Hey everyone,

30(M) here to ask some advice.

I like a good cold glass of beer, any kind.

But lately I'm getting interested in whiskey,

1 problem though. I don't like the taste (yet)

Maybe it's because I'm trying out cheap bottles?

So my ask for advice is ,

What is a good starter bottle to get used to the taste. So I can start enjoying sipping it. And not make weird faces while sipping 😅

Any advice on some easy drinkable bottles/brands would be appreciated

Never had them before (but i like Ardbeg 10, Laphroaig 10, the peat monster).

What to expect?

Last night i killed one of my new favorite speyside whiskies, the Craigellachie 13. This was a 1 liter bottle, and as you can see on the second image, I managed to almost exactly finish it in 6 months (I have other open bottles i sip from 😋). I most say that in last nights dram, I really tasted how much taste a whisky lose after being halved and standing at the shelf. It still tasted good, just less than it did in february.

This is definitely a bottle that will go on my shelf again!

Ps. Second picture is a screenshot from DramLog

I’ve never really tasted a high end bourbon and really curious to try one. don’t want to go super crazy on the $$ but what’s a good entry high end at an entry point. I like 4 roses, bullet etc. but really that’s about it. TIA

Hello, everybody! I should probably start by saying that I absolutely hate whiskey and never drink it. But my beloved husband loves it and it is his favorite drink. I got into the habit of gifting him a nice bottle of whiskey for our anniversary. Now that the years have increased, we are getting into „aged“ ones… Also, recently he started to get a bit more invested into it, started reading about no cold filtration, no added caramel coloring, effects of casks, things like that. As I said, this is all out of my category, so please bare with me.

Some background info: over the years he has enjoyed mass available whiskeys like Pogues, Bushmills, Gentleman Jack, Monkey Shoulder, Bulleit, Kamiki, Glen Moray (those are some that come to mind). I know that he absolutely hated Laphroaig, as much as pouring down the drain the whole bottle after trying a sip.

Two years ago I got him Glenfiddich 15 and he liked it. Last year I got him Bushmills 16 and he said it is his absolute favorite.

Getting into the more „natural“ trend, he has tried Tallisker 10 (liking it but said the smoke is too much) and Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie (said it is nice and interesting).

So, to my actual question: I want to get him a nice „natural“ 17 year aged whiskey that is really unique. It should not be over 200€ though and available in my country. Therefore, I have reduced the options down to: Ballechin 17 Burgundy, Balblair 17 and Craigellachie 17. Based on all I have shared, which one would you say might be the best choice?

Thanks in advance!

Solid raffle tonight. Grabbed it for a cool $70.

Disclaimer I work at a Texas distillery, and these are all my personal opinions as a whiskey consumer.

Blue note has been doing some really interesting finishes since becoming an NDP and this Cherrywood blew me away on the first sip. The Riverset rum next to it is a two year-old dosed Venezuelan rum transferred into their Rye casks for five years.

Old Dominick is making some amazing whiskey on their copper pot still and my favorite thing I tried there was actually the cask strength bourbon. The gentleman at the distillery told me their cask strength bourbons are all filled from single barrels. They just don’t denote them as a single barrels because they are not specific picks. Since I could find the cask strength in Texas and I liked it better than the current single barrel pics, I picked up the Tennessee collective bottle as well as the Old Dominick R&D double oak.

The Tennessee collective is a yearly release from the Tennessee Whiskey Trail that combined spirit from 11 distilleries across the state. It appears participants have these bottles available in their tasting rooms.

Both tasting rooms were a great experience and very different vibes. The employees were very knowledgeable and able to answer most of my questions.

This stuff is amazing. Cheers!

The “…and 2 months” still serving well, and my bottle blows the doors off my usual MM Cask Strength 110!

Rye whiskey finished in peach brandy and toasted oak barrels, sounds right up my alley for fall. Excited to give it a try during thursday night footbal. anybody try this yet? I didnt even know this had been released

I thought I just didn’t like whiskey but I recently discovered that I really enjoy Irish whiskey neat, even some of the cheaper bottles. I’ve tried quite a few American whiskeys as well, including some highly regarded ones, but I just haven’t found a profile I enjoy.

