Massive whisky drinker.
Used to run and may start again, a monthly tasting club in London.
Want to make it, have studied distilling.
Favourites....geek question. White wine barrel aged heavily peated drams where possible, but they're hard to find. Murry McDavid is a great independent bottler for that kind of thing.
For instance I had a phenomenal Viognier aged Bowmore a while back that I picked up for a cheese pairing event as the cheese and viognier both came from Condru in France.
If going American it's all about rye. Bourbons great for shots or cocktails but I don't trust many bars to make an old fashioned right (I am that awful customer who will send it back if its served in under 10 minutes!). Only bar I have found in London that would make it to my taste, it cost me £50!!
I use Canadian Club for my bars house boulevardier which works really well, right rye content to marry with the campari and vermouth.
I'm actually a massive fan of the "style" of whisky I used to dedicate at least one tasting a year to - whisky from non whisky countries.
Indian like Amrut, Taiwanese like Cavalan (or interestingly the Taiwanese state department of Tobacco and Alcohol got jealous of Cavalan and launched their own brand. Would old Boris or half the other world leaders have a better popularity if they launched a drinks brand?
).
My favourite of which would be Glen Els - Ember, a German distillery who beechwood smoke their malt (think bavarian cheese or Rauchbier) rather than peat smoke as per scotch tradition. So good. Don't know what it's called now though, they got in trouble for sounding too Scottish with "Glen" in the name, although post brexit who knows...