I can't stand any smokiness at all, in any food or drink. I was brought up on Johnnie Walker because that is what my dad used to buy when he travelled, so the taste of JW has been what is whisky to me.
If I want a non-smoky scotch whisky somewhat like JW, but smoother and with a deeper, more refined flavour, what would you recommend?
I see recommendations here for Dalwhinnie and Highland Park, but in catalogues they are listed as having some smokiness, so I'm afraid those are not really for me.
You want to find highland/speyside malts done the way they have always been. Historically, the west coast and islands used peat for malting the barley, but the east coast used wood, which results in minimal smoke. Now, in modern times no one is lighting fires, but certain distilleries have kept their stuff the same. My recommendations are:
Glenfarclas- no smoke, sherry cask, reminds me of spice cake. What I serve to guests who "don't like scotch" and it's always a winner.
Mortlach or linkwood- you like JW black? Take some mortlach and linkwood, add a bit of lagavulin and caol ila for some smoke, round it out with some cardhu, Blair athol, and traces of a few others to balance out the batch inconsistencies, top it off with some grain whisky from north British distillery and you have it. Point is: if you like JW, then find some single malt from mortlach or linkwood because that's the backbone of the blend. They are both individually very good, and linkwood in particular can be found at good prices because no one recognizes it.
Arran- the price on this has climbed as of late, but it's really good. It's an island whisky, but is not peated--they do it in the lowland style (similar to the outstanding bladnoch, which is really hard to find and has been in and out of bankruptcy the last few years)
