I know there are a bunch of you out there...as I'm not a real scotch drinker I figured I'd turn to you.

A very close friend is turning 40 in a few days, and there's really not much this guy needs/wants as far as a gift goes. So I thought a bunch of us going to the party would chip in and get him a bottle of ridiculous scotch...something he wouldn't buy for himself. He will typically spend $50 or so, but I'm thinking that maybe there's some small batch, hard-to-find label that's a couple hundred.

Any thoughts?

I like Scotch, but not well enough to spend more than $100 or so on a bottle. My splurge buy is a bottle of Bushmill's Black Bush (Irish Whiskey) for about $40.

I like Lagavulin the most. In Canada it's like $93. I get it for $63 at duty free.

I'm not a regular scotch drinker, but I recently had a glass on the rocks from a bottle of 18-year Macallan (Speyside) fine oak single malt and it was insanely good. Tasted very similar to caramel. I would've drank the entire bottle it was so good.

I'm not a big fan of the smoky/peaty taste of certain Scotch, and that seems to be the most widespread flavor I've tasted, hence my surprise when I tasted the Macallan 18 year.

In the same night, I had some Laphroaig (Islay) 10 year that tasted like alcohol distilled from a glacier. That's the only way I know how to explain it and it didn't have a lot of color from oak barrels. I wasn't a fan of this and didn't finish the glass.

I do know that most Scotch distilleries are in either Speyside or Highlands.

islay's have the smoky/peaty taste

Sorry for the hijack, but does scotch go bad?

I've had a relatively expensive bottle of unopened, single malt scotch on my shelf for 7 or 8 years. I bought it for my father in law and we never got around to drinking it.

Will it still be good? I suspect the answer is yes--I doubt whiskey goes bad, but was hoping one of you could confirm that.

That'd be my riyl as well. Delicious, peaty, smooth. I've seen it in the states anywhere from $65 to 85$ so it is worth it to shop around.





Is that scotch or an irish equivalent?

second'ed!

As long as liquid has an alcohol % of over 10%, generally, and doesn't have any sort of latent sugar in it that those yeast couldn't eat (but bacteria would love to eat) then you should be good. Whiskey has around 40% alkyhol, and no real sugars to speak of, so it should be perfectly content to just hang out. The alcohol should win any battle the few bacteria in there could ever mount.

There are some decent recommendations in here: http://www.obner.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t ... ght=scotch

It's not specific to your question exactly, but it has been a useful thread for me.

I guess you could say equivalent. Looking over wikipedia, there seems to be more variance in ingredients and distilling tecniques than scotch though. One common difference seems to be that its not cooked over peat, so its not as smokey.

Gordo,

If I were you, I'd just stop by or call a good whiskey bar during non-peak hours and ask for recommendations. If you can tell them what your buddy normally drinks, they ought to be able to stear you to the more expensive, aged, and lesser known bottles that he'd like.

If you don't have or know of a good whiskey bar, Seven Grand is a good one. I'd think if you called the number on their site during non-peak times, some one could help you.

This would be my recommendation, although I don't purport to be an expert.

Thanks for the recs, guys. And billy g, good idea.

If you really want to splurge on something outrageous, look into the "Last Drop". It runs about 2 grand a bottle.

I recommend Ardbeg though. It's a little less mainstream than most of the recs in this thread.

you can drink it. I had a bottle of chivas regal which must have been a present for my grandpa in the 70s, and last year I opened it and everything was fine.

Some thoughts:

- I agree about seeking out info -- there are some good informational sites online as well.

- It can be hard to get small-batch scotch in the U.S.

- First you need to know what type of scotch he drinks - if he doesnt like Islay scotch he will not care for Lagavulin.

... Unless you drink the whole thing in a night after saving it for 20 years, which is how my Chivas-from-grandfather story ends.

that was the initial plan but then it took almost one year to end the story...

I don't generally drink scotch, but my drinking companion helping me celebrate my divorce becoming official yesterday suggested single malt for single people. Hard to argue with that kind of logic.



Yeah, yeah, on ice. I got no class.

Luckily, I know he has a work account with a real high end liquor store around here and they know his tastes very well. Will hopefully get over there on Friday; probably looking at about a $200 bottle. We'll see what I come up with.