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I want to talk about scotch for a bit, mostly because the relatively recent lowering in prices has done bad things to my bank account. Right now I'm slowly working my way through three bottles; a Laphroaig PX cask I picked up at a duty free in 2021, a recent batch of the Kilkerran 12, and a Compass Box Spice Tree. Will probably crack an older age statement for Christmas.
As a young man, I always had a kind of disdain for drinkers, seeing as there were so many examples of the behavior of others while intoxicated I found generally intolerable. This was, in retrospect, a problem of peers; young adults are difficult at the best of times and when the arrogance and invincibility of youth clashes with lowered inhibitions it sparks a chemical reaction that can have truly disastrous consequences.
Plus, alcohol tasted awful.
I still remember my first proper taste of single malt scotch. It was a Highland Park 12, back when Highland Park hadn't become an overmarketed weird Viking-branded joke, and I remember taking small sips and being surprised at the things I found in the glass. What followed was a long trip down the rabbit hole, and an appreciation for the liquid, the history, the provenance and the craft of it. The world had changed so quickly within my limited life that the history and age appealed to me. Here at last was something that lasted, where men planted trees they would never see grow. Someone could put the work into distilling and lay down a cask knowing they'd never taste it, that it might be stockpiled and aged well beyond their working years. There was no lie in it; if it was thin, weak, sharp, not properly aged, you'd know from the first sip.
Of course, now with the benefit of time I can recognize that for what it is. Whisky changes over the years, as does taste, distilleries, business and management, and in the business of selling brown spirits investment and distillation in a product that takes years to bring to market is perilous. Old men grumble about how their tipple wasn't what it was, that the relationship marketing and trust in the distilleries was often damaged, that their preferred blend now tasted thin and watery. The rise and explosion in non-age-stated scotch, the madness and fraud in whisky investment, the search for new and weird casks to use as high quality sherry and bourbon casks for first-fill grew fewer.
I also remember my first proper taste of bourbon. I also remember being surprised at it in comparison to scotch; everything in the glass was so uncomplicated I ended up killing a bottle unreasonably quickly and coming to the conclusion that it was designed to take the edge off a day and kill brain cells quickly and efficiently. I didn't find it challenging, kept constantly searching for more in the glass, and ended up drinking fast enough that I realized I was running the ragged edge of drinking for flavor vs drinking for drinking's sake - that road leads to alcoholism, and I was glad I recognized it early even if I am sorry to see it gone. I am still envious of Americans who are surrounded by the good stuff at reasonable prices; of course, flipper and scalper mania has seized there as it has with anything nice that people want, so maybe I was wrong to be envious.
Currently, the tail end of the whisky boom has led to an explosion in new distilleries in Scotland; Campbeltown is looking to see a handful of new ones, and Ardnamurchan and Ardnahoe are both making exceptional whisky for the few years they've been up and running. The new distilleries are the ones that truly surprise me; I had previously taken for granted that there was, in the end, no substitute for time when it came to scotch, but clearly modern cask management processes and newer equipment, as well as huge nerds on staff, has done something a bit special. The boom time is ending. I can see this as being nothing but good for me as the survivors will find that quality and the trust of the consumer must be earned.
It's really made me wonder about the correlation between a successful industry and a satisfied customer base. Maybe things being terrible are an indicator of just how good we have it and how far we have left to fall. When the bad times come, only the strongest buildings can stand in a storm. I sense something similar is happening in the video game industry this last year; the standbys and the investment and the AAA studios have seen expensive failure after failure while there's been more great games appearing out of nowhere completely outside the traditional trappings of the industry.
Scotch, for me, is a product category where the cheap is pretty bad and shouldn't even be bothered with (by comparison to something like bourbon) but the best is exquisite. At first I thought I just didn't like scotch at all, until a neighbor started giving my dad really nice scotch (by which I mean, fourteen years ago in my life, a $50 bottle of single malt) that I came to understand it. Now I'll buy a $40-50 bottle every year or two if I see one on sale at the state store, and I'm finally working through some of the gift scotch from years past. I don't drink enough for the cost to really matter to me, though as more of my friends get divorced and hang out with me drinking I'll need to budget better.
What bottles would you recommend as great expressions of the art?
IMO: Ardbeg Uigeadail used to be pretty great back when I was sampling scotches.
Edit: shit, misremembered the distillery. Fixed.
You're thinking of Ardbeg, I believe, but I agree, the Uigedail is my personal favourite of the scotches that can be found in a shop. I think the trick is that aging an Islay in sherry casks somehow cuts out the alcohol burn but leaves all the peat/smoke for you.
If fivehour's looking for an affordable but high-quality scotch off the shelf in the US, the best bang for your buck is actually Costco. Their higher-end liquors are sourced from the best distilleries, but 'off-profile' - if, for instance, an Islay distillery makes a batch that isn't peaty enough for their brand, they'll sell it to Costco or Trader Joe's on the understanding that they will never be named as the source. If you're looking for something interesting and really good, I suggest Milroy's. Those guys are the biggest whiskey nerds in London and their house brand reflects that, plus a much wider selection they can recommend to taste over email.
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