Space Eyed?

Round-up of what we drank last night: I like to play against type, drink something that will put hair on one's chest. But I can only handle the peaty and the smoky within limits. Enjoyed drinking the selection from Deanston to Highland Park (while I still had full grasp of all faculties). The salt air of Bunnahabhain was quite special. And Bowmore... that I need to sample again because I must have already reached Scotch saturation by that point. The BenRiach, PC6 and Brora all smell like my great grandma's storage cabinets.
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I have since gone back for some pointers re my Scotch whiskey education. Ethan set me up with a few different whiskeys where we determined that I have the taste of a common peasant. He didn't say that, but I suspect that's what we were both thinking. I chose the Glenrothes before we began, and I could definitely tell the difference between that and the blended Scotches that he set before me. I had asked him how to learn Scotches without a massive $$$-outlay. His response was that I should know what low-end Scotches taste like before we go into the rare and the fine--because they become more and more eccentric in that arena. I can dig that. But i think I saw him wince when, in a blind test of two, I chose the Vat 69. It was hard to choose because although the Vat 69 definitely had a rubbing alcohol finish, the Teacher's tasted like mothballs. Also, I start acting unnatural and virtuous* when people watch me eat or drink.

But he was encouraging. The fact that I don't know anything could be good in that I was a clean slate in terms of figuring out what I do like. His suggested next step in my Scotch education is to get the blended stuff, like The Famous Grouse or Irish whiskey and drink it by myself at home--as a foundation. I told him I liked drinking Jameson. He said, "No wonder." I still don't know what he meant by that.

He suggested based on another tasting that what I may prefer is lighter single malt Scotches, nothing aged beyond six-to-eight years.

I thought it was nice that he gently warned me against writing in the florid style a la tasting notes--"it's deathly." Sheesh. What do I look like, some kind of bullshit amateur? I guess I do at that.

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*Virtuous here is used in the way my sis and I, as children, referred to the self-conscious manner children behave when aware of being observed by adults. It relates to a spiteful essay my cousin wrote titled: "Virtuous Chiik." More on that later.