I got into drinking Scotch about 10 years ago now.  I'd always been a fan of Irish whiskey (primarily Old Bushmill's and Tullamore Dew), so I decided to branch out a bit and try something from a bit across the water.  While more expensive than Irish whiskey, this is also a helluva lot more flavorable and, unfortunately, a helluva lot more expensive.  (In general.  I recently ran into a $114 bottle of Irish whiskey.  No, I didn't buy it.)

Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, Scotch has also had a resurgence in popularity which has driven the price way out of proportion.  I understand that such things are a pendulum and, someday soon, I'll be able to get some of my favorites for reasonable prices again.  For example, when I started buying Balvenie Doublewood (a delightful 12-year-old Highland) it was around $26 a bottle and it's now in the mid $40 range in some places.  Next time it swings down into the twenties, I'm stocking up.

For whatever its worth, I still drink Scotch despite the price.  I just don't drink as much of it, knowing that it's a very expensive hobby.

Here are some of my favorite Scotches and some notes about them.  Additionally, I'll try different Scotch from time to time when I'm out and something untried and interesting is available.

By the way, when I talk about Scotch, I'm referring to single malt Scotch.  Blended Scotch is a disgusting invention made for pretentious people who want to be Scotch drinkers.  It's impure, disgusting, good whiskey mixed with sour mash or whatever the hell they can find that'll ferment.  At which point they put it into bottle and sell it as Scotch to unsuspecting fools (or just plain fools) who buy it by the shipload.  A particularly heinous example of this is the Jonnie Walker label which makes a couple of varieties which sell for far more than many (most?) good single malt Scotches.  I've tried them and can't tell the difference.  Blue Label is just as awful as Red Label in my book.  If you're going to drink one of these swills, have a mixer like Ginger Ale or Drain-O handy.