ScotchBuddy

White Ardbeg

When I traveled to Scotland in 2002 I went to Islay and visited some of my favorite distilleries.  There's a great hotel on the island called the Lochside.  It has an astounding collection of whiskeys.  I wanted to bring home a bottle of scotch with me, but I wanted to get something that would be hard to find in the US.  The bartender there wanted to know what I liked.  "Peat."  He pointed out that Ardbeg had done some experiments to see how much peat you could put in a bottle and still leave it drinkable.  They produced a batch of Scotch known as "White Ardbeg".  Aged only 8 years, it packs a real wallop.  I've almost finished the bottle, 6 years later.  (Signatory Bottling, 1991, 8-year.  Cask 621.  Bottle 233/308).  It really helps set perspective on how bright and peaty a scotch can be.  I wouldn't recommend it for regular drinking, but it's a great perspective scotch.

Here's another person's take on it: Joshua McGee

Scotch tasting tree update

I lead a number of people through my first tasting tree, and got consistent feedback:

1. Sherry beats LightBlossoms 3-to-1.  This may be that people like the sherry-cask flavor, but it may be due to the fact that Macallan is a $40 bottle, and Glen Moray is a $26 bottle.  So people asked me to up the quality of the LightBlossoms exemplar.  The problem is, there's a big jump in price.  Nonetheless, I've chosen a new exemplar for my tastings: Bunnahabhain 12-year, available for $46.
2. People who got a chance to try SweetSmoke later liked it a lot, and were surprised it's not in the original line-up.  In addition, they would complain that the Bowmore Legend (the DrySmoke exemplar) was way too one-dimensional.  Accordingly, I've swapped SweetSmoke (Old Pulteney) in to the primary lineup.  If you make it to the end with SweetSmoke, that's when you'll try the DrySmoke.

So far, Laphroaig (Peaty), Glenfiddich (Floral) and Macallan (Sherry) have done well.  Glen Livet (Tangy) came out on top once (which should be no surprise, it's the best selling single malt in the US), as did Old Pulteney (SweetSmoke).  Based on the changes I'm making, I expect to see SweetSmoke some more.

The new form also includes the long awaited taste descriptions for each cluster, and a list of all scotches, the cluster they belong too, and where I could find it, a good price.  Print it on a duplex printer so it's a single sheet.

First major tasting is done!

I visited with my friend Ian at SecondLife, where he's been walking a large group of people through my tasting tree.  I got great feedback, and I'm going to make some changes to the tasting on that basis. 

Scotch Soap

That's right, Scotch Soap.

Tickets to the TechCrunch/August Capital party

I'm trying to get tickets to the TechCrunch/August Capital party, which is very sold out.  So I have resorted to bribery:

The Scotch Exploration Tree

Here's your path to finding your favorite Scotch.  I'll attach the document as a PDF so you can print it out.

This is a bracket, much like a basketball tournament.  You'll notice the pairings I've been producting podcasts for.

Pairing 1 is Smokey versus Light Blossoms.

Pairing 2 is Tangy versus Dry Smoke.

And shortly I'll produce Pairing 3, Floral versus Peat.

Pairing 2: Tangy VS Dry Smoke

WhiskeyFest San Francisco Oct 10

There is a Whiskey Festival in San Francisco in October.  I'm buying my ticket right now!

http://maltadvocate.com/whiskeyfest-sf.asp

Pairing One: Light Flowers VS Sherry

If you want to find your favorite single malt scotch, first try these two scotches and see which is your favorite: The Macallan and Glen Moray. If you can't find Glen Moray, you can try Auchentoshen (Light Fruit) instead.

Sweet Smoke

I met my friend Ian McFarland (a good Scottish name!) at St. Stephan's Green today, and told him I'd started a Scotch blog--he was a supporter, and when I introduced him to Wishart's clusters, he immediately declared that he was a sweet smoke man.  They had Glenmorangie at the bar, so I ordered it.  I'd realized, seeing it at the bar (one of only about 5 single malts), that I'd probably chosen the wrong representative for the Sweet Smoke group (I chose Old Pulteney). 

But as I drank it, I decided I may still be on track, because I don't find the smoke very pronounced in the Glenmorangie.  (It was pleasant enough, but didn't have enough character for me.)  For my exemplar, I'd also considered Oban (more famous), but it's much more expensive.  Smokey or not, I prefer my Scotch a little drier.

It's good, I've got two friends who now know their clusters.  I need to collect a person from each cluster, and we'll do some guest posts.