Newbie with questions.

[albo]

Hello all,

I'm a newbie here and have enjoyed reading the forum for a couple of weeks now, I'm also fairly new to the whole Whisky scene. As seems about par for the course on here I have some newbie questions (don't they all!), I haven't seen where these have been already covered in the forum, but if I've missed something, please point me in the right direction.

Firstly, at the moment I'm drinking the quarter cask Laphroaig and rather enjoying it, I do like the smokiness of it, I'm keen to try other whisky's of a similar ilk, from reading here it looks like Ardbeg, Tailsker and Lagavulin would be fair choices from one degree to another, I am also keen to try other malts and see where my tastes develop, are there any other good but reasonable priced whisky's to get me started?

Also, while I'm at the reasonable priced whiskies, in the UK are there any brands available in the supermarkets which are worth seeking out? I know the web is a good source for buying whisky but, I can see nothing here about what is worth popping in my trolley while I'm down at the supermarket.

Lastly, and what really piqued my interest to discover more about malt whisky, I was given a bottle of 1986 Beinn a Cheo whisky, which from what I can gather is a single cask bottling from the Scottish Liqueur Centre, of 25yr old whisky from Glen Spey, it seems I have bottle number 13 (lucky me) of 240. Can anyone shed a little more light on this for me, any further info on what single cask is all about? Is this likely to be a good whisky? Should I keep it for a while or drink it now?

Thanks in advance.

[Calder]

Welcome to the SMW forum albo

Considering you like Laphroaig QC then i am sure you will also like Lagavulin or Ardbeg.

You may find these pages of interest:

Scotch Malt Whisky Flavour Map
www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/whiskyflavourmap.htm

Choosing Single Malts by Flavour
www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/similar-tasting-notes.htm

There are many whiskies worth popping in your trolley at the supermarket in fact most of the bigger supermarkets stock the whiskies you mentioned above. There is a whole section on the forum dedicated to whisky offers and bargains available in supermarkets which is always worth keeping an eye on. See here
www.scotchmaltwhisky.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=18

[McKay]

A single malt whisky is made of 100% malted barley and is from one single distillery. A single malt whisky may contain slightly different ages of whisky from numerous different casks within the distillery's warehouse. These are then married together in a larger container to establish the required consistent flavour profile. The age stated on the bottle is the youngest age of any whisky included.

A single cask whisky which has become more and more popular in recent years is as the name suggests whisky from a single cask as opposed to the single malt which is a marriage of a number of casks from the same distillery. It is common for single cask bottlings to be bottled at cask strength (the alcohol level is not reduced) and to be non chill-filtered.

Your bottle of Beinn a'Cheo which is Scottish Gaelic meaning "mountain of mist" was distilled at the Glen Spey Distillery in the Speyside region of Scotland then bottled by independent bottler Scottish Liqueur Centre i believe they sell it for £50. You dont see that many bottles of Glen Spey around as i think most of the whisky produced goes into blends. I havent tasted the bottle you have myself so i cant comment on the whisky but in general Glen Spey is a pleasant easy to drink whisky. Personally i cant see it making you a fortune in the future, i would say open it and enjoy it.

[albo]

Thank you both for your helpful replys, I'll take a look at the links.