NEW MEMBERS - INTRODUCTION AREA

[les taylor]

Hi All,

Firstly, a welcome to Willie - I hope you get out of the forum what I have.

Secondly, I am not sure that I properly introduced myself when I first arrived, so for my hundredth post here goes. I am Kieron, I have slowly gained an interest for whisky since the age of 16, an age where I didn't like beer, could not be seen to be drinking alcopops nor could appreciate any liqueurs hence when out with friends I would resort to whisky - a chance to drink with mates and keep my dignity, be manly and be sophisticated at the same time.

I started on Jack Daniels and then moved on to Irish whisky, my boss got me interested further saying I should try single malt scotch, so I did for a while focusing on the Speyside region. Then my boss's boss's boss said I should try Islay, so I did and the rest is history.

I am currently living in Manchester as a software engineer, I like all sorts of music though mainly classical and classic rock. I 10 pin bowl with club, play guitar and like to road cycle. Most of my money goes on whisky these days, more so than food.

I have enjoyed being a part of the forums so far and learnt a huge amount that I could not have gained otherwise. Thanks to all. I look forward to more.


Kieron

Kieron that was a really nice intoduction to yourself I hope you enjoy yourself here and your bronzeiness.

[kyorke1]

Thanks Les.

[Holysinner]

Hi everyone!

I was given a gift certificate at Christmas to a great liquor store chain here in Texas. Rather than get my usual bottle or two of wine (Oregon pinot noirs are my favorite) and a six-pack, on a whim I bought a bottle of Glenfiddich 12yo (plus one bottle of wine). I had never tried Scotch before, and only a few blended whiskies mixed with coke or in cocktails in my younger days.

The Glenfiddich was a little overwhelming at first - I wasn't used to the alcohol level when I tried it neat - but I found it very drinkable heavily diluted with *gasp* tapwater. I went through the bottle pretty quickly, but the more I tried it the more I enjoyed the malty, cereal taste...too bad I drowned it too much to get much else. But it got me interested enough to go back to the liquor store, this time talk to a knowledeable clerk, and pick up a Laphroaig 10yo and a Cragganmore 12yo.

Wow! Laphroaig was the first I openned, and it blew me away. It's my first great Scotch whisky love and will probably stay with me forever. The Cragganmore was too refined or complex for me to understand at first, but now I love it too. At that point I started looking at whisky websites (hadn't found this one yet) and checking books out from the library - Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch was/is inspiring and very helpful, and I just started Helen Arthur's Whisky: The Water of Life = uisge beatha last night, informative so far.

I've added Macallan 12yo (my second favorite so far), Highland Park 12 (also difficult at first, now beautiful), Auchentoshan Select, Bowmore Legend, Tamdu (NAS), and Deanston 12yo to my shelf, and am enjoying them all.

I'm going to have to slow down on my purchases a bit, no more than one bottle/month max, especially as the next on my list to try are a bit pricier than the ones I've gotten so far. Next up will probably be:
Lagavulin 16yr old
Talisker 10yr old
Ardbeg 10yr old
Springbank 10yr old
Aberlour a'bunadh
The Balvenie Doublewood

These forums have been awesome so far, I'm mostly working my way through the threads in the FAQ under Whisky Chat and am learning a lot. Thanks!

p.s. I'm not drowning my scotch anymore, mostly neat or a few drops of Evian - and no more tapwater! Much better.

[pkt77242]

Welcome to the forums Holysinner. Hope you enjoy you whisky journey.

Sean

[dramtastic]

Welcome holysinner to the forum.

What a cracker of a list of future purchases you have as well. Not a single one I don't enjoy.

Look forward to reading your thoughts.

[kyorke1]

Welcome Holysinner, enjoy the whisky journey, those next bottles you have lined up are all great in their own unique ways.

[les taylor]

Welcome holysinner, I bet you can't keep to one bottle per month. If you frequent these forums you won't be able to stop thinking about it.

Unusual name you have as well.

[Ganga]

Welcome holysinner. One of the things you can do is check out the Live Tastings section. We do a monthly tasting of a single Scottish distillery as well as some intermittent tastings of other things. You may find some very helpful notes in there when making your decisions on what to try. Good luck!

[Willie JJ]

That's a great introduction you've written there Holysinner. Welcome to the forums. I hope you continue to enjoy the journey as much as you have enjoyed its beginning. I'm inclined to agree with Les though, that you will find one a month hard to stick to. Especially if your initial zeal is anything to go by. But, don't worry too much. It's only money.

Cheers

[dramtastic]

I Agree with Willie and Les,

Like Pringles, once you pop you can't stop. One a month, good luck sticking with that.

