Aberlour 16 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $65
Place of Purchase: Warehouse - New York, NY
Rating: 8.1

Aberlour 10 year is one of the best—no scratch that, Aberlour 10 is the best “bang for the buck” single malt around. Granted, I live near a place that sells it for 24 bucks a bottle, but even at its recommended retail price of about $35, it’s well-nigh untouchable. Glenfiddich, Glenlivet, Tamdhu—don’t even bother with that stuff. Aberlour 10 “brings the noise” as they say. So, all that being said, I don’t feel I was out of line when I expected the 16 year old double-casked (bourbon and sherry) version of this malt to be something extraordinary. Honestly, I think I was actually whistling on my way home with this! Well, it didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, this is a fine malt, it’s Aberlour, after all, and they are incapable of producing bad whisky. But this rather expensive expression seems way too restrained to me, as if the weight of six extra years have pressed out all the lush chewiness that makes the 10 year so special. And the sherry-finishing seems a non-starter.

An interesting sidenote: I purchased this bottle using about six months worth of change I had saved up. Have you ever heard of Penny Arcade? What will “mankind” think of next?

Bruichladdich Infinity

Single Malt
Purchase Price: Generally $75 or so
Place of Purchase: Received as gift
Rating: 8.0

This and Isle of Jura Superstition qualify as the strangest-tasting malts I’ve yet encountered. Bruichladdich has been a laboratory of sorts in recent years, offering the general public dozens of experiments in various cask-finishing, peating and God knows what else. This weighs in at a hefty 55.5% alcohol, but for all that formidable strength, it is not overpowering. (I’ve got a bottle of Old Grand Dad 114 proof at home at the moment that feels like it’s attacking me with a flamethrower.) Granted it does begin with an initial tsunami of brine right from the start, but it’s been assembled so deftly that the middle and back end prevail with ever decreasing waves of fruitcake, peat and leather. Plus, about a dozen other notes I’m hard-pressed to identify. And then some hale sea air again that actually leaves you thirsty. I like it, but it is definitely a dram for the adventurous.

Cragganmore

Single Malt
Purchase Price: Generally $40-$50
Place of Purchase: By the glass at Red Lion Inn (Stockbridge, MA) and dba (New York, NY)
Rating: 7.2

Wow. It's the honest to God truth to say that there are very few single malts that I don't like. There are some I like better than others, of course, but I genuinely feel that to make a comment like "All single malts are good" is NOT misleading or irresponsible. However, it's really only 90% true because (in my case, anyway) of malts like Cragganmore. I've tried it twice now, and had a hard time finishing my glass each time. This astounds me, as it is a highly rated malt. I can't even put my finger on what facet of it keeps putting me off. There was just some crazy aftertaste that stuck to the roof of my mouth like a Fruit Roll-Up and each successive sip only furthered my consternation. Baffling, but it is what it is. This rating may be revised in the future when I give it a third and maybe even fourth try, but for now, this holds the dubious distinction of being my least favorite single malt.

Caol Ila 18 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $70
Place of Purchase: Warehouse - New York, NY
Rating: 7.8

A lot of people have a high opinion of Caol Ila, and indeed, even its own labeling isn’t afraid to declare itself the Islay malt for people in the know--a “hidden malt” that only a chosen few will find. A couple Christmases ago, I took all this at face value and used some gift money to buy a bottle. I quickly found out that Caol Ila forbids retailers to stock it on the shelves with other “mere” malts—prospective consumers must go to the counter and ask for it by name. If you don’t pronounce the name correctly, you don’t get a bottle. It’s simple. I passed the test, hence this review, but I must say in comparison to the other Islays I’ve tried, notably Ardbeg, Bruichladdich and Laphroaig, it comes up a bit short. Now, the Caol Ila 12 year might be the revelation of a lifetime for all I know, but the 18 year seems slightly threadbare to me--a wisp of smoke, a sniff of peat, some brine and pepper on the palate and then it seems to fade away rather quickly. It’s often said that Islay malts are the Van Halen of whisky. If that is true, is Caol Ila 18 year the island’s “Diver Down?”

Balblair 16 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $48
Place of Purchase: Park Avenue Liquor - New York, NY
Rating: 8.4

It was a rainy, cold day in November when I strolled into Park Avenue Liquor with $100 to spend. Park Avenue Liquor is a connoisseur's stop--they have a lot of rare and obscure single malts from every distillery you can think of--vanished distilleries, mothballed distilleries, and maybe even some distilleries that only ever existed in legend. It's a real playground for the single malt buff, but it's not cheap. You can pretty much count the number of bottles going for under $50 on one hand and things don't top out until the $13,000 mark for a bottle of 50 year old Macallan in a Lalique decanter. So I traded my Benjamin for the Balblair 16 and Glencadam 15 for no other reason than each of them were about $50 each. Wow. If only every random decision I made turned out as well. Balblair 16 immediately became one of my favorite malts, it's got style, class, sweetness and legs that seem to go on for miles. Kind of like Katarina Witt but from a different European country! Well worth seeking and making your own.

Bowmore Legend

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $22
Place of Purchase: Warehouse - New York, NY
Rating: 8.0

A mild and young tipple that is probably the most approachable of the malts that hail from Islay, easily the most intimidating region of the spirit world's most intimidating drink. Bowmore doesn't exactly nuzzle the back of your hand like a doe at the petting zoo, but compared to swaggering peat monsters like Ardbeg and Laphroiag, it's much easier to confront head-on. A nice balance of peat, smoke, salt spray and toffee. And who among us would dare pass by its sub-$30 price tag? Bowmore is a world-class distillery and being able to buy in so cheaply is nothing to be scoffed at.

