Vienna Scotchy Verdict

The answer to the question "how was the scotch in Vienna?" is: bad. Very bad. Below is the selection in a common supermarket:



What you can't see here is that the wine section was a whole aisle long. Scotch was given no such real estate. But. . . how about bars? Negative, Ghostrider. At some bars you would be lucky to have more than one kind of scotch available. Sorry, single malt fans-Vienna does not happen to be your kind of place.

Scotchytime in Vienna

Scotchytime has hit the road, scotchyfans. Scotchytime is currently writing out of beautiful Vienna, Austria, known more for its schnitzel than its scotch. Dutifully, I went to a local store in search of scotch. I found a total of . . . 1 kind of scotch. And it was blended. 7 Euros later, I have this:

I will rate this soon, but for now it's out for some more fried veal or fried pork.

Isle of Jura 12

I had a dram of this with one of the my Scotch All-Stars last week. I hated it. Am I missing something here?

It's smelled like Jack Daniels, had very little to no peat, had little to no oak, had no sherry, fruit or spice. It tasted simple, young and unlike any other Island scotch I had ever tasted prior- in a bad way. The first word that came to my mind was "cheap," probably because it tasted like cheap scotch and bourbon I have tasted in the past.

However- I did sip this scotch in a loud, crowded bar, didn't really get a chance to concentrate and didn't get a chance to focus on the nose. On the other hand, my Scotch All-Star and I both came to the same opinion individually. Additionally, I gave it numerous chances, coming back to it repeatedly over a period of an hour. I have also tried scotches in loud bars before, and come away with great reviews at times.

I really wanted to like this scotch, as I have liked Talisker from the Isle of Skye and several scotches from Islay. I have also enjoyed many coastal scotches as well, for their emphasis on sea salt and brine a la Old Pulteney. Sorry, Jura- for $40, this is grossly overpriced at best.