[Holysinner]

Thanks for all the welcoming replies!

To everyone who said I likely wouldn't stick to 1 bottle/month...you're all right! I already bought two today, yet I'm thinking about getting 2 more in the very near future.

Grapevine Market in Austin is having a sale, and I picked up Springbank 10yo for $49 and Aberlour a'bunadh (batch #21) for $50. Two others that particularly caught my eye were Ardbeg Uigeadail for $66 and Talisker 175th Anniversary Edition for $63 (Distillers Edition was about the same price). Since those are about the same price as the 10yo's, and much less than I can find them online or other stores around here, I'm not sure I can pass them up.

I had been planning to start with the base expression from most distilleries before trying their other offerings, though that was mostly for reasons of price. Am I likely to get a skewed impression of the distiller's house style if I go with the Ardbeg or Talisker mentioned above?

I'm still going to try not to open more than one bottle/month (yeah, right!).

To the person who commented on my name, it's derived from Thomas Mann's great novel, The Holy Sinner, one of my favorite books.

[dramtastic]

Grapevine Market in Austin is having a sale, and I picked up Springbank 10yo for $49 and Aberlour a'bunadh (batch #21) for $50. Two others that particularly caught my eye were Ardbeg Uigeadail for $66 and Talisker 175th Anniversary Edition for $63 (Distillers Edition was about the same price). Since those are about the same price as the 10yo's, and much less than I can find them online or other stores around here, I'm not sure I can pass them up.

Two excellent pickups and if you can afford the other two it'd be worth the stretch.

Enjoy

[Michael Owen]

I think that I had better introduce myself as well. Michael Owen, not the famous Michael Owen, we just share the same name. Scottish descent with a love of the Island Malts. Other interests are photography, reading,light classical music, history and archaeology.

[les taylor]

Thanks for all the welcoming replies!

To the person who commented on my name, it's derived from Thomas Mann's great novel, The Holy Sinner, one of my favorite books.

Thanks for the explanation of your name most interesting.

I think that I had better introduce myself as well. Michael Owen, not the famous Michael Owen, we just share the same name. Scottish descent with a love of the Island Malts. Other interests are photography, reading,light classical music, history and archaeology.

And Michael it's great to have you here as well.

[kyorke1]

Welcome Michael!

[dramtastic]

Welcome to the forum Michael

[ohare0130]

Hi everyone,
I just joined the forum today and thought I would post a brief introduction.
I'm Stephen, I'm 34 and from Liverpool. I tried a few single malts a number of years ago, including Scapa and a couple of the Glenmorangies, but never really took it any further.
I recently went to a whisky tasting evening organised by Whyte and Mackay at a great pub here, and it really ignited my enthusiasm and tastebuds.
We tasted Whyte & Mackaye, Jura, Jura Superstition, Glenmorangie, The Glenlivet, The Cragganmore, The Dalmore and Laphroaig. My favourite single malt though is Highland Park 12YO. I have started my collection with Tesco Highland Single Malt 12 YO, which I read some very complimentary things about from various sources. I'm not sure what I will try next so any suggestions would be welcome.
My other main interest is playing guitar - I play six string and twelve string acoustic guitar.
My favourite musicians are Leo Kottke,John Fahey,Peter Lang,John Renbourn,Simone Dinnerstein,Mississippi John Hurt,Feist,The Like and Judee Sill. I read a lot, my favourite genre being horror fiction.
That's all I can think of to say now. I'm looking forward to taking part in this community and learning more about whisky.
Stephen

[kyorke1]

Welcome to the forums Stephen, I hope you get a lot out of the forums and continue to enjoy the whisky journey. Interesting music tastes, I used to like Isaac Guilory, I think he played a couple of times with John Renbourn.

[Ganga]

Welcome Stephen. I'm sure you can get plenty of answers to your questions. And if we can't, I think someone will be able to direct you to a good source. Again, welcome.

[dramtastic]

Welcome Stephen,

Well chosen list in that tasting session, great way to kick things off.

[elqueco]

Hi everyone,

I've been reading the website for a few months now but only as a spectator and have finally decided to join the fun myself. A brief intro for myself...My name is Carmelo, I'm Spanish/Chinese, live in Hong Kong and will turn 31 this Oct. I was introduced to single malts by a good friend of mine over a year ago and it's been all "downhill" from there!! .

