The Best Scotch for an Old Fashioned

It’s a Saturday night at one of the swankiest hotels in Miami beach, the Fontainebleu. In the lobby, the appropriately named Bleu Bar splays open like a clam shell, with a perfect view of the queue to LIV, the Miami nightclub known for celeb spottings and bottle service that costs a paycheck or two. The line’s not long yet. Because even though it’s late, it’s not Miami late. The bar, however, is packed. Women in skin-tight dresses like it's 2008 on the Jersey Shore. Tech bros in expensive polos with transplanted hairlines. All probably waiting for friends to arrive or settling in because they already got turned away.

I’m doing neither of those things. (I didn’t try and fail to get in! I promise!) I’m just people watching, sipping on my new favorite cocktail: an old fashioned made with Glenfiddich 14 Year Old Scotch Whisky.

It’s not my normal order. I’m more of a bourbon guy. That’s the spirit usually mixed into an old fashioned, not Scotch. I like Scotch, sure. But for better or worse, I have an American palate. I like big, bold flavors. And on top of that, I have a weakness for confections: vanilla, caramel, chocolate, those sorts of things. Scotch tends to be delicate, floral, fruity, and yes, sometimes peaty—not exactly flavors you associate with an old fashioned. Especially the last one. But only a handful of Scotch producers make peaty whisky, and Glenfiddich ain’t one of ‘em.

Glenfiddich 14 became my favorite Scotch for an old fashioned after one too many cocktails over F1 weekend in Miami.

I'd had Glenfiddich before. In fact, I was here attending the F1 race as a guest of the brand, which means that this very weekend I'd had quite a lot of it. On Friday evening, along with two handfuls of journalists and influencers, I was taken through a tasting of five expressions, from the flagship 12-year all the way to the brand’s recent collaboration with Aston Martin, a 16-year. Glenfiddich 14 stood out from the others.

“This one here was actually a U.S. exclusive until two years ago,” said brand ambassador Christiano Protti from the center of the table. I understood why. The whisky is aged for 14 years in American oak casks that were originally used to make bourbon. Then, the spirit spends some time in new, charred American oak barrels made in Louisville, Kentucky. All that adds up to bourbon character in a Scotch package. In other words, perfect for Americans like me.

At dinner later on, I had a revelation: Why not ask the bartender to throw that bad boy into an old fashioned?

Much of the Glenfiddich line is 40 percent ABV, the minimum required of a spirit to be considered whisky. Though the old fashioned isn’t quite as boozy as, say, the Manhattan, the cocktail still relies on the spirit for a backbone of flavor so it doesn’t just taste like sugar. Additional ingredients can dilute the character of a lower-ABV Scotch, which is another reason why you don’t often see it in an old fashioned. Glenfiddich 14 year, however, is a heartier 43 percent ABV—and that extra 3 percent carries a lot of weight.

When my cocktail arrived, I was struck by its flavor. The herbal kick of bitters enhanced the spirit’s delicate fruit character, while the introduction of sugar beefed up the oaky vanilla sweetness. Altogether, the cocktail was softer and rounder than a typical old fashioned—all the better to pair with food. It didn’t overpower the sushi roll in front of me; rather, it complimented it.

Thus began the kind of weekend love affair usually reserved for mistresses. I was, for the time being, a Scotch guy. On Saturday afternoon, I ordered one or two or three 14-year old fashioneds while watching the race qualifiers in the Aston Martin VIP suite. At an Italian dinner Saturday night, I paired pasta not with red wine, but with my new go-to. The nightcap at the Bleu Bar followed shortly thereafter.

On race day, at the Glenfiddich VIP area overlooking the track, I instead decided to try a little bit of everything as I sweated through my clothes watching souped-up cars zoom by at 150-plus miles per hour. Glenfiddich had all these options available; it a little felt wrong to spend another day with just one whisky. I ended the afternoon with a glass of neat 21-year, the most decadent of Glenfiddich’s core line-up. But fate would soon catch up with me.

As the winning driver popped his bottle of champagne atop the podium and the VIP bartenders cleaned up, Christiano carried a bottle of near-empty 14-year around, liberally pouring its liquid into any container willing to receive. He quickly approached me and tilted the neck towards my glass.

“No wait, this is…!” I tried to say, but it was too late. My 21-year melded with the 14 into something wholly new.

Christiano accidentally pours Glendfiddich 14 into my glass of 21-year.

“An accidental marriage!” he said, citing the term for when whiskies from different casks are mixed together. We laughed. I sipped. It had no business being so good. Better than before, actually. And I felt validated by my whisky of choice over the weekend. I’ll just make sure that next time, it’s mixed with bitters and sugar instead.

If you want to make your own at Glenfiddich 14-Year old fashioned home, here’s my recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 oz Glenfiddich 14 Year Old
• 1/3 oz Demerara sugar syrup
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 dash orange bitters
• Luxardo Maraschino cherry
• Orange peel

Directions

1. Add liquid ingredients into a tall mixing glass with ice. Stir with a bar spoon.
2. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube.
3. Twist orange peel over the top of the glass, rub it around the rim, then carefully place inside, along with a Luxardo Maraschino cherry.