Don't mean to disrupt the aging process of this thread, but...
Every once in a while I pretend to become interested in my family heritage (I even have a bagpipe practice chanter

) and have at several times in the past tried to acquire an appreciation for Scotch. My mistake has obviously been to buy the bottom shelf stuff, but yesterday I finally shelled out a little bit more ($26 or so at Trader Joe's) looking for an improvement over the $10 stuff and I definitely succeeded in that. I bought the 12-year Glenfiddich:
The difference between this bottle and those I've had in the past is huge. I'm pretty sure this falls at the bottom of the barrell price-wise (and therefore probably quality) in terms of decent Scotch, but it's the type of drink that I actually
don't want more after my first glass because I want the bottle to last... At the same time I'm eager to try out other types to really get a feel for what I like.
I'm not just trying to get hammered as easily as possible but would rather go all snobby and try to dissect a complex \"dram\", so I want to stick to single malts. And after reading up a bit I think I'm looking for something with a much more \"smokey\" character; overall, just something that is good but with a noticably different character than the Glenfiddich (from the sounds of it, maybe an Islay distillery?). Like I said before, nothing against the Glenfiddich, I'm just trying to get a feel for what's out there. Any recommendations that hopefully fall somewhere close to the same beginner/novice/noob price range?