One evening in 1990, a comrade was able to finally convince me of the single malt. Since that time they have been one of my favorite drinks and I also started looking for specific products from one distillery or another. The really interesting thing is that in the 1990s and XNUMXs it was pretty hard to get single malt from specific vintages. One possibility was that Scotch Malt Whiskey Society to join, which was founded in 1983 and to which my comrade also belonged. Another is to purchase a cask share from a distillery or specialist company and receive at least one numbered bottle after bottling. Since I didn't have enough passion or a sufficient wallet, I remembered my "hunter nature" and started to buy normally available bottles over the years.
Now it's just a matter of budget, and you can buy almost any vintage from almost any distillery almost anywhere. What amazes me is where the distilleries have kept their whiskey hidden for decades; all the more I enjoy the single malt, which I "hunted" at the time when single malt was even less available. If it's a Dallas Dhu, Glen Gordon or a Rosebank, it will be another night to remember.
And once the passion for the single malt has grabbed you, you will very quickly realize that two things are absolutely necessary in order to be able to fully enjoy such a drink, namely a lot of time and the ability to let go. If you are missing one of the two, but would still like to use a single malt from time to time, then I recommend using a single malt with information on the pure storage times. If you are looking for something special, you will find it not only 8 years, 10 years and mostly 12 or 15 years old whisky, but now also 18 years, 21 years and also 30 years as well as even older whisky, which is also already in each case is also available up to pure cask bottling.
In the following articles I will go into more detail about the single malt from Campbeltown, the Highlands, the Lowlands, the Islands, Islay and Speyside.
Here in this article I will go into more detail about the single malts that were distilled in a specific year and also bottled at a specific time. It is even better if not only the exact dates are listed, but also the cask and bottle numbers.
Rounding it all out, the whiskey region, cask style and strength, especially if not already refined to drinkable at bottling, are listed. It is also helpful if there are further indications of the expected taste.
As I've already mentioned, I couldn't be particularly choosy about my selections, but this has also meant that I've enjoyed single malts from all regions over the years and still stock a variety of single malts to this day.
The special thing about this single malt is that you can also enjoy it alone if necessary and fall into very deep and long-lasting thoughts. Personally, however, it is more fun to enjoy them in good company, so I have always preferred to seek pleasure in a good bar. And at least for the single malt, there are certain criteria for a good bar: it was as smoke-free as possible back in the 1990s. In addition to the classics of whisky, it also stocks some single malt, of which only a few bottles may be open. The bartender is characterized by the fact that he also opens a new bottle without batting an eyelid and serves the whiskey in a suitable glass. And if you order a cask-strength single malt, a water jug of the corresponding brand is also served, although this is only for visual purposes, and the right water - this is absolutely necessary (!) - is also served. Once you've found such a bar, it's particularly difficult when you have to change location again; but decades later you will fondly remember the evenings in such a bar.
Therefore it is particularly important that as a lover of single malt you have at least one bottle of it at home. And over the years, everyone finds their routine on how best to enjoy a single malt. As already mentioned, our most important asset, time, plays a decisive role in this. In addition, there is the art of letting go in order to be able to fully enjoy a whiskey in the end.
I hoarded my "treasures" up until my fiftieth birthday and always thought very carefully about which single malt I would even consider opening. Since that birthday, however, I've only tried to drink my best single malt and don't bat an eyelid if an acquaintance, friend or one of my two sons would like to try a certain bottle - that's the true art of letting go.
If no one relieves me of the agony of choice, then the enjoyment begins in the cellar, I rummage and try to recall the place and the type of distillery of the selected bottle. Then I try to remember what another single malt from the same distillery tasted like, or I've had the opportunity to have drunk that exact single malt before.
Then I look for my single malt glasses, from which I have been drinking my single malt since 1993, and for a ship's carafe, because it not only has a good stand, but also closes quite well. I do without the water carafe, as I rarely had a lucky hand when choosing water and I had to get used to being able to enjoy cask strength.
When everything is ready, my green tea, which I drink throughout the day, has already been infused several times and has slowly but surely sensitized my taste buds; a glass of water completes the preparations.
Before I then open the bottle, there is another opportunity to think about when and where I "hunted" it or maybe got it as a gift. Most of the time, these bottles are also nicely packaged and it's fun to take them out of the packaging. Since these may well be older bottles, opening is not always easy and I have gotten into the habit of decanting the single malt into a carafe. And this is already one of the first highlights of enjoying single malt, because after all the decades in the cask and additional long years in the bottle, the single malt comes to light for the first time and excellently confirms why already George Bernard Shaw described the whiskey as "liquid sunshine".
A decanter brings out the best in the single malt and it is already a feast for the eyes to see it shimmering and glittering there.
Just imagine pouring yourself a single malt distilled the year you were born and then pouring it over in a cask that had previously produced fine wine, sherry or other whiskey in a warehouse by the rough seas matured for several years before finally ending up in the very bottle you are pouring it from now. What have you experienced over the years?
When I then have the single malt in the glass, I enjoy the sight again and wave it back and forth - it is always a feast for the eyes and always a new experience, because each single malt has its own color, which one against the light considered, further color nuances can be discovered.
Then I look into the glass to see how the single malt behaves in it, similar to a good wine you can see different behaviors. It is therefore also important that the glass not only makes the whiskey look good, but also gives it the opportunity to develop further.
Half an eternity may have passed by then, and every minute of it was worth living.
After looking at the whiskey again and the first smell already filling the surrounding room, I sink my nose into the glass to take in the single malt further. This can also take half an eternity and it cannot be ruled out that I will look at the single malt again before I sip the glass for the first time and let the first sip melt in my mouth; by sipping lightly and imperceptibly, you can further intensify the taste and let the single malt really come into its own.
After another eternity, the single malt is released into the throat, where it continues to unfold and as it slides further down, the last nuances of taste unfold.
Even if it is not about the smell and taste that you personally prefer, enjoying a single malt is always a new and unique experience, which gives you an idea of the diversity of this drink and also the visual, olfactory and taste buds challenged anew every time.
And over time you learn to appreciate these different sensory impressions, and to love some of them too. In any case, it will seldom be love at first sight, especially when you are first introduced to a very characterful single malt that completely overwhelms your senses.
I had once eighteen bottles of whiskey in my cellar, and was told by my wife to empty the contents of each and every bottle down the sink, or else.
I said I would and proceeded with the unpleasant task. I withdrew the cork from the first bottle and poured the contents down the sink with the exception of one glass which I drank.
Extracted the cork from the second bottle and did likewise with it with the exception of the one glass which I drank.
I then withdrew the cork from the third bottle and poured the whiskey down the sink which I drank.
I pulled the cork from the fourth bottle down the sink and poured the bottle down the glass, which I drank.
I pulled the bottle from the cork of the next and drank one sink out of it, and threw the rest down the glass.
I pulled the sink out of the next glass and poured the cork down the bottle.
Then I corked the sink with the glass, bottled the drink and drank the pour.
When I had emptied everything I steadied the house with one hand, counted the glasses, corks, bottles and sinks with the other which were twenty-nine, and as the house came by, I counted them again, and finally had all the houses in one bottle, which I drank.
I'm not under the influence of incohol, as some tinkle peep I am. I'm not half as thunk as you might drink. I fool so feelish I don't know who is me and the drunker stand here the longer I get. Oh, me...
Anon
