Quote:
Originally Posted by Eratosthenes
Renato,
Its interesting what is classed as a single malt. There are technically some blends which are sold as single malt whiskies, because the criteria used for single malts is simply whisky distilled from the SAME distillery. Personally there are some great blends and some ordinary single malts. The aging process and the grains used etc are what matters - the process.
I like trying different whiskies although recently I have been diving into Rums.
Have you tried Zacapa Rum from Guatemala? Sensational. The XO is very pricey. A friend got me a bottle packaged in a nice box, duty free for about $139 (worth about $185 retail here). Havent opened it yet. But I have the tried the Zacapa 23 which is fantastic at about $90 per bottle.
https://cocktailgroupie.files.wordpr.../06/zacapa.jpg
The Zacapa XO is so well packaged and in a unique bottle, that I am saving it. Also want to drink a couple of more Rums, to compare. |
Hi Peter,
That is quite a coincidence, after my single malt binge this year, I've been drinking lots of rum lately too - though only the inexpensive dark stuff. I did try and be innovative and bought a spiced Rum which seem to be all the rage. I was extremely disappointed - just seemed like vanilla and rum to me.
I mainly drink spirits mixed with Pepsi Max, and only very occasionally straight, so I haven't given much consideration to the expensive rums.
As for blends, there are three aspects or types of usage of the word. The first is that which means blending single malt whisky or whiskeys with neutral grain whisky to tone it down to the most typical type of Scotch whisky sold in the shops.
Then there is the art of blending the various single malts themselves to come up with the most important component of blended Scotch whisky. And the quality of either the single malts or blended Scotch whiskey depends, as you say, the aging process, grains used, peat used and the process.
And finally, there are the blended single malt whiskies which one sees a few bottles of in most bottle shops. From the few I've bought, I formed the opinion that they got lousy single malts and mixed them, hoping for the best. Had they been any good, they'd have sold them as single bottle single malts.
I'm pretty sure that most Bourbon and Irish whiskies qualify as effectively being single malts. I've only ever seen one blended bourbon, and it's the cheapest one they sell in BWS. As it costs $2 less than the real thing, I haven't bothered testing it yet.
Cheers,
Renato