Drinking fine scotch and whiskey can really become a great passion in one’s life. You find yourself over taken with the need to fully experience a complex arrangement of flavors and smells. In my life it has made me a more careful and considered eater and it has ironically slowed my overall drinking down quite a bit. The reasons for this are clear, once you have sipped and fully enjoyed the beauty of the best scotch perfectly aged and made with care it is a desperate plummet backwards to drink anything else. The thrill of a night drunk is no longer nearly as interesting as the rush of fully enjoying the body and after taste of a great whiskey.

Becoming acclimated to the inherit quality and really the art form of making scotch and whiskey has made me a better person in many ways. I consider complexities in taste and environment. This is not simply limited to my actual pallet. I can appreciate music I never considered and company I often under rated. Now that I am an aesthete about whiskey and scotch I can more fully appreciate the age and body and variety of flavors that color all human experience.

Lucky for single malt scotch drinkers you do not have to pronounce the name of a fine scotch in order to enjoy it. If you did have to An Cnoc (or anCnoc if  the spacing of the label were to be trusted) would be lost to many of us. This lightly colored almost yellow scotch is a great taste and has a surprisingly light texture, great for sipping and sharing with single malt scotch novices looking to have a taste of the good stuff.

For the die-hards anCnoc still packs a nice batch of flavors and a great nose but it’s intensely sweet flavor will make it a hit with almost anyone with a slight interest in scotch. There are hints of citrus and apples in it’s smell with honey and pear rearing their tasty heads in the taste. The result is a gorgeous balance of sweet with an oaky finish that will satisfy skeptical scotch drinkers not interested in such a sweet drink.

If you are looking for a single malt scotch with a good amount of sweetness and a lighter body you found it in An Cnoc. This is a classic flavorful bottle of scotch sure to be a hit this holiday season.

Single malt scotch is one of the great pursuits of an adult life. Growing into it’s taste and complexity and then discovering all of the best brands and exploring their individual flavor combinations is the sort of pursuit that a high minded adult should specialize in.

Aberlour is an adult scotch brand if ever there was one. Both the 16 year and 12 year Aberlour are double matured using both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The resulting single malt scotch whiskey is a delightful copper color. The nose hits initially like a blend of fresh black cherries, chocolate-dipped strawberries, molasses, and  a little fresh-baked sourdough. It’s a complex sensation that gets more so on the second nose which has hints of pine resin, orange, and lavender. Being able to take in the complex aromas around a single malt scotch whiskey is one of it’s greatest treasures and Aberlour does not disappoint.

The tasting is nearly as satisfying. It is a great combination of spices and sweets, subtle at first but increasingly complex on second tasting. The finish is the most subtle part of this drink, winding through a number of flavors mostly as light hints. It is a satisfying beverage with an excellent value, great to keep around for the holidays.

Generally I like a darker single malt whiskey. Those tend to have a fuller taste, at least to my pallet and they look really dignified in a tumbler. When a whiskey touted to be among the best single malt pours in a more pale golden color I get a bit suspicious. Yet the 12 year old Auchentoshan I drank this past weekend offered me literally everything I look for in a whiskey in a color that was surprisingly light.

The first place this whiskey asserts it’s self as the best whiskey I’ve tried in recent memory is in it’s complex mix of flavorful smells. There is enough sweetness to have even whiskey averse liqueur drinkers interested. The whiskey carries a taste that is more simply sweet, it would likely impress an avid whiskey drinker while making the aforementioned liqueur drinker feel reaffirmed in their aversion to the finer realms of  the alcohol savvy.

If you are a fan of good to great whiskey but tend to go for a more reliable and inexpensive one like Jameson, Auchestoshan is a great option. It is classier and more distinctly flavorful without being priced to break the bank. It is a fantastic option for anyone looking to expand their pallet without losing their shirt.

I found myself in a fairly unpleasant bar recently hankering for their best whiskey. The place did not seem up to my astute standards and their selection of two dollar cans of beer and cheap vodka reflected that. So I was pleasantly surprised to find my taste for Chivas Regal was not entirely spoiled by a few years of high end drinking.

Some reviews suggest that Chivas 12 year old packs “too much bite” yet I found that bite to be rather reassuring. Sure I did not want to go and drink the stuff daily but for a moderately priced whiskey it truly was getting the job done. I enjoyed the nostalgic bent of drinking a blended scotch whiskey that while not the best scotch or whiskey could still offer some of the flavors and feelings that made scotch and whiskey my drinks so many years ago.

Drinking cheap is not advised on any sort of regular basis. If you are drinking cheap as a rule you might just be drinking too much. But keeping a bottle of affordable blended scotch whiskey is a good move for anyone maintaining a bar. IF you are making that purchasing decision you could go way worse than Chivas Regal.

We all would like to drink the best single malt scotch at all times. Who really wants to settle for anything less than the best if money is no object? No one. However, money is obviously an object to most of us and sometimes we all just need a drink that is not going to cost us an arm and a leg.

