Glenfiddich 12 Year格兰菲迪12年

Glenfiddich comes from Dufftown in Speyside, and it has stayed in the same family since the distillery was built in the late nineteenth century. That continuity is part of why the 12 Year Old tastes the way it does year after year: nothing about the recipe is left to fashion.

The spirit spends its twelve years in two kinds of cask, American oak that previously held bourbon and European oak that previously held sherry, and the two are married before bottling. The bourbon wood brings the vanilla and the soft cereal sweetness; the sherry wood brings the dried fruit and a little of the depth that keeps it from tasting simple. What arrives in the glass is pear and green apple first, then butter and a light malt, then a finish that fades gently rather than biting.

This is the bottle to start with if you have never chosen a single malt for yourself. It asks nothing of you. Take it neat and give it a minute in the glass, or add one drop of water, which opens the fruit without thinning it. Ice is not forbidden here, but it closes the nose, and the nose is most of what you paid for.

At the table it holds up against the grilled lamb chops and the BBQ pork ribs, both of which carry enough char to flatten a lighter whisky. It sits equally well on its own at the ground floor counter, which is the part of the room built for exactly that.