Scotch

Ages ago, Bill, Phil and I ended up at a Glenmorangie tasting. Guy from the distillery with the Scottish/British accent mix in a pinstripe suit, assorted different bottled spring waters from far corners of the globe to clear the palate or add a splash if you were so inclined, the whole bit of theatre. And we tasted bottles ranging in retail price from under a hundred on up. In some cases way up.

Two things stuck with me:

1. We all (both Phil, Bill and I, and me or the three of us compared to the whole room of people) had very different preferences and tastes, sometimes the tastes intersected, and sometimes they didn't.

2. Price isn't necessarily correlated with those tastes. And in a number of cases I was fairly convinced that the three of us had more refined and distinguishing palates than several of the people going for the most expensive bottles.

I think that was the tasting where I got turned on to the Ardbeg 17, but there was one 1972 single year scotch there that was going for a lot of money that did less for me (and, if I remember right, for Bill and Phil) than either the basic Glenmorangie port or sherry wood finish 12 year olds. Frankly it tasted kind of flat, and yet they sold a number of those super expensive bottles there. There were a couple of $150-$200 bottles that I remember liking, but I also remember not liking them that much extra.