Scotch varies a lot. If you have never had a sip of scotch do NOT drink Laphroaig. It, and other heavily-into-peat scotchs will seem REALLY nasty. It is like drinking some kind of cleaner that you might use to clean auto parts. Some people are really into that corner of the scotch world. But they really should come up with some other name for it...
Go with Johnnie Walker Black. You cannot go wrong. If you want to try single malts, go for a MacAllan or Glenlivet. I personally like ones that are sherry aged the last year or two of their aging. Balvenie is a good one for this.
What I have NOT done, is buy a really expensive bottle of the older stuff. Has anyone every bumped up beyond 14-or-so year old scotch? It is SO expensive but I want to know if there is really that big of a taste difference.
One option is to buy trader joes scotch labels. They will buy their own casks from say... MacAllan and bottle their own. Sort of a "Trader Joes / MacAllan" label. They are much cheaper but MAY not be as good as the real thing. I don't drink enough to know the difference really. I have seen 16 year old bottles for like $40. Not bad...
One last thing. If you are new to scotch, throw an ice cube in your glass. Don't try any of that fancy "neat" drinking until you get used to it. I prefer scotch and ice because as the ice melts, the scotch slowly gets diluted. Some scotchs have a certain point of dilution where they taste best. Every sip is a slightly different drink.
JTA
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