I don't drink Scotch, so what's a good Scotch I could buy for Dad, say under 300. I look online and I have NFI what Im looking at, I know single malt is better? than blended.
A Good Scotch for 70th Birthday Present
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There's a whole world of whiskey out there. It would be a shame to restrict yourself only to single malts or japanese just because you've heard some snob go on about it.
Japanese is good, but way overpriced for the time being. You can't even get a Hakushu 12 for less than 300 nowadays, and there's some amazing whiskeys under that price point.
yeah get single. maybe check dan murphy for the award winner logo next to the bottle. usually they are good ones
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/whisky/availability-delivery/r…
then filter by price if you like."70th Birthday Present"
should be under $700 ? :)why not over
Who’s celebrating their 700th birthday? :)
Yoda
James I, Count of Urgell
urrgh his budget is
Single Malt is not necessarily better than blended. I won't go into the specifics, but I wouldn't restrict yourself from buying something just because it's a blend.
It's really hard to buy whiskey for someone if you don't know what they like. Whiskey is like wine, it has amazing variety and notes, from fruity to citrusy to floral to wood to leather to smoke. For $300 you can get some truly amazing whiskey, so that's a good price point IMO if you want to get something special.
The next question is, do you now what they like in whiskey? If not, do you know their favorite wine? What about favorite meal? Try to think of descriptors of commonality for what they like (woody, smokey, heavy, light, creamy, etc). Are they an avid whiskey drinker? What's their "every day" whiskey?
It really depends on the drinker, if for the last 50 years has been drinking Johnny walker red with cola/ginger ale etc, there is not a lot of point buying a $300 dollar single malt Japanese etc. a lot of people prefer blended scotch. Mixing scotch with soft drinks is silly north of $60 price point.
without knowing flavour profile i would get two different bottles.
maybe start off with a Johnnie - can't really go too wrong with higher than standard everyday scotch.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/661274and then something subtle unless if you know they like peaty taste.
It really depends on the drinker to be honest.
My personal favourite is the Blue Royal Salute 21 but its blended.
Surely OP would have some knowledge about which scotch their father usually drinks? Whatever that is, that is the benchmark for a 'good' scotch.
Take a note of that and go to Dan Murphys and talk to someone who knows the flavour profiles and get something similar; there are too many options to start second guessing about what the father may or may not think is 'good'.
If they don't already drink scotch, get a taster pack to let the research begin.Yeah its normally something like Johnnie Walker black, I was just thinking of something nicer than that.
Johnnie black is obviously a long way off $300.
Johnnie platinum (I think it's now referred to at the 18yo) is a good drop for the price, IMO, and gets you out for ~$100.
Maybe your best option is to pick up three different styles each around the $100 mark?
what bottles does he have at the moment.. that would give you an indication of what he likes.
you could get blue label… but not much wow factor in it .
or
you could get a macallen rare cask for a little more..
or
whiskey subscription lots of different whiskey over many months.,
Johnnie Walker Black and he has had a Blue back in the past.
My suggestion would be a few rather than a single very expensive bottle because risk to reward. If he loves it it's a win if he doesn't you've just spent a lot of money for not a lot of gain.
Lagavulin 16 was a staple of mine. I'd always have 2 bottles in the cabinet. Regularly comes under $100 and IMO the best whisky for the sub $100 price point.
https://www.boozebud.com/p/lagavulin/16yearoldI liked this from memory.
https://www.boozebud.com/p/glenmorangie/18yearoldHighland park is always well received but I never had it.
https://www.boozebud.com/p/highlandpark/18yearoldBest of luck :)
Yeah thats a good call too. I like it. Thanks.
As mentioned above, it's tricky to suggest as it depends on your Dad's taste preference. Many good options above, but if you want something truly special/unique, I would recommend any whisky from the following page:
https://shop.thewhiskylist.com.au/collections/something-for-…
The Whisky List curates exceptional whiskies, many based on partnerships directly with the blenders themselves. I have just bought a bottle of the Firkin Caol Ila 9 and can't wait to crack into it. I'm sure your Dad would appreciate any of these!
Ill have a look at it, Thanks.
If you think the recipient would appreciate some age statement on the bottle (not endorsing older is better narrative here) to match the occasion, I would suggest look at Cadenhead's bottlings or Glenfarclas bottlings as you get the most bang for your buck in terms of age statement.
Otherwise the choice is REALLY REALLY subjective and to avoid wasting your money on something your dad would not enjoy, I would start gathering some subtle hints to his preferences (e.g. sweet v smoky or easy drinking vs punchy high abv etc. etc.), then go from there
Glenmorangie Signet isn't a bad choice, it looks really great. Personal favourite in this price range is the Glengoyne 21, great drop (although not worth the extra cash over the 18, but it is a gift after all).
Honestly, paying over $200 you're paying for the limited, unique taste. You can get super smooth, delicious whiskies easily for $150-200.
JW Blue isn't a bad option either. If he's a JW drinker already, why not? You know he'll probably like it. You don't want to get too far out of his comfort zone if he doesn't drink many different whiskies.
As mentioned everyone has a different taste, so it's going to be hard to go off just that unless you buy him the same as what he already gets for himself.
However could focus on the experience rather than the taste. For my mates 40th I just kept an eye on what was on special on Ozbargain deals, then we bought him one that was about $500 dollars, though RRP was about $700.
It was more for the experience, figured when is he ever going to get a chance to have a $700 bottle of Scotch. The caveat we gave him was that he could not keep it, he had to drink it sometime within the next year.Then again at 70 new experiences is probably not what he is interested in.
That was my thought, he has never had an expensive bottle, just buy one for the "Hey I did it" type of thing..
In that case keep an eye on ozbargain for a still expensive but discounted one (more bang for your buck) but also do some google searches and compare prices in case a good deal doesn't come up in time.
I can't remember the one I got for my friend, but it was a 40 year old scotch that I had to order from overseas; just a lesson learnt is that we had to pay tax on it that was not included in the sales price.
I was going to mention this site, but it has been mentioned before; I just got an email off them just now, timing eh ;) cheers
https://shop.thewhiskylist.com.au/collections/something-for-…If anyone cares, I ended up getting this
Tobermory 'Ledaig' 19 year old
Has some good reviews and it was only 239.
Get 'im 2, 1 for each hand ;)
Would certainly be an experience watching a 70year old play Edward 40 Hands with whiskey
You would join him, of course, since he has a lot of whiskey on hand/s :p
Anything Single malt, and or Japanese.