The Scotch Experiment

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am also big into my Scotch single malts, so if that divine nectar doesn't do it for you, please look away now. Anyway, during the course of my last stint in Scotland I endeavoured to refill my whiskey shelf with bottles from the amply stocked Edinburgh Duty Free, which is a bit of a misnomer as all the whiskies are Duty Paid, but discounted. Nominally I decided to purchase approx one bottle per month, alternating between known favourites and experiments.

The results of that spree can be found here. I did OK but found it hard to really push myself out of my comfort zone. For this iteration of the project I am going to do things less more scientifically, to whit, I am going to use Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible 2011, a stocking filler from Herself last Xmas. I don't really read much Whiskey writing so I don't know how well regarded he is (Wikipedia article here), for all I know he could be the Robert Parker of Whiskey writing.

Anyway, his "Bible" is what I have to work with, for better or worse. We seem to share similar tastes in whiskey; he loves two of my faves: Dalwhinnie 15yo and Glenmorangie 10yo and doesn't really care for Balvenie Doublewood or Highland Park 1998.

My method is thus; I select a few likely contenders from the "Duty Free" based on price (around £30 for a litre) and just a general "vibe" when perusing the shelves. I then check these out in the "Bible" and I select those whiskeys which score the highest. Likely contenders so far (JM scores in parentheses)

Glenfarclas 15yo (95)
Glendronach 12yo (92)
An Cnoc 12yo (90)
Aberfeldy 12yo (88.5)
Glengarioch 12yo (88.5)
Aberlour 12yo (88)

Looks like my next three bottles are accounted for. BTW, I realise that I am taking a large punt on Jim Murray's tastes and mine being very similar and I don't really know what to tell you about that.

**Update Got the An Cnoc last week and it's very good. Reminds me of the standard Glenmorangie, whihc is quite a compliment.