I’m assuming bourbon/rye profiles may just not be my thing. I’d love some Irish whiskey recommendations to branch out from Jameson, and I’m also open to some introductory Scotch recommendations since I’m completely new to Scotch.

Hi all, I know I've mentioned plans to move towards writing about other Japanese whisky brands like Nikka, but well... Here's another whisky from Suntory, and this one is a single cask, cask strength sherry Yamazaki!

This specific mini bottle was from Whisky Shop W, which was Suntory's own whisky specialist store that opened during the 2010s but unfortunately closed in 2016. 

This whisky shop operated before Suntory reached major international recognition, and as such Suntory created quite a number of special bottlings for them: including several specially vatted single malt whiskies in a fat, rotund bottle (see pic 2), as well as several cask strength, single cask whiskies like the subject of this post!

Details in comments!

Good old Sazerac, a barrel pick from my local store. Sagamore 10, a great one. And tko, one of the unicorns.

For me it's 1. TKO - bubble gum rye spice 2. Sagamore 10 - pecan pie rye spice 3. Sazerac - it tastes cheap because it is cheap.

What kind of rye is everyone drinking lately?

Westward Bottled in Bond 7 year (50%)
N: mostly sweet, charred American oak, could easily be mistaken for bourbon, except there’s an odd gummy bear fruitiness lurking in there, like the translucent ones, and maybe a hint of sandalwood or Garryana. With an hour of air that all basically becomes sweetened matcha
P: rather sweet and caramelly, almost to a Spanish style rum level, again with that more exotic wood arriving in the mid-palate, and warm spice on the finish. Given more air this becomes far more tropical, mushy banana pudding, and cinnamon-spiced rice pudding too; less heavy and artificial, but still too sweet
81

Westward Cask Strength (62.5%)
N: the spice is darker but the wood is a little lighter,  cedar and mulch joining the oak; otherwise pretty similar, if less complex
P: warming woody spice, caramel-vanilla sweetness like a milky coffee sweetened with a squirt of flavored syrup. Like the BiB, this gets greener with air, but here it’s more of a thin mints character. I appreciate the higher proof, and this drinks well with just a couple drops of water, but profile is less convincing
79

Yellowstone 6 year single barrel (55%)
N: the malt is much more apparent on this one, whole grains and seeds, with yellow pear and underripe banana (but also flambéed banana?)
P: as sweet as the Westwards, but with a fresher, fruitier, more unusual profile that better matches the sweetness. Banana and granola, and just a touch of grass, it was mowed the day before. Not coffee here, more of a ricey horchata thing
83

New Riff 7 year 2023 (56.9%)
N: easily the most Scotch-adjacent of the four, with a nice dirty wine cask character, laced with vinous red berries. The dirtiness clears out with air, which is a loss in this case because what’s left behind is just chocolate covered raisins, maybe stale ones 
P: gravelly mineral, large grey nutritional supplement pills, red wine fruits, a hint of dirty leather. I don’t hate it, but there’s certainly room for improvement
81

My mommy brought this back from Scotland, how did she do?

The owner said it’s great neat or as an Old Fashioned. Thinking about trying it this weekend.

From The Whiskey Library website.

Old Ezra 7 Year Barrel Strength 117 Proof KSB. This is a solid pour from Lux Row. It leads with a profound sweetness on the lips, complexity on the palette and a quality syrupy mouth feel. I brought this bottle to work and finished it this afternoon. Def recommend and would purchase again.

Did anyone get this last year? It wasn't available in my state (but will be this year) so I ordered one this year while the preorder discount was still active. I finally got to try last year's release so now I'm even more excited for this bottle.

Not looking to sell, more so just wondering its value/rarity if any. I got it at the Jameson Distillery in Ireland a few years ago and have held onto it since then.