Topic: Scotch whisky protected against 'inferior' copies

[Simon]

New guidelines to protect whisky from foreign imitation, including new rules on labelling and bottling, are coming into force in Scotland on Monday.

There will be a new requirement to only bottle Single Malts in Scotland, and tighter rules on the use of distillery names on bottle labels.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8372260.stm

[GillE]

Ask not for whom the Bells toll...

[Clive]

Well, that is my choice too.  I'm a whisky drinker but I'm not that keen on single malts.  Bells is as good as anything.

[GillE]

Actually, I can't stand scotch.  It was just too good a pun to miss  .

[Simon]

I don't enjoy scotch either, but can occasionally force down a Jack Daniels and coke.

[Sandra]

Philistines 

If any of you get the chance to try a 12 year old single malt called Inchgower I am sure that you will be converted.
Unfortunately I havent been able to find a bottle for about 10 years but I can still get the 14 year old which I dont like 
I can only assume its bottled in a different place as youd expect it to be even better being 2 years older.
The best one I can find at a reasonable price now is Highland Park, a single malt from Orkney.

[GillE]

Sorry, Sandra - I just don't have a taste for it, rather like you don't have a taste for asparagus  .  However, I will concede that whisky & ginger flavoured ice cream is delicious served with hot Creole bread pudding  .

[Sandra]

Ah but thats one of the green things I do like Gill, asparagus and avacado are the only ones I can think of at the moment  

I think its the plain boring and cheap everyday veg that I cant stand.

Saying you dont like whisky is like saying you dont like cheese.
There are so many varieties there must be one you like.
I cant stand the peaty Islay single malts which many people adore.
On one occassion a friend came round with a bottle of Glenlivet, I said I didnt like that one but had a taste and it was very nice. I was confused as I know I had drunk it before and not liked it. I bought a bottle soon afterwards and I didnt like it  
I couldnt understand it until I looked in a little book I had been given once about Scotlands single malt whiskys. It rated the various whiskys buy peatiness, colour and another varuiable which I cant remember now and unfortunately I havent been able to find that book for years.
Anyway when reading the page about Glenlivet it appears that they use 2 different bottlers even though they start off in the same distillery.
The water that they dilute the original full strength whisky with comes from different areas for both the bottlers, which affects the taste.
The description for peatiness for the one I liked was rated as 1 and the one I didnt like was rated as 4.
The trouble is I cant remember which one it was that I liked now  

[GillE]

Woohoo!!!!


Finally!!!


There's a vegetable Sandra does like.



I have to say, though, that the delights of whisky elude me altogether.  There were quite a few attempts to suborn me to whisky when I was in the air force, including Irish whiskeys such as Jameson and Black Bush.  All to no avail; I'd rather have a Southern Comfort instead.  I wouldn't say no to a glass of armagnac, though .

[Sandra]

Woohoo!!!!


Finally!!!


There's a vegetable Sandra does like.

You missed out GREEN Gill 
I qute like butternut squash, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and corn on the cob, not keen on corn stripped from the cob though for some reason.
Nothing beats a nice juicy rare fillet steak for taste though 

[Simon]

I can see that trying to find the one whiskey you like, could be a very expensive persuit!

[Clive]

There are some single malts I enjoy Sandra, one of which is called Scapa.  I managed to buy a bottle when I visited Orkney in 2007 but that no longer seems to be available either.    LINK

[Rik]

Try The McAllan 18-year old.

[Sandra]

The alternative on that page Clive, is the one I mentioned earlier that I now drink, Highland Park. Its available in supermarkets at around £25 to £30 depending on whther theres an offer on or not. As theyre both from Orkney then I presume theyd be similar styles.

I was lucky enough to have a friend who took voluntary redundancy from his job when I was about 25 years old and he took over a pub in a nearby town Simon. One afternoon I went to visit him just before closing time one afternoon. Hed just been to a brewery exhibition and had bought about 25 different bottles of whisky. When the pub shut and the customers had left we started at one end of his whisky shelf and had a taste of them all. I narrowed my selection down to about 6 favourites and resampled those a few times until I finally decided that the 12 year old Inchgower was my favourite.
I wasnt really in any fit state to drive as even though we had only had a small sample of each I must have had at least a third of a bottle of whisky in total

That was the one and only time I have driven when I was definately over the limit, apart from the day that I passed my driving test 
I got into my E Type and set off home along the backroads. The first time I had to do a right turn onto another road I mounted the kerb and almost hit a lampost. Being a lot younger, drunk and not as wise as I am now, I carried on driving very slowly until I got home with no further incidents 

[Simon]

You were very lucky, Sandra, as were other road users in the vicinity!