Tastes

Really disappointed, my second tasting of FG after a couple of years. Palate: extremely astringent, faint fruit and weak oak...more like a flavoured vodka than a whiskey, very poor. Don't get me wrong I'm a massive believer in budget blended whiskies, but this fails on all fronts, weak flavour profile and no punch whatsoever above the alcohol proof... all you can taste is the ethanol astrigency, similar to a vodka. If you want better quality, bottom shelf budget blends, go with Ballantines, or Bushmills. Very disappointed with FG, expected a better whiskey given the huge rep, tasted at best, on par with Haig Club, which is embarrassing.

2nd tasting of this 2 years on - wanted to see where Ballantines ranks in 2022 and if anything's changed with the fresh, post-pandemic batches: Nose - still astringent and young as I'd expect for a £15 blend Palate: smooth milk chocolate, apples, salted caramel, gentle peat smoke Finish: gentle peat smoke This batch seems smoother, slightly less harsh on the smoke note and for a £15 bottle, has an exceptionally well balanced blend, with a much more interesting palate than it's price competitors and even plenty mid range single malts I've tasted. For this reason I'm going to bump up my previous rating of 3.75 to a 4. If your looking for a bargain blend that delivers the absolute max for it's young age, this is the one!

Nose: Sulphury smell open opening bottle and pouring, similar to famous grouse and some other cheap blends. Palate: Smoke/Tobacco Ash, Velvet smooth vanilla, Peach. Finish: Oak + ethanol astrigency, as expected for a 3 year old blended whisky. Similar to Ballantines, but toned down slightly on the palate and finish with no interesting salted caramel, toffee note this time. Ok for a supermarket blend, less funky smelling and tasting than FG, but Ballantines still your best bet for a cheap, smoky blend, when on offer at £15.

Got this on offer for £25 and at that price, it's comfortably a class above the usual supermarket irish staples, better than Slane and Teeling small batch too in my opinion. Palate: honey, caramel, signature irish appley-sherry, single pot still, buttered toast taste and texture (subtle hints of the regular jameson flavour profile), with a pleasant warming smoky charr bourbon finish. The extra years aging on this bottle (8-10 years?) and well married bourbon cask finish really elevates it well above regular 3-4 year old level irish, like Jameson, Powers, Tullamore, Bushmills etc. If you can get it on offer, well worth the extra few pounds for those of you who enjoy good irish whiskey or bourbon. Dangerously moreish.

By far the best and most interesting and enjoyable sub-£20 blend you will find in the UK market - *still need to try Black Bottle also, which is highly recommended at this price range. For me, this blows Bells, Famous Grouse, Grants etc out of the water and is a better balanced flavour than Monkey Shoulder. Palate: Vanilla, Salted Caramel, Heavy peat smoke If you enjoy sweet and smoky Islay single malts but don't fancy forking out £40+ regularly, this is your blend. Save the Ardbeg, Laophraig and Lagavulin for special occasions and friends and lean on this as your handy weekend sipper blend... It even mixes very nicely with Coke, if you so desire!

Really wanted to like this, as I'm a sucker for a flavourful bargain blend. I can accept a slightly astringent mentholy finish as that is par for the course with young blends, but the sulphur nose and slightly sulphury palate spoil this. A couple of small ice cubes numbed it out after 10mins and that's when the famed balanced grouse flavours finally came to the fore... Palate: Honey, salted caramel, heather, gentle peat smoke ..Maybe guilty of trying to achieve too big and balanced a flavour profile for a young whisky?..and instead ends up with that weird and harsh sulphur edge. I would definitely recommend taking a couple of small ice cubes and letting them sit with it for 5-10mins, to get rid of that initial funk and allow those single maltish like palate flavours to actually come through.. Pound for pound it's a very solid effort, though I prefer Ballantines for this £15 price range, as it has none of that sulphury business going on, albeit with a less complicated vanilla and smoke blend profile. **EDIT: a few weeks later, half the bottle gone and thank God that sulphur smell and taste has finally disappeared!! This is now at last, quite an enjoyable blend and thankfully no longer requires ice. A little thin as most blends are, but if you enjoy a mild/middle of the road flavour profile scotch/single malt you'll likely enjoy this blend.

If like me, you love both good Irish whiskey and peated, Scottish single malts, then this is the one for you. Uniquely interesting flavour profile for an Irish. Peated, but not overly so, delicate flavours combine to give an Irish taste experience similar to that of a top shelf Japanese bottle. Only snag is the price point, have never seen this drop below £55 not inc. delivery, so perhaps a small price cut for overseas customers would help spread the word on this one. Unfortunately, very hard to find anywhere in England. Tasted for the first time in Cork City.

Smooth, but with fantastic depth of flavour, one of the most enjoyable Irish I've had along with Knappogue 16 and Red Breast 12. Proper Irish whiskey, accept no bottom shelf imitations.

Used to find this the most repulsive of bottom shelf, scottish blends in my teens/early20s. I'm sure I wasn't alone!... However, after years of developing the palate, trying scores of different single malts, Japanese, bourbons, Irish etc in the process, have recently revisited Bells and must say for the basement price point, punches well above its weight flavour-wise. Considerably better than a 70.

My go to session bourbon. Tastes fantastic neat for a £23-30 level bourbon, but also with the smoky, vanilla, maple syrup flavour profile, mixes really nicely with cola. Would highly recommend above other lower shelf bourbons for the taste and price point.