[LostAbbott]

How far from Canada are you? I know here on the west coast you can get really good deals at the duty free. I am not sure how long of a drive it would be for you through ND, but if you can make the trip, you can pick up a few liters for around $30-$45 of really top shelf stuff.

You have two options to start with and a third if you start to really get into scotch.

Blended(a mix of different single malts typically from all over Scotland, they do this to maintain a uniform flavor profile across multiple bottlings)

This produced a very uniform product that will always taste the same year to year. Chivas and JW are your best bet here. JW Green use to be a single malt and I think it still is.

Single malt (this is a blend of barrels with the oldest being on the lable but some of the whisky could be much younger, again this is done to maintain flavor)

single malt tends to be much more complex and display the flavor from where it is from.

i love the Islay malts, If you want to try there start with Lagavulin.

I would say the best starter scotch is Dalwhinnie, it has a great peat flavor that is mild but still there and has much more complex flavors in there as well.

As you get into it you can start to collect bottles just like you collect cigars. Also you can explore your third option which are barrel or cask bottling's, these are one barrel put straight to the bottle. They are all very different from barrel to barrel and you can get thousands of different barrels from one distillery. It is a lot of fun, enjoy.