Why don't you try some blending?

As stated in previous posts, people have this undue snobbery of the idea of single malts. A lot of this is based entirely on the idea that they've been told: that single malts are the way to go and that blends are somehow less. More often that not people hear and understand this before they've taken enough time to make a decision themselves.

A lot of blended scotches have been blended to provide people with a less expensive alternative to expensive single malts. They've evolved into that. In the past they may have been created this way to give the consumer a more balanced taste using younger and less expensive scotches. But I think now money is the main driving force and this has been done at the expense of taste, and also to appeal to a wider audience that isn't actually looking for much in their scotch experience. Your J & B Rare (don't get me started about the term 'rare') and your Grant's Family Reserve are basic and simple. Then you have your Johnnie Walker Black Label that makes a claim to be a higher end product, but falls short.

However, I think that people really need to get over the idea that single malt is better than a blend, no matter what. It's simply not true. Some single malts have a simple profile and they could definitely be improved by blending. But people seem to hold single malts to a different level, a level that shouldn't be tainted by the idea of blending. Maybe this think if they're going to spend $50 or more of a bottle of something, they shouldn't experiment with the presentation.

But here's an idea and it came about because the blends available in Canada often aren't that great: If you can't buy a good blend, why not do it yourself? I suggest that you do the blending! The idea when I first considered it, seemed crazy, 'who am I to be the person that blends?' I thought, I'm not trained in this and I have no skill. But you know what, after seeing a couple of videos on line and then just getting over my own resistance, I just did it, I blended a bunch of scotches I had and the result was actually really pleasant. Then I mixed again and I blended scotches with Ryes and bourbons and again the result was quite excellent. Would it win an award? Probably not, but I took some satisfaction in the fact that I had made that. I had thought about what to mix and my result was pretty good. I mixed again and I added too much of a really peaty scotch and I thought I should lower that next time. Yeah, I screwed up but I learned from the experience.

The first several times I mixed six or seven whiskys together, but tonight I just mixed 2. I got a budget 12 year old blended scotch and added a bit of my favourite, but less expensive single malts. The result was a better version of the blended scotch, which when I calculated the cost made it a much better tasting deal for my money. I'd almost be a fool not to do this in the future.

The recipe for this new invention of mine is 2 shots of Dewars 12 year old ($34.99 for a 750ml bottle) and 1/4 shot of Deanston virgin oak ($49.98 a 750 ml bottle). The beautiful and wonderful taste of Deanston comes out and dominates over the Dewars. True, it would be better to drink pure Deanston, but the cost of this mixture makes the mix pretty good for your wallet.

You can also mix some scotches and still come out with single malt. Mix some Glenfiddich 12 year old, which is kind of boring stuff, with Glenfiddich 15 year old, which is amazing, and you'll get single malt Glenfiddich that's pretty intriguing.

Lately I've been drinking some Black Grouse with a couple of drops of Ledaig 10 Year Old Whisky, a few drops of Lagavulin 16 Years Old, a few drops of Port Charlotte... and maybe one drop of Bowmore 12 Year Old. It's really quite good in my opinion. Nice and peaty and complex and easy on the wallet.

Give this mixing and blending a try. I'd like to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

Tobermory 10 year old Single Malt Scotch Whiskey

I'm sold on the idea of unchill-filtering (just not on how to spell it), and so when I'm shopping around for a new Scotch to try out, I'm immediately drawn to the ones that make this claim. The Tobermory 10 year old proudly displays this on the box along with its 46.3% alcohol by volume and I had a feeling, that since it looks like a craft brewed scotch, coming from the only distillery on the Island of Mull and has opted for a green bottle that there isn't any colour in it either. It does give this appearance, but there's no claim to this effect so its hard to be sure.

Tobermory starts off with a very pleasant sour peat smell.

I added too much water the first time and it really brought out the smell of apples, sweetness and chocolate. When you've got yourself a fine scotch, adding a little too much water once in a while is never really a bad thing. You get some more flavours and some more smells and you can savour them for a little longer. What else is in there? You can dig in and explore for a while. A little oak, a bit of barely, some fruit, a mixture of intriguing sweetness.

The palette is very sweet and smooth with light chocolaty taste.

The finish gives a good bang of very nice smooth buttery sweet caramel. There's a slight kick of ginger hotness that slides and morphs into the taste of almonds. Really quite delicious.

Being 10 years old this has a youthful taste that I think I'm really starting to enjoy. If you're like me, you've been told that older is better (either actually told told or implied told (and prices often reinforce the implied told idea) but I've had some really good 10 year old scotches that I think are really quite good because of the youthful elements in them. Ageing them changes them and adds quite a bit but it can also take away some stuff, and that kind of youthful rawness is really appealing (especially in peated scotches). It's starting to make me think that my ultimate blended mix (if I could make any blend I wanted, regardless of price) would probably have to be called 10 year old, because I'd want to include some ten year olds into the taste.

Will definitely pick up more Tobermory in the future (planning to always have some in stock, actually) and have already branched out and gotten hold of some Ledaig (their more peaty brand).

Robert Burns Blended Scotch Whisky

This was one that I avoided for a while. Nothing about it seemed right. It's named after Scottish Poet Robert Burns... to be honest, I'm not really a fan but am pretty ignorant of Robbie Burns. My parents are Scottish and so I know "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" but had to look it up to get it right and I only know that one line. That's pretty much as far as it goes.

Maybe I went into this biased.

This Scotch doesn't really do his apparent legend any service. The nose is pretty simple and all we get out of it is a new young malty scent. The palete continues in the simplicity with some general scotch sweetness, not quite caramel, but close. It's not rich or terribly flavourful. There's maybe some fruitiness in there, but faint. Some further sweetness in the finish, maybe a little oak. Quick and again simple.

Maybe this should be an introduction to scotch scotch. Maybe give this to someone to give them the basic idea of what scotch is, completely lacking anything else... then you proceed to let them expand their ideas of scotch with scotches that have more complexity, more taste and are just generally better.

Maybe I'd buy this again but probably not. It runs at $30.87 Canadian in Nova Scotia, which is a little more expensive than all the other low end scotches. It's 40% and comes in a European 700ml bottle (although I've seen on the internet that European versions of this are 43%). I'd rather get J&B or Famous Grouse because they're less expensive for more and probably better.