Whiskey - It's the water of life!

[JosephStalin]

Way back when, I liked Maker's Mark and Crown Royal, on the rocks.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

I'm currently slowly going through a bottle of Knob Creek. Pretty good, and I'm partial to bourbon. Only kind of scotch I can remember trying is Cutty Sark, which is blended and probably not a great representative of scotches.

 

[Blini Cat]

I really love basic bitch Islay single malts, Laphroiag and Ardbeg namely. Too poor to branch out really. Highlands just don't seem to do it for me.

Only kind of scotch I can remember trying is Cutty Sark, which is blended and probably not a great representative of scotches.

Cutty isn't great but I'm cheap so I drink it quite often. It was actually the first whiskey I tried, I went out and bought a bottle because it was mentioned in a Murakami book. It'll always have a place in my heart.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

I really love basic bitch Islay single malts, Laphroiag and Ardbeg namely. Too poor to branch out really. Highlands just don't seem to do it for me.

You may like Ledaig (from Tobermory distillery) - it's in the price-range of Ardbeg 10 and is possibly the best heavily-peated malt I've tried that isn't from Islay (or Talisker).

 

[WhoIsSutterKane]

I'm currently drinking some Glenlivet 12. Shithole liquor store by my house only sells 12. Should have gone to the one by my gf they have 15 and 18.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

Is there any good corn whiskey from the US? I was imagining it would be similar to Scotch single grain, which has quality problems but can be very good. American friends have assured me that my curiosity about brands like Mellow Corn is naive and that corn whiskey is actually rancidly sweet/off-tasting, but is there such a thing as a distillery that produces better quality stuff?

 

[vertexwindi]

So I bought a liter of Famous Grouse for only 17 bucks. It's good.

 

[AnOminous]

Is there any good corn whiskey from the US? I was imagining it would be similar to Scotch single grain, which has quality problems but can be very good. American friends have assured me that my curiosity about brands like Mellow Corn is naive and that corn whiskey is actually rancidly sweet/off-tasting, but is there such a thing as a distillery that produces better quality stuff?

Moonshine, but you can't buy it in stores generally. There is stuff called that, but it isn't really.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Moonshine, but you can't buy it in stores generally. There is stuff called that, but it isn't really.

But you can, it's functionally & chemically identical (well, minus the poisoning from shit copper & tin soldering, distilled bugs, etc).

It just ain't right in spirit.

Did used to have a steady supply of good barleycorn during my drinking a decade ago; but eventually (and definitely unfortunately), the guy moved on to a more lucrative laboratory pursuit.... briefly.

Turned out he wasn't near as good a cook, as he was a moonshiner. That, and tweakers can't keep their mouth shut.

Sad.

That shine would slap you red, shove a barley-scented crowbar up your nose, and light a fire for fighting or fucking anything that moves.... one way or another. And no headaches, totally clean.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

Alcoholic's diary #3 (that I can comment on, as clearly I am retarded and still struggle to differentiate bourbons):

Craigellachie 10 (Signatory) - very fine, though not recommended unless particularly interested in less palatable malts - has a very finely-balanced mixture of astringent and sour notes, coupled with a northern Highland/Speyside grassy/maritime quality that is more implied than assertive (anCnoc, Old Pultney, etc). This has a little of what Irish whisky used to be reputed for, prior to the disaster.

Benriach 7 (Carn Mor) - highly recommended if you want a Speyside that has some character. Maybe I just got a good bottle, but I would imagine the official 10 is as good. Very complex for a young scotch, fragrant without excessive sweetness, floral wihout tasting artificial or perfumed.

Benrinnes 9 (Carn Mor) - as characterful as older vintages, but not coming together into the sweetness that I associate with the Signatory bottlings at 18-20. if you like spirit-driven sweetness it's still good, but it never quite blends together into an easy whole.

Clynelish 14 (Official) - very worthy purchase if you can find it reasonably-priced. One of the group of primarily blended distillers (along with Benrinnes, Caol Ila, Craigallechie, etc) that produce very characterful single malts. Complex fruity character similar to Glen Scotia 15 (maximally-recommended), though even less astringent and more conventionally drinkable.

Tamnavulin 8 (A.D. Rattray) - I find this hard to recommend because unlike, say, Benrinnes, this is not a gem in the rough of the bulk blend distillers - it's actually very generic - but when you can find it as cask strength as in this version, it's enough to tip me into suggesting it for those looking for a deeply unpretentious Scotch, shorn of the marketing nonsense. It's a spirit-driven standard citric, cereal nose, generic as you can get notes of grass, banana, and overall robust and enjoyable if you're not looking for anything to seduce your palette. Can be especially good value as a sipper, since it's rare to find 60% spirits with at least some integrity of flavour - at least in my region.

Kilkerran 12 (Official) - if anybody enjoys Laphroaig and Springbank, this is an almost comedically on-the-nose combination of their qualities, has the usual modern Campbelltown standards of craft and complexity, but also has the smoothly integrated quality that people familiar with Laphroaig's 10 and especially NASs (opposed to say, Springbank's semi-peated character acting as layer opening to sweetness, this malt is much more 'together' in its disposition. No idea how to describe this well). They also have a cask strength 8 which is very welcome as usually such young undiluted scotches fall into the NAS pit.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

@Man vs persistent rat

I've been trying to remember the name of a scotch I had after my first deployment 17 years ago, which came from the Orkneys, iirc.

A friend of ours in the Royal Marines, who'd got back from Basra a few months prior, had a bottle passed down from his grandpa (also a RM), and waited to open it with us.

