Clan MacGregor Blended Scotch Whisky

Rating: 2/23 OK, I'm killing the bottle with this pour. Finally. This was incredibly difficult to get through, particularly since I had to buy it in a 1.75L bottle, but I guess that's what you have to do when you want to sample the cheapest, most god-awful scotch on the shelf. N: Lots of sulfur and vegetal notes. This is clearly young and it's quite obvious that there are lots of heads and tail in this. Oof. It does at least smell a little rich. Or maybe that's bad. I get a fair amount of alcohol. It really isn't a good or complex nose. P: This is quite harsh. The bad flavors do help to cover up the industrial ones somewhat though. Yay? I get a lot of sulfur and vegetal notes (and maybe a bit of something bitterly and astringently herbal as well). There's a faint hint of chocolate as well. Not complex, but definitely rich. It feels like somebody tasted an Islay scotch and figured people would like just any rich, bitter, strongly flavored scotch. There is some caramel sweetness and a hint of cereal bringing in some balance, so it isn't a total loss, but it's quite aggressively bad. F: The sulfur really sticks around, along with a little bit of herbal and vegetal notes, plus some caramel, cereal, and smoky chocolate. The burning eventually stops here, so it's better than the palate, but that's a pretty low bar to be setting. I'd place this below Glen Ness. It might even be below Glen Logie since I can imagine burying Glen Logie in a drink, but I can't imagine burying this. Piper's Clan actually has a slightly more appealing profile as well. This is somehow even more-in-your-face with the sulfur. Yeah, it's a bit richer with a hint of chocolate, but big flavors does not make this nice like a peat bomb. I have to say, I prefer both Glen Logie and Piper's Clan to this and I only gave them 3s. There's a little bit of complexity with a couple of hints of nice flavors that save this from a 1. Well, maybe they save it from a 1. I'm giving it a 2 for now and I sure as hell am not buying another bottle to see if it really is as bad as a 1 out of 23. Ugh, side by side, this is substantially worse than Piper's Clan, but I'm going to stick with my rating of 2 for now.

Nose is butterscotch, maybe a little toffee, and that's about it. A dirty bar towel. Honey, toffee, high fructose sugars. The finish is just sugars. It's not a bad thing to drink, it just is made to mix with stuff.

Wow, this is some real swill. It doesn't taste actively bad, but all of the notes are a bit on the bad side and the flavor is just so weak that it's embarrassing. There are some scotch notes of malt, smoke, sweet whatever, and... that's about it. There are hints of tartness and so on, but this is really as generic as Scotch gets. There is nothing to recommend this, although the flavors do very a bit. This is frankly quite difficult to swallow. There are flowers and hints of honey and so on, but it's a mess of unpalatable flavors. This needs a lot more age to start. That might not be enough to save it though. It smells a bit sour but also a bit like cocoa. There's mainly a lot of soggy tobacco and wood though. The palate is bitter with cocoa and tobacco notes mixed with sea spray, but it's kind of like wet luggage. There's a little bit of sweetness, but it just kind of tastes like a little bit of grog was spritzed in. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's pretty bad. The harshness is a bit more than expected, but it isn't unreasonable. A bigger sip delivers a richer and more robust flavor, but everything just kind of blends together. It has some nice grain and malt elements, showcasing the raw elements of the blend reasonably nicely. There's also a bit of fruitiness that's a bit floral with hints of apricot and definitely some vanilla. It would be pretty drinkable if it weren't inundated with sulfur. Some alcohol does show through. As an acquired tastes and under the right circumstances, it is sort of drinkable (essentially, if you're used to the sulfur and have already filled your palate a bit). Sulfur is without a doubt the preeminent flavor here. It's disgusting. The malt isn't overwhelming like that of Westward, though it's also a lighter whiskey. And it has a lot of sulfur. Like, an ungodly amount. Who knew that this was possible. This has less in the way of sharp flavor than Westward does, though it also is less robust with a more subdued mouthfeel. Still, the flavor isn't weak and those fruity, floral notes save it from being a total loss. The sulfur reminds me of San Matias Legado Blanco, but more extreme with some fruitiness to balance it out a little.

Not bad, low priced. I wouldn’t break it out for special occasions but good for summer nights on the porch hanging out with neighbors.