The Different Tastes of Scotland

Hi Whisky.com'ers

I'm introducing some Chinese friends to different whiskies and I'd like to offer them some knowledge and chat along with the tasting. Can any please help me with a summary of the different whisky flavours and idiosyncrasies that each region of Scotland produces? (peaty, smoky, salty etc.).

Cheers!

[Beist]

Hmmm... That's kind of a tough one I think (at least for me). There are just too many distilleries doing so many different things to say an entire region tastes like "this". For instance, obviously Islay (8 distilleries, 9 if you include Port Ellen still) is known for its peaty whisky, yet Bunahabbin has little peat if any, Bruichladdich has one of the most heavily peated Scotches ever (Octomore(s)) and some of the rest of their vast range has little to no peat, and I've even had a completely un-peated Caol Ila. But yes, most of Islay's distilleries whisky's have a lot of peat to them. But it's not just Islay that peats it up. Try a Talisker. Not Islay, yet as peaty as all get out. You see where I'm going with this... Get into Speyside and the sky's the limit

Perhaps to better assist you, you could tell us what specific bottles you intend to serve or reccomend to your friends, and we can help you out with some tasting notes on those drams. If you'd like suggestions, I'm sure we can help there too