Scotch

For those who know me well, I have tried whisk(e)y in the past and not been able to stomach it. Maybe it was cheap stuff tried at weddings, or Johnnie Walker Red (which I've subsequently learned is meant to be drunk with soda water), or perhaps my palate was not fully developed. Whatever the reason, until recently I have stuck to gin and vodka for my spirits (usually mixed with tonic water and lime, or occasionally in a tom collins).

For whatever reason that changed with our one year wedding anniversary last year. Leslie and I went to Cityzen at the Mandarin Hotel (a truly amazing dining experience) for our anniversary dinner. After the dinner we retired to the lobby lounge for a drink and I ordered some Glenfiddich 18 year old on the rocks (I can feel the Scotch-o-philes shuddering at my choice of ice with my scotch). End result -- I loved it. Maybe it took the two glasses of wine with dinner to ready my palate, but for some reason I really liked it. That led to buying a bottle at the Montgomery County liquor store (Montgomery County in Maryland has its own liquor board separate from the state -- what a country we have!). Then I bought some Macallan 12 y.o., some Talisker 10 y.o., and Bowmore 12 y.o. Why those bottles? Because they were all on sale. A good enough reason, I think, to buy some good whisky. Of all of them, I liked the Bowmore the best. The peaty, smokey flavor blew me away. It was lip-smacking stuff.

The real change, however, came with Christmas last year when Leslie gave me two Riedel scotch glasses. I continued to drink scotch with one ice cube in it. Then one day I tried some Macallan without the ice. I hadn't liked Macallan up to that point, but suddenly the glass opened up the bouquet and I smelled... honey! I had never noticed it before with the ice-chilled whisky. And since then (admittedly only about six months) I have taken to drinking whisky neat or with some bottled water (side note: NEVER, NEVER let a whisky snob tell you that scotch should only be drunk neat. This is not true. Master distillers will tell you that adding water to scotch helps open up the drink. Try a side-by-side comparison if you don't believe me).

In any case, that was my introduction to the world of scotch. Since then, I have acquired a few more bottles and tried a number more, but the Islay malts remain my favorites. In my next blog I will talk about Bowmore, which is my favorite whisky, which explains why I own seven different bottles.