Those Laphroaig videos are fantastic! I haven't gotten through the last few yet, but enjoyed seeing the process so far.
Julio, you'll be pleased to know I took your advice and picked up a bottle of Caol Ila last night, and gave it a try. I thought it was fantastic, and Lena really liked it too. I rank that up there with Ardbeg as one of my other recent favorite discoveries.
You also asked about the Scotch recommendations that came from the whiskey fanatics Lena and I met at NecronomiCon. Aside from the discussions that happened at the room party I mentioned, where I only made note of one recommendation (Balvenie Carribean Cask, which I believe is aged in Carribean rum casks), the notes I made actually came from a few weeks later, when a book reviewer we met at the convention tagged a few of us on Facebook and asked for Scotch recommendations.
I don't remember what I recommended to him, but a few others spoke up:
Ilan Lerman, a horror writer from Scotland, suggested Aberlour 16 year, which I haven't tried yet.
Our own Ian Boddy (this is the fun thing about Facebook -- the cross-pollination of your friends from different realms) spoke up and suggested Isle of Jura 16. I believe I've had the younger Isle of Jura and liked it quite well but haven't tried the 16 yet.
The horror writer John Langan, whose excellent collection The Wide Carnivorous Sky I just finished reading, suggested Auchtentoshan. That's next on my list to try.
The room party we attended in Providence was John Langan's room, which he shared with perhaps my favorite active fiction writer, Laird Barron, whose books I strongly recommend for anyone interested at all in weird, dark fiction. Laird's recommendation was Glenrothes. Now, because of my extremely high regard for Laird's writing, this was the first of the recommendations I tried, and while it was a high-quality scotch and had pleasant enough qualities, I didn't really love it. Probably worth a try, but to my taste it was not nearly as distinguished and "deep" as some of the others we're discussing.