If I may, I would like to ask some of the members for their opinion. With everything that's been going on in the world, I lost my job back in Dec and have just recently (two days ago) found a new job, which I thought was cause for celebration. Since I had promised my wife not to buy any more whisky until I found a job, what better way to celebrate my return to slavery by buying myself something nice. Here's where the experienced members' opinion comes in...I've been looking around and can't seem to find anything to jumps at me. Was looking at the Laga 12CS on singlemaltsdirect.com (I usually buy from here...fast and avoids the crazy HK duties + high retail rent influence on prices) but they were out of stock. Was thinking of the Laga DE but I've had a bottle and wanted to get something different while still being affordable. Very quickly, here is what I have or have recently finished. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully sharing some of my own with the rest of the group as well!

Laphroaig 10, 10CS, 15
Lagavulin 16, DE
Talisker 18
Longmorn 16
Macallan 1851 inspiration (really disliked it, found it watery)
cragganmore DE (great nose, but not much palate I thought)
HP 18, 25 new label


Would love to hear your thoughts! There are some great postings throughout the website!!!

Cheers,
Carmelo

[dramtastic]

Hola Carmelo, Bienvenido.

My thoughts are:

Longrow CV
Aberlour A'bunadh
Springbank 15
Balvenie 15 SB
Glenlivet Nadurra

Look forward to your future posts.

p.s I have a keen interest in the Spanish world and love Hong Kong. Hope to get back up there latter on this year(from Australia).

[elqueco]

Hola Carmelo, Bienvenido.

My thoughts are:

Longrow CV
Aberlour A'bunadh
Springbank 15
Balvenie 15 SB
Glenlivet Nadurra

Look forward to your future posts.

p.s I have a keen interest in the Spanish world and love Hong Kong. Hope to get back up there latter on this year(from Australia).

Dramtastic,

Gracias for the info...I haven't tried Longrow or Nadurra, but I know Springbank is a great choice on that list and possibly the celebratory purchase I'm looking for that doesn't break the bank!

If you've taken an interest in the Spanish world and you're a whisky lover, I'm sure you haven't overlooked Spanish wines. Another tradition that rich in history. I find Spanish wines a very interesting world myself but favour whisky for its better cost performance. You're welcome to drop a line if you make it back up to HK and we can go for a couple of tasting sessions in the town...

cheers,
Carmelo

[RobRoyMac]

Hello all. I'm Rob, 34 yrs old from Australia. I only found this site a few days ago, and am looking forward to chatting with some of you and learning more about Whisky along the way. In the past I of course have had American Tennessee and Bourbon Whiskeys and more recently some well known Irish brands. At the moment I have open a Dalwhinnie and Ardmore Highland Scotch. I like the smokey ones, but want to experience all regions of what Scottland has to offer.

[dramtastic]

Hi RobRoyMac,

Welcome to the forum. There are a few Aussies such as myself here as well. Look forward to hearing your views.

[kyorke1]

Welcome Rob and Carmelo!

[Ganga]

Welcome Carmelo and Rob. Good to have both of you aboard. I look forward to both your comments and questions.

[MacDeffe]

Hello

My name is Steffen Bräuner and I usually label myself as MacDeffe

I am from Denmark, but try to visit Scotland around once a year

I have been drinking malts around 15 years, 10 years as nerd..I mean "Connoisseur" and my favourite has to be all of them, but if I have to mention one its Brora

I mainly drink independent bottlings as I prefer nonchillfiltered and don't like anyone else but myself to add water to my whisky

Recently I liked the destillery bottlings from Benriach, BalBlair and Bladnoch thou

Macdeffe

[Ganga]

Welcome Macdeffe. I'm sure you will recognize a few smiling emoticons here from SOI's weekly chat. I look forward to reading your contributions.

[Wave]

I mainly drink independent bottlings as I prefer nonchillfiltered and don't like anyone else but myself to add water to my whisky
Macdeffe

Welcome fellow cask strength aficionado! In my opinion straight from the cask whisky is the only real way to taste a distillery's style. I've met some interesting Danes in my travels through Scotland.

Cheers!

[drew]

Hey.....sounds like a great group.

Andrew here, just joined today. I have been drinking whiskey for about 2 years now and have bought a bunch of different bottles. Really enjoyng the Johnnie Walker blue with a fine cigar,
I have been looking at getting the King George V bottle...any thoughts?

[dramtastic]

Welcome Drew

[Klas]

Welcome Macdeffe and Drew

I hope you both will like it here.
See you around!

/Klas

[Ganga]

Welcome Drew. I've no idea about the quality of any of the JWBlues that are not the standard release. What I can tell you is that the King George bottling is roughly 3.5X the cost of the standard Blue Label. Good luck.

[Ryguy]

Welcome to the Forums Macdeffe and Drew! Enjoy yourselves around here, and I look forward to reading your posts.