Taken from the way a different thread was heading, recommendations on non -Scottish Whiskies.

Basically we all know that Scotland is the land of the finest single Malts but what other whiskies are enjoyed by those on Arrse.

Currently have a bottle of Gentle Jack in the cupboard which is rather pleasant for something American.

And have had several Irish bottle over the years.

Tried a couple of drams of 'good quality' Japanese whisky (made in Japan, not a Japanese-owned Scottish distillery) over Christmas but to be honest I wasn't impressed. No subtle flavours. Would get ya drunk though. So it achieves 50% of its aims. Just made me think of seeing the Jap-run distillery in the 'Glens' region of Scotland. It was fully automated, run by one local who just checked the dials etc, seemed very souless and commercial to me and done to get around the labelling restrictions.

i tried a japanese malt round at a mates after a pretty heavy session and it was just about undrinkable, god knows what it would've been like sober

Jamesons

Edited to add- although I think talisker tastes like a tramps sock so I'm not exactly a connoisseur

Sun-Tory Yamazaki is supposed to compare favourably.

Has anyone tried Penderyn?


Penderyn Welsh Whisky Whisky - Master of Malt

World Whisky - Master of Malt

Bushmills single malt is lovely. I'd also rate it over the majority of "Scotch" whiskies out there.

Gentleman Jack, or Single Barrel is often found in my hip flask also. Nom nom nom nom nom nom

Penderyn is made 13 miles away from my house. It's a perfectly pleasant whiskey, but I do prefer Irish.

Of the Irish whiskeys that I've tried (apart from poitin), I prefer Powers.

Most people cant tell one whisky from another, especially if they have had a couple. In fact if you want a wee bit of fun tell your drinking mates that you bet they cant tell a lager from a stout or a pint of heavy. Get half a pint of each poured tell your guy to shut his eyes and give him the stout first, he might get the first two swigs right but give him a taste of stout again and usually they wont have a clue what they are swallowing after that.

JDs a nice dram

I've got a couple of bottles of the early English Whiskey company output, both still at 3yrs. Best described as alright at the moment but the peated one already shows a lot of promise for when it's properly aged.

Sun-Tory Yamazaki may well have been the one I tried. We tested a few round at a mate's place and like I say it was 'ok' but I couldn't see what was special about it at all. I believe it can be quite expensive. ie £40+ for a bottle in some shops. They use fancy bottles sometimes which puts me off a bit...is it a quality drink or a novelty gift item?
I think I in fact left my 'top up' of it to one side for a while....nearly forgot to drink it, it just wasn't pleasant really and didn't compare with better brands.

As an aside I am finding that top quality dark rums are also enjoyable and godo to mark a special occaision. Look for dark rums made from genuine demarara sugar cane, grown right by its name-sake's river for example. Not cheap either but worth it in my humble opinion. Quality of raw materials and interesting,traditional distilling techniques being used as well to naturally improve flavours, quality etc.