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My Uncle Paul recently came from the Boston area to the midwest to pay a visit to my family and grandparents (his parents). While here I told him of my homebrewing and he told me of Scotch Whiskey. I believe he said it was his father-in-law who got him started on the stuff, and while it’s something of an aquired taste he has grown to love it.
After his visit I made a visit to Binny’s Beverage Depot, a Chicago area liquor store chain where they have more liquor and beer in one place than most people have ever seen. I asked who their scotch guy was and the directed me to one of the assistant managers. I told him that I was planning on hosting a scotch tasting with my friends and that I was a newbie when it came to scotch and asked what he could tell me that would help. He went on for a while and gave me a lesson in the different regions and different styles of scotch, and he spoke of it the way I would speak of wine. I asked him how many bottles of scotch he has at home and he said probably around 40 and they are all open and he drinks them all.
He showed me lots of different bottles, but when he got to the Balvenie Doublewood he said that was his favorite best value all round scotch they sold. It is aged in oak for the first 11 years of its life and then moved to sherry casks for the last year to soften and sweeten. I didn’t go in there with the intention of buying anything but this guy talked me into it and out I walked with a bottle of Balvenie Doublewood 12 yr. ($40)
It occurred to me that you can have a glass of whatever scotch suits your mood without having any waste whereas with wine when you uncork the bottle the clock starts ticking. I don’t ever keep more than a bottle or two of my favorite wines around anyways because I like to explore wine and sticking to my 2-3 favorites is boring. Scotch is made in one region of one country in the world by a handful of distilleries. Its highbrown and small enough in production that you could easily become expert at it.
We took the scotch home and my friend Zac and I uncorked it after watching a youtube video on “how to drink scotch” (we ARE newbies as I said). We poured a shot glass of it into a tulip shaped highball glass and each added some water and one ice cube. Let me just say that what I drank was not what I was expecting. It was smooth and soft, with notes of vanilla and caramel (I am not good talking to the whiskey, but I could talk to the wine all day..I hope I will get better). It was not like any Jack Daniels or Jim Beam or Makers Mark or Woodford Reserve or Johnnie Walker I have ever had. All were much more harsh and all were a chore to drink, but not this Balvenie.
If you want to explore the land of scotch but are not a big whiskey fan I would say this is the place to start.