It's a common favorite with the Scotch club I'm in.

 

I would agree

 

Macallan is a good intro scotch.

Really with scotch you want to stay with a single malt (get rid of any blends) and then compare the regions from which they come from.

There are three basic regions:
1. Highlands (usually the favs of the new/casual drinker)
2. Lowlands
3. Islays - someone already mentioned the peety taste, this is usually for the more refined drinker.

My fav is Oban but you should have a great time starting out with Macallan. If they have several ages and types of Macallan you'll begin to be able to "find your taste". After this start to explore the different regions as I have mentioned before. I recently got back from Scotland and consider myself a casual to moderate scotch drinker, but after the trip I learned so much more. It really is like wine tasting in that you can start to develop a taste for the different scotches.

Have fun and make sure you get a DD if you end up tasting "a wee bit" more.

my $0.02

 

I started drinking scotch about 18 years ago, that doesn't make me an expert by any means but i have tried my fair share to know what I like.

Macallan 12 - a great everyday scotch. It's hard for me to drink Chivas, Dewars and some Johnny Walkers so Macallan 12 and Oban are my standard pours.

Macallan 18 - Incredible. I could drink this and Lagavulin and never want to drink any others, that is if it weren't for the price.

 

I agree once you start developing a taste it does get expensive...which is why I hide the rare and expensive stuff when allot of friends come over. But some know the stash spot.

 

Any of you scotchies do cognac, I have a bottle of remy that I can't get used to.

 

I could never get into cognac but had an Armagnac that I liked. Not sure what the difference is. The one I had was Armagnac de Montal, had it over in France and brought a few bottles back (all gone now).

 

Yes! I was just about to post about Balvenie. My hands down favorite.

Macallan is nice. I haven't had it as often as others but I enjoy it when I do.

And Raj, I've tried cognac on a few occasions, and it's vile every time. I just never could develop a taste for it.

 

Cognac needs to be served correctly for it to taste good (to me at least). . . and that's definitely a case where the more you pay, the better it gets. . . It also helps if you get off the beaten path a bit (not Remy, not Hennesy, etc.)

 

They're essentially the same, except for the region where they're produced. Because of differences in the grapes used, there's probably a difference in flavor, but they're both brandies, or eaux de vie.