To those folks I submit Aberfeldy 12 year old scotch. This single malt scotch is quite cost effective and manages to hit all of the right notes as far as what your average scotch drinker is looking for in a drink. Most scotches with these kind of prices will have almost bland flavors and would never pack the smokey finish that this one does. The Aberfeldy manages to pack a lot of complex flavors into it’s well priced bottles which is always the goal for a serious scotch drinker. There are hints of peaches, honey, peat and healther which combine to create a very satisfying experience.

The only negative for some might be that in the end this is a rather sweet scotch. For many of us that is no deal breaker and for a lot of novice drinkers that will in fact be a bonus. Either way the value of this bottle is exceptional.

A lot of folks who prefer the snappy bite of the best single malt scotch are incredibly specific and discerning in their beverage choices. They do not go to scotch and whiskey looking for any suggestion of sweetness or lighter flavors. Those folks are not  the audience for (r?)¹ Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey that has found its way to some of the more “in the know” bars around. This is because (r?)¹ is both lighter and sweeter than what most folks consider a top of the line rye whiskey.

Rye whiskey is usually robust and rich in flavor with a slight snap of spice. This whiskey flips that perspective upside down with a much slighter taste and a stronger snap of spice than one expects from even the most cosmopolitan rye whiskey. That rye whiskey would make a play in the cosmopolitan world of alcohol is something of a surprise. After prohibition, rye whiskey all but vanished in the United States with only a few brands, mostly favored by blue color diehards sticking around.

These days (r?)¹ is part of a larger revival of rye whiskey among the drinking elite. With bars touting their selections of rye springing up in some of the most affluent neighborhoods of the most cosmopolitan cities around you might want to get a bottle to keep up with your company’s evolving taste.

High quality tequila is not exactly on the shelves of every discount liquor store you find yourself in. That is because most folks just do not drink high quality tequila. They might get a shot or two in a bar on a night when things are “getting wild” but in general the astute tequila drinker is a rare breed of drinker that has a very specific pallet rarely facilitated by less refined drink dispensaries. That said, there is a great line between the highest end tequila and the discount bottom of the barrel stuff.

One example of a good mid-level tequila  is part of a pretty good deal at Liquors Galore. 1800 Reposado Tequila is a highly regarded brand that is not as pricey as some tequilas. The promotion is across the board as far as size options, meaning this is a great deal for a casual drinker or someone possibly looking to give someone a gift.

Tequila tasters consider 1800 to be among the most reliable brands on the lower side of their scale and it’s easy to see why. Made from 100% agave they do not ever consider reducing the money spent on ingredients in favor of cheaper production. They have been kind enough to pass that flavor, and not the price, on to drinkers everywhere.

A collectible bottle of bourbon cask single malt scotch is something incredibly special. Usually made in limited runs of a few hundred bottles they sit well above “top shelf” bourbons and whiskeys. Above all of the best single malt scotch whiskey blends. There is simply nothing quite like a meticulously aged bourbon cask. Bowmore are a well regarded brand when it comes to these sort of high end bottles. Any collector would be awe struck by the presence of a Bowmore White from 1964 in your collection.

Limited to a mere 200 bottles, Bowmore White is among the most exclusive single malt scotches on the market. It is a product of the Bowmore Distillery one of the oldest in Scotland to remain operational. Founded in 1779 it has remained a well trusted brand in scotch and whiskey for centuries. The distillery tries to get as much of its barley from its Islay island home as possible but must still import more to maintain its staggering annual 2 million liter capacity.

Well known to collectors bottles of Bowmore tend to get high bids on the open auction than almost any distillery in Scotland. Recently a single malt whiskey from 1850 went for £29,400. If you can’t grab one of those 19th century gems perhaps you should consider this mid-twentieth vintage, available now from Liquors Galore.

Spending twelve years in an oak barrel imbues a whiskey with a wealth of flavors that offer your pallet a great opportunity to truly appreciate that time. It is for this reason that a Johnny Walker Black Label that’s been aged for twelve years is ideal for sipping straight or on the rocks. To put such an exceptional bottle that could easily be the best single malt scotch whiskey readily available on the market in a mixed drink would be to disrespect a decade plus of flavor. It is almost to defy nature it’s self.

Luckily most folks with the impulse to get such an exceptional bottle will likely be smart enough to enjoy it properly. Johnny Walker Black Label is a perfect single malt scotch whiskey for anyone hoping to impress guests at a party. The name is instantly knowable and for guests that are perhaps naive about whiskey consumption it will offer a comfortable flavor that still leaves them impressed. Perhaps it will take them a little closer to understanding what makes a great scotch whiskey blend.

Even if you are just looking for an ideal whiskey for your own use without guests, you could do a lot worse than a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. Liquors Galore is currently offering one liter bottles for less than fifty dollars, a steal by liquor store standards!