A Great Philosophical Question.

[Pyrrho]

In case anyone is curious, I have preliminary thoughts on the 5 scotches I have.  Unfortunately, I like them mostly in order of price, but not exactly.  In order of price, they are (from least expensive to most expensive):

Bowmore Islay Single Malt Legend

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Glenfiddich Single Malt 12 Year

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The Glenlivet Single Malt 12 Year

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The Macallan Single Malt 10 Year

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Highland Park Single Malt 12 Year

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Now, this is only a preliminary judgment, and also is not even close to scientific, as it is not a blind tasting.  And being preliminary, I need to do more drinking to check my results.  Fortunately, I have plenty more to do more testing.

The preliminary order, from best to worst:

Highland Park

The Macallan

The Glenlivet

Bowmore Islay

Glenfiddich


Comments:  

The Highland Park is clearly the best.  It is clearly the smoothest.  And given that it costs the most, it ought to be the best.  But it is the best, and enough better than second best to be a better value than most.

The Bowmore Islay is a great value.  It will not impress your friends with its label, as they do not tell you how old it is.  And although my preliminary ranking is with it below The Glenlivet, I am not entirely certain that that is correct.  The Glenlivet seems a bit smoother, but I like the flavor of the Bowmore Islay perhaps a bit more.  More drinking will be in order to verify this.  It is entirely possible that I will change my mind and prefer Bowmore Islay over The Glenlivet.

Given the local prices (which I have not bothered to present, as they are likely to cost different amounts in your area, even assuming you can get them all), the ones I am most likely to buy in the future are the Bowmore Islay and the Highland Park.  With The Macallan, it costs too much for what it is.  I would rather either pay a bit more and get Highland Park, or save money and go with the Bowmore Islay.  In fact, given the prices, I think I would save money on two bottles of scotch if I went with one Highland Park and one Bowmore Islay instead of two of The Macallan.  And that seems like a better idea to me.

If you are poor and want a reasonably good scotch, I highly recommend Bowmore Islay.  I paid about $25 for a bottle.  If you have a bit more money, the Highland Park is very good at $45 or so.  The others seem like they are not a good value at their intermediate prices (particularly Glenfiddich).  So my advice, if you can afford only something halfway in between those prices, is to go with Bowmore Islay half the time and Highland Park half the time.  If you can afford $45-50 a bottle, go with the Highland Park.  If you can afford it, it is worth it.

Again, this is just a preliminary tasting, and further research will be done.  If any of my opinions change, I will likely post an update.  But I am reasonably confident that the two that are the best values are the Bowmore Islay and the Highland Park.

In the past, with other scotches that I have tried, I rejected them at their price points (or in the case of really cheap swill, rejected it based on it being really cheap swill).  I really like Bowmore Islay and Highland Park for their respective prices, and would likely not drink scotch at all if I could not afford the Bowmore Islay.  I would go with some rye that I can get for less that is quite acceptable as a whisky.  I can easily get an acceptable rye for under $20.



Maybe I should have started a new thread on comparisons of various brands of alcohol, to get a variety of opinions.  Though on second thought, it would likely end up more heated and acrimonious than the threads on religion.

Still, feel free to tell me that you disagree with my ranking of these scotches.  I am not afraid of you being wrong.