Whisky Advice

[GJLReid]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a general direction that I could explore my whisky. I am a fairly new whisky drinker with my list as shown:

Glenlivet 12 Year Old
Isle of Jura 10 Year Old
Glenmorangie 10 Year Old
Jameson
Clynelish 14 Year Old

My latest whisky is the Clynelish which I thoroughly enjoyed and unfortunately it is coming to the end of the bottle, as a result I am looking to buy a new whisky around the £20-£30 mark which is not only excellent value for money but provides a unique taste.

Any advice would be most helpful,
Thanks,
G

[Kenny M]

Hi and welcome to the SMW forum

I would suggest the following

Highland Park 12 year old - a great all round whisky with a bit of everything

Glenfiddich 15 - an excellent Speyside malt, creamy vanilla, sweet barley, fruity a bit of oak, very easy to drink and often on offer in the supermarkets for £20 - £30

Talisker 10 - malty, pepper, spice a quality whisky from the Isle of Skye. If you enjoyed the Clynelish i am sure you will like Talisker.

Aberlour 10 - A mix of bourbon and sherry cask matured whisky. Sweet with honey, sherry, spices, malty and fruity. Agreat sherried whisky which you can often get for around £20

[Alexppp]

Welcome to the forum. Around a year ago I wrote with a similar question and got some excellent recommendations. I see that, other than the Clynelish, the other whiskies in your collection are on the light/sweet/fruity side. Since you enjoyed the stronger flavours of Clynelish, why not expand your palate towards the salty/maritime/smoky end of the spectrum? I'd recommend:

Highland Park 12 year old: This one is a great all-rounder. Rich, sweet and mildly smoky. At the moment it's available for under £25 at Asda.

Old Pulteney 12 year old: Also a great all-rounder in my view. Not smoky, but a great combination of fruity and sea salty flavours. A bargain at the moment, again at Asda.

Talisker 10 year old: One of the most powerful single malts, and my personal favourite out of these. This is an explosion of flavours, and often a love it or hate it whisky. Strong presence of smoke, spicy, with a huge finish. Also under £30 if you shop around.

If you're feeling particularly experimental, you could also go for the Laphroaig 10. It's from Islay, which is famous for producing the smokiest and most intensely flavoured whiskies. This one is extremely smoky and intense. Even more 'love it or hate it' than Talisker.

Alternatively, if you want something different to the ones you have without feeling like you're at a bonfire or by the seaside, you can go for the lovely honey-sweet Balvenie Doublewood.

So many choices! Sorry if I've complicated matters

[Carson]

Peated whiskies are not to everyones taste but since you like Talisker and you are looking for a unique taste then you wont find more unique than peated Islay whiskies.

For a lightly peated whisky i would suggest Caol Ila 12 or Bowmore Legend.

For a heavily peated whisky i would suggest looking at Laphroaig 10. The Ardbeg 10 and Lagavulin 16 are also excellent heavily peated whiskies but a little over the price range you have stated.

[DavidUK]

Springbank 10yo is an excellent malt and available in Waitrose for a little over £30

Glenfiddich 15yo is another good choice and much better than the 12yo

The new Bunnahabhain 12yo at 46-3% is outstanding and around £30

Glenmorangie Lasanta and Quinta Ruban are both superior to the standard Glenmorangie

[Tom W]

glenfiddich 14 year old rich oak only 26 pounds in tesco and very interesting

[GJLReid]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I have decided to order a Aberlour 10 years as I am intrested in trying a Speyside and experiencing a bourbon and sherry cask matured whisky.

I think my next purchase will be the Talisker 10 as it sounds so unique and different from any other entry level whisky...hopefully i will be able to try a dram at some point while I have my Aberlour bottle.

Incidently, what are your opinions on the Clynelish...I thought it was excellent and well worth the value but obviously your more experience tongues will be able to tell me whether I made a good decision in purchasing it...

Once again, thanks for your replies. Unfortunately as I have a limited budget and am very careful in avoiding drinking large quantitiies of whisky due to my tender years of 23, I wont be that active and useful when commenting on other people's post...hopefully I will get an oppurtunity to make a irrelevant comment at some point!

G

[Keith]

Tesco currently have Aberlour 10 year old on offer for £19.99 and the CoOp often have it on offer, always worth checking. In fact all the whiskies which have been suggested are often on offer in the big supermarkets.

Clynelish is an excellent dram, sometimes over-shadowed by Brora which it replaced but also highly rated by whisky drinkers. The Clynelish has loads going on - lovely spice, peaty, salty, waxy, malty, floral.

[Alexppp]

G, for some reason I never particularly got on with Aberlour. I was very eager to get it last year after all the recommendations but I still haven't warmed to it. It's often recommended as a great 'beginner' whisky but I found it pretty hard to like it. Hopefully it will be different for you since I appear to be the only one in this forum who doesn't like Aberlour much! Luckily it's not much of a financial risk at under £20.

As for Talisker, I'm pretty sure it will blow you away when you try it!

[Tom W]

Aberlour A'bundah is sometimes under £30 and definitely worth a try after your aberlour 10. It's also very cheap for a cask strength whisky so you can experience what it is like at its true strength then water it down to suit your taste.

Clyneish is very good robust classic highland malt. I like any whisky where their standard bottlings are 46% + non chill filtered etc. A benchmark I wish more would follow. Got a bottle waiting to be opened, 1991 Clyneish 19 year old, looking forward to it!

[GJLReid]

You got me worried now Alex...well just a wee bit ha. I'll be getting the Aberlour this week so will post my thoughts once I have had a few.

Also, you mention the Aberlour 10 is a good 'beginner' whisky...how do you define 'beginner' and how long would you recommend someone who has had 5 whisky to his name to advance beyond the so called 'beginner' phase? For example, relating to Tom W post, when should I try a 1991 19 year old Clynelish? I am worried I wont be able to appreciate the whisky as much or is this not really the case?

Thanks,
G

[Innes]

i think when anyone refers to a whisky as a good beginners whisky i think they mean it is a pleasant easy to drink whisky which is a good example of a specific style of whisky without any over powering character like a heavily sherried or heavily peated whisky which may be off putting to someone new to the world of single malt whiskies. The Aberlour 10 is a pleasant easy to drink sherried whisky which most single malt drinkers will have in their drinks cabinet due to its quality and price.

[Alexppp]

[albo]

I think the best advice here has been to get the Talisker 10 if you want something different.

The Highland Park 12 is another very, very good dram and can be found in the lower £20's range.

I'm fairly new to this Whisky game also and I've found this forum a great help and very friendly people to boot, I've also found that you don't need to spend loads of money to get a very nice bottle of whisky, at or about £30 there are loads of good quality Whiskys to be had. You shouldn't go too far wrong listening to the people in here.

[GJLReid]

I have just tried the Aberlour 10. Thoroughly enjoyed it in fact I had quite a few drams. T

The first thing I notice was how creamy and smooth it was compared to the Clynelish which had a more peaty and salty/waxy taste. Certainly very happy with the purchase (especially considering the price) So thanks for the advice.

Btw anyone got any opinions on the Arran whiskies? I am interested due to having spent many family holidays there....