Scotch Single Malt Whisky!

The Sporting Pitchfork · Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:42 pm

Talisker. There's nothing better. I fell in love with the stuff when spending an amazing month on Skye and the tiny West Highland village of Glenelg, where I proceeded to drink the Glenelg Inn's entire stock of Talisker...An achievement that I am quite proud of to this day.

Being a starving student, I usually get a bottle of 10-year and slowly nip away at it over the course of a year...It's about time for a refill...

I would LOVE to try a bit of Amar's '86 Talisker...That got me seriously salivating.

Glenmorangie and Laphroaig are both reasonable substitutes. I also recently tried Caol Ila, which I thought was a pretty decent Islay whisky. The Clear Creek Distillery here in Portland, OR recently started making a single malt. It's still a bit too early to tell, but I think it has potential.

Least favorite whisky is Bunnahabhain, which to me is like drinking a shovelful of gravel...

I remember once hearing a story when I was on Skye--not sure if it's true--but apparently, when Talisker started making their blended whisky "Tè Bheag" (pretty nice for a blend, by the way), they tried exporting small quantities of it to Canada. They were told that in order to export the whisky to Canada, they had to have bilingual labels in French (the labels had been bilingual Gaelic-English). Talisker got around this by reprinting the labels bilingually in Gaelic and French.

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:47 pm

Lambchop wrote:
The Weekenders wrote:Let the lion lay down with the lamb, Peace etc.

Steve gets everything east of the Azores. I get west to the Pacific. .
Hey! I'm not that meek! If you expect me to lie with lions, you'll have to agree to a 3-way split. Minimum.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 5:33 pm

The Sporting Pitchfork wrote:Talisker. There's nothing better. I fell in love with the stuff when spending an amazing month on Skye and the tiny West Highland village of Glenelg, where I proceeded to drink the Glenelg Inn's entire stock of Talisker...An achievement that I am quite proud of to this day.

Ah, what memories thou dost kindle! In the great summer of 1976 my wife-soon-to-be and I set off on foot from Glenelg, yon Ring Of Bright Water country, heading inland past the two Pictish brochs by Eilanreach and into the fastness of Glen More. Thence, over the ridge of The Saddle and down to Ratagan, feet sore and clothes not exactly mud-free, to quaff well-deserved pints at the Kintail Lodge Hotel. Just a few days in life stay vivid enough in the mind to recall with great joy down the years in every detail, and that was one of mine. Hang on, I have a drop of Talisker somewhere...

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:49 pm

SteveShaw wrote:It's tempting to suggest you try something light such as Glenmorangie or The Glenlivet, which are both very good and much better than the ubiquitous Glenfiddich, but my first experience of malt was with 10-year-old Macallan and I loved it straight away.

Well, it looks like I'll be starting with The Glenlivet. A friend of ours gave us a gift basket a few months ago, and I'd forgotten that it included a small, sample-sized (50 ml) bottle of whisky. I just went digging through the pantry and found it: The Glenlivet, aged 12 years. I guess that'll do for starters.

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 10:33 pm

Lambchop wrote:
The Weekenders wrote:Let the lion lay down with the lamb, Peace etc.

Steve gets everything east of the Azores. I get west to the Pacific. .
Hey! I'm not that meek! If you expect me to lie with lions, you'll have to agree to a 3-way split. Minimum.

Careful now, for is it not written "When the lion lies down with the lamb, it's usually only the lion that gets back up"?

Shakespeare maybe. Or the KJ bible. Maybe G.B. Shaw. Somebody is bound to have written it somewhere. Abe Lincoln?

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:23 am

gonzo914 wrote: for is it not written "When the lion lies down with the lamb, it's usually only the lion that gets back up"?

Shakespeare maybe. Or the KJ bible. Maybe G.B. Shaw. Somebody is bound to have written it somewhere. Abe Lincoln?

Whoever it was, they need to redraft the second strand!

The Sporting Pitchfork · Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:48 am

SteveShaw wrote: Ah, what memories thou dost kindle! In the great summer of 1976 my wife-soon-to-be and I set off on foot from Glenelg, yon Ring Of Bright Water country, heading inland past the two Pictish brochs by Eilanreach and into the fastness of Glen More. Thence, over the ridge of The Saddle and down to Ratagan, feet sore and clothes not exactly mud-free, to quaff well-deserved pints at the Kintail Lodge Hotel. Just a few days in life stay vivid enough in the mind to recall with great joy down the years in every detail, and that was one of mine. Hang on, I have a drop of Talisker somewhere...

Talk about kindling memories yourself! I took a few hikes just like the one you describe. Once on a jaunt around Gleann Beag, I had a nasty joust with a small river that left me a bit soggy. Ahh, how I miss it there--the bronze age brochs, the incredible "Ring of Bright Water" scenery, the dancing on tables late at night at the Glenelg Inn...

The last incident exemplifies what happens when people take Scottish Country Dancing to a bacchinalian extreme. I'd bring my Highland pipes down there sometimes and other publicans would shout "Geeza fast one ye American basmati!"

If I had known they were going to start dancing like that, I might have opted for a slow air instead of a set of reels...

Damn, I could really use a drop of Talisker right now. This thread is seriously lethal...

amar · Post by **amar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:56 am

jsluder wrote:
SteveShaw wrote:It's tempting to suggest you try something light such as Glenmorangie or The Glenlivet, which are both very good and much better than the ubiquitous Glenfiddich, but my first experience of malt was with 10-year-old Macallan and I loved it straight away.
Well, it looks like I'll be starting with The Glenlivet. A friend of ours gave us a gift basket a few months ago, and I'd forgotten that it included a small, sample-sized (50 ml) bottle of whisky. I just went digging through the pantry and found it: The Glenlivet, aged 12 years. I guess that'll do for starters.

