[dav]

need a recommendation for a good to premium single malt scotch for a holiday gift. any advice?

[m a d r a]

naturally i'd recommend you steer clear of the scottish muck and buy a nice irish instead. in order of excellence...

1. black bush [10yr old bushmills]
2. bushmills
3. jamesons
4. powers
5. paddy

[hic!]

[maxelson]

Having ASKED for scotch, scotch is what you get.
Upper crust- nothing says "I love you desperately" to a Scotch drinker like (still under $100):
Oban 20 YO
Talisker
Lagauvalin (sp?)
Dahlwhinnie

Higher end, but still under $50-
Glenkinchie
Laphroiag
Glenmorangie (a favorite of mine, please email me for my mailing address)

Unusual, under $30-
Loch Dhu (The Black Lake- VERY dark- blacker than Guinness. Smokey, smooth. Love it. A late night sipper.)
Dalmore

Under $40-
The MacCallan
McClellannds 16YO

[cdhostage]

I remember my father really liked the Century Scotch - a blend of the best Scotches from each year of the past 100.

A little expensive, though.

[maxelson]

You know, just pondering the whole Irish liquor thing... so, why is it that the Republicans and Northerners (Protestant, Catholics, Loyalists, Patriots etc) can't agree on much, but Guinness pretty much is one of those things that folks don't argue (throw stones, shoot, blow up) about? Not to diminish the seriousness of the "Troubles", but perhaps a peace accord should start with Guinness?

[m a d r a]

are you talking about guinness, guinness stout, guinness extra stout, guinness export or guinness red heart here?

guinness pretty much have the booze market sewn up in ireland. all the above varieties of guinness plus...

satzenbrau pils [biggest selling pils]
smithwicks ale [biggest selling ale- and a top brew!]
harp lager [biggest selling lager]
and smirnoff vodka [biggest selling vodka]

are all part of the great guinness empire. [and there are probably a few more i've forgotten]. i dread to think the state the country would be in if the company ever folded and we had sobriety thrust upon us!

[hic! 2]

[maxelson]

WHOA! HEY! What's this Guinness Red Heart Business?!? I got all the other stuff (Smirnoff was a lousy purchase for them... the stuff is crrrrrap!) But seriously, Guinness (un)Ltd, PLC, XYZ, MoUsE just seems to be the great English speaking nation unifier (as much as a multi national monolithic conglomerate can be, that is). Hell, even the British like it. We got it here. We love it. They got them loverly Waterford chandeliers hanging in the Westminster Abbey. The book. The booze. Huh. That's power.

[johnny_hotrod]

My father, a scotch conniseur, proclaimed upon tasting his first dram of Lagauvalin that it tasted like burnt rubber. He was promptly told about the proclaim that it normally receives.

On the other hand, when I went to scotland last November, I was told by the upper-management at my then-work that if I brought a bottle of it back, I'd be in their good books...

...and for three days, I was the most popular guy in the building.

Johnny "big man at Coventus" McCreath

[m a d r a]

guinness red heart is drunk in belfast by old men in cloth caps.

you wouldn't even recognise it as guinness if you saw the bottle. it's got a white label with [guess what?!] a red heart on it. i think it's a belfast brewed variant but i cannae quite remember the whys and wherefores as to how it differs from the other types of guinness. haven't had it [or seen it] in years.

maybe it is no more.

mundie's wine - now there's another one. tramps booze. used to buy it as a teenager. it's about 15% proof and tastes like paint stripper. classic stuff! they dinnae make it anymore. i think it got outlawed when the UN signed the last treaty on chemical warfare.