It came in a small branded wood & thatch-filled box which was almost completely faded. I'd say the box was almost certainly not original, but still very old. The crate still had a sales-tag inside with a listed price of 60£ (in 1915), and iirc he said the distillery went tits up in the '30s.

The bottle was black, maybe 1 liter, cask strength, 30yr, a small & hex-shaped label, with smaller print & all numbers hand-inked.

Our RM comrade's scotch had originally been bought by his paternal RN great-grandfather, who went down with his destroyer after being sunk by U-boat in 1917. The bottle was then inherited by his grandfather, who also served on a destroyer torpedoed & sunk in WW2 (grandpa made it ashore, though his shipmates didn't).

The deal his grandpa had with his own friends, was they'd open the bottle when the war was done and everyone made it home alive. Nobody survived the first, only one survived the second, our friend's own father didn't serve, and it was passed on when he'd been commissioned.

That's how I ended up tasting a scotch that probably I shouldn't have even been touching; which might account for why the flavors from that one glass haunt me, and why every scotch I've had since has tasted wrong.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

I've been trying to remember the name of a scotch I had after my first deployment 17 years ago, which came from the Orkneys, iirc.

A friend of ours in the Royal Marines, who'd got back from Basra a few months prior, had a bottle passed down from his grandpa (also a RM), and waited to open it with us.

It came in a small branded wood & thatch-filled box which was almost completely faded. I'd say the box was almost certainly not original, but still very old. The crate still had a sales-tag inside with a listed price of 60£ (in 1915), and iirc he said the distillery went tits up in the '30s.

The bottle was black, maybe 1 liter, cask strength, 30yr, a small & hex-shaped label, with smaller print & all numbers hand-inked.

Our RM comrade's scotch had originally been bought by his paternal RN great-grandfather, who went down with his destroyer after being sunk by U-boat in 1917. The bottle was then inherited by his grandfather, who also served on a destroyer torpedoed & sunk in WW2 (grandpa made it ashore, though his shipmates didn't).

The deal his grandpa had with his own friends, was they'd open the bottle when the war was done and everyone made it home alive. Nobody survived the first, only one survived the second, our friend's own father didn't serve, and it was passed on when he'd been commissioned.

That's how I ended up tasting a scotch that probably I shouldn't have even been touching; which might account for why the flavors from that one glass haunt me, and why every scotch I've had since has tasted wrong.

The only island distillery I'm aware of having closed is Port Ellen from Islay, which did have black bottles at various points, although the closure was much more recent than you mention. Smaller distilleries from that period have definitely a lost in time element to them, and I've never had the pleasure to have tried something that old. It is a sad fact that even surviving distilleries are releasing radically different-tasting products nowadays than what they were 100 years ago, for better or for worse.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Maybe that's what he meant by "isles" (he did have a mondo-thick accent), and the Orkneys are the first I can think of when someone mentions the Scottish islands.

In any case, I can't come close to describing the scotch's individual flavors & notes & whatnot, even back then. The best I can do, is that it almost made me squirt a few tears of bliss.

 

[Pocket_Sand!]

Laphroiag

If you like Laphroiag, I would recommend giving Lagavulin 16 a try (and yes, I actually liked this whiskey before Parks and Rec). It's not quite as heavily peated and is very smooth drinking, particularly on the rocks which is how I personally take most whiskeys.

Is there any good corn whiskey from the US? I was imagining it would be similar to Scotch single grain, which has quality problems but can be very good. American friends have assured me that my curiosity about brands like Mellow Corn is naive and that corn whiskey is actually rancidly sweet/off-tasting, but is there such a thing as a distillery that produces better quality stuff?

There are, but you have to get into the "micro distilling" scene to pick up a good one. There are a ton of great small distilleries popping up all over the US, particularly in the upper Midwest (Michigan has a good number of them in the Traverse City/US-31 corridor up to Mackinaw area), and you can find a great variety of corn whiskeys, as well as other grains. I just got back from Traverse City and picked up a cask strength rye and a limited port wine barrel finished rye from Traverse City Whiskey Co. http://www.tcwhiskey.com/ I'm on a bit of a rye kick currently, but their bourbon was excellent. My home state of Illinois has a number of them, most up near Chicago, but those I've visited have been good, lots of variety. Blaum Bros. in Galena IL https://www.blaumbros.com/blaum-bros-distilling has some good stuff, and their moonshine is one I'd recommend as far as corn liquor.

 

[Kamov Ka-52]

I got Nikka Coffey Malt Whiskey as my first more expensive whiskey and it's pretty fucking good.

 

[Pomniman]

Talisker's my personal favorite scotch, though I'd say you can't genuinely go wrong with any proper single malt. The most expensive bottle I've tried was a Samaroli Glen Scotia 1992 which was very unique but not necessarily in the sort of way most would appreciate due to tasting like a swamp.

 

[Man vs persistent rat]

The current Glen Scotia 15 is really fantastic, I am jealous of your swampy experience.

 

[Gordon Cole]

Cutty isn't great but I'm cheap so I drink it quite often. It was actually the first whiskey I tried, I went out and bought a bottle because it was mentioned in a Murakami book. It'll always have a place in my heart.

lol I think reading Murakami is responsible for my love of whiskey and jazz. Right now I'm working my way through a bottle of Woodford Reserve, and hope to reclaim the brand integrity from Ethan Ralph.

 

[TFT-A9]

I picked up some Skrewball peanut butter whiskey on a lark. Very sweet, but tasty, and offers interesting prospects for mixing. Might try some kind of creme de cacao or a fruit liqueur like Chambord.

 

[Syaoran Li]

I think I'm going to celebrate Halloween tomorrow with an American classic and buy me a fifth of Jack Daniels.