The Glenlivet 12 is a very good dram. Something fruity floral about it, very pleasing. A good start, Slood.

amar · Post by **amar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:01 am

Take a little amount into your hands, rub them and hold your hands in prayer-style to your nose, you'll get a wonderful smell this way, smell the barly, close your eyes...dive in...

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:19 am

The Sporting Pitchfork wrote:
SteveShaw wrote: Ah, what memories thou dost kindle! In the great summer of 1976 my wife-soon-to-be and I set off on foot from Glenelg, yon Ring Of Bright Water country, heading inland past the two Pictish brochs by Eilanreach and into the fastness of Glen More. Thence, over the ridge of The Saddle and down to Ratagan, feet sore and clothes not exactly mud-free, to quaff well-deserved pints at the Kintail Lodge Hotel. Just a few days in life stay vivid enough in the mind to recall with great joy down the years in every detail, and that was one of mine. Hang on, I have a drop of Talisker somewhere...
Talk about kindling memories yourself! I took a few hikes just like the one you describe. Once on a jaunt around Gleann Beag, I had a nasty joust with a small river that left me a bit soggy. Ahh, how I miss it there--the bronze age brochs, the incredible "Ring of Bright Water" scenery, the dancing on tables late at night at the Glenelg Inn...

The last incident exemplifies what happens when people take Scottish Country Dancing to a bacchinalian extreme. I'd bring my Highland pipes down there sometimes and other publicans would shout "Geeza fast one ye American basmati!"

If I had known they were going to start dancing like that, I might have opted for a slow air instead of a set of reels...

Damn, I could really use a drop of Talisker right now. This thread is seriously lethal...

Aye, it's wonderful country all right. We stayed many a night at Ratagan youth hostel in the mid-70s and climbed The Saddle more than once and the Five Sisters of Kintail too. One lunchtime we had a couple at the Kintail Lodge at Shiel Bridge then decided on the spur of the moment to walk to the Falls of Glomach - magic. We only got to the Glenelg side the once - someone gave us a lift and we walked back to Ratagan via the brochs as I said. I spent a lot of time in the far north-west too - Tongue, Durness, Lochinver, Ullapool. Achmelvich youth hostel was just about our favourite place. A friend of mine and I made ourselves very unpopular in the Smoo Cave Hotel in Durness one evening by wiping the floor with the local darts team!

We haven't been back in 30 years. I'm going to give my wife a very firm talking to about our holiday plans when she gets in. And I might go and buy a sneaky bottle of Talisker!

Here's Achmelvich:

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:01 am

jsluder wrote:Well, it looks like I'll be starting with The Glenlivet. A friend of ours gave us a gift basket a few months ago, and I'd forgotten that it included a small, sample-sized (50 ml) bottle of whisky. I just went digging through the pantry and found it: The Glenlivet, aged 12 years. I guess that'll do for starters.

Ah, the memories. Just what got me started as I said earlier. Wonderful whisky to start with, I loved it. Haven't tasted it for years though so I will have to get a bottle of it soon to see how high I would rate it these days. Let us know how you liked it.

I got quite a chock yesterday, a positive one. I got to taste a glass of 12 year old Auchentoshan. You know, that bland and boring, triple distilled lowland malt. I've just tried the 10 year old before which I didn't care much for. It was just as I expected it to be, a very soft and smooth malt without much complexity. Just a very ordinary whisky.
This one packed quite a punch however. It was very dense and oily. Dark to the colour (for a 12 year old) and had an intensive aroma and flavour of raisins. A much more complex and intensive malt.
The 12 year old also seems to be a much more uncommon bottling. At least it's not available in Sweden. We only get the 10 y.o. and the 18 y.o.
I need to research this a bit more, and I'll try to make some tasting notes later. This one felt much older than 12 years. I wonder if they used some different method for this one. The bottle doesn't say anything, and given that the 18 year old that sells in Sweden is clearly marked "Sherry Matured" it seems unlikely that they used sherry barrels or anything else that could explain the huge difference in colour, texture and complexity between the 10 and 12 y.o.
Does anyone know anything about this?

Pat Cannady · Post by **Pat Cannady** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:22 am

Talisker 10 year old, the King of Drinks

amar · Post by **amar** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:33 am

Henke, check out this page, this fellow has some remarkable malts for incredible prices, he doesn't ship to Switzerland, unfortunately..

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlord-bourbonQQhtZ-1

Henke · Post by **Henke** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:59 pm

amar wrote:Henke, check out this page, this fellow has some remarkable malts for incredible prices, he doesn't ship to Switzerland, unfortunately..

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZlord-bourbonQQhtZ-1

Certainly some very unique bottlings, and great prices.
What's the deal there? Did he inherit the bottles or what? Seems almost a little bit too good. Is it legit?

DCrom · Post by **DCrom** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:42 pm

It seems that a lot of us get a start with The Glenlivet - back in the days when most Scotch readily available in the US was blended, it was one of the few single malts to be found. And I knew I'd crossed a milestone towards maturity the first time my father poured me a dram from the bottle he kept stored stategically behind the blended Scotches for those who wanted Scotch-and-Soda.

But like Henke, I haven't tasted it in years. I'll admit that my tastes have skewed towards more full bodied malts, but perhaps it's time I pick up another bottle.

Currently on my shelf:

Ardbeg 10
Springbank 10
The Macallen 12
Laphroaig 15
Bowmore 17

Coincidentally, I'd just poured a dram of The Macallen when I sat down and saw this thread.