Your First Date with Single Malt

So you want to get into Scotch but you’re not quite sure where to start?

If you’ve never tasted Scotch before and are a drinker of the Cosmopolitan variety, I’d first try Scotch in the context of a mixed drink. But I wouldn’t, I repeat, wouldn’t use a single malt, as I feel it’s a travesty to dilute good single malts with mixers. Instead, I’d opt for a blend, like Dewar’s or Johnnie Walker, with soda or water, starting out heavy on the mixer before weaning it out. If you aren’t quite Scotch and soda ready, you can always start with another type of whisky, like bourbon or rye. Both are extremely mixable and even suited to sweeter mixers. Case in point: Jack and Coke.

Now, if you already have a taste for whisky and have downed a few Maker’s Manhattans in your day, then you’re ready to move into the single malt market. Tomintoul is a good place to start. Distilled in the Speyside region of Scotland, a region in which a whopping fifty percent of single malt Scotch whisky is produced, Tomintoul is what I like to call a gateway Scotch. As marijuana may lead to harder drugs, Tomintoul may lead to heartier Scotches. It’s touted as “the gentle dram” and, baby, is it ever. With citrus, toffee and raisin on the nose, Tomintoul is crisp, clean and creamy at first taste. As it spreads across the tongue it brings a bit of heat and some mild spice before mellowing to a sweet finish. Start with the 10-year by drinking it neat with a tumbler of water on the side. Adding a drop or two of water to your Scotch is perfectly acceptable, and it will make the Scotch milder and sweeter.

Remember: Scotch drinking, much like life, is a marathon not a sprint. Relax, take your time and enjoy. After all, it’s about pleasure, not bravado. One doesn’t go from wine spritzer drinker to single malt connoisseur overnight. And if the wine in question is White Zinfandel, well, then quite possibly never.

Heat Wave, Cool Spot

While I love sizzling summers in Manhattan, I do sometimes feel the need to exit its hot, hot, hot in favor of its cool. One preferred refuge of chill is the Brandy Library.

The Brandy Library is a Scotchophile’s wet and peaty dream located conveniently in Tribeca. Appropriately named, Brandy Library’s spirits line the shelves along its walls like books in the stacks, a leather-clad tome of a menu lists its collection of over 900 bottles (11 pages of the menu are devoted to single malt Scotches alone) and a staff of “librarians” is on hand to advise and pour. With an art deco-inspired design and a lighting and color-scheme of honey and nougat, the Brandy Library harkens back to a bygone day when drinking was a decidedly adult sport. That it’s usually brimming with graying men in crisp business attire makes it all the more attractive to a gal like me.

I’d first visited the Brandy Library last summer on a date with Jazz Guy, who was forty, divorced and looking for a partner in swing. Though his looks, opinions and choice in date venues all jived with me, I was alarmed by his drinking style. As I sipped and savored our tasting flights, Jazz Guy swigged the samplings down as if a series of Cuervo shots at Senor Frog’s Cancun. While I believe that life should be gulped not sipped, I don’t believe the same for flights of Speyside single malts at 40 bucks a pop.

As we continued to chat, I began to notice that his approach to dating mirrored his manner of drinking. Far too intense too early – he declared his undying love for me about forty minutes into the date – he didn’t understand the saunter of a Scotch man. Like bad jazz, he was too insistent. I couldn’t help feeling that he wanted to devour me like he did the tasting flight. It became clear that he had a tendency of immersing himself in things – chess had been his latest passion – obsessively, for spurts of time, before shifting gears abruptly. How was that pace sustainable for a real relationship?

A future jam session with Jazz Guy was not to be, but all was not lost. I’d found a new favorite hot spot. My future drinking at the Brandy Library was assured.

The Brandy Library is located at 25 North Moore Street, New York, NY.