Does anyone know their whiskey?

[SuperPixie247]

I am thinking of getting my DP a whiskey tasting gift as part of his birthday present but I have next to no idea of whats decent!

I know he likes talisker and glenfiddich and I usually buy him a full size bottle but I was on the Whiskey Exchange website and came across these gift sets..

www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/36399/scotch-whisky-by-flavour-gift-set-5x3cl

www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/36401/cask-expressions-tasting-set-first-edition-5x3cl

Are they any good? Or can anyone recommend a better gift? Thanks

Either of those would be good. Talisker is normally a peaty whisky so some of the Islay onesare a good alternative, for the cost of the larger one you could get a decent enough bottle of whisky though and I'd probably do that.

If you have a look at this imgur.com/5VLzR you can see where Talisker and Glenfiddich sit on the taste table and perhaps give him something new to try from something nearby.

I would go with the second one if you want a taster set but the Balvenie (in both those sets) distillery is actually next to Glenfiddich so you might want to look at some of their whiskies.

Also, whiskey with an e is Irish (also American, I think). The Scottish drink is whisky.

Or if you really wanted to get him miniatures I would get the Talisker set shop.malts.com/collections/whisky-gifts/products/talisker-miniature-gift-set

or 57 North and Port Ruighe are firm favourites in our house

I'd go for the first set as it has a wide range of flavours from around the Whisky regions.

Whilst Talisker is a little smoky it's nothing like the acquired taste of a lot of the Islay malts.

Speyside and the Highland malts seem to align most with his tastes.

Also some of the Cambletown whiskies are ace.

I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but to start with whisky comes from Scotland and whiskey from Ireland or USA.

The whisky by flavour set looks OK and good value at 5x300ml = 1.5 litres for £40. They are all single malt whiskys and come from a variety of places so should taste quite different.

The cask expressions one will show the effect of different types of barrel that are used for storage - what was in the barrel before the whisky has a huge impact on the taste.

From the same place you could also look at:
www.thewhiskyexchange.com/p/51678/whisky-of-the-year-2020-tasting-set-6x3cl
Even better value at 6x300ml = 1.8 litres for £40

An alternative - a staycation in Scottish highlnads with a distillery tour (non-drinker driving), with magnificent scenery, historic houses etc.

@filka those are centilitres so it's 150ml for £40 not 1.5L

Oops! Then shocking value, buy a couple of half bottles!

Me and DH like Tallisker a lot but did a whisky tasting a couple of years ago and one of the drinks was Johnny Walker Green. It’s a blend but a good one and might be worth looking at as something different perhaps.

You can get it on Amazon for a similar price to the tasting sets you were looking at www.amazon.co.uk/Johnnie-Walker-Blended-Scotch-Whisky/dp/B01CE1NM98?tag=mumsnetforu03-21