Speyside Single Malt Ratings
Cardhu, Balvenie, Glennfidich and Macallan
Macallan Whiskey
Macallan 12 Year Single Malt
It's rich, golden color is almost as beautiful as the taste. Macallan Whiskey has a nice sherry flavor from it's Spanish sherry-aged casks. The nose is full of light, fruitiness with maybe a dash of lemon. The light nose is a bit deceptive as this is a very middle-ground, full flavored Scotch. The first sip will quickly dash any notions you might have had of a light, citrusy tasting scotch. It's a very scotchy flavor with some black cherry to its finish. This is a nice all around scotch. Macallan Rating: 88
Cardhu Single Malt
Cardhu is a popular single malt scotch with a medium-light color, nose, body and finish. This is a very versatile scotch in that it can be appreciated by experienced scotch drinkers and beginners alike. The nose is light and fruity. The first taste is very clean, buttery-like and goes down with a medium length finish. The final result seemed to leave remnants of fruit punch tastes. Very nice, but maybe lacking some of the distinct characteristics of a finer single malt scotch. Cardhu Rating: 85
Glenfarclas 10 Year
Years ago, one of Denver's better liquor stores carried a very under-rated, low-priced single malt scotch called Glenfarclas 10 Year. I paid only $15.00 for a bottle, but this was back in the early 1990's and the secret of how good this Speyside Single malt really was, had not quite grown into enough of a public uproar to bring it up to a price worthy of it's quality. Glenfarclas Tasting Notes
Not neccessarily smoky, but has a very clean, bubble gum, fruity nose that is delicious from the first sip and rounds out clean and pure. A very satisfying almond finish. Not a whole lot of subtleties of anything else but a very clean, middle-of-the-road, single-malt scotch! A great scotch to win over new single malt scotch samplers.Glenfarclas Rating: 87
Lismore Single Malt Scotch
Lismore is one of those rare gems. It is simply a very good tasting, bargain-priced, Speyside Single Malt Scotch. Lismore gives your tastes a pleasant dark-honey entrance, followed by some other distinct floral-fruits, then finishes rather quickly. While it's finish is rather abrupt, it is not unpleasant at all. You can find this at about $15.00 to $19.00 for a 750ML bottle. That my friends, is a scotch lover's dream.Lismore Single Malt Rating: 81
Glenlivit Single Malt Scotch
Glenlivit is one of the most widely appealing scotch's there is, which probably explains why it is the number one selling single malt scotch in America. Glenlivit 12-year is the first single malt scotch I ever tried. It is easy for a beginner malt scotch drinker to fall in love with scotch when their first try is of glenlivit. Glenlivit is a medium-bodied, all-around great scotch with the first hint of bubble gum flavor I ever noticed in scotch.
Glenlivet Scotch Rating: 86
Singleton Single Malt
I was lucky enough to find this 12-Year Singleton Speyside Single Malt at one of my favorite discount liquor stores in Denver. I paid $34.00 for a .750 liter bottle. I was tempted to try it because it had a very high rating by some single-malt scotch publication (sorry, don't remember the name). At any rate, the taste is a pleasant surprise. It has a bit of a ripened fruit punch nose, with very nice frontal flavors of caramel-honey and bubble gum. It rounds out nicely - not overly long-lasting, but with very little bite-back. It's very slightly peaty, but not too much. A very nice scotch that would appeal to a wide variety of whiskey drinkers, both new and old. Singleton Single Malt is VERY good!Singleton Single Malt Rating: 88
