Islay for everyday

@Jonathan glad to know you are one of the many people who approve of black bottle. I did end up tryi g it and was very pleased with the quality for a very reasonable price. @victor good to know about mcclellands I did not realize it would suffer from oxidation so quickly. I'm not sure if I will try that now but if I see it ill probably give it a taste at a bar

@Nolinske: Glad that you enjoy Black BottleI Apparently, Bunnahabhain is one of the core malts in the blend. Bunna is one that I haven't yet tasted, but it's on my wish list.

@victor : Thanks for the advice. I have low levels on a few other (discontinued) bottles that I am not quite ready to polish off, and having a bottle of inert gas around is probably a good idea. I have heard that whisky is more likely to oxidise when it is 1/3 full or less, so what I end up doing with bottles that I know will be difficult to replace--or that are expensive --is to drink them until they are about 2/3 full and then leave them alone for a while. For better or worse , I guess that I am at a point where some bottle management is in order. (It has only been eight months!)

I don't much care for Islay Mist 8 and certainly not McClelland's. Less is more. Pour yourself one ounce of decent quality "ground floor" Islay scotch every day and then switch to a bargain brand if you need more.

Me, I'm a quality not a quantity drinker. You can stretch out a nice bottle of Laphroaig, Ardbeg 10, or Talisker quite a while if you only drink one ounce per day. One ounce is 29 ml, by the way. Lagavulin will cost more. If I were you, I would figure out which decent bottles you can get for around $40-55. That is the real question. You won't find squat for under $25.

You get what you pay for and scotch is unfortunately costing more and more because more and more people are drinking it . . . in Asia. The Asians are driving up the prices. It sucks to be us and have the most populous part of the earth finally catch on that scotch is king. Oh well. We can still drink most of them under the table, for what that's worth(?)

A bottle of Ardbeg peated is $40 here in Oregon by the way. That's a damned good price for a damned good entry-level peated whisky. As you probably know, it needs air. Give it some air, some time, and it will treat you better.

Sorry, I meant Ardmore peated for $40, not Ardbeg. Ardbeg 10 costs $55 here.

Bourbon is another animal. You can find some very nice bourbons for around $25. Maybe you can cultivate a taste for bourbons instead of Islays. Beggars can't be choosers, I guess, for under $25..

If I were you, I'd try to focus on vatted malts (blended single malts) rather than malts blended with grain alcohol. Usually blends are less single malt than grain alcohol. I say, stick to 100% single malts!

Here's one suggestion: Angus Dundee. It's only $15 per bottle, but it is made up of blended single malts, so no grain alcohol. I've never tasted it because it is not sold in Oregon but here are a few review (actually the only two) from BevMo in California:

I rarely get excited about a low-cost scotch, but to be blunt, I was BLOWN AWAY. No funky grain-esters here. This is full-blown malt. The nose open with hints of biscuit, spice and a feint, faw-away wisp of smoke, with a touch of toffee and sweet-citrus. The mouthfeel is full with a very mild alcohol bite. Flavors are all malt with notes of spicy fruit, gummy bear and fruit cake, flashes of vanilla, soft oak and again, that distant wisp of smoke. It has a medium finish with a sweet afterglow. Far superiror to its price. I am hooked! (PS- I am a Macallan 12, 15, 18 and 25 guy, and love Lagavulin 16. Previously, I usually purchased Chivas 12). This is my new daily dram.

Most blended Scotches in this price range are pretty terrible, and they're almost always mixed with grain spirits, meaning they're not exclusively malts. This one is a true "blended malt," a formal legal term under recent UK rules for mixes of single barley malts only. (The term replaces "pure malt" and "vetted malt".) Blended malts are hard to find in anything but premium offerings like Johnny Walker Green Label. So Angus Dundee is a standout. It is from an old distillery that has resumed production after a hiatus and a change of hands. The distillery has several well-regarded single-malt labels. And this one is pretty good. It's mixed from old stock, aged and bottled entirely in Scotland, but it has no age claimed on the label. It has a nice progression from a somewhat weak nose to the surprisingly good sip, swallow and aftertaste, and isn't too harsh or burning to drink neat. There's a bit of smoke and a nice sweetness. It looks a little blonde, suggesting it didn't spend too much time in a cask, but Scotch is routinely caramel-colored anyway so that's fine. Really now, for the price you won't do better. Balanced and enjoyable and smooth. And did I mention the price?

Pig's Nose is another vatted single that you might find in your home state down south. It can sell for as cheap as $25. It is salty and strong. Only five years old but better than Mclelland's.

I think Pig's Ear has some grain mixed it. So it's not merely vatted singles. If you can find a Black Bottle whisky you might like it. I bought one a few month's back. It has grain in it, but the rest (45%) is all vatted singles from Islay. Black Bottle has been discontinued but iit's worth the price of $21 just to try it if you can find it in the South. Definitely smoky and peaty but also quite palatable. Not as good as Ardbeg or Lagavulin, mind you, but well worth $21.

@rigmorole Dam i like Black Bottle when did they discontinue it?

@Nolinske Don't worry. They didn't discontinue it.. Black Bottle 10 is discontinued but not Black Bottle. I know that rumors about BB being discontinued have floated around for years, but I haven't seen anything to support that (and I have looked).
Also--and again-- if you have some high-test Islay malt around, a few drops added to BB can really make it more interesting.

Another suggestion, given your OP: Wemyss Peat Chimney is a pretty tasty blended malt. It's not expensive but also not a "craft" product (low abv, caramel). I quite liked it..

@rigmorole

1) I think that most folks who frequent this site are interested in quality rather than quantity as well. Otherwise, why waste all of these words on taste, nose and finish? Why spend money to send and receive samples from abroad when a pint of Vodka would do the trick?

My impression was that the OP was asking for a concrete suggestion and not a lesson in temperance. On the point that you bring up, though, there was an interesting post about moderation here: reddit.com/r/Scotch/…

2) Many members of this site are Asian. This makes me think twice when I read the following: "The Asians are driving up the prices. It sucks to be us and have the most populous part of the earth finally catch on that scotch is king. Oh well. We can still drink most of them under the table, for what that's worth(?)" First, who is "we" and who are "they" ? Does "we" exclude Asians? In China, single malts are reserved for a select but powerful few, mostly in cities. Recent reforms, if they stick , will bring that number down further. The bubble may burst, especially when fashions change. The nature of fashion is that it changes Either way, Diageo wins because they are so widely diversified.

@Jonathan Thank you for letting me know about black bottle still being around i was going to go stock up if it was true. I appreciate you setting the record straight and not floating rumors on me...tisk tisk rigmorole... haha

and also thank you for your suggestion about both the blend and adding a touch of say ardbeg 10 to Black bottle just to see how it is. I have done that to malts like glenfiddich and glenmorangie just to see how it would work, but i honestly never thought to do it to black bottle but i think it would work nicely.