I'm going to a birthday party this weekend for a guy friend who loves whiskey and scotch. I don't whiskey very often and I've never tried scotch, so I don't know anything about them. Can anyone recommend a nice bottle of whiskey or scotch that I could pick up as a gift? TIA!
I'm a scotch drinker! Everyone has a personal favorite but if you don't know which brand in paticular or want to get something different here are a couple. If you do have an idea about which brands the person likes you could always go to a nice store and ask them to suggest something similar in flavor. Or if all else fails a nice set of glasses for the scotch would be an excellent gift.
Scotch whiskey blends, all but the most snooty scotch drinkers are happy with blends:
Johnnie Walker - this is such a popular brand that most people will be happy with. The Blue and Gold label are the most expensive and better quality for someone who drinks scotch without mixers. The black label is popular and less expensive.
Chivas - this is my favorite affordable scotch and you can get the 18yr at a decent price.
Scotch single malt, some scotch snobs will only drink single malts if you think this person would care or it you want to impress them with saying "Yeah I thought I should get you a single malt for your birthday." Then get them Macallan! This one is my favorite! I bought a bottle for my birthday at duty-free and I think it was $100 I'm not sure the range but most drinkers would be happy with a 12yr Macallan, 18yr if you want to splurge!
my favorites are glenfiddich, jameson is always good, and there is another brand i like but i can't remember the name. there are horses on the bottle. if i remember i will edit.
While I do love whiskey, I'm more into shots than sipping so I usually don't splurge on anything amazing. (I know... don't I sound classy?)
But my ex really loved whiskey, and the favorite of him and his friends was Woodford Reserve. I bought him a bottle for his birthday one year and it was gone by the end of the evening (of course, then I had a drunk BF on my hands... but still, I gather that he appreciated it...)
ETA: I'm also partial to Maker's Mark
-- Edited by ttara123 at 12:16, 2007-02-23
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How much do you want to spend? My friends who are really into scotch all love Laphroaig. It's a bit peaty for me though. For one of the Laphroaig-lover's birthdays I brought Aberlour as an alternative and I liked that a lot better and he seemed to like it as well. In terms of American stuff, the standardone that I go for is Maker's Mark but I also really like one of the special Wild Turkey ones - I think it's called Russell's Reserve.