Hello people,

I am a newbie here, so I introduce myself.

First, I want to apologize for my frequent English mistakes : my English is very bad. I was looking for an English spoken forum in order to progress in this language, and since I love Scotland, I think this can be a great place to reach my objectives.

Secondly : I am living in France and I have been travelling twice throughout Scotland. The first time, I went through the Highlands and Isle of Lewis by bike (I slept one night just near the Loch Glascarnoch and I really enjoyed it, that is why I've chosen this nick) ; the second time (in August 2009), I drove a car and went to the East (Perth, Aberdeen, Peterhead, some other towns and villages, and Inverness).

Thirdly : I'm trying to learn Scottish Gaelic for a lot of time, but only when I have some time to devote to it. So, I just can say some words and recognize them when I am listening to BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal.

Oh, and I was forgetting another detail : I love whisky

Cheers

Hi Glascarnoch and welcome to the forum! First of all let me just say that your English is good enough for us to understand you! If you learn the language a bit more (as well as maybe some Gaelic!) from being here then that will be great; if there's anything you don't understand let us know as, at times, Scots can be a strange language in its own right even tho it is a form of English!

Anyway, that aside, like everyone else here its your love of Scotland that has brought you to this forum and we're glad to have you on board! It will be good to hear a bit more about your two visits so far and what plans you have for the future. Its also good that you have experienced both sides of the country... tho even travelling from the south to the north on either side can offer quite a diverse range that you wonder if you are in different countries (but I suppose that is true of other places!)

As for the whisky, do you have a preference yet? Or are you just enjoying the diversity there as well?

Hi Glascarnoch welcome to our wee forum....

Bonjour Glascarnoch et bienvenue!

I am also quite new around here and know you'll be made welcome immediately.

Thanks for your warm welcome

Concerning the English language, writing here will be good for practice, and I would like to say that I am very interested by the Scottish accent(s). Here in France (and in Europe also), we usually distinguish the "US English" and "GB English" : I think this distinction is very poor and I like to hear the Scottish accent (I would like to be able to speak with this accent).

I will talk about my 2 Scottish experiences, as soon as possible, ok . Obviously, I hope I will travel again, there are a lot of places that I couldnae see (couldnae = is this correct ? )

And for whisky : I have got some bottles => Laphroaig 10y, Oban 14y, Balvenie 21y (I love this one)... I have no preference, it depends on my mood, sometimes I like whisky from the Western Isles, sometimes not. Whisky is like wine : the best way to like it consists in discovering all the regions and distilleries. (Recently I've been offered a Blend whisky, called "The Six Isles". I usually don't like Blend whisky, but this one tastes good - WhiskyEmporium, do you have an opinion about this Blend ?)

Cheers

Hi again Glascarnoch!

I see you're already picking up on the Scots words; you certainly used "couldnae" correctly, tho you could also have said "there are a lot of places that I didnae see" (which implies that you could have seen them, but that means there are other places you wouldn't have!) Anyway, I look forward to hearing about what you did see... and what you would like to!

As for the whisky, I enjoyed the Oban 14yo when I tried that, but wasn't too keen on the Laphroaig 10yo (I've not tried Balvenie yet). The Six Isles is another one I wasn't too keen on either, but maybe I should it again (as well as the Tobermory 10yo that I wasn't too keen on!)

Hi again Glascarnoch,
I like your geography, most people in the UK don't consider themselves to be part of "Europe", but I didn't realise that attitude extended to France too


As for six Isles blend, I never heard of it but I'll see if I can find anything to help.

Keith

So, this Six Isles whisky:

Certainly two experts like it (Jim Murray and John Hansell) and it is a 'blend' or what we used to call vatting (until November last year) of only malt whisky, no grain!

Specifically a mix of six island malts; Islay, Jura, Skye, Mull, Orkney & Arran

This means it defintiely includes Arran, Jura & Talisker, plus one of Tobermory or Ledaig (hopefulyl Tobermory!), one of Scapa or Highland Park and one of the Islays.

It is from Ian Macleod who is usually a very good, but lower volume Independent Bottler (IB).

http://www.ianmacleod.com/brands/?id=24
Keith

The Six Isles is a blend of 6 full-bodied Single Malts in every bottle: One from each of the 6 whisky producing islands of Scotland; Islay, Jura, Skye, Mull, Orkney and Arran! When I bought a bottle it was sold in a metal tin, but its been a while since I've seen it!

(I see I've just posted the same link as you Keith... great minds? )

Ok, thanks ! I like this Six Isles whisky, it remembers me the Laphroaig, a little more expressive I think. The only critic I could make is about the colour, too pale.

Please don't worry about colour, at least when it's so pale you can be pretty certain there is no colouring (caramel) added!
I would much rather have natural than artificially coloured.

Do you mean that all coloured whiskies are made with (uh... by ?) added colouring ? I have an Aberlour 15yo, with a great caramel colour. I didnae know about that, thought that it was always "natural"

Welcome to the forum.

Not sure if Aberlour use colouring or not, but Aberlour is almost all matured in sherry casks, which means a darker 'natural' whisky anyway.

Here in Germany the laws dictate that any use of colouring (Farbstoff) has to be declared on the label, no hiding.
I wish all countries were like that.

Here's a good discussion on this very subject, over on WWW:

http://www.whiskywhiskywhisky.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=268&t=2848