Whenever we dine at my eldest sister's, dinner always end with a whisky session as both my brother in law and hubby are whisky lovers. My brother in law always has a few bottles at home and calls hubby his idol as he always enjoys a few drams with this drinking buddy. Actually, the idolisation is very much mutual as brother in law always does amazing food we go round.😂
So back to the whisky session. This time my other sister and brother in law were there as well. My other brother in law, Henry is more of a red wine guy, and the other two guys were trying to introduce him to whisky, hence the all out.
Bowmore
The first whisky the guys introduced to Henry is the Bowmore single malt. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best one for him to try first as it was a bit strong on the peaty side. Hubby has never been a fan of it. First strike, Henry was a bit undecided.
Woodsman
Next up was the Woodsman blended scotch. Hubby said this was rather mild, other than that he doesn't have much recollection of it. I take it it's a no from him. For me, I like this purely due to its bottle. The proportion of the main bottle height (nice and plump) to its neck length is very pleasing to the eye. And my favourite part are the groves on the bottle. I think it's very mesmerising to look at.
Wild Turkey 101
Hubby is not big into bourbon and he tried two this evening. The first, the Wild Turkey 101, apparently is American's biggest selling bourbon. Actually, I'll tell you a funny story about the Wild Turkey. You know when you study a new course at college, the basic entry course is usually numbered course 101? Well, since hubby doesn't drink bourbon, but he knew this was a popular brand, he thought the 101 was to denote it being a basic starter bottle 😂 It wasn't until we saw the bit about proving on the bottle, googled to see what that was all about, did we realise what the 101 really meant. I mean you can't really blame us, as the term proving isn't used in scotchs.
Makers Mark
The second bourbon of the evening was Marker Mark. Hubby was actually quite ok with this, and the Wild Turkey in fact. According to him (and he hasn't tasted that many bourbons compared to scotch) based on the few he has tasted, he reckons the taste difference isn't is that great between normal price bourbon vs the higher price range ones. Whereas, the taste difference between say a £30 bottle of scotch and a £60 one is quite big. Hence at that 'lower' price range, hubby said bourbon is a good value drink compared to scotch.
Henry's verdict?
Anyway, back to Henry. Having tasted 5 different whiskys that evening, we think he's gotten a not bad impression of whisky. Not sure we can say he loves it, but he definitely doesn't dislike it. At least the guys will have another whisky drinking buddy now