Puff Daddy
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Since we got a decent thread going for Islays I figured we may as well get one going for Speyside single malts as well.
Most of my single malt personal history revolves around Speyside malts. With the exception of a bottle of Laphroaig here and there over the years, most all of my single malt experience has been with Speyside whisky. My recent exploration into Islays was fueled by those past bottles of Laphroaig and the fact that they showed me there was a single malt out there with much bigger balls than the stuff I was used to, and I wanted to find out what I'd been missing.
But it all started with a humble bottle of The Glenlivet. The grocery store single malt staple available in Everywhere USA. For many years, anytime I wanted a nice scotch I simply grabbed either Glenlivet or Glenfiddich and never really looked any further. I mean, you'd walk into the liquor store (this was back before the big discount chains like Bevmo and Total Wine) and there were all these single malts with weird names and high prices, whiskys you'd never heard of and weren't willing to take a chance on, especially at twice the price of good ol Glenlivet.
I ended up spending some years tending and managing bars in the Americanized steakhouses I worked in and there the odd high dollar bottle would make itself known to me. These were places where most of the top shelf scotches were still blends, like Pinch or Chivas, and the one or two single malts like the Glenlivet would perch up on the high shelf, seldom emptied. But those few odd, expensive bottles got my attention enough to try them and try to learn a bit about them (pre internet) and I filed them away in my memory, revisiting them a few times over the years.
Balvenie, Aberlour, Dalwhinnie, Macallan. I tried them, liked them well enough, thought them rather pricey, but never really branched out much from there. I still love Aberlour 12 year, fruity, sweet aromas, warm finish, haven't had Macallan in years and should probably revisit that one some time. Speysides all seem to have the same characteristics, fruit, sweet nose, short finish, easily drinkable. I could probably live with just the Aberlour and Balvenie Doublewood as representatives of the Speyside and move on, but there are so many that I'm probably missing a real jewel somewhere.
My experience with Highlands is even weaker, so I'll leave that thread for someone else to start. Kyle will have to handle the Lowland malts as I've absolutely no experience whatsoever.
Most of my single malt personal history revolves around Speyside malts. With the exception of a bottle of Laphroaig here and there over the years, most all of my single malt experience has been with Speyside whisky. My recent exploration into Islays was fueled by those past bottles of Laphroaig and the fact that they showed me there was a single malt out there with much bigger balls than the stuff I was used to, and I wanted to find out what I'd been missing.
But it all started with a humble bottle of The Glenlivet. The grocery store single malt staple available in Everywhere USA. For many years, anytime I wanted a nice scotch I simply grabbed either Glenlivet or Glenfiddich and never really looked any further. I mean, you'd walk into the liquor store (this was back before the big discount chains like Bevmo and Total Wine) and there were all these single malts with weird names and high prices, whiskys you'd never heard of and weren't willing to take a chance on, especially at twice the price of good ol Glenlivet.
I ended up spending some years tending and managing bars in the Americanized steakhouses I worked in and there the odd high dollar bottle would make itself known to me. These were places where most of the top shelf scotches were still blends, like Pinch or Chivas, and the one or two single malts like the Glenlivet would perch up on the high shelf, seldom emptied. But those few odd, expensive bottles got my attention enough to try them and try to learn a bit about them (pre internet) and I filed them away in my memory, revisiting them a few times over the years.
Balvenie, Aberlour, Dalwhinnie, Macallan. I tried them, liked them well enough, thought them rather pricey, but never really branched out much from there. I still love Aberlour 12 year, fruity, sweet aromas, warm finish, haven't had Macallan in years and should probably revisit that one some time. Speysides all seem to have the same characteristics, fruit, sweet nose, short finish, easily drinkable. I could probably live with just the Aberlour and Balvenie Doublewood as representatives of the Speyside and move on, but there are so many that I'm probably missing a real jewel somewhere.
My experience with Highlands is even weaker, so I'll leave that thread for someone else to start. Kyle will have to handle the Lowland malts as I've absolutely no experience whatsoever.