Your water broke: the LWDT (consider NSFW, as always)

Also has a lot to do with the age of the scotch.

The younger the scotch, typically the less "harsh" it is, and the less complex the flavours, and the less likely you're needing/wanting water with it.

Give it a try with some scotch you already have... line up 4 little shots as samples... one straight, one with 1/4 shot of water added, one with 1/2 shot, one with 3/4, and one with a full shot of water. (Typically, you'd never want to add more water than you have scotch).

Keep the water tepid/room temp, and see the difference it makes.

The first thing you might notice is that it's not as harsh. But if you pay attention to the after taste, that's where it really becomes noticeable. The water really accentuates and spreads out the flavours and lets you enjoy them a bit more, and for a bit longer.

That's typically why I order scotch with "water back" (meaning water in a separate container) so I can add it a bit at a time to get the mix that works with that particular scotch.

But aside from all that crap, drink it how you enjoy it. If you like it with ice, then have it with ice. Sure, some people may have some concepts as to how it can be enjoyed more than others, but really, who cares? If you like it with sprite, then have it with sprite, and fuck everyone else.

$0.02

 

In case I wasn't clear in my earlier post, the tipping point is YOU. Try it, and if you like it, enjoy.

Nothing I hate more than people doing shit for no other reason than some so-called "expert" or book told them to.

The purpose is to increase the enjoyment of the drinker.

Stop and taste and judge the differences for yourself, and draw your own conclusions. There's no such thing as a scotch being "too good" not to add water to. Understand WHY the water is being added, and you'll see that the older and better the scotch, the more the reason to add water. It's not meant to dilute the shit scotch into something drinkable (use ice for that), it's meant to expand and enhance the flavours.

Case in point, I just toured the Glenlivet distilleries in Scotland, and had an incredibly lucky opportunity to taste their soon-to-be-released 35 year old scotch, and it was fully expected to have water with it. One person didn't, and the Glenlivet rep looked at him like he was some sort of confusingly retarded person.

Only experience and diversity and paying attention to what you're actually tasting will allow you to "educate" your palette and figure out how it's best served.

I've seen so-called wine experts share a glass of a nice bottle of wine that was corked and they didn't even notice. Sure, you just paid $400 for that bottle of wine, and you thought you looked all impressive doing the tasting and looking the part, but it's fucked, and you're a moron.

Oh... and screw-tops for the win. Just sayin.

 

9, 12, and 18 year old scotch tasting in the distillery.

It's amazing the flavour differences between the 3, and how the younger scotch is known as the "women's" scotch, because it's so much sweeter than the older scotches.

 

I was actually quite shocked by seeing that (at the Glenlivet distillery, anyway), they all used the same barrels, regardless of the desired vintage. They had 50 year old scotch that was sitting there in the original barrels, and they don't move them around at all. The big problem is that alcohol gets evaporated over time through the barrels.

They were all used/old 2-year-old oak barrels that were used for making bourbon or something else before they were used for the scotch.

They really didn't seem to give a shit about the barrels pedigree, which really surprised me. Each barrel would therefore come out tasting just a little bit differently, and even a single-malt scotch was a result of many different barrels being blended together to get the desired effect. And in the process, the alcohol content would be diluted a bit. The younger the ageing in the barrel, the more alcohol, and the more caramelized the flavour. The older the ageing, the more oakiness there would be in the end result.

A single barrel that was considered to be of good enough quality that it could stand on its own without being blended was sometimes bottled and sold as "cask strength", in that it wasn't blended, and had a fair bit more alcohol content than the non cask-strength stuff. Like an additional 15-20% more.


Not sure about the other distilleries, but that's how Glenlivet works.

I generally prefer the older, more peatty and oaky flavours, so like my scotches 15+ years, and generally from the Isle of Sky (like Bowmorengie, etc).

I have a bottle of 28 year old Chivas Regal blended that has to be my all-time favourite though.

 

Personally, I think that the majority of the flavour comes from the yeast they use in the process (which is a highly guarded secret), and the barrels are just more of a finishing taste.