Tomatin 12 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $20
Place of Purchase: Unknown - Somewhere near Stockbridge, MA
Rating: 7.6

I saw Tomatin for the first time sitting on a shelf in some random liquor store out in the wilds of Western Massachusetts. With a cool black label (very rare for this category for some reason) and a price of exactly one $20 bill, I had absolutely no compunction about grabbing a bottle. Well, the verdict is that Tomatin is a strange malt, possessing an element of bicycle tire rubber that makes you think you've been stranded in the sporting goods department of Kmart again. Now, normally that would get anyone other than maybe Eddy Merckx pedaling the other way, but surprisingly enough this whisky manages to offset that bizarre note with a lot of really pleasant layers of "normal" things like malt and heather and toffee. Still, it’s pretty hard to reconcile all that with the feeling of "biting down hard on an inner tube for no reason," so approach with caution.

Ardbeg 10 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $40
Place of Purchase: Warehouse - New York, NY
Rating: 8.3

Classic Islay, you know what you're getting when someone slides a glass of this straw-colored whisky in front of you. It’s rousing stuff with wispy tendrils of campfire smoke, pitchforks full of peat and a stiff briny breeze. It all falls together quite nicely. Perfect for autumn days, winter evenings and maybe even a chilly spring night, but I wouldn’t advise carrying a bottle of this around on a stifling hot June day at, say, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. It’s just not meant for that.

Tomintoul 10 year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $28
Place of Purchase: Union Square Wine and Spirits - New York, NY
Rating: 8.0

This young spirit, from one of Scotland’s youngest distilleries, is as friendly as Casper the ghost and almost as light and airy. Can you imagine the uproar if Casper ever got drunk? I hope it never happens because I don't think kids need to see something like that. In any case, back to Tomintoul, there’s just enough maltiness at the bottom of this Speyside whisky to prevent it from floating away like your average Lowlander is wont to do. Speaking of floating away, I can still vividly remember the time I was five years old and decided to get “cute” with the helium balloon that had been purchased for me at one of the local department stores. Despite the protestations of everyone around me, I insisted on letting go of the string it was tied to and then snatching it back real fast. I should add that this was taking place outdoors, in the back yard of my home. Needless to say, about the third time I pulled this little stunt I missed the string completely and my Panda-shaped balloon gracefully floated away. Forever. Some lessons are best learned with a side serving of tears and that was one of them. Tomintoul 10 year isn’t likely to make you cry anytime soon, but it’s a decent enough malt priced every bit as reasonable as the advice the adults were trying to impart to me that day. I like it.

Tamdhu

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $22
Place of Purchase: Gotham Wine - New York, NY
Rating: 7.8

Tamdhu's young and a bit on the meek side, like a kitten peering around the corner when there are guests in the house. But, like kittens often are, it’s very inexpensive--not quite free, but one of the lowest-priced single malts out there. What you get for your money is a pleasant, grassy malt of indeterminate age. This mild-mannered citizen is a good dram to give to a friend or acquaintance intimidated by the reputation of Scotch whisky. And have some yourself while you’re at it!

Glenrothes 1987

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $85+
Place of Purchase: Gift
Rating: 7.8

This bottle looks like an old-fashioned bomb a turn of the 20th century anarchist might tote around under his tattered cloak whilst tracking down corrupt politicians or particularly egregious members of the bourgeoisie. I received this as a gift and it is a likable enough quaff, but at the price being asked, it is definitely asking a lot of you and then falling a bit short in the return category. It’s my first encounter with Glenrothes so I’m not really sure what the “taste profile” is for this distillery, but this particular expression seems just a trifle washed-out. The distiller himself writes some character notes right on the label, and although my palate never really caught hold of the citrus notes promised and the orange zest never really materialized, there were some nice vanilla notes and that’s about what could be said of this bottling. Nice, but too mild-mannered for the admission price.

Speyburn 10 Year

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $18
Place of Purchase: Warehouse - New York, NY
Rating: 7.7

One of the most inexpensive single malts ever and not to be scoffed at. It's not going to be one of those mystifying malts that keeps you up nights wondering just how mere mortals could create something so divine, and then go so far as to bottle it up and distribute it around the world for the use of any bum with twenty dollars in his pocket, but if you’re on a budget at any given moment due to job loss, the high price of gas, a recent mugging, etc. this will soothe that single malt urge most satisfactorily.

Isle of Jura Superstition

Single Malt
Purchase Price: $23
Place of Purchase: Ralph's - Indian Wells, CA
Rating: 8.0


I'm not sure what exactly the gremlins at Jura do to this, but there's no denying it is a strange concoction. Some brine to begin, then some honey, and then a pleasant, eventful finish that reminds me of a cookie store they once had at the mall that sold cookies the size of dinner plates. It’s like some mad scientist's experiment, but the results really aren’t that bad. A unique malt. I’ve seen this for 40 dollars and up in many places, so I was lucky to stumble upon an incorrectly priced bottle at a Ralph's supermarket in the California desert last summer. I was actually nervous when I brought it to the register and when the check-out lady called out to her colleague I thought she was about to call a price check. It turned out she just thought the metal ankh affixed to bottle was “cool” and felt her co-worker should know about it. I should have known better. How the heck would she know how much whiskies cost? The store had like 200,000 different items!