My son and I attended a Scotch event at the Westin Hotel in Scottsdale, AZ. I learned a number of things about Scotch I did not know:
We had a tasting of three Glenfarclas Scotches: 12, 17, and 25 year olds. Glenfarclas is a Speyside Scotch.
The 12 year old was quite impressive. Very smooth with a mild peaty flavor. The 17 year old was bolder with a sherry taste to it. The 25 year old was mild with the least peaty taste. However, it was the smoothest of all three.
After dinner we returned to the Scotch Bar and had a drink. We tried Bruichladdich Octomore, which is the heaviest peat Scotch. This is an extremely high alcoholic content Scotch at 64% and was dated 2009. It is bottled young to preserve the peat flavor. Surprisingly, this Scotch goes down smoothly considering its proof. However, after you swallow it it feels like your insides are going to burn up! This is one Scotch where a little goes a long way. This is a complex Scotch for special occasions and not for all tastes.
- Almost all of the single malt scotch brands are owned by large scotch producing companies and in turn they are owned by non Scottish companies such as Diageo, Bacardi, Suntory, etc.
- A single malt scotch is a blend of various malts from a single distillery.
- The age of the single malt scotch is the youngest of the malts. So, a 12 year old malt will have blends of, for example, 12, 17, and 25 year old malts but the youngest blend is what appears on the label.
- Adding just a few drops of water changes the entire flavor of the Scotch. I usually drink Scotch neat but will have to rethink that process.
- Johnny Walker Blue has blends of up to 125 years old in it.
We had a tasting of three Glenfarclas Scotches: 12, 17, and 25 year olds. Glenfarclas is a Speyside Scotch.
The 12 year old was quite impressive. Very smooth with a mild peaty flavor. The 17 year old was bolder with a sherry taste to it. The 25 year old was mild with the least peaty taste. However, it was the smoothest of all three.
After dinner we returned to the Scotch Bar and had a drink. We tried Bruichladdich Octomore, which is the heaviest peat Scotch. This is an extremely high alcoholic content Scotch at 64% and was dated 2009. It is bottled young to preserve the peat flavor. Surprisingly, this Scotch goes down smoothly considering its proof. However, after you swallow it it feels like your insides are going to burn up! This is one Scotch where a little goes a long way. This is a complex Scotch for special occasions and not for all tastes.