i want to surprise the hubby with a great single malt for christmas

[ericalloyd]

he likes the macallen 18 sherry oak i bought him last year. he likes the smoky/peaty flavor. any suggestion as to what i can knock his socks off with this year? my budget is $300.

thanks in advance!

[ericalloyd]

well after some consideration i went with the speymalt macallan 1970 37 year old. thanks for your suggestions.

[vivalajeezer]

Hello,

I have the same situation. Where can I find the Speymalt Macallan 1970 in Los Angeles? It seems to be hard to find. Also, does anyone know how this compares to the Highland Park brand? Any help is greatly appreciated as I am running out of time! Thanks!

[chowow]

I'm not sure if this will help, but I did a quick search on wine-searcher.com and found a place called Wally's Wine & Spirits and they have a selection of Gordon & Macphail Speymalt MacAllans (no 1970, but 1971 and 1972).

Here's a link to my search result (hope it works):
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/spe...
Good luck!

[DavidT]

Generally, the Highland Park single-malts will be more smokey & peaty than the Macallan's, at least in the 10-15 year old versions. I don't know if or how much things change over the longer term.

[davis_sq_pro]

At least for the malts I've tried multiple versions of, the older ones seem to lose a lot of the smoke, and gain sweetness and maybe a bit of complexity in other areas. Of course, they were made at different times -- sometimes many years apart -- and it's tough to know if the whiskies that went into the casks tasted similar at the start of the process.

[tdg]

How'd he like it?

[ericalloyd]

he loved it ... i think he was a little confused at first because it was actually from the macallan distillery but the box said gordon & mcphail ... once he tasted it, he really just loved it, so thank you for the suggestion.

[DuchessNukem]

For your hubby's next birthday:

Michael Jackson's Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch
(not the pop singer, the beer guy, LOL)

Glencairn whisky glasses
(found at Amazon for <$30 for 4 - maybe knockoffs but nice)

Talisker (our favorite smoky/peaty scotch)

:)

[tdg]

I would highly recommend the Speymalt Macallan 1970 37 year old (bottled by Gordon & Macphail). It's something special. You should be able to find it for $300 with a little poking around.

[DavidT]

You might want to do a search for "single malt" to pull up prior threads, as this subject has been discussed here fairly often. Here is one:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/732219?tag=search_results;results_list

Here is another prior thread:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6969...

[EvergreenDan]

Are you looking for any additional husbands?

[sku]

He's a lucky guy! Here are a few things in that price range that he might like:

Highland Park 25 or 30 (hearty with sherry and a bit of peat - the 30 will go slightly over your budget but will be worth it)
Brora 25 (or any Brora really)
Any Port Ellen (very peated)

These are all sock knockers! The Port Ellen will be the peatiest but the Brora 25 packs a good punch as well.