Written by Jackson Glassey, January 4 2019

Starting Scotch III: Hitting My Stride

I started off obsessed, took a short detour growing disenchanted, and, now, I’ve reached an optimum level of scotch excursion and experimentation. While the Aberlour 12-Year Sherry Cask will always be my favorite on a level of personal significance (being the first quality scotch I tried and fell in love with), I’ve since discovered two other particular brands that, for lack of a better expression, blew my mind. Both of the following drinks have become cornerstones in my repertoire of Scottish whisky whenever I get the chance to buy a bottle, which isn’t often: one I guarantee all of you will love, and one I guarantee half of you reading this will hate.

The Balvenie 12-Year DoubleWood: Even more so than the Aberlour 12-Year Sherry, I would recommend the Balvenie 12-Year to anyone who may be interested in scotch. It’s a Speyside malt (a region in the northeastern Scotland highland, home to other rich and sweet scotches like Macallan and Glenfiddich) with absolutely delicious notes of cinnamon and raspberry, aged in oak barrels and sherry oak barrels. It’s a scotch that achieves that rare balance of drinkability and potency—the way its stronger flavors meld with its sweeter flavors is immaculate, a prime example of whisky as an art. It’s affordable to boot, ranging from $45 to $55 a pop, depending on where you’re shopping. I can’t say enough great things about this one. If you pick up a bottle, I assure you that you’ll enjoy every sip.

Laphroaig 10-Year: Anyone who knows me as a whisky drinker knows that I love peat in my scotch. I, in turn, know that not everyone else does. In fact, many people are repulsed by peat—the smell alone can sometimes make even the most dedicated whiskygoers queasy. Needless to say, it’s a polarizing flavor, and I discussed the technical aspects of it in my first edition of this column. However, if you’ve never tried a peated scotch before and are morbidly curious as to why so many people either love it or hate it, the Laphroaig 10-Year, distilled on the Isle of Islay (an island on the southwest corner of Scotland, known for other extremely smoky, peaty scotches like Ardbeg and Lagavulin), might be your best option. Laphroaig has become the poster child for peat, and for good reason. It has a very punchy, medicinal tinge of peat, as opposed to something like Ardbeg, which I find more swampy and grassy. This scotch slaps and sloshes around on your taste buds, making for a sensational drinking experience; as the distillery touts on the bottle’s packaging, “It’s like kissing a mermaid that had BBQ for dinner.” It’s also about as affordable as the Balvenie, usually pricing out at around $43-$50.

With that said, I still can’t promise that you’ll even remotely enjoy this. If anything, it’ll be what determines whether or not you were born with a taste for peat.