCD about it -- tasting notes and the whole bit.
The oldest one I ever had the pleasure of sampling came from a single cask that had been distilled and put in the cask in February 1952. The bottler emptied the cask in February 2012 to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The American White Oak cask (about 250 liters) netted only 88 bottles after 60 years. A bottle ran $28,000 here in the U.S. Yes, the whisky was delicious. One of my all-time top six.
I was a purveyor of fine single malt scotch for more than a decade, with a rotating selection of 86 different single malts on the back bar -- most folks had never heard of any of them. I hosted monthly tastings at my inn, and many outside the inn.
One thing I could never abide at my tastings was a loud, obnoxious, self-appointed scotch snob who put down others for not liking "his" (yes, the snobs were always men!) favorite.
I thoroughly enjoyed those who just wanted the experience of tasting five half-ounce pours (not shots) through the course of a three hour session. Great fun.
I've toned down my sampling, and I stopped keeping track of new ones, but I still have a commendable selection of malts in my private stash. I enjoy a wee dram occasionally, when the mood strikes, like right now -- enjoying a wee dram of Auchentoshan American Oak from the Lowlands. Simple, yet, oh, so good.
Slàinte mhòr (Scots Gaelic for "to your very good health")
Fortunately....
... I have very simple tastes. And I don't drink or smoke anymore, so I have more money for shooting.
... I have very simple tastes. And I don't drink or smoke anymore, so I have more money for shooting.
Absalom
SWCA Member, Absent Comrade
Most importantly, it's a consumable beverage, and you should drink what you like.
I despise people who drink what they think makes them look sophisticated or cool in the eyes of others.
I recently spent $170 on a bottle of GlenDronach 18 and love the stuff, but if Johnny Walker Red floats your boat, great. You'll have more money for other things.
Go to Scotland, play golf, ask for a whisky (not a scotch!), and they'll pour you most likely an inexpensive Famous Grouse, a blend and the most-selling whisky in Scotland and the UK. As the Scots say, single malts are for tasting, blends are for drinking. Wash it down with a pint, and everybody will love you. If the people you're with think you need to try more expensive drams, let them buy until you're sure you like it enough to pay for it
There also won't be much alcohol left in it. It's climate-dependent; while in Kentucky and Tennessee the whiskey comes out of the barrel at higher than entry proof, meaning the angels take more water than alcohol, the climatic conditions in Scotland lead to a higher loss of alcohol.
Bourbons go into the barrels at 62.5% ABV max, scotches usually around 63.5%. But a barrel-proof Booker's Bourbon can be found bottled up to 65%, while older cask-strength scotches may only have below 55% left.
I despise people who drink what they think makes them look sophisticated or cool in the eyes of others.
I recently spent $170 on a bottle of GlenDronach 18 and love the stuff, but if Johnny Walker Red floats your boat, great. You'll have more money for other things.
Go to Scotland, play golf, ask for a whisky (not a scotch!), and they'll pour you most likely an inexpensive Famous Grouse, a blend and the most-selling whisky in Scotland and the UK. As the Scots say, single malts are for tasting, blends are for drinking. Wash it down with a pint, and everybody will love you. If the people you're with think you need to try more expensive drams, let them buy until you're sure you like it enough to pay for it
There also won't be much alcohol left in it. It's climate-dependent; while in Kentucky and Tennessee the whiskey comes out of the barrel at higher than entry proof, meaning the angels take more water than alcohol, the climatic conditions in Scotland lead to a higher loss of alcohol.
Bourbons go into the barrels at 62.5% ABV max, scotches usually around 63.5%. But a barrel-proof Booker's Bourbon can be found bottled up to 65%, while older cask-strength scotches may only have below 55% left.
Bottom Line. If you like it, that's all that matters.
I watched a documentary by John Cleese (Monty Python fame) called "Wine For the Confused" 2004. Anyway, at the end they did blind tastings, and the inexpensive stuff was scored about as well as the expensive prestige stuff.
His conclusion was also, if you like it, you like it. That's all that matters.
I watched a documentary by John Cleese (Monty Python fame) called "Wine For the Confused" 2004. Anyway, at the end they did blind tastings, and the inexpensive stuff was scored about as well as the expensive prestige stuff.
His conclusion was also, if you like it, you like it. That's all that matters.
Dougaz
Member
"Well Sir I'm here to tell you they are not. I have sipped two hundred year old single malt"
Sorry, but I don't believe this at all. I've been drinking scotch for 40 years and I've never heard of or seen "200 year old" scotch.
Sorry, but I don't believe this at all. I've been drinking scotch for 40 years and I've never heard of or seen "200 year old" scotch.
CAJUNLAWYER
Member
This.
After a glass or two, if I am in the mood to keep on drinking, I switch to the cheap stuff as my taste buds are at that point sufficiently numb to not be able to distinguish the quaint nuances of the heather stoked peaty taste of the fine single malt with a slight peach finish over the delicious blended quality of Dewars anyway.
To put another way, I'm too poor to waste expensive whisky. It has it's place but it is NOT after the second drink!
As far as Cigars, from what I remember when I smoked was that the Cubans were nasty as they were inferior quality rushed into the market not properly aged in order to cash in on the cachet of "smoking a real cuban". Other cigars made in other countries with cuban seed adequately filled the bill. I don't know if anyone has ever seen a hand rolled cigar actually being made (when they knew the public wasn't watching) but the rollers didn't dip their fingers into water to keep them moist (at least the old timers didn't) They licked them
I saw it, with my own eyes. In Tampa.
Ogandydancer
Member
As far as Scotch goes I can live withDewars Blended and Glenlivet Single malt , as for Bourbon I prefer Buffalo Trace if I can get it, on the beer side Stella Artois, Peroni or Yuenglings. On the Irish side I have only tried Bushmills.
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I have never been able to develop a taste for Scotch - no matter how expensive or good it is. I simply can't deal with the taste of it. Not a Beer man either. If I drink 2 bottles of Beer a year it's a lot - and that's maybe at a BBQ where they don't have any Bourbon.
Bourbon is my Fav! To each his own I say......
Bourbon is my Fav! To each his own I say......
