[cibo]

(03-05-2015 11:38 AM)MidWest Wrote:  

What's a good brand for a newbie?

I know nothing about whiskey and I'm a whiskey dummy. Only thing I drink here in college is coors light, vodka, and tequila. But whiskey it seems that its mostly a drink to kind of relax and chill.

There's differences in how each country makes their whisky, though Japan and Scotland are actually pretty similar in taste profiles. If you want smooth and easy to drink, go Jameson. If you want character go Eagle Rare 10. If you want a really good bottle, go Yamazaki.

I'm skipping Canada since I don't know them well enough to make a statement about their whiskies.


Irish
If you like easy to drink smooth and non offense spirit, Irish whiskies are pretty good. My first whisky was Jameson drunk by a Irish friend in my dorm and i thought it was pretty good. I find that non-liquor drinkers can handle Irish whiskies reasonable well. My one beer drinking friend doesn't really drink whisky but he can handle Jameson since its so smooth. That said it probably doesn't have as much character as a scotch or bourbon due to Irish whiskies being triple filtered.

Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey
For a bit more uniqueness in taste, bourbons are really good price performance.
Grab a bottle of Eagle Rare 10, Knob Creek or 4 Roses single barrel (thanks for reminding me about that one Harvey). Those are some pretty good bourbons at a reasonably priced, $30 area. Bourbon is a bit sweeter than other whiskies due to being made with corn, and the rye ones are quite sharp. But bourbons have a lot of flavor overall. They have made a large comeback recently which is why the distilleries are struggling to keep up with demand and some have watered down their brew like Jack,

Scotch (Scotland and Japan)
These are the luxury group of whiskies, though bourbons are starting to push into this area more. It's kind of hard to find a good bottle below $40 dollars, especially if its a single malt (made from one distillery). I haven't tried them yet but I've heard good things about Famous and Black Grouse as sub-$30 blends.

If you're willing to go into the $50-$60 range you can find a lot of great bottles of scotch. You really can't go too wrong in that category just choosing any of the bottles on the store shelf or in this thread. Do be aware that scotch from Islay is known for being very peaty which gives it a charcoal taste. Thats a bit love it or hate group of whiskies.

I would recommend a Japanese scotch whisky as a start into this group if you have the money available since they are usually really well balanced. They're not cheap though since they're like twice marked up from Japan. Hakushu 12 year is probably the best price performance for a japanese whisky in america at $50-$60 and is probably cheaper here than in japan. It's a bit peaty and because of the decisiveness of that, it's probably got less demand than the rest of the j whiskies, which are pretty expensive and bit overpriced due to popularity at the moment. If you have the cash to shell out for $80 to $100 for the Yamazaki 10 or 12 year, those are really good.