My Secret Santa this year, Greg Stevens, sent a single-serving bottle of Ardbeg. Wow! Now that is smoky, but it is different than the Johnny Walker Red smoke flavor that I commented on above (I think I did, anyway, I didn't read back over the thread). The smell of it is smoke, the taste is catching up smoke. I searched on the name here at Mudcat and found John MacKenzie made remarks on a couple of threads - apparently you have some grocery stores that sell it under their own label. As I poured it I saw how light it was in color - and I noticed on one remark he talked about both how pale and how strong it is. Most scotch I find here is 40%, this is 46%. This is very strong smoke-wise, if I found a bottle it would have to be for very special occasions. :-)

A while back I found a single malt in my price range called Glen Parker. I had a friend visiting who told me he likes scotch so I figured he'd enjoy it, but he ended up drinking the Famous Grouse blended scotch I'd bought for just-in